Some thoughts (JMO) on the aesthetic/financial info discussed, as this is my field and I’m from the area:
people hear “architect” and think big bucks, but the truth is, there are so many areas to work in and many don’t pay well. This guy was obviously not a builder to the stars in the Hamptons. He’s in codes and regs dealing with the NYCDOB mostly as an expeditor, it seems. One of the most dreaded, aggravating and frustrating areas of work. He has pics from large corporations on his site but that could be simply that he got their work permits signed off on for the rooms and buildings in the pics, not that he designed the buildings/renos. I don’t get “great architect designer” vibes from him and can’t imagine him working up drawings.
His massapequa house is ramshackle, he’s behind on taxes, both property and personal since at least 2010, his dental work needs attending to—all expensive things. He has a cramped looking Midtown office where the rent is sky high and you know the landlord will force him to pay rent so maybe his personal finances have to take a back seat. He may have been scraping by for all we know. LI property taxes are also exorbitant (over $11,000/year for his house, which is normal here) and building permits to renovate are notoriously a giant pain in the butt—I know architects who refuse to work in certain towns because it’s such a hassle.
Combine all of this and I see a guy whose life was/is perpetually out of control and who could have been scrambling to hold it all together plus hiding these huge terrible secrets and getting sloppier. The press keeps touting “architect” but it seems he was really an expeditor (no offense to expeditors!) who bragged about all the ways he knew to get around the rules, such as using the 1938 or 1901 codes. A legal loophole does not protect modern society (that’s why we have code revisions) and he obviously liked circumventing the laws no matter the expense of public safety. Like a little thrill getting over on someone in the DOB. I mean, everyone tries to push the boundaries with codes but I just get the feeling this guy goes way further.
Again, JMHO.
Thank you for your informative post, I think your assessments are probably correct. In between the murders he worked hard for the money.
Suspect in Gilgo Beach Killings Led a Life of Chaos and Control
According to the timeline released by prosecutors and to Buildings Department and court records, Mr. Heuermann kept up his busy work schedule even as victims were vanishing.
In 2009, prosecutors said, after killing Melissa Barthelemy, a 24-year-old who worked as an escort, Mr. Heuermann made a series of taunting calls to her family, during lunchtime and after work hours, from locations near his office.
In June 2010, about two weeks after Megan Waterman, a 22-year-old from Maine, was last seen alive, Mr. Heuermann filed an application to install a new fire escape at a building in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. In August of that year, he filed an application to repair the terra cotta and repoint the bricks in a building on the Upper West Side, nine days before Amber Lynn Costello, 27, disappeared near her home a few miles from Mr. Heuermann’s.
On March 9, 2022, as the investigative dragnet was tightening, Mr. Heuermann was writing a typically detailed letter to a lawyer concerning a project on West 71st Street:
“It appears that from my walk though, the drain line is above the interior floor slab and if the trench drain is placed below this level, it would not be able to drain by gravity,” he wrote. “I would strongly recommend an investigation into the use of negative side waterproofing at this site.”
Edited to delete quotes to 10%
www.gilgonews.com
