Neither more nor less

Above: 27 June 2006 . Insubstantial shoring at excavated side of deteriorated garden wall. Note also the lack of any shoring at other excavation walls and the butt ends of angle shoring being placed in mud .This garden wall moved two inches during this excavation and later construction process .


Drawings provided by Department of Buildings below : Viewed and copied on 25 September 2006. Note all dates and hand scribbled notes on these drawing s . These drawings and any later versions are all part of the public record on the construction project at 120 St. Marks PL . Anyone can view these drawings at the DOB . These drawings are a record of a "good faith" bargaining and co-ordinating process between the DOB and the team of Benjamin Shaoul with the purpose of producing a lawful and applicable set of plans for the construction at the 120 St. Marks place site .All previous self-certified plans for this project provided by the Shaoul architects have failed to unconditionally pass a DOB audit .




Above:28 August 2006 . Non- code steel frame construction extending the ground floor tothe rear wall at the rear lot line .
Above: 29 October 2006 . View from above of the completed and unpermitted building extension into the backyard up to the rear lot line . Note at the center bottom can just be seen a 2 inch separation between the red garden wall and the paved garden deck.
Above and below : 21 November 2006 . The DOB profile for 120 St Marks Place ( if it can indeed be believed ) shows that there is on this date a stop work order in effect for this building . The SWO probably only applies to the ground floor and basement since here they are the two areas that are in violation of the zoning resolutions , these areas having been extended to the rear lot line and also being two areas where there have to be serious questions concerning the means of egress from the rear fire escape and from the basement during emergencies such as fires .

Below it can be seen from the recently installed row of steel studs along the east wall and the steel furring strips on the joists above that work has been going on for some time on the ground floor during the stop work order .Nothing new here , look on this blog at other posts such as" A Stop Work Order that stops Nothing ". Considering that the row of steel studs and the furring strips are recent additions and that they extend back to the rear wall which is at the lot line it seems that the Shaoul team intends to ignore the zoning resolution and the drawings presented to the DOB in "good Faith", and maintain the rear wall at the lot line .



To summarize :
Above are some drawings provided by the Department of Buildings . These drawings are a part of the public record for the building at 120 St. Marks Place and they or any further permutaions of these drawings for this project should be available anytime to anyone at the DOB. These drawings were a part of an ongoing effort by the team of Benjamin Shaoul to cure violations and make lawful and applicable a set of plans that had failed a DOB audit . These plans were viewed and copied by me with a Canon 5D digital camera on 25 September 2006 and though they were not here presented in their entirety because of space limitations they are a relavent , representative and I believe sufficient- to- the- task selection . Also the drawings presented here are most likely not in their final form but they were then and now believed by me to be representative of the ongoing attempt at that time by the Shaoul team including their architects , duly noted on the drawing titles ,to produce a lawful and applicable set of plans for a building at 120 St. Marks Place . One would like to assume that all parties were then and now bargaining openly , truthfully and in good faith but the truth here may well be otherwise .

Note the pictures of construction activity extending the building volume into the backyard up to the lot line . Note also the dates of these pictures : the construction activity consisting of extending the building to the rear lot line is going on before and during the time of the dated drawings above from the supposed "good faith" bargaining and co-ordinating going on between the DOB and the Shaoul team. There are more dated pictures available concerning this ongoing construction activity .

Note also what is shown on the drawings ,details such as a 30 foot deep backyard, paved and drained garden ,a basement exit to backyard, fire escape exit to backyard and redwood fence all around at lot line .Note the dates of revisions ,most on 14 August 2006, and other dated notations and terms such as " under process of co-ordination" .

Note on the basement drawing that there is a sheeting or piling requirement where necessary along the excavation walls . In the picture from above of the unpermitted building extension to the lot line note that at the base of the red brick garden wall one can see a 2 inch separation between the wall and garden's paved surface ( more detailed pictures of this separation are available , space limitaions did not allow their presentation here ) . There were no piles or sheeting placed as per drawing at the excavated side of this garden wall , just some insubstantial shoring : the wall moved . Note that this excavation activity was occurring at or before the time of the dated drawings above produced by the the "good faith " bargaining and co-ordinating " with the DOB.

