Past issues
The Paper in print
RSS feeds
Print edition (PDF)
Email Alerts- The current issue
- Neighborhood Map
- Bay Ridge
- Bensonhurst, Dyker Heights
- Brooklyn Heights
- Downtown, DUMBO
- Carroll Gardens
- Cobble Hill, Red Hook, Boerum Hill
- Fort Greene
- Clinton Hill, Crown Heights
- North Brooklyn
- Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Bushwick
- Park Slope
- Prospect Heights, Windsor Terrace, Greenwood Heights
- GO Brooklyn
- Brooklyn Cyclones
- Not Just Nets
- Police Blotter
- Perspective
- Parenting
- Politics
- Transit
- Podcasts
- The Brooklyn Bride
- Brooklyn Boom
- Classifieds
- Merchant news
- About The Paper
- RSS Feeds
-
Minerva–Liberty wave saved
Print this story
digg
del.icio.usThe Goddess of wisdom and war has prevailed.
After 18 months of public outcry and courtroom back-and-forth, city officials voted unanimously to revoke a construction permit for a seven-story South Slope condo that could have obstructed a historic view corridor between the statue of Minerva in Green-Wood Cemetery and the Statue of Liberty.
“We’re pretty darn happy,” said Aaron Brashear, who has fought to preserve the view and the surrounding neighborhood’s low skyline since he learned of the so-called “Minerva building” in 2005.
“There are multiple victories here for the community, the cemetery and the city, which has taken a strong stance against a less-than-stellar [project],” he said.
The Board of Standards and Appeals ruled on Tuesday that developer Chaim Nussencweig had not gotten his building started before new zoning restrictions went into effect. The decision will send Nussencweig’s architect, Robert Scarano, back to the drawing board.
The plans for 614 Seventh Ave. fell under intense scrutiny earlier this year when the Department of Building disciplined the prolific DUMBO-based architect for designing condos larger than zoning rules allowed.
Nussencweig’s lawyer blamed activists like Brashear for encouraging the city to penalize the developer for Scarano’s behavior.
“What transpired ... is not something that should be attached to our client,” said the lawyer, Howard Hornstein.
©2006 The Brooklyn Paper
Enter your comment below
By submitting this comment, you agree to the following terms:
You agree that you, and not BrooklynPaper.com or its affiliates, are fully responsible for the content that you post. You agree not to post any abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening or sexually-oriented material or any material that may violate applicable law; doing so may lead to the removal of your post and to your being permanently banned from posting to the site. You grant to BrooklynPaper.com the royalty-free, irrevocable, perpetual and fully sublicensable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform and display such content in whole or in part world-wide and to incorporate it in other works in any form, media or technology now known or later developed.
