By Alex Rippere In a city that lived with the same ossified building code for 40 years before joining the rest of the country and adopting semi-regular revisions to the International Building Code as its local code, the pace of energy code changes has accelerated to breakneck speed. We are on… View more
By Alex Rippere A couple years ago, rumors started circulating that the Department of Buildings (DOB) would only permit rooftops and terraces to be occupied for residential amenity space or restaurants and cafes with additional outdoor seating. Those rumors were absolutely correct, and their ramifications made the local news. DOB started… View more
By Austin Regan, R.A. It is inevitable. At every Certificate of Occupancy kickoff meeting, someone interrupts the first 10 minutes of my presentation, saying, “I only want to know what I need for TCO.” The architect, owner, and contractor all have different areas of expertise and knowledge related to the development,… View more
By Alex Rippere Part of the joy of this industry comes from watching lines on a page evolve into a finished building over several years. Unfortunately, thanks in part to that stretched-out time frame, some things done at New Building approval come back to haunt at sign-off time. Not even the… View more
By Alex Rippere As part of a series on energy code basics, this month’s article addresses envelope assembly types. Specifically, we look at why some kinds of construction comply with energy codes better than others. Broadly speaking, the energy code breaks out a building’s exterior into three major categories of construction: … View more
By George Crawford Benchmarking—measuring, tracking, and evaluating energy and water consumption using standard metrics, and comparing those numbers among similar buildings—has always been a good idea. Now it’s the law for many New York City property owners. Starting in 2018, owners of mid-size buildings that are larger than 25,000 square feet… View more
By Alex Rippere 2017 brought its share of challenges and opportunities when it comes to the energy code and its enforcement. The “fun” will likely continue in the year ahead. Retroactive application Last September, the mayor announced that the current energy code would retroactively hit existing buildings over a certain size,… View more