Eyesore home comes down

From the Daily News:

The hulking, half-built eyesore on E. 12th St. near Avenue S in Homecrest was recently demolished on city orders after an eight-year legal battle initiated by neighbors concerned for their safety.

“Everybody is very happy they averted a potential disaster,” said Stuart Klein, an attorney who represents the building’s two neighbors.

“Had it come (crashing) down, God knows what mayhem it would have created.”

Last year, a judge sided with the neighbors who argued that the building’s owner, Joseph Druzieh, and his architect, Shlomo Wygoda, lied to the city when they said the 53-foot-tall house — built atop an existing bungalow — was merely an “alteration” rather than a new structure.

The battle continued after a city appeals board ruled in favor of Druzieh, dismissing the project’s labeling as an “administrative error.”

That decision was overturned by the Buildings Department after agency inspectors found that the structure’s foundation had been altered and was in danger of collapse.

“It was an antique foundation,” Klein said. “Part of it was resting tenuously on a foundation of the prior building that was 80 years old.”

The Buildings Department ordered the structure be demolished immediately.