Newsday from New York, New York • 61

4 I rm sw rnpmiffiJn 4 'fc 61 Tfflrrn 3 A Practical Pemlty placement of the buildings original 1923 wiring, that the debt-plagued Eichner began in a nightmare" of stops and starts, according to Lois Framhein, managing director of City Center. And pending the outcome of what could be a seven-month navigation through the city's land-use-approval process, Framhein hopes to drop the second obligation of the original deal: construction of 7,200 square foet of too-shallow new studios. Rather, Framhein plans to repair floors and install air-conditioning in two enormous studios with the original 1920s architectural details intact that City Center recently acquired in the building, and three existing studios. The Alvin Ailey and Trida Brown dance companies are among the groups that already use City Centers high-quality studios, and Framhein and Sorell hope the new spaces will provide much-needed low-cost rehearsal space for other companies. Community Board 5 is the first city agency that must approve the new plan.

While the success of minor changes to CitySpires dome in eliminating its wail had been announced in a Nov. 12 City Council meeting, the dty settlement over dance space was news on Friday to board Chairman Michael Presser. The issue now is how much the public will benefit from the new agreement, Presser said. But he said he was encouraged by the proposal. Representatives for CitySpire or its current manager, Shorenstein Company East, could not be reached for comment By Sarah Wood STAFF WRITER CitySpire, the midtown skyscraper beat known for piercing the rarified air around Carnegie Hall with a whistling dome, alao cuts the skyline with an illegal extra 14 bet in height.

But rather than force CitySpirea developers to dismantle the offending floors, the city in 1988 penalized them with a requirement to provide construction services to an adjacent building that houses several (bni studios. Last month the noise was finally stopped, officials said, and the city received a 92.1 million settlement from receivers for the now-bankrupt developers. The financial penalty was accepted in lieu of renovations to the dance studios. The renovations never were completed, but dty officials say that may allow for better use of the funds. In a way, there was a to re-look at thing, to make them come out better," said Carole Sorell, spokeswoman for the Department of Cultural Affairs, which received the settlement check on Oct.

28. As part of the settlement, City Center, a non-profit theater organization housed in city-owned space next to CitySpire, assumed obligations the Board of Estimates had placed on the developers, Ian Bruce Eichner and West 56th Street Associates. Those obligations included the renovations as well as construction of new rehearsal studios. The theater will finish renovations, including re Nmdqf Fill Km Sswchuk CitySpire exceeded height requirements by 14 feet, and tne city slapped a creative penalty on developers. Naked City Losing 12 of Its Stories REMOVE from Page 6 Once the elevator housing is gone, Brokk 250, a Swedish-made, remote-controlled, robot outfitted with a hammer and chisel, will be lifted by crane to the top of the building, which by then will be just a slab of concrete roof.

Brokk 250 will chisel away at the steel-reinforced concrete, bit by bit, eating itself into a comer. This machine is equivalent to an eight-man crew with jackhammers, said Tor Lidar, the marketing director of Demo-Tech Inc. in Redlands, which imports the machine. The machine has been used to tear down, from top to bottom, a nuclear re citys Department of Buildings, the first to go will be the elevator housing, the miniature building on top of the skyscraper where the machinery for the lift is kept. The windows on all the floors to be demolished will be removed, and then the walls knocked into each floor.

All debris will be broken up into small pieces and Bent down a wooden chute running down the exterior of the building. Larger pieces of steel beams and concrete pillars will be lifted away by a crane. actor in Sweden, and to repair the Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River in northern Arizona, Lidar said. Its an efficient machine, and in this case, probably safer than eight men with jackhammers, said Seymour Weia-berg, an engineer from Englewood, who will supervise the demolition for building owner Laurence Ginaburg. Once it has demolished all of the floor except the patch its sitting on, Brokk 250 will be lowered to the next floor and will tear up the unfinished comer from below.

So picture this: concrete floors without walls, a robot methodically chiseling away at whats left, all inside a green cocoon. The process is repeated until the workers and the robot reach the floor of the 20th story, which then becomes the roof the 19th floor. Do we advance our engineering knowledge from this experience? No, said Robert Silman, an engineer who teaches in the architecture department of Columbia University. The lesson to be learned is proper diligence in searching for correct zoning maps. The demolition of the 12 stories will end a contentious, six-year saga that began with the zoning board of the Department of City Pluming and ended in U.S.

Supreme Court. The developer, Laurence Ginaburg, had claimed that a mistake on a dty map led him to believe he was allowed to build 31 stories on the site instead of the 19 that dty officials say was legally allowed under zoning standards that apply on the Upper East Side. If there was an error, -Ginaburg said, it was the dtys and not hia. Ginaburg lost his battle in court, and in September he signed an agreement with the dty to tear down the top 12 floors at 108 Blast 96th St. The demolition will cost about $1 million.

As part of the agreement, Ginaburg will build a 40-unit, 19-story twin building next door, which will indude some affordable housing units. We had built what the law appeared to allow no more, no less, Ginaburg fooled us, our architects and the New York City Department of Buildings. Ginaburg declined to be interviewed for this article. But a spokesman for Civitas, the neighborhood group known for its vigilant watch of zoning violations in the neighborhood and its advocacy for preservation of historic landmarks, pointed out that Ginaburg was warned early on that the building was in violation of zoning rules. Genie Rice, president of Civitas, said Ginsburg took a chance to proceed with construction.

The building has never been used. Silman, Weisberg and other engineers interviewed say that the dismantling of the buildings upper floors uses standard demolition practices. What makes it unique and historical is it is being done on top of 19 stories, Weisberg said. Were the building to be demolished to the ground. Big Apple Wrecking would simply pull out the elevator bulkhead, then conduct the demolition as planned, dumping the debris into the elevator shaft.

Some neighbors in the 16-story condominium next door say they are not too concerned about the temporary inconvenience caused by the demolition. If theres noise, thats the price you pay, said Judy Fresco, who lives at 1235 Park Ave. and supported Civitas when it asked for the demolition. The residents of Frescos condo have also hired their own engineer, Stephen Olko, who will review safety plans to make sure the condo is protected from felling debris. They Big Apple Wrecking and 3 Parkview Associates, the buildings de- 0 velopers know that if theres any viola- 5 tions, we would be jumping up and down," Fresco said.

5 Still, Fresco admitted to finding the entire process intriguing. Im feed-nated, Fresco said. How do they low- er the elevator bulkhead? How are they going to do it? The citys Department of Buildings gj will also be watching the process very closely, with two inspectors assigned to AP Photo Pulled From Inferno said in a statement released after the ifpt fqace. Removing monitor the demolition twice a week, 4 09MWQ Y41TAVWI TO9AAI rOMAJtl QM04 4 BUOY WM 3SSS3SB TlfWil.