Architects in Brooklyn Fatal Building Collapse may have Troubled History

November 10, 2011

Just days after the collapse of a building on a Brighton Beach construction site, the New York Daily News reports that the condominium project’s architects have had trouble with the Building Department in the past.

On the afternoon of Tuesday, November 4, a building under construction at 2929 Brighton Fifth St. in the Brighton Beach area of Brooklyn collapsed, trapping construction workers in the rubble. The Fire Department responded and rescued five men, one who declined medical treatment, three who suffered serious injuries and one worker, identified as 54-year-old Ivan Lendel, who later died from his injuries.

Officials blamed the building collapse on the improper pouring of concrete in the five-story building’s floors and that a builder should pour the concrete from the ground up. SP&K Construction, the company working the site, instead started on the top floor.

“We were able to determine that they were placing the concrete in the wrong sequence, and we believe that that is a major contributor to this collapse,” Department of Buildings Commissioner Robert D. LiMandri told The Wall Street Journal. “What we believe happened today was that they started from the top and worked their way down.”

However, Oleksandr Kushch, an employee of SP&K Construction who was on the fourth floor at the time of the collapse, told the New York Daily News that in the nine years he has been working they have always poured concrete from the top floors downward.

The building permit for the project lists Douglas Pulaski of Bricolage Designs as the applicant. Pulaski and Henry Radusky are principal architects at Bricolage Architecture & Design, LLC.

According NYDailynews.com, both Pulaski and Radusky surrendered their self-certification, a license that allows them to certify that their own construction complies with building codes, Pulaski in 2009 and Radusky in 2002. Whether or not they regained those licenses is unknown.

“They have been known by the Buildings Department for many years to operate on the fringe,” Assemblyman James Brennan (D-Park Slope) told the New York Daily News.

The Buildings Department issued nine violations to SP&K Construction so far, reports NBC New York.