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Lawyers and Students Ask Judge to Force Speedier Repairs to East Harlem Apartment Building

By DNAinfo Staff on April 14, 2010 4:14pm  | Updated on April 15, 2010 7:11am

Resident Benay Chisholm examines cracks in a hallway of her building at 8 East 110th Street on Feb. 23, 2010.
Resident Benay Chisholm examines cracks in a hallway of her building at 8 East 110th Street on Feb. 23, 2010.
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Jon Schuppe/DNAinfo

By Jon Schuppe

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

MANHATTAN — The Legal Aid Society has teamed up with Columbia Law School students have to try to speed up repairs to a crumbling East Harlem building that tenants say was damaged by the construction of a Fifth Avenue museum complex.

The building’s owner and the museum’s developers have already agreed to address the damage, and some of that work has been completed. But the law students and Legal Aid lawyers want a judge to step in to make sure work is done quickly.

At issue is a “structural crack” that runs through several floors of the East 110th Street building.

“The crack in the building was cited by (the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development) nine months ago as an immediate hazard that needed to be corrected within 24 hours, said Legal Aid lawyer Sateesh Nori. “That was nine months ago. So we sued them.”

The groups filed court papers last week against the building’s owner, Hope Community Inc., the developers, Park View Fifth Avenue Associates and HPD.

“Our primary objective is to secure the safety of the tenants,” Columbia Law School student Jessica Soto said.

The building’s residents and Hope Community Inc. say the cracking was caused by construction of an $80 million new home for the Museum for African Art and a 115-unit condominium tower overlooking Central Park.  The project will be the first addition to Museum Mile in a half-century.

The development partners who make up Park View Fifth Avenue, Brickman and Bovis Lend Lease, deny any link between the construction and the cracking, which has led to dozens of code violations. But they agreed earlier this year to cover about $60,000 in repairs, including shoring up the building’s foundation.

A spokeswoman for the city Buildings Department said this week that the developers have completed stabilization of the building. After watching to make sure that the building doesn’t shift any more, workers can start repairs to the cracks, the spokeswoman said.

A representative for Hope Community declined to comment.

A lawyer representing Park View Fifth Avenue did not return a call seeking comment this week. A message left with an assistant commissioner of HPD on Wednesday afternoon was not immediately returned.

A hearing is scheduled in housing court on April 30, Nori said.