By Austin Regan Changes are soon to come to Chapter 32 – Encroachments Into The Public Right of Way. For the first time, marquees will be allowed on office buildings (BC  3202.2.1.4.5), which will give designers more flexibility in creating unique and dramatic entrances to their buildings. Permitted balconies have also… View more

By Garvey Thelemaque With the 2014 Building Code right around the corner, there’s no better time than right now to start diving into it. The DOB has posted a full version of the 2014 Code, as well as detailed information on both the process and the major changes. A good place to… View more

By Austin Regan It may be an understatement to say the Building Code is an imperfect document. Like any law, the Code had many interested parties with many different agendas. None of those parties got the exact document they wanted. In many cases certain sections of the Code were agreed to… View more

By Frank Fortino A key piece of the playbook for developers is to squeeze every inch of usable space out of their projects. A growing trend turns this usability discussion into a key selling point – converting the top of a building into a rooftop bar. Rooftop bars provide a great… View more

By Austin Regan Some building owners are fortunate enough to have buildings located in the correct zoning and community board districts, and had enough foresight to have their buildings designed to accommodate a rooftop bar or party space. Those buildings may have revelers dancing on the roof to Hip-Hop and Rock,… View more