By Andrew J. Pisani 2015 was busy across the board, and we saw important progress with respect to infrastructure issues facing New York City and New York State. Behind this progress are people – the public officials that drove these issues on the 2015 agenda. Senator Chuck Schumer was responsible for… View more
By Austin Regan While many old buildings are going the wayside to allow for new construction, there are large numbers of old buildings being rehabilitated an re-purposed. Sometimes it is not possible to remove a building – as is the case with a designated Landmark or a contributing building in a… View more
By Brian Redlein (Update: As of the March 22, 2016 rezoning Quality Housing regulations no longer requires dwellings to have a minimum size. The minimum size of a dwelling in the vast majority of instances now is determined by the Building Code.) So called “micro-units” have been coming to the fore… View more
By Brian Lafferty The DOB has plenty of rules, and there’s some truth to the fact that enforcement is always a challenge. One such rule regards the approval of Fire Protection Plans – in the past this has been met with some leniency, but now TCO’s will not be granted without… View more
By Penny Laughlin The DOB has added another document to filings, for cases when work is proposed in building with dwelling units. During work on residential units, the contractor must be considerate and protect tenants from noise, dust, debris and all construction related disruptions. This falls under a Tenant Protection Plan, which… View more
By Renee Sosnowski The Inspection Ready system intends to build on the DOB’s momentum on improving efficiency across the board. In the push to prepare the system for live status, small issues have revealed themselves. Some elevator applications submitted prior to January 1st, 2014 may not include all related devices on… View more
By Bruno Caligara New Yorkers love to feast – they love our restaurants and the creativity of our chefs. Our restaurants are challenged to constantly raise the bar and innovate. There’s constant exploration for all types of cooking, and with this comes an interest in live fuels within these kitchens. The… View more