The Hotel Is 642 Feet Tall. Its 'Architect' Says He Never Saw the Plans.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/13/nyregion/architect-license-high-rise-
manhattan.html

An architect lent his license to a New York City developer to approve 
buildings he didn’t design, according to an investigation by The New York 
Times.

Marx Development Group is building a 51-story hotel in the Hudson Yards 
area of Manhattan and claims that a former employee, Warren L. Schiffman, 
designed it.Credit...Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times

By Matthew Haag
June 13, 2022

Amid the glittering geometric towers that dot the Manhattan skyline, the 
hotel on 11th Avenue in Hudson Yards was designed to stand out. At 642 
feet tall, the building soars above the Hudson River, featuring jagged 
sets of floor-to-ceiling windows that shimmer in the sun.

To all outward appearances, Warren L. Schiffman, who is in his mid-80s and 
retired, was the architect of record on the project. His professional seal 
and signature were stamped on its design and those of two other large-
scale projects in New York City, a hotel near La Guardia Airport and dual 
high-rise residences in Queens. All share the same developer, Marx 
Development Group.

But Mr. Schiffman said he had no active role in those projects, a 
statement that raises questions about whether the buildings were approved 
for construction without the oversight and involvement of a registered 
architect — a requirement in New York State to ensure that buildings are 
properly designed and do not pose a safety risk.

A document obtained by The New York Times shows Mr. Schiffman’s 
credentials were used to fake his approval of building designs that he did 
not review.

The document, a four-page contract addressed to Mr. Schiffman on company 
letterhead, shows that when Mr. Schiffman retired in 2016 from Marx 
Development Group, he signed an eight-point agreement with its chief 
executive, David Marx, detailing how the company’s design firm, DSM Design 
Group, could continue to use his seal of approval even though he no longer 
worked there.

Developers can spend several millions of dollars on architect fees for big 
projects. In exchange for the use of the seal, however, Mr. Schiffman 
received quarterly payments from the developer that were substantially 
lower than the norm.

The contract was signed just before the Marx Development Group embarked on 
three large developments in New York City, including its highest-profile 
project to date, the Hudson Yards hotel. It called for Mr. Schiffman to 
“provide your architectural stamp and signature to the DSM Design Group 
when requested” and to make “best efforts to respond within 48 hours of 
any request for such service.”

Mr. Shiffman said in an interview he was never asked to review any 
building plans.

Building professionals in New York City said that the allegations 
involving Mr. Schiffman were highly unusual.

“Oh, my, goodness gracious, that’s a new one,” said Steven Zirinsky, the 
co-chairman of the Building Codes Committee at the New York chapter of the 
American Institute of Architects. “Now what’s going to happen with these 
buildings — who’s watching the store?”

Officials at the city’s Department of Buildings said they did not find any 
structural defects in the plans for the Hudson Yards hotel, which is still 
under construction. Department records show that it reviewed the plans 
five times between 2018 and 2020, when they were ultimately approved. The 
hotel near La Guardia was completed in 2019, while the high-rise 
residences in Queens have not been approved yet.

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Testing the Limits: Only three of New York’s 25 tallest residential 
buildings — and none of the towers on Billionaires’ Row in Manhattan — 
have completed safety tasks required by the city.
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life upside down and trapped residents with mobility issues inside their 
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Luxury Developers’ Loophole: Soaring towers are able to push high into the 
sky because of a loophole in the city’s labyrinthine zoning laws.

The department barred Mr. Schiffman from filing building plans in 
December, a spokesman said, after it learned that “someone may have 
fraudulently re-registered him with the state and filed plans without his 
knowledge.” The spokesman declined to elaborate.

An addendum to Mr. Schiffman’s agreement with Mr. Marx, which they both 
signed in June 2016, required Mr. Schiffman “to maintain his professional 
license in good standing for the foreseeable future.” In the contract, Mr. 
Schiffman’s former employer agreed to reimburse him for the continuing 
education courses necessary for renewing it. The contract would be valid 
as long as “you continue providing your architectural stamp and 
signature,” it said.

Image
Mr. Schiffman’s signature and professional seal were affixed to designs 
for the hotel on 11th Avenue even though he had retired and no longer 
worked with the developer, whose construction company, Atria Builders, is 
building the hotel.Credit...Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times
In return, Mr. Schiffman would receive $175,000 in payments over more than 
a decade — $50,000 through the end of 2016 and then $12,500 annually until 
2027, distributed in quarterly payments, according to the document, which 
has also been obtained by state investigators.

That arrangement imploded last month.

As part of an investigation by the state’s Department of Education, which 
oversees professional licensing, Mr. Schiffman admitted that he had 
practiced architecture when he was not authorized to do so. Under state 
law, the “unauthorized practice” of architecture can include practicing 
without a license or “permitting, aiding or abetting an unlicensed person 
to perform activities requiring a license.”

The Department of Education Board of Regents accepted Mr. Schiffman’s 
forfeiture of his license at a meeting in May.

In an interview with The Times, Mr. Schiffman said he gave up his license 
because of his age and denied that he had admitted to state investigators 
that he had practiced the profession when he was not authorized to do so.

