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'Tis the Season
You don’t need a calendar to know that the holiday season is almost upon us–just look around: from elaborate window displays in department stores to the subtle decorations like wreaths and lights, it’s hard to ignore the various decorations this time of year. But perhaps your co-op or condo board is still contemplating how to convey the spirit of the season within your building. From simple to elaborate, co-ops and condos can feature an array of decorating ideas. What’s right for your building depends on several factors including size, budget and whom you pick to decorate. Read More
Lighting
Lighting is much more than a device that enables us to see. Proper lighting defines space and creates atmosphere, essentially setting the mood and tone of an area. When designing a space, where does lighting come into play? According to Rebecca Alston, owner of Rebecca Alston, Inc., an interior design firm based in Manhattan, "Lighting is extremely important within the design process. You can destroy your finishes with the wrong source." With this in mind, board members must consider many factors when designing common area. Not only must they consider aesthetics, they must examine the cost and efficiency of bulbs and fixtures. Read More
The London Terrace Restoration
Like a firm handshake or solid eye contact, certain things can turn first impressions into good impressions. For a building, the look of a lobby can make or break its reputation, both among residents and visitors. To catch an approving eye, nothing works better than welcoming, elegant common areas. Realizing this, the board of London Terrace, a 700-plus unit co-op occupying four towers along the corners of West 23rd and 24th Streets and Ninth and Tenth Avenues in Manhattan, decided to renovate the four lobbies and common areas. Read More
Cover Story: The Changing Face of New York
New York City is in a constant state of flux. At no time was this better illustrated than during the recent New Year’s Eve celebrations. Photographs of Times Square celebrations past were constantly flashed across television screens, but what Times Square was this? With the exception of the Paramount Building at 1501 Broadway, there was barely a recognizable landmark to be found. Were it not for the geographical layout of Broadway and Seventh Avenue, many of our older citizens would be hard-pressed to identify the theater district of 1940 with the millennial melee of 2000. Read More
Miracle on 49th Street
Construction began in mid August, in the midst of the sweltering heat of New York City. A miracle was taking Read More
Designing Personalities
Personality. Every individual has one, every couple, every family. Whether vibrant, artistic, intelligent, meticulous or expressive, every individual's personality varies and shines through in their every action, every word, every movement. Blending personalities in interior design can be an artful experience or an awful mess. Ask Jamie Drake, ASID, of Drake Design Associates Inc. who has been trying to distinguish his clients' personalities and design their homes accordingly for 17 years. Read More
The Home Office
Who wouldn't love the opportunity to stay at home instead of schlepping into work every morning? Read More
Closet Miracles
When you open your closet doors, are your clothes hung so haphazardously that you can't find your Read More
A Spectacular New Kitchen
You don't have to be a gourmet cook to appreciate the value of a well-designed kitchen. Even if you and your loved ones subsist on Read More
From Storage to Stairmaster
About ten years ago, Doug Anderson, the board president of 1125 Park Avenue, and some of his fellow board members walked though their building’s basement and saw a wall which, according to Anderson, "didn’t make sense." The inquisitive cooperators asked the building superintendent what was behind the wall and when he replied he hadn’t a clue, the board gave instructions to bang a hole through it. Anderson describes finding a large, cavernous space with 27-foot-high ceilings which turned out to be a coal storage bin from the days when the grand pre-war building had furnaces heated by coal. This 4,000 square feet of unused space was enough room to create, as Anderson remembers, "an amenity for everyone in the building." With a healthy reserve and a board that wanted to improve the sense of community, 1125 Park Avenue built a gym, a children’s room and a basketball court. Gyms and other amenities created from basement space are now "de rigeur" in New York City. Read More
Renovated Masterpiece
Successfully combining her talents as an artist, architectural and interior designer, Rebecca Alston, president of Rebecca Alston Inc., a design firm in Manhattan, recently renovated a 3,600-square-foot loft condo in Tribeca. Her clients, a young couple with widely differing aesthetic sensibilities, presented Alston with the challenge of combining their individual styles. The resulting interior uses both natural and manufactured materials, sophisticated technology, and site-specific artwork designed by Alston to create a luxurious, yet informal, residence for her clients. Read More
Stretching Your Dollars
It's time to face the facts. The teal-and-salmon sofa that was purchased for your foyer may not exactly be in
style any more. The window treatments that were chosen in the early 1990s no
longer grace the pages of every design magazine sold on Broadway; It’s time for a change; an overall facelift to the tired common areas that once
welcomed residents and their guests into your building. It’s time to bring the décor into the 21st century—and that may seem like an overwhelming task if your building, like so many
today, are on a shoestring budget.