In short this building does not look like any set of plans and it probably never will yet people will soon be living in it . A good question to ask here is: will there be a legitimate certificate of occupancy issued for this building without a set of lawful , applicable and representative plans or will this mere detail also be ignored ?

How is the above possible with our DOB supposedly looking out for our interests ?Especially considering that there have been many ,many complaints concerning 120 St Marks place and many,many DOB inspectors at the site since March of 2006 when this project began .
There also have been many postings on several web sites such as curbed .com and Polis and articles in papers and magazines concerning 120 St. Marks Place .

I do not have an answer here but I do know from practical experience and from all the requests for help that I get from other concerned citizens with similar problems and situations that this case at 120 St Marks Place is simply emblematic of what is going on during this construction frenzy throughout our great city . Other developers and landlords are watching the Shaoul team and its ilk and learning from them .Some law firms , I am told , are now offering that they can help developers do what the Shaoul team has done at 120 St. Marks Place and neutralize or at least seriously diminish the DOB 's capacity to control unlawful and unsafe building activity . In short more and more developers are doing as the Shaoul team does... and that is walk all over the DOB and build whatever unlawful and unsafe building that they want to build without any significant hindrance or unfavorable consequence to them or their building .

In the case of the emblematic 120 St. Marks Place it appears to be more and more likely that should the Shaoul team choose in the future to deal in bad faith and ignore the law and safe construction practices it will get exactly the building that it wants with , yes , a few piddling fines and delays but still at minimal cost... and that should not be. Lest the reader be tempted to assume here that this claim might possibly be an emotionally inspired exageration of the truth or indeed even unfounded I recommend that he or she simply Google Benjamin Shaoul and Magnum Management and also that he or she search this blog exhaustively for the same two names . They might also find it fruitful to querry the office of Council person Rosie Mendez or the office of Borough President Scott Stringer concerning these two aforementioned names as well as the recent history of 120 St.Marks Place . And oh yes ...before I forget , try the Manhattan borough commisioner of the DOB .... he has been to see Shaoul team projects first hand ...with his own eyes .

There will perhaps be more on all of this later .

As always click on an image to enlarge it .Also Google Benjamin Shaoul and also explore this blog for more information concerning the activities at 120 St. Marks Place and other construction related issuses .

ABOVE : "The Cave" , a squatter artist's commune at the original 120 St Marks Place 2 years ago before demolition and rebuilding .

Above: Occupant's door and lock



Above : Harrassment charge retraction agreement
Above: Police checking occupant's utility bills and mail receipts
For a while , for a few posts , I am going to go back and cover in more detail some events relating to 120 St Marks Place .Please refer to the earlier part of this blog for reference .

On the afternoon of 28 March 2006 , I , by chance , came upon this scene pictured above , a loud and seemingly violent scene , at 120 St. Marks Place . This event has been discussed in an earlier post on this blog and to some extent has been reported in " The Villager" at www.thevillager.com and "Polis" at www.nycenvirons.blogspot.com . At the time I wasn't prepared to deal with this potentially violent event and was a bit too cautious . I should have been more aggressive and should have taken more pictures but I was alone with no one to back me up if I was attacked and had $5000 worth of brand new camera and lens , that I was testing for the first time , to lose . Also , there were a lot more of them than me and they had sledge hammers and crobars ,which they were brandishing .

The people with the sledge hammer and crobar are Magnum Management employees and the man with the smug grin is Benjamin Shaoul , the head of Magnum Management . What were they all there to do? Why all the threats , screaming and displaying of crobars and sledgehammers ? Why the breaking of locks and bashing in of doors ? Certainly some people on the scene were intimidated by their presence and behavior and some of them later would claim to the press that they were intimidated and thus were being harrassed by Mr. Shaoul and his employees . Later Magnum was concerned enough with the claims of harrassment that the company offered to one of the occupants of 120 St Marks Place an additional two weeks to move out if that occupant would retract the claims of harrassment .

The situation became so serious at one point that the police were called .Officers from the 9th precinct arrived on the scene and calmed the situation bringing everything under control. The occupants utilities bills and mail receipts were examined by police to determine occupancy since this event was in some way about the eviction of squatters .