He also denied that he had an agreement with Marx Development Group, 
though he later acknowledged in the same interview that he had the 
contract in his possession, read aloud several lines from it and conceded 
he still received payments from the developer.

“Yeah, I still get quarterly payments,” Mr. Schiffman said. “He owed me 
money for years.”

Architecture licenses are valid for three years in New York State and 
require applicants to complete 36 hours of courses before they can be 
renewed. Mr. Schiffman said he had renewed his license after he retired, 
but also said he had never taken the courses and that he had been 
corresponding for months with the state agency about surrendering his 
license.

“I stopped practicing five years ago, and if anyone says I was, they are 
lying through their teeth,” said Mr. Schiffman.

Mr. Marx did not return numerous calls and emails seeking comment. He has 
been a developer for more than 30 years, according to his online 
biography, and owns several other companies, including a construction firm 
and the design firm that employed Mr. Schiffman.

Marx Development Group has developed more than four million square feet of 
real estate, including a Marriott Courtyard Hotel in Midtown Manhattan. 
And the construction firm owned by Mr. Marx, Atria Builders, has built 
more than 40 projects, according to the companies’ websites. Mr. Marx’s 
companies have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in recent years 
lobbying city officials over their projects, city records show.

Over recent months, Marx Development Group removed Mr. Schiffman’s name 
from several of its projects and alerted the city’s Department of 
Buildings that another licensed professional had replaced him.

In the world of architecture, a professional seal is tantamount to a sworn 
oath by the architect that the work meets the highest professional 
standards of safety and integrity. The Office of the Professions, a 
division of the state’s education department that oversees licensed 
professions, likens it to “giving expert testimony in a court of law.”

While it is not uncommon for lower-level architects in firms to work on 
projects that ultimately bear the seal of the group’s senior architect, 
that practice is not done without the senior architect’s knowledge and 
supervision.

And while architects draft the designs, other licensed professionals, such 
as engineers, are also involved to ensure buildings are structurally 
sound. In New York City, there is another layer of oversight too. The 
Department of Buildings reviews construction plans before work begins to 
make sure they adhere to local building codes and zoning rules.

State licensing rules warn architects that it would be “unprofessional 
conduct” to affix their seal to documents that they had not created or 
“thoroughly” reviewed. And it could be considered a Class E felony if a 
licensed professional helped “an unlicensed person to practice a 
profession” or tried to “fraudulently sell” a license, the state says.

Registered architects and other licensed building professionals are 
occasionally accused of wrongdoing.

In one of the most prominent cases, a building designer near Albany, N.Y., 
Paul J. Newman, was accused of practicing architecture without a license, 
drafting building plans over many years for buildings including 
residential homes, a community for older residents and a jeweler’s store. 
He served about two years in state prison and was released in 2019.

In that case, charges were brought by the New York State attorney 
general’s office, which labeled the case “Operation Vandelay Industries,” 
a tongue-in-cheek reference to George Costanza, the “Seinfeld” character 
who pretended to be an architect and invented a job at the nonexistent 
Vandelay Industries.

The attorney general’s office said it did not have an active investigation 
into the case involving Mr. Schiffman, and it was unclear whether the 
Department of Education referred its case to prosecutors.

Throughout his 50-year career, Mr. Schiffman worked on numerous projects 
in New York City and across the country, many for the Marx Development 
Group, including Mr. Marx’s own home on Long Island. He also designed 
nursing centers, including a $30 million facility that opened in 2012 in 
Brooklyn, which is owned by the company controlled by Mr. Marx.

Mr. Schiffman said he left behind several projects that he had designed 
but were not complete when he retired in 2016, but that they did not 
include the Hudson Yards hotel or the Queens buildings.

But in the years after he said he had retired, his name and stamp of 
approval started to appear on new building filings in New York City.

The first was in October 2018 for the hotel in Manhattan, when Mr. 
Schiffman’s signature appeared on a record filed with the city’s 
Department of Buildings. It appeared again as recently as June 2020, on a 
document detailing the exterior dimensions of the hotel.

The hotel, expected to be a Marriott Aloft property, is still under 
construction, and workers recently restarted installing the exterior 
windows. A Marriott spokeswoman did not return a request for comment.

At the beginning of 2019, Mr. Schiffman’s seal was stamped on a diagram of 
Marx Development Group’s hotel near La Guardia, a six-story building with 
126 rooms. It is now being converted into a homeless shelter.

In response to community backlash against the shelter, a company 
controlled by Mr. Marx, LGA Hospitality, hired the influential lobbying 
firm Capalino & Company to help the developer receive a certificate of 
occupancy from the city, city lobbying records show. Since 2021, Mr. 
Marx’s company has paid $113,000 to the group for its lobbying efforts at 
that site.

Last summer, Mr. Schiffman’s name appeared on documents for another Marx 
Development Group project, side-by-side residential towers in the Flushing 
area of Queens. They would be around the block from a nursing center owned 
by the same developer.

Mr. Schiffman said he was baffled as to how someone could have used his 
seal, which he said has been at his home on Long Island since he retired. 
Nowadays, however, an architect’s seal and signature can be applied 
digitally.

Susan C. Beachy contributed research.


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