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Sciame founded F.J. Sciame Construction Co. Inc. in Manhattan in 1975. The company's projects have included many notable New York City buildings, including the Pierpont Morgan Library and Museum, the New Victory Theater, Central Synagogue and the exterior restoration of the Guggenheim Museum. He has served on the executive board of the New York Landmarks Conservancy and was hired by New York officials in 2006 to find ways to reduce the cost of the Sept. 11 memorial at ground zero. Sciame bought Hepburn's nearly 4-acre estate, which includes an 8,400-square-foot home, for $6 million in 2004. He made extensive renovations and is now trying to sell it for $30 million. The granite posts mark the beginning of the property's driveway. Sciame had them lowered a few months ago to comply with a judge's ruling. "Apparently in certain neighborhoods, as in life, size does matter," Judge Robert Holzberg wrote in that August ruling, after a trial. "This is a dispute about 12 inches and how it is measured." Holzberg found that historic district regulations don't spell out how height is to be measured. He nevertheless sided with the commission but declined to impose fines on Sciame. After the commission ordered Sciame to lower the posts and he installed the flower beds, he told commissioners that he had no intention of taking further compliance action and "invited" the commission to take enforcement measures against him, according to court records. "Mr. Sciame is certainly not a bully," Salvatore said. "The decisions he makes, he makes rationally and he makes them in good faith. At the end of the day, I think he didn't want to be bullied."
[Associated
Press;
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