120 St. Marks Place was a squat , the last illegal squat in the East Village . These squatters unlike many of the occupants of the infamous historic squats of the East Village were accepting of the fact that they would someday have to leave and were not interested in claiming ownership by the theory of adverse possession or in fighting interminably with the owner of the building and the police . The owner of the building had allowed squatters to live in the building for 5 years or so and for some time the building had been an artist commune known as the "Cave " .The owner had never attempted to collect rent from any of the occupants of 120 St Marks Pl nor had he ever attempted to evict any of them.

Sometime before the 28th of March the owner of the building made a deal with Mr. Shaoul of Magnum Mangement to manage and renovate the building and then later , I have been told , to have the option to buy the building . The first meeting that any occupant had with Benjamin Shaoul was a day or two before the major confrontation of the 28th of March . During this first meeting Craig Lopez met with Mr. Shaoul and agreed to move out for an amount of money and under terms to be determined by their lawyers .It was agreed at a slightly later time by the other occupants of the building and Magnum Management that the remaining occupants would also move out for money . These agreements in the long run were much cheaper and less time consuming for Mr. Shaoul than going to court to evict . In New York State there are eviction laws that require among other things that the eviction of anyone that is an occupant of a building for more than 30 days is ,though possibly not a legal resident , a legal occupant and can only be removed with force ultimately by the police and then only after the necessary court proceedings constituting due process have occured and then only after a series of notices have been delivered and posted in plain sight by city marshals and after attempts have been made by city marshals to evict peaceably . This meeting was not a surprise since the owner had been mentioning for weeks the possibility that the squatters would have to move out but the events of the 28th of March certainly were a surprise because everyone thought that an agreement on moving out had been made . Certainly the behavior of Magnum Mangement employees and Benjamin Shaoul was understood by all occupants to be harrassment and as duress to effect a more favorable civil contractual eviction deal for Magnum Mangement .

It is difficult to see the breaking of locks and bashing in of doors to occupied apartments and the shouted threats to " demolish the building right around you ", of which threat there is an audio tape , as any part of a proper and legal civil agreement to vacate a property in exchange for money. And speaking of threats ,Mr. Shaoul even went so far as to confront me and demand that I stop photographing him and his employees in hostile tone ,right in my face .I can't say what if any harm to me he threatened but usuually people read a hostile tone and aggressive stance as carrying at least an implied threat of harm . At the time of this confrontation ,I was wearing my NYPD issued press card ,standing in the street in a public place at a news worthy event with police present.... also I am half a foot taller than him and am about a hundred pounds heavier .Thus in more ways than one , such a confrontation was really stupid behavior , but then its not at all that surprising that Mr. Shaoul would behave in this manner as following posts will show .

ABOVE : Squatter Vietnam veterans "Mosaic Man" and "Biker Bill" at 120 St. Marks Place... 2 years ago

P.S. 18 December 2006 . The web pages below are changing and the STOP WORK ORDER THAT EXISTED ON 15 DECEMBER 2006 has been changed to a PARTIAL STOP WORK ORDER order that probably only applies to the basement and the ground floor but the violations are still in effect and will have to be answered to .These DOB web pages below are part of the complete building profile for 120 St. Marks Place and are supposed to be a current profile of the building and will of course change continuosly . There soon may well be no stop work order and no violation and as I noted in the post on this blog titled "Emblematic Bad Faith " Ben Shaoul will eventually get by hook -and-by -crook the building that he wants . We the people just have to accept that that will be the fate here ....at least as long as the Law that exists is not enforced , architects continue to be allowed to "self-certify" projects and those that ignore and even defy the Law are not significantly punished .

So for those of you that are interested , you can go to the DOB profile daily ( too bad we can't have webcams at the site so that you can watch work , legal and illegal , at the building too) and watch the 120 St Marks Place project status change ...right up to the day that Ben Shaouls building gets it certificate of occupancy . It would not surprise me though that people will actually be living in this building some time before there is a C of O issued for this building .

