Scarano in the news again

Brooklyn's most famous architect, Robert Scarano, is making headlines again. This week's Times Real Estate section ran a voluminous article on his self-certification of his projects. Apparently Scarano likes to build a lot of his buildings with mezzanines in them and not count the square footage against the total project. This, thereby increases the amount of living space, while shadily toeing the line between legality and illegality.

The Times also has a lengthy list of the projects cited for surpassing the floor area allowed under current zoning rules.

The man is arguably a very good architect who has won many awards, but recently, coverage of him has been overwhelmingly negative. He has been constantly slagged in the blogosphere. Not to be outdone, he has thrown down the gauntlet himself, often fighting back against his naysayers in comment sections or with cryptic email messages. Very Curt Schilling-esque, if you ask me.