2003 May
2003 May Vol. 23, No. 5
Focus on...Interior Design
A Facade Makeover
It was bound to happen: Your building, in its heyday an architectural gem, has started to show its age. The facade, with ornate details that were once a striking accent to the neighborhood, is beginning to deteriorate. If it's been years since you last fully appreciated the unique architectural details of your building's facade, and if you're living in fear of the next Local Law 11 inspection rounds, it might be time for a complete restoration. And it shouldn't be just for appearance's sake: Your aging facade could pose a safety risk for residents, passers-by, or anyone who enters your building. Read More
Get Soaked!
To swim a straight fifty-foot lap, the majority of New York's eight million souls have no choice but to brave the Hudson River. This is not the case, however, for residents of Trump Place at 200 Riverside Boulevard, who merely need to head downstairs to their building's indoor pool, part of a 6,000-square-foot spa on the first floor. Following a bracing swim, they can spend a minute or two being "revitalized" beneath the spa's heated mineral waterfall. Read More
Professional Women in Construction
As we wind our way along city streets and avenues, carefully navigating the most direct route to our final destination, most of us are somehow able to tune out the ambient roar that surrounds us. The traffic, the jackhammers, the bulldozers, and the backhoes - the list goes on and on. We're usually too busy to be bothered with the question of just who is operating these machines, and who is behind the business end of these massive projects. Would it ever enter our minds that it might well be a woman climbing aboard a backhoe in a pair of dusty work boots or supervising a job site? Upon taking a closer look, you might find someone you didn't expect performing a job not often equated with them. Read More
Renovating Your Apartment
Anyone living in a co-op knows that if they want to renovate their apartment, they will need to sign an alteration agreement. This document is basically a contract between the shareholder and the co-op in which the shareholder agrees to various terms and conditions, which will ensure that the co-op and other shareholders will not suffer damage during the renovation. Some shareholders are engaged in major renovations where items, such as pianos, are being hoisted up the side of the building or temporary elevators are built outside the building. Other shareholders are making changes, which can affect the building's heating and plumbing systems, as well as the other shareholders' apartments. It is quite common for demolition in one apartment to cause cracks and dust in a neighbor's apartment. These are all damages the co-op wants to protect against. Read More
Altering Your Building
Replacing a boiler, renovating a lobby or repairing a façade, can create problems that one might not anticipate or expect. Embarking upon major building projects can turn into a major headache if not done properly and with the help of licensed professionals, a panel of engineers, architects and building officials told an overflow audience at The Cooperator's Annual Co-op and Condo Expo March 6th at the New York Hilton. Read More
Residential Strike Averted
Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) reached agreement on a new three-year contract, averting a potentially costly and damaging strike that would have impacted more than a million apartment dwellers in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Staten Island and Queens. Read More
If These Walls Could Talk
A bare wall to a homeowner or interior designer is like a blank canvas to an artist - the options to create are endless. Gone are the days when you were restricted to either white paint or gaudy wallpaper. Today, you can colorize with peaceful or bold hues, create original designs using texturizing techniques like rag-painting or sponging, or cover your walls in fabrics that range from the simple to the luxurious. All it takes is a plan, some creativity, and an estimated budget. Read More
Into the Woods
These days there's a virtually an endless array of building materials available, so why is good old wood still a perennial favorite? Maybe because it lends an organic warmth to any space. Maybe because it harkens back to another time and place, where things were simpler. Or maybe just because it's a beautiful and versatile design material - but any way you slice it, wood is still one of the most popular materials around. Read More
A Splash of Color
Now that the city has shed its dark winter shades and spring is finally here, it's time for the renovation work to begin. Whether yours is a 250-unit high-rise or a seven-unit walk up, buildings all over the five boroughs are getting ready for a makeover. One of the best ways to give a building a new look is with a fresh new paint job. The results can be astounding - without a budgetary hemorrhage. Read More
Here Comes the Rain Again
Of all the problems that can befall a residential building over the course of its long, eventful life, perhaps none is more insidious and damaging than water leakage and infiltration. Water leaks are hard to triangulate and hard to stop, and their long-term aftereffects are often hard to remediate. From the stains and mildew caused by a neighbor's flooded bathroom to a building-wide mold problem triggered by a compromised roof, water damage is frustrating, expensive, and can even pose serious health risks to a building's occupants. Read More
Dragons in Our Midst
New York City has a lot going for it: it's a center for the visual and performing arts, it's a hub of international business, it's a major tourist destination - and it has some of the most fantastic architecture in the country. From Federal Style redbrick row houses in Greenwich Village to the Art Deco splendor of the Chrysler Building, New York has examples of pretty much every major building design trend of the last two centuries. The city also has some architectural features that hearken back even farther. Friezes and relief sculptures curl around pillars and doorways, complicated floral and woodland motifs grace cornices and window ledges, and alongside the ultra-modern glass-and-steel skyscrapers, winged lions, dragons, and mysterious, leafy faces - gargoyles - watch over the street below and add priceless charm to the cityscape. Read More
From Empire to IKEA
Like fashion, music, and architecture, interior design has changed drastically over the last hundred years. What's the bleeding-edge of hipness one year becomes totally passé the next, only to come full circle and be cool and ironic again a few years later - in what professional designers refer to as the "pendulum effect." On the other hand, many design elements, materials, textures, and styles have withstood the test of time - a Louis XIV armchair is always a Louis XIV armchair, after all, and fine workmanship and basic good taste are always in vogue. Read More