The above pictures show workers working and 120 St Marks Place LLC principle partner ,Benjamin Shaoul , talking on a cell phone at 120 St Marks Place on 15 December 2006 . On this day there is a full stop work order in effect .This stop work order has been in effect on this property for some time . For a look at the stop work order click here. http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/PropertyProfileOverviewServlet?boro=1&houseno=120&street=St+Marks+Place&requestid=0&s=A03C41B885B461E4F46BD08866A7430E

On 13 December 2006 , just two days earlier , the Department of Buildings issued violations for work in violation of an existing stop work order and also for work beyond the scope of existing plans . There have been many similar long term violations for this Shaoul team at this property. On this blog posts titled : " Emblematic Bad Faith " and " A Stop Work Order That Stops Nothing -1,2 and 3" will provide something of an overview of this continuing illegal activity . Also the posts " Construction Accident at 120 St Marks Place " and " Sorry But Not Good Enough " will provide a little history concerning a typical safety issue at 120 St. Marks Place. For a look at the recent violations of the stop work order and working beyond the scope of plans click here .

http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/OverviewForComplaintServlet?requestid=5&vlcompdetlkey=0000834299

and here

http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/OverviewForComplaintServlet?requestid=2&vlcompdetlkey=0000834305

It would seem from appearances above that Mr. Shaoul and his workers do not consider the law relavent or applicable to them .

From the pictures above it can be seen that there is now a stair exit from the basement and also an exit door can be seen in the rear wall which makes possible exiting the very small and probably- illegally- so back yard through what appears to be a ground floor fire corridor through the building to an exit at the street on St. Marks Place.

Also the building ground floor extension does not extend to the rear lot line as I had once determined from some earlier images from this summer . In the earlier summer pictures there was certainly no rear stair exit from the basement in the recently poured ground floor slab and it appeared that the Shaoul team was building the rear extension right to the rear property lot line ,which according to some law and codes is not allowed . There will shortly be a post with pictures from last summer covering this issue . Certainly check the post " Emblematic Bad Faith" because it treats of the issue of the rear extension .

Though these changes are a sort of improvement as far as fire safety is concerned , they are most likely not completely lawful and they were mostly made by working in violation of existing stop work orders.

As to the identity of Mr. Shaoul , check for yourself by looking at the post on this blog " Some Aspects of a Civil Agreement ". There you can see a picture of him grinning .You , reader , can make the comparison for yourself ,that is if you have doubts about who is pictured above with a cellphone to his ear.

And finally the logo (actually an epmty DOB document ) above is that of the Department of Buildings and is accidentally there because of my computer incompetance :I don't know an easy way to remove it without re-doing the entire post .

ABOVE : The facade of 120 St Marks Place

http://www.observer.com/2008/boy-developer-ben-shaoul-wants-live-forever?page=2co%2C0

and at :

http://curbed.com/archives/2008/02/06/lessons_from_the_boy_emperor.php



Yes , check it out . Read the comments at both sites .This story refers to some of our pictures that are here on NMNL so we point your attention in it's direction .

We tried to comment at the Observer but their system would not accept our comment detailing the eviction attempt that he unlawfully made at 120 St Marks Place back in March of 2006 . Mr. Shaoul was questioned by the Observer about what we pictured that day and has his own inventive take on it all . You can read and see our take on it all complete with pictures right here at NMNL .

Take a look at the comments with the Observer story . Amazingly there are folks out there that persist in believing that this guy is a sweet , modest , innocent young miracle working Boy Wonder : our experience with him at a distance and up close and personal is quite to the contrary .

Use the "Blogger" search feature in the upper left-hand corner of the page to explore the assembled posts concerning "Benjamin Shaoul" and "120 St Marks Place ". Have fun comparing and contrasting NMNL and the NY Observer on the subject of Ben Shaoul .

"Google" and "Yahoo" him and his company Magnum Management too.

No pictures today ...

Above : Unlawful construction activity in progress on 20 December 2006


CORRECTION :

The previous post of 15 December 2006 reported that a full stop work order was in effect at 120 St. Marks Place and that the workers of Benjamin Shaoul were caught violating that SWO on 13 December 2006 and also were caught working on the building in places and on construction activities that were beyond the scope of any existing approved plans . I was wrong about the full SWO but not about the violations .

