The Department of Buildings stepped in yesterday to halt the demolition of 5 Roebling Street, also known as the Giant Fart Cloud Building because of its fragrant recent past as a cabbage processing plant. Neighbors had complained that the demolition was so violent that they were in fear that it would damage their building and leave them homeless. The Stop Work Order is currently attached to the plywood gate, but hadn’t been posted on the DOB website as of 9AM. It looks like, in this case, the department acted in a timely way to address a problem that could have proven quite serious to neighbors. It’s still going to be long haul, as the demolition is completed (hopefully in a way that doesn’t damage the neighboring building) and a new building site excavated and construction gets underway.

UPDATE: The Stop Work Order, which is now posted online, is for “demolition in progress in an unsafe manner” and for an illegal mechanical demolition.