After Wall Collapse And Long Delays, 217 Court Street Getting "Steeled"

This past Saturday on Court Street

Steel beams ready to be hoisted onto the building

Workers on the roof at 217 Court Street

Pedestrians looking up at the scene on Saturday

And on Monday afternoon...

Steel structure assembled on roof by Monday

The steel structure as seen from street level

After a back wall collapsed at 217 Court Street in May 2009, work on the four-story building that once housed a methadone clinic has progressed slowly. It was totally gutted in early 2010, but over the last few months, not much seemed to be happening at the site.

However, this last Saturday, a huge crane was lifting up steel beams onto the building. The delivery blocked half of Court Street and offered quite a spectacle for pedestrians.

By Monday, a steel frame had been erected on the roof. The NY DoB permit for this property reads:

"PAA filed to convert the cellar, 1st, 2nd,3rd & 4th floor from meeting and caretakers apartment into five (5) dwelling units and commercial. No change to bulk is proposed. A New certificate of occupancy is proposed."

Not sure about the renovation stating that no additional bulk is proposed for the building. That steel addition on the roof looks plenty bulky to me.

It will however be nice to have the scaffolding come down after so much time.

Related Reading:

Some Major Gutting Going On At 217 Court Street

Months After Partial Collapse, 217 Court Street Seeing Some Action

Number 217 Court Street A Sad Sight

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

Read more

Number 217 Court Street A Sad Sight

217 Court Street

Back of 217 obviously gone

Cracks in the front façade

Its neighbor at 219 Court Street

Also has been vacated

I was so busy last week that I did not get a chance to take my usual walk down to Brooklyn Heights via Court Street. So when I heard that number 217 Court Street partially collapsed as a result of days and days of rain, I did not get a chance to take photos.

On Sunday, I finally made it down there and took these. The back of the building is all but gone, judging by the view of blue sky and trees through one of the front windows. There are also some rather nasty cracks in the front façade, though they may have been there already.

The building was certainly not one of the nicest in our brownstone neighborhood, but I shudder to think what will be built in its place once it is torn down. That side of Court Street in Boerum Hill is not landmarked or down-zoned.
Number 219 , a much cuter brick building has a 'Vacate" sign on its door. I sure hope that structure has not suffered too much structural damage. That would be a real pity.

For some history of 217 Court, check out Lost City

For Home Page, click Pardon Me For Asking

Read more

Months After Partial Collapse, 217 Court Street Seeing Some Action

Back in early May, part of the roof and the back wall of the four story building at 217 Court Street collapsed down to the second story after a particularly rainy period. A full vacate order was posted immediately, and ever since, the building, surrounded by protective sidewalk shed, has seen no major action. Until now, that is.

A construction crew is busy filling a dumpster with rubble. The NYC Department Of Buildings issued a permit in June for " temporary shoring for the cellar, in order to clean out construction decrees." ( debris, maybe???)

That may indicate that the damage to the existing building can be repaired and that it does not need to be demolished.
As I mentioned back in May, the building is certainly not one of the nicest in our brownstone neighborhood, but that side of Court Street is in Boerum Hill, which is not landmarked or down-zoned, which would open the door to new out-of-scale, out-of-context construction.

For Home Page, click Pardon Me For Asking

Read more

Some Major Gutting Going On At 217 Court Street

In May 2009, after a period of heavy rain, the back wall and part of the roof of 217 Court Street collapsed. Since then, crews have worked on the building off and on.
The door of the building that once housed a methadone clinic was open on Tuesday afternoon.
A glimpse inside revealed that the building has been stripped down to the beams.

Workers told me that a doctor's office is coming to the 4-story building.

That should take a while. It sure looks as though there is an amazing amount of work to be completed first.


For Home Page, click Pardon Me For Asking

Read more