Category: Disaster preparation


Winter is Coming. Is Your Building Prepared?

November 30th, 2022 by

  Winter is almost here. New York City's heating season is in full swing, the nights are getting longer, and the temperatures have been steadily falling like the leaves on the trees. To protect your residents and keep everyone safe,...

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Weathering the Storm: Emergency Preparedness & Storm Resiliency

September 9th, 2021 by

After last week's record-breaking rainfall caused flooding, power outages and widespread damage to buildings and infrastructure, the New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) released a set of precautions building owners and property managers should carefully follow when surveying storm...

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New York City Department of Buildings Logo

DOB Issues Advice to New Yorkers After Historic Citywide Flooding

September 2nd, 2021 by

Dangerous conditions may have been created in buildings affected by yesterday's record-breaking rainfall and unprecedented flooding from Hurricane Ida. The New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) has released a list of advisories that building owners and property managers should...

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RAND Principal and MEP Team Leader Peter E. Varsalona, PE discusses how RAND came up with a solution that saved the building hundreds of thousands of dollars and minimized disruption to residents with Habitat Magazine

Dealing With The Unexpected During a Storm Riser Collapse

July 16th, 2020 by

Built in the 1920s, 33 Fifth Avenue is classic prewar construction. It has some old cast-iron stormwater drainage pipes that run through the building. They collect stormwater on the roof and terraces and bring it down to the cellar level...

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Liberty House Condominium's newly upgraded emergency generator.

Emergency Preparedness: Building a Better Backup Generator

October 25th, 2019 by

Liberty House Condominium, a 239-unit, 27-story tower over looking the Hudson River escaped Hurricane Sandy relatively unscathed. The building didn't lose power like the rest of downtown Manhattan (Battery Park City happens to be on the Brooklyn power grid), and...

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Nordeck Apartments Capital Improvement and Storm Resiliency Program

Keys to a Successful Capital Improvement Program

July 8th, 2019 by

We were the project engineer/architect for a large capital improvement project at Nordeck Apartments, a six-building, 343-unit complex near the Atlantic Ocean in Arverne, Queens, that was heavily damaged by Hurricane Sandy. It was a $50 million project with a very wide-ranging scope of work – replacing bricks, windows, parapets, and roofs, an electrical upgrade, new...

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Chilling on the Roof

August 21st, 2014 by

The board at 135 Montgomery Street, a 21-story residential co-op in Jersey City, knows their building’s prime location along the waterfront comes at a price. In 2011, Hurricane Irene destroyed the new chillers that replaced the building’s original chillers from...

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Installing an Emergency Generator

September 5th, 2013 by

With the hurricane season upon us and the first anniversary Super Storm Sandy approaching, many buildings in the New York City area are gearing up for another season of severe weather. To prepare for a sudden—and possibly extended—loss of power...

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Three Times the Chill

August 9th, 2013 by

A one-two punch to a building led to three times the charm for its chillers. At 135 Montgomery Street, a 21-story residential co-op along the waterfront in Jersey City, the last two major storms have tested the resolve of its...

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