Some sap put a tree in Bronx house!
It's the most bizarre treehouse in New York.
[I really do not understand this. If the builder is wrong about the property line he will never get title insurance. Furthermore are there restrictions on buildi g right up to a propertly line. There should be setbacks. Finally, how the hell can you tear down a fence and build a wall right into a tree, whether it is yours or not. Mish]
A property-line dispute between a builder and a lifelong Bronx resident is in an architectural stalemate - with a live tree right in the middle of a cinder-block wall of a new house.
"I've never seen anything like this, ever," said John Schwing, 51, whose tree is embedded in the wall next door. "We keep having all these people walking by and staring at it. It's the talk of the neighborhood."
The roots of the 1-foot-diameter tree are sliced in half, a layer of cement is slathered up to the bark and the wooden joists on the new building's second floor are built around a spreading branch. Another tree farther back on the lot is also partially encased in the wall.
"This can't be. It's got to be a bad dream," said Philip Tortoriello, 42, who owns the house on the other side of the new property and has his own boundary problems with the developer. "This is a joke. I've never seen this. This is like ... like ... wow! I can't believe that."
The saga started last month when a Queens developer who had torn down the old house next door on St.Raymond Ave. in Westchester Square began putting up a three-story apartment building, filling the entire lot - and reaching the tree, which sits on the property line.
Schwing said he came home one day to find workers had ripped down his fence and dug a hole into his yard, sparking an angry dispute with Flushing builder ABA Management Corp.
ABA vice president Ryan Pedram said Schwing demanded $20,000 to let him take down the tree. But Pedram decided to keep building around it, figuring they could settle the matter and fill in the hole later.
"I went to his house and he threw me out. I tried to talk to him and he wouldn't. This is not a reasonable guy," Pedram said.
Schwing said he wasn't serious about the $20,000 demand, but is now so mad that he won't settle for any amount - and he wants the building torn down and his tree restored. "The tree's got to grow. I don't understand it," Schwing said. "You'll never see anything like this again."
Strangers took pictures of the spectacle yesterday. A delivery truck stopped in the middle of the street and three movers hopped out to gawk.
Chris Mercado, who works at Westchester Square Medical Center across the street, said he and his co-workers can't believe what they see out the window.
"We just stand there and watch them working, and we laugh," Mercado said. "It's crazy."
The city building code doesn't actually prohibit anyone from building a wall with a tree in the middle of it, but live trees inside buildings require special construction, said Buildings Department spokeswoman Ilyse Fink.
"The plans do not call for a tree in the wall," Fink said. "We're going to send somebody out to look at this."
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