Robert Scarano Responds to Charges He is
‘Ignoring Building Codes, Zoning Rules’
By Linda Collins
DUMBO — “We’re trying to raise the standards of what has been the typical residential unit in the city and in Brooklyn,” Robert J. Scarano Jr. of Scarano Architects told the Brooklyn Eagle yesterday. Scarano, who was born and raised in Brooklyn, is an award-winning successful architect with over 300 projects currently in the borough. He’s just going through a spate of bad press and difficulties with the New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) right now.
Several blogs and an article that appeared in The New York Times Sunday are taking him to task for his “too big” buildings, for including mezzanines (or lofts) in his units and not including their square footage, and for “ignoring building codes and zoning rules.”
Does he feel he is ignoring building codes and zoning rules? “We’re not. We can’t, and we won’t,” he said.
Why does he build tall buildings? “Because it’s permitted. If it wasn’t permitted, I wouldn’t be doing it,” he said Scarano, pointing out that developers obviously want to build what they can build and, given a small lot footprint, it often means he must go higher.
But Scarano believes it’s OK to have a mix of height and bulk on one block.
“I don’t think there should be uniformity and sameness,” he said. “Tall and small, bulky and less bulky, side by side, I think it’s nice.”
The whole idea of the loft apartment was to have flexible space and more space, according to Scarano. “If you’re allowed 60 percent lot coverage and 55 feet in height and the allowable floor area is a 2.0 FAR and that gives you three-and-a-half floors, what do you do with the extra height? We pushed that into the living spaces, creating double-height units with mezzanines. And you want that space in the living room and dining room and maybe the main bedroom, but not in the other rooms (kitchens, baths, home office etc). And we were allowed to exclude the mezzanines from the floor area based on memorandums that were circulating in the 1980s,” he said.
“Everyone likes them and they bring higher prices,” he added. “It’s a tremendous profit source. It’s also good for the city. The city gets revenue for it. And at the end of the day, they get the tax revenues, too,” he said, explaining that those can be $20,000 from a rental building, but $70,000 from condos.
Regarding the hearings he is facing now at the DOB and the threat to the self-certification process for architects, he appears somewhat philosophical.
“It’s a very esoteric conversation going on right now. We’ve had a great relationship over the years with them [the DOB] and we’ve been following what they’ve been doing for 27 years and there’s been a great deal of respect for us. But there’s so much outside pressure on them right now,” he said.
The self-certification process was put in place during the Giuliani Administration when it was decided that the more qualified architects could be given more power and the city could streamline the permit process, according to Scarano.
“Since then the City was typically looking at 10 percent of the jobs but suddenly began to find some egregious problems — not the mezzanines, more serious stuff — so now it’s grinding to a halt,” Scarano said.
“The hearing basically is to find out if we can do our jobs without a review. But at the end of the day, the self-certification issue may already be dead,” he continued, explaining that banks and lenders will back off; they are not feeling comfortable with funding a project where there may be questions. So, regarding self-certification, it will be a moot point.”
One positive outcome Scarano sees is that the issue of mezzanines will be clarified.
“I think they’ll come to terms in finding more definitive answers on it, and I think they will try to clarify the language so that we as architects will know exactly what will be permitted.”
Asked if there is overbuilding in Brooklyn, he said, “No, not at all. We have a tremendous way to go before we’re overbuilding. If we were overbuilding, the prices would be dropping. The reason that prices are remaining up is that there’s still such a demand.”
Meanwhile, he has his vision for Brooklyn: the need for more for-sale affordable housing; and filling in for the very old housing stock that’s existed for the last 50 years without much change, primarily the old three- and four-story multi-family wood frame buildings.
“Obviously, a four-story fireproof multi-family building is a better built building,” he said.
But more than that, he is pleased with the designs that come out of his firm, which has over 60 architects.
This newspaper has reported several times in the past that Scarano’s firm was the recipient of architectural design awards — from the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, the AIA and, most notably, the five he won in one year as part of the Ninth Annual Design Awards Competition sponsored by the New York Council of the Society of American Registered Architects (SARA), which included the following: two Awards of Merit (for 171 N. 7th St. in Williamsburg and The Arches at Cobble Hill); one Award of Honor (for The Toy Factory Lofts at 176 Johnson St. in Downtown Brooklyn); and two Awards of Special Recognition (for 2908 Emmons Ave. in Sheepshead Bay and the Greenpoint Redevelopment Plan). In 2005, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz presented a “Brooklyn Icon Award” to Scarano, saying he “truly represented faith in Brooklyn.”
“And keep doing what you’ve been doing, creating a unique architectural statement for Brooklyn,” Markowitz said at the event, a gathering of developers, architects and builders which took place at Scarano Architects’ DUMBO offices.
To the assembled guests, Markowitz said, “You are the bedrock, you’re rolling the dice, you’re spending your money because you believe that Brooklyn is strong enough of an investment. And saying that, we must make sure that the middle class, all economic classes, can continue to live here. Brooklyn has the greatest diversity — ethnic diversity and economic diversity — of any city in the entire northeast and we want to keep it that way. All of you are brilliant, all of you are creative, you can make this happen.”
Said Scarano, “We’re very proud of these awards. It shows we’re building quality projects.”
© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2006
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