From the Daily News:The architects of a Brighton Beach condo complex that collapsed — killing a worker — have a troubled history of flouting regulations, the Daily News has learned.
Douglas Pulaski and Henry Radusky were forced to surrender some privileges in the past because of problems with projects, city records show.
“They have been known by the Buildings Department for many years to operate on the fringe,” Assemblyman James Brennan (D-Park Slope) said Wednesday.
He said that in 2005 he demanded the Buildings Department review all projects submitted by their firm, Bricolage Architecture and Design.
And he said the agency should have had them in its “line of sight” before the five-story development on Brighton Fifth St. crumpled Tuesday as concrete was poured.
Officials said concrete is normally spread from the bottom floors up — but the contractor started with the third floor and was working down.
When the building collapsed, five workers were injured, and one of three men pulled out of the rubble later died. He was identified as Ivan Lendel, 54.
It’s unclear if Bricolage was on site when the concrete was laid, but a former Buildings Department official said architects or an engineer should have been there.
4 comments:
Sadly, going after the architects will produce nothing unless they are the property owners.
Even then the general contractor or subcontractor are the ones responsible in cases like this.
Architects self certify their work - so they are responsible.
These architects surrendered their self cert privileges years ago.
GC pours concrete top to bottom and people blaming the Architects? LOL, ok.
To put it simply: Architects, by law and by contract, are not responsible for the "Means and Methods of Construction"
Simple as that.
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