Monday, August 13, 2007

Middle Village megacrap

75-20 Penelope Avenue, Middle Village. This was at one time a modest 1-family house.

Check out all the plans submitted and permits applied for. Despite all that, they got caught at least once working contrary to approved plans: NON-CONFORMING WORK NOTED / FROM ALT TYPE 1 ADDING 2ND & 3RD FLR. & EXTENSIONS TO : DEMOLITION OF ENTIRE ORIGINAL DWELLING INSTALLATION OF NEW POURED CONCRETE FOUNDATION

Pay a little fine, and DOB doesn't care. These were the permits issued; you can see 3 of them were revoked. But building proceeded unimpeded. And the neighborhood is left to look at this megacrap pile.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Use eminent domain to seize this crap and demolish it.

Convert the land to a pocket park, or a dog run.

Every time zoning laws, building codes and/or permits are violated, seize the land as penalty.

Anonymous said...

I remember the house that was on this site previously. It was a plain, old house. It even looked a bit odd because it was a small plain house elevated up on a relatively large patch of land. Even though I would prefer something other than the boxy style of the new house, I think it looks better than what had been there before.

Anonymous said...

I don't think this house is so bad compared to some of the ugly houses being built in Middle Village and Maspeth. I've definitely seen worse. The building department doesn't care what is built in Queens, as long as their permit violations end up in fines for the city coffers.

Anonymous said...

I hope that they can afford the mortgage. This looks like a perfect place that would turn into a flop house. A lot of rooms to rent out.

I think it is ugly!

Anonymous said...

The home will look much nicer when the trees out front grow and hide the home from view.

Anonymous said...

I think it was some 80s artist who said:

"Every night before I go to sleep I pray that when I wake the people with money will have taste, and the people with taste will have money."

Not only is it too big, but it lacks any sort of style. I think the resurrected the Vatican architects of the 1950s for this monstrosity.

Anonymous said...

I live around the corner, and don't like (what I call) the ZIGGURAT HOUSE either. The previous house was nice, in scale and in character with the neighborhood.

One thing to their credit though, lacking taste in architecture, they are reponsible enough to see that all sidewalks surrounding their property are cleared of snow and ice in the winter - better than many other property owners.

Anonymous said...

I don't understand it when people say that a house should be "in character with the neighborhood" architecturally. We do not want a three-family apartment building in the middle of one-family townhouses, but this is a one-family house on two lots of property. The majority of houses in this area of Middle Village constitute boring-looking flat rowhouses. They are good quality houses, but they do not have any exterior architectural "character." It really seems that people just don't like to look out their window and see someone who has a house bigger and better than theirs.

Anonymous said...

I still think it looks like crap. Bigger is not always better.

Anonymous said...

Why does the Deportment of Buildings even issue permits? They are violated, fines are paid and the crap is still built. Has anyone ever seen a building takne down due to the violations? I think not.

Anonymous said...

Dear Mayor Bloomberg,

Do something about you Department of Buildings! Congestion Pricing is only for your precious Manhattan. If you want to stop congestion......STOP BUILDING!

Anonymous said...

This house is one of the ugliest houses I have ever seen. It looks so out of place in that spot! The house is just too big for such a small property, which - unfortunately - seems to be a big problem in Queens anyway. If people have the money to build a big house, why don't they spend at least some money on buying a bigger piece of land to build it on?!

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