Collapsed Building Sparks Questions

The D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs has ordered an investigation into the cause of the November collapse of a building at Wisconsin Avenue and O Street.

Nicholas Majett, director of the DCRA, announced at a meeting of the Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2E Monday that the building's owner will be charged with hiring an engineer to determine the cause of the collapse at 1424 Wisconsin Ave. that occurred Thanksgiving weekend.

The DCRA announcement sparked a heated debate at the meeting, provoking a particularly dissatisfied response from ANC 2E commissioner Bill Starrels.

"Since in this case there is bad history, a history of abuses of the system I think … there should be a third party inspector driven by the city, not by the owner," he told The Hoya. "The city should take a much harder stance on its approach with this particular incident."

Starrels pointed to a previous incident involving the building's owner, Mohammad Esfahani. In 2002, a building he was leasing at 1329 Wisconsin Ave. suffered a partial roof collapse during renovations.

The ANC's annual report for that year termed the incident "illegal demolition of a historic building" and some neighbors speculated that Esfahani had used the incident to avoid compliance with strict zoning regulations on historic buildings.

According to Helder Gil, a legislative affairs specialist for DCRA, it is standard procedure for building owners to take responsibility for examining the cause of any structural damage.

"The site is the responsibility of the property owner," Gil said. "That's the ways it's done on any structural issues."

Esfahani bought the building at 1424 Wisconsin in July 2011 and was granted a construction permit for interior demolition and basement excavation in August, according to DCRA records.

Given Esfahani's history, Starrels questioned why he was granted the permit.

"Somehow or another whenever he touches a building it falls down," he said. "For someone like that … it would be good if when [they] put in in a permit [application] that that would trigger some kind of red flag in the system."

The DCRA has sent inspectors to the site numerous times since the incident, according to Gil. The agency also issued a stop work order on Jan. 5 in response to concerns that debris removal operations were interfering with the investigation into the structural causes of the incident.

"There [have] been multiple communications with the owner to make sure that the properties are stable and secure and to make sure that the owner understand his requirements going forward on additional work to be done on the property," Gil said. "Everything that's done needs to come through our books to review and make sure that its being done correctly."

Hoya Staff Writer Esteban Garcia contributed to this report.