New PEs: Dave Brijlall, James Kelley We are happy to announce that two more of our staff members are joining the ranks of Professional Engineers. Dave Brijlall, a project engineer on Rand’s Mechanical team, and James Kelley, a senior structural design engineer on our Structural team, recently passed their Professional Engineering exams and will soon [...]
Crain's New York Business recently announced its top 50 Best Places to Work in New York City, and as the President of Rand, I'm happy to say we came in at number 11. We've made the list four years in a row now, so we're pretty sure it's not a fluke. Rand was also the [...]
Before you and your building settle in for a long winter's nap, be sure you've submitted your property's benchmarking report. Quick refresher: Under New York City's Local Law 84/09, owners of properties larger than 50,000 square feet are required to submit their building's energy use (electricity, gas, and fuel oil or steam) every year. The [...]
I recently had the pleasure of visiting a fifth-grade class at the Bloomingdale School (P.S. 145) on West 105th Street in Manhattan and talking to the students about what it's like to be a "real life architect." The students participate in Keeping the Past for the Future, an architecture and preservation appreciation course offered at [...]
As the wife of Rand's president, I have been around building construction in New York City for more than 25 years and appreciate the energy and vitality of urban revitalization. So when our new neighbors decided to gut renovate the dilapidated brownstone next door, I was thrilled. Since I work at home, I volunteered to [...]
With the recent storms and heavy rains, my Rand coworkers and I have been extra busy conducting leakage evaluations. To assist us in our investigations, we've been incorporating infrared technology. An infrared camera has a sensor that detects temperature differences in the area being photographed and shows them as different colors. When water evaporates it [...]
One of the things I love about my job as a project associate is seeing interesting architectural details up close. While recently conducting a 7th Cycle Local Law 11/98 facade inspection at 56 East 87th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan I got an eyeful. A terra cotta relief is one of the [...]
Rainy days and Thursdays don't always get me down. After meeting a manufacturer's rep to review a recently completed roof replacement project at a 14-story building on West End Avenue yesterday morning, I paused to appreciate the gloomy allure around me. The view offers the characteristic contrast of yesterday's and today's New York: Across the [...]
Prewar buildings have charm, elegance, and gracious space, whereas new construction is sleek and sophisticated and features lots of amenities. So what can be said about those postwar white glazed-brick buildings with their distinctive wedding cake shape? Piotr Redlinski for The New York Times Bland on the outside but functional on the inside, these stolid [...]
Prospect Park South was designated an Historic District in 1979. Last Sunday a group of my Rand coworkers and I met at Church Avenue in Brooklyn for a walking tour of the Prospect Park South Historic District. It was the second walking tour that we've done as a group (the first was of the Clinton [...]