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Plea for Broken Angel

The Brooklyn Paper

The son of the artist who built the iconic Broken Angel ziggurat — which burst into flames last October — has issued a written plea for “public support” during his family’s continued fight with the city.

In a long, often meandering e-mail, Chris Wood decried the Buildings Department’s “harassment” and called on the agency to “recognize that Brooklyn wants the building that [his father] Arthur Wood envisioned, not another boring box of bricks.”

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But the Buildings Department put the blame for the dispute squarely on the Wood family.

“Buildings plan examiners have met with the owner’s architect over a dozen times over the last several months to advise him on how to comply with building, zoning and fire codes,” said agency spokeswoman Kate Lindquist. “Despite the attention the architect has received, the plans still do not comply.”

In May, Judge Sylvia Hinds-Radix ordered the removal of the top of the Downing Street building — its most eccentric floors. The Wood family has not fully complied, and now the two sides are battling over what remains.

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