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, warm…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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...
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…
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…
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…
In 2013 Hurricane Sandy ravaged the New York City area, and the storm taught us important lessons about disaster recovery—and disaster preparation. I’d like to share some of my experiences working with several hard-hit buildings in the immediate aftermath of…