Known as Broken Angel, it’s a rather unusual house in Brooklyn — a house that's been built up piece by piece by its owners, but now it's being broken back down because a judge said it's dangerous. NY1’s Jeanine Ramirez filed the following report.

It's been a fixture in Clinton Hill for decades. Broken Angel towered 50 feet above the original building with the addition appearing as if it were floating.

That's the look intended by its owners Cynthia and Arthur Woods, who built it all by hand. But now the home as they know it is coming down, after a judge ruled this week that it's a safety hazard. Wood says he'll just build again.

"Now I get a chance to re-do it, and correct things that I would have changed initially in the first place,” he says.

Wood is saving his art from this building as he develops plans for a new structure. Like a stove colliding with a chair and some stained glass that he made out of colored bottles. His home was even featured in the 2006 movie "Block Party" with comedian Dave Chappelle.

After a fire in October, the buildings department said there were numerous safety violations and took him to court. Wood fought to keep the structure in place by installing hundreds of new beams and adding flooring, but it was still not enough to convince the judge, who took her own tour of the place.

The judge ruled Broken Angel must be dismantled down to the fifth floor by Tuesday.

If Wood gets all the permits in place to re-build his home, he plans to add condos, artists studios and community space. He's already made sketches, and architecture students from nearby Pratt Institute are making sure his ideas meet building codes.

"What we're trying to do is to help Arthur as he dismantles his initial dream, to bring back his new dream even stronger,” says Pratt professor Brent Porter.

So what will his new building be called?

"It's Broken Angel. It will always be Broken Angel but it's morphing,” he says. “There will be a considerable part of it that was here always, but it'll be changing."

And while Wood hopes his new building will be at least as tall as the old, he says he can guarantee one thing.

"I assure you it's not going to look like the standard condo,” he says.

Jeanine Ramirez