On 13 December a full stop work order was not in effect even though the DOB building profile for 120 St. Marks Place showed that there was a full SWO in effect ; there was only a partial SWO that applied to the ground floor and the basement but .... thats exactly where I did show one of Benjamin Shaouls workers working...and there were other busy little beavers working inside out of sight . Both the violations for working under a SWO and working beyond the scope of existing approved plans occurred on the ground floor where the partial SWO was in effect . The violations of this date 13 December were correctly reported and one can reasonably assume that on 15 December Benjamin Shaoul knew , as he was pictured talking on his cell phone on the roof of 118 St. Marks Place , that his 120 St. Marks Place LLC had been served the two violations two days earlier and we can also reasonbly assume that by being at the building site that he knew that workers were working again in violation of the same two DOB rules and regulations .

Yesterday as the picture through the front door of 120 St. Marks Place shows workers were again violating the same two DOB rulings and regulations . I was told by neighbors of the building that today again in violation of the law workers were working on the ground floor . The view through this front door shows the product of at least two months of work that was done in violation of the partial SWO and is also beyond the scope of approved plans . All of the interior construction pictured ,walls ,furring,windows ,doors ,etc is the product of unlawful construction activity .

Some might wonder here why it is so important to stop Mr. Shaoul and others from working unlawfully . The partial and simplest answer is that unlawful work is almost always inadequately or incorrectly designed by people that don't truly know or care about what they are doing and the work is performed and supervised ,again , by people that do not truly know or care about the safety of what they are doing and this often leads to accidents and building failures . Also there is the desire to build for as little money as possible :corners are cut , chances are taken . ...we have already seen the result of that here at this building with the scaffolding "accident "( see "A Construction Accident at 120 St Marks Place" and " Sorry... but not Good Enough ") and with the video tape of a worker that was injured during a structural collapse that occured during unlawful and unpermitted structural demolition activities which will be posted at a later date .

There will be more on this emblematic problem with Mr. Shaouls team and the ground floor and basement of 120 St. Marks Place ... so stay tuned to Neithermorenorless .

FDNY at the scene after successfully dealing with the fire situation at 120 St. Marks Place .

Above: View of the two sections ,one in planter , of scaffolding tossed from the roof . In the background NYPD Emergency Services personnel are entering the 120 building to check conditions on the roof from which the two sections of scaffolding were tossed by the high winds and a large tarp .
Above: Damaged automobile in front of 120 St.Marks Place . Owner of vehicle is videoing his damaged automobile . Where this vehicle was sitting when damaged , Jim and Jesse Jane once lived and slept as can be seen in previous posts on this blog .
Above: Section of scaffolding resting in planter made by Mosaic Man
Above : View of smashed sun-roof and severely dented roof frame of damaged automobile
Above : Rear window of damaged automobile
Above: Scaffolding and the blue tarp above that lifted in the wind and tossed to ground the two sections of scaffold . Note the hanging , partially unattatched black protective netting .
Above: Sunday in the late afternoon the tarp is still furiously billowing and whipping in the wind .
Above: A view of a portion of the scaffolding at 120 St. Marks Place which shows unbolted cross bracing , missing cross bracing and an odd looking V-shaped wooden "brace" at the left side of the image. Also note the lack of protectve netting .This netting is used to protect the public from falling objects .

Look at the open space without cross-bracing and protective netting .This gap in the protective structure that should have been in place is exactly above the damaged vehicle and in the line of fall of the scaffold sections . If the scaffolding and protective netting had been in place up to the top of the scaffold structure , as it should have been , then perhaps the protective netting would have caught the scaffold sections and directed their fall to inside the wooden protected base area at the foot of the scaffold structure and not out into the street and sidewalk where they did fall doing damage to a vehicle . This gap in the scaffold structure likely exists because the crane used to lift materials to the roof was too short to approach the building and thus sections of scaffolding and protective netting were removed to make way for this too small crane .
Above: View of scaffolding at upper level. The scaffold structure seems a bit uncertain being incompletely assembled , poorly maintained and carelessly rigged . Note the lack of the black protective netting which is supposed to be in-place at all heights to protect the public from falling objects .


Saturday evening 28 October ,2006 two sections of scaffoling fell to ground at 120 St. Marks Place with one section damaging the roof and rear window of an automobile parked in front of the building .Luckily no one was injured .

