Work Back on at 713 43rd

After a Stop Work Order was issued on October 5th, 2009 for working without a permit, we had about six weeks of a lonely crane sitting on top of the building.  Now that the SWO has been rescinded, it seems that everyone is ready to get going.  Or, at least, the gates are open and materials are waiting.

 During the six week no-work period, the graffiti on the neighboring structure has been building up.  Farther down the street, another house is for sale and the demo/construction of the oversized lot at 765 has been in-process since their SWO was rescinded.  It will be an 8-unit dwelling.  A nice balance to this 10-unit dwelling.  Bookends, really. 

Stop Work Order Served to Bigger, Uglier Building

And so it goes. This SWO was duct-taped to the fence due to a lack of approved plans for hoisting materials with pulleys (they should have seen the crane there two days ago), not having guardrails/handrails, and not providing protection to the adjacent roof.

Tropico Has Left the Building - Despite Lack of Egress

These guys were busy taking down the Tropico sign from the orange creamsicle walls of this club at 39th and 4th. Curious, I looked it up figuring something must have occurred to prompt this sort of behavior. Sure enough, there is a Full Vacate order on the building. According to the order, the "cabaret" operating here was for 106 people, but there was "inadequate means of egress also "no" valid COFO "no" valid certificate of operation "no" fire alarm. No adequate fire supression system." Sounds like a recipe for disasters repeated. And repeated.

It took a while for the violations to come to light, but once the Vacate notices went up, it didn't take long to make Tropico disappear.

Dead Brownstone Has Had Work Stopped

This very rained-on Stop Work Order at 5405 6th Avenue has been up since November. True enough, work seems to have stopped for now, but I wasn't able to find any record about why the work was stopped. (update: oh yes I did. And part of it has to do with smoking.) The sign itself is so faded that it's difficult to make any words out. Only "entire job" and the address are clear. Well, that and DO NOT REMOVE. Perhaps it's because one sign was ripped down within a day? Or, perhaps it was because the inspector noticed the "marble" facade going up on the ground floor? The horizontal light fixture is hanging precariously as well. Sad that this is what the previous building made room to allow.

Favorite (non) Work Site Now Has an Official Excuse

My favorite walk-by site has been less than entertaining of late. After the buildings were demolished and the fences went up, not much seemed to be happening. Well, except for some new graffiti. Literally, nothing has been done to the site by the owners since the middle of May. Recently, somebody wanted in because the fencing has been carefully pulled apart in one place to allow easy access to the space. That's what brought on the Stop Work order pictured. It seems the "complete weatherproof" piece of it applies to the exposed wall of the adjacent building. Maybe this will induce some work to get done. Vacant lots are rarely a good thing. Especially during the summer. There are too many curious kids with time on their hands and looking for places to hang out.