Controversial Architects Could Build New Apartments In Coney Island & Bensonhurst

Two new building permits filed for southern Brooklyn are connected to an architecture and design firm with a history of skirting regulations.

A six-story, 20-unit building could rise at 2848 West 15th Street between Neptune and Mermaid Avenues in Coney Island, replacing what is now a two-story concrete building and a vacant lot, reports YIMBY.

And the controversial, headline-grabbing Bricolage Designs is the architect on record.

Douglas Pulaski and Henry Radusky of Bricolage Architecture and Design – were found fined for flouting Department of Building regulations and were the architects for a building collapse in Brighton Beach in 2011 that led to a construction worker’s death.

“They have been known by the Buildings Department for many years to operate on the fringe,” said Assembly Member James Brennan in the Daily News in response to the 2011 collapse.

Last year, a Department of Buildings official told BKLYNER that Pulaski surrendered his professional certification privileges in 2009. Despite the controversy, the firm continues to build projects in Windsor Terrace, Park Slope, and Red Hook, we reported in September.

And Pulaski’s name appears on the Coney Island building permit filed last week.

The 35,667 square foot project is slated to include a daycare center on the ground floor, 20 apartments across the upper five floors, and a 17-car parking garage. Though the site doesn’t look like much now, the location is just short blocks from the subway, the boardwalk, the Coney Island Creek, and Kaiser Park.

The owner, based in Bensonhurst, bought both this lot and the property next door in March, according to PropertyShark records.

Bricolage architecture firm is behind another application, this one filed for Bensonhurst: two three-story, residential buildings at 1434 and 1436 72nd Street, reports YIMBY.

The buildings, with three family-sized units each, could come with six off-street parking spaces. In order to build, owners would have to raze a two-story home on the property.