Tag Archive: Local Law 11/98

As an architectural student in Istanbul and Europe, I had the opportunity to study some inspiring buildings. I was reminded of those buildings when I was assigned as the project manager of an exterior repair program RAND recently completed at...

In July, a 35-year-old woman fell to her death from her 17th floor apartment balcony on the Upper East Side when the railing she was leaning against gave way. The tragedy has led to a closer look at the safety...

Every architect remembers their first scaffold drop. I’ll remember mine for years to come. As luck would have it, my first voyage was not a warm-up on, say, a 10- or 15-story building, where I could get accustomed to carefully...

As mandated by New York City Building Code, the Department of Buildings requires buildings with unsafe exterior conditions to protect people from falling masonry and debris. That protection is typically a sidewalk shed. As previously discussed in RAND's Better Buildings...

According to the Department of Buildings, there are more than 8,500 sidewalk sheds and scaffolds throughout New York City. If an article in Sunday's New York Post is any indication, there are also at least that many gripes about them....

In my more than 30-year career as a bricklayer, preservationist, and project manager, I've been fortunate to have worked on many noteworthy buildings in New York City. None, however, has had more significance to me than the Algonquin Hotel, a...

Halloween is only a couple of days away, but some New York City property owners and managers are more spooked by February 21. That's the day they face the SWARMP Thing. As our latest ad (right) in the November issue...

As a structural engineer working for Singapore's Building and Construction Authority (BCA), a government agency that oversees building safety, I recently visited New York with a colleague, Jeremy Tan, to learn about the city's Facade Inspection & Safety Program, otherwise...

As summer officially arrives today with a hot, steamy vengeance, air conditioners throughout the city are going full blast. If you have a window A/C unit in your apartment, here are some reminders to make sure the unit is safely...