According to NYPD Emergency Services personnel the sections had been placed on a large tarp on the roof and in the high winds the tarp lifted as a wing and tossed the two relatively heavy metal sections to ground . This isn't the first such trouble at 120 . Other things have fallen to ground there . Other accidents have occurred and people have been injured . There is even a video of one of the injured workers wrything on the floor in pain after the collapse of a stairwell which occurred during an unpermitted structural modification of the building . There have been numerous stop work orders at this building which have mostly been ignored . There is now and has been for a week or so , if the Department of Buildings profile for this building is to be believed , a stop work order on this building . In spite of this stop work order , work has continued unabated at 120 St. Marks Place for the last week or more .

Any one that works high-up in buildings knows that you do not leave tarps to blow in the wind . You can not weigh them down with weights of some sort : they must be secured with lines . They must be securely tied down at multiple points . In fact its just not a good idea to use tarps at height at all . But this is the team of Benjamin Shaoul working at this building and such disastrous events are to be expected . Check Shaoul's history here at this blog and then Google him .

As always , click on an image to enlarge it .

As you can see , the red stripe blazoned across the page claiming that a stop work order is in effect on this property is gone . The screen shot above is from yesterday morning . Exactly when this most recent stop work order , which had been noted on the building profile for 120 St. Marks Place for some time , was lifted is not clear . We will attempt to obtain one way or another just exactly when this most recent stop work order was imposed and when it was rescinded .

Given Mr. Shaoul's publicly documented past and the history of this project , many in the community are quite concerned about what will happen next at 120 St. Marks Place .

Not only the community is concerned . This project and Mr. Shaoul have gotten the attention of the Borough President Scott Stringer's office and Council person Mendez's office , both of which offices have made a considerable effort to make 120 St Marks Place a safe , sound and lawful project . This attention is in addittion to the attention paid to the project by the Department of Buildings and the Borough Commisioner himself . This attention from the DOB has produced some results : the rotten interior frame is gone , the severely damaged and weakened rear wall is gone and the original self-certified plans have been audited and found deficient .

Our concern with this project is of course public safety and its dependence on DOB supervision and enforcement .We are also concerned with the problems associated with the practice of self-certification by architects , which practice has been in the news much of late ( search the architect Scarano in the N.Y. Times for instance ) .

Above:120 St Marks Pl around the 1st of August 2006
Above and Below :120 StMarks Pl on 28 August 2006

Above :515 East 5th St.
The problems at 120 St Marks Place just won't go away .There is currently a stopwork order issued by the Department of Buildings in effect at 120 St Marks Place but clearly workers were working yesterday . I was told yesterday that the stopwork order has been in effect since 7 july of this year, thus just about all the concrete work , walls and steel framing seen in the above pictures was done illegally without the permission of the DOB. I do not know all of the reasons for the stopwork order but I have been told it has been issued because Mr. Shaouls project can't pass the DOB audit unconditionally . I have been told that there are questions about how the building is really being built and how it will really be used and how Mr. Shaouls architect's plans and zoning exhibits indicate and claim that the building will be built and used .

Problems like this aren't new for Mr. Shaoul , "Google " him , he has a record of problems with buildings including a number rather serious problems at 515 East 5th street and other problems at other buildings he owns such as nasty forced evictions and a building collapse . Three weeks after the occupants of 120 St Marks place were vacated Mr. Shaouls workers punched a hole in a very structurally compromised rear wall , drove in a small backhoe using it to dig the large hole pictured above in the backyard ... all on a permit issued for the demolition of interior partitions ,electrical ,mechanical and plumbing with no change of means of egress and no change of use ! There was a stopwork order issued because of this abuse and there were several others issued because of other abuses and violations but they were all , as has been the current one , mostly ignored by Mr. Shaoul's team .Some of these stopwork orders were issued because of serious structural problems that were a danger to workers as well as adjoining properties and persons living in those properties .Two instances included were the seriously damaged and weakened rear wall and what appears to have been an attempt to jack-up the old and rotten wood interior framing to save the cost of replacing this framing . Both of these problems were finally removed , the rear wall is gone and new light-gauge steel framing has replaced the rotten interior framing , but only after much aggravated complaint from the community .

Self certification by architects makes this kind of abuse much easier to get away with but still the Dept of Buildings can and must do a much better job of inspecting ,approving , policing and enforcing its decisions , rules and regulations .