Read More
The Good, the Bad, and the (Really) Ugly
“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” “There’s no accounting for taste.” “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” While these age-old adages generally hold true, when it comes to working with design committees in co-op and condo spaces, there may actually be some hard-and-fast rules about what looks good and what doesn’t. Making sure everyone involved in the decision-making process understands these parameters can help avoid dissatisfied residents—and maybe a few faux brass light fixtures. Read More
Breathing Life into Lobbies on a Budget
Perhaps it's been years since your lobby was last updated, and the décor is reminiscent of an aesthetic better left in the past. Or perhaps the lobby and common areas have are showing signs of everyday wear-and-tear, and are now a hazard for residents. Although the idea of revamping your lobby or other common areas might seem overwhelming—not to mention costly—the good news is that it can be done on a range of budgets. Read More
In Good Harmony
Good communication is key to making any relationship work—married or dating couple, parent and child, sibling to sibling, and best friend
forever friendships. In the co-op and condo world, boards also have
relationships—with vendors, designers, contractors, residents, and managers, just to name a
Read More
Elevator Design and Maintenance
To many people, the elevator isn’t just a device to get you up or down. Wood paneling, exotic woods, carpets, mirrors, chandeliers, brass operating panels—that’s what you’ll see when you go into many elevators in high-end buildings. Read More
Common Area Upgrades That Don't Break the Budget
You know that you need to upgrade your apartment so that the building can both maintain its value and avoid costly repairs and maintenance down the road. But have you considered the common areas in the building as something that can affect your co-op or condo's property value? For owners, common areas might not seem like a huge priority when it comes to making upgrades, but many experts beg to differ. Read More
Keeping Projects on Schedule
Nothing can take the fun out of a design project faster than missed deadlines and
cost overruns—and naturally, both problems usually go hand in hand. Even if a project is
certain to increase a property’s value and/or curb appeal, the upheaval and disruption to residents’ lives while work is going on can be a big pain.
Read More
Understanding the Building Blueprint
In architecture, floor plans or designs have always been crucial in mapping out how a structure is put together. Even in ancient Egypt, primitive drawings have been found to suggest that builders have been relying on floor plans for millennia. Read More
Smart Solutions for Floor Coverings
When it's time for your co-op or condo to start
discussing replacing the floor coverings for your lobby, staircase or
hallways, it's important to look at all the options available,
because a lot has changed over the past decade. Where once it seemed like a
no-brainer to just put down any old brand of carpet, now the range of
materials available are endless, and it might make more sense to go with
something less conventional like decorative rugs, tile or leather. Read More
Putting Your Best Foot Forward
In today’s tough real estate market, people are searching for every advantage they can
find when it comes time to sell their property. They’ll search out the best agent they can find. Or place ads in the highest
circulation magazines. They’ll lower the price to outpace the competition. But often, people will neglect
the most important piece of the whole puzzle: the space itself.
Read More
Dressing Your Walls for a Good First Impression
In the past, choices for wall decorations were simple—paint, wallpaper or paneling (like the infamous paneled dens of the 1970s.) Once you made a selection, you simply narrowed the options down from several available colors or patterns and you were all set. Read More
Defining Your Capital Improvement Project
A capital improvement, as the name suggests, is any property enhancement—or "improvement"—that increases its overall value—or "capital." Capital improvements can be undertaken by individual owners as well as co-op or condo boards. The range of what constitutes capital improvements is vast. Installing a new window in the bathroom of a single unit is a capital improvement; so is installing a new roof for every tower in Co-op City. Read More
A Look at the American Institute of Building Design
Despite well-intended laws and protocols enacted in respective states, co-op and
condo homeowners, organizations and associations are often faced with
complicated, sometimes confusing issues related to building codes, zoning
ordinances, designers, vendors and contractors. Too often, they are left to
negotiate the maze without adequate guidance and oversight.
Read More
Living in New York City's Singular Spaces
As prices for co-op and condo apartments in Manhattan continue to climb, and wealthy buyers continue to clamor for the next word in luxury real estate, one subset of house-hunters has set their sights on something different. They want one-of-a-kind properties with character, unique architectural elements, and historical significance—and they’re finding those properties in buildings that formerly housed banks, schools, and even carriage houses. Read More
Designing with Resident Needs in Mind
There are certain touches that make a house a home. When it comes to designing and renovating co-ops and condos, that same rule applies. Adding touches that personalize a space, and tailoring that space to the needs and desires of the people who live there can make all the difference in the world when transforming four walls into a place of comfort, security and relaxation. Read More
Dispelling Myths About "Poor Water Pressure"
Few things annoy an apartment homeowner more than persistent low water pressure,
be it at the shower, the kitchen sink or the toilet. So common the problem, one
wonders what New Yorker hasn’t suffered from it and what property manager hasn’t struggled to solve it. Recently, an exasperated homeowner asked me, “Is it true I have poor water pressure because my building is old and I live on a
higher floor?”
Read More
Design Solutions for Small Spaces
Real estate in the Big Apple like any large metropolis is expensive, and that
often means making due with a small apartment. Small spaces present many
functional and aesthetic problems—lack of storage, oppressive walls, etc. Fortunately, with a few design tricks
from the experts, tenants can make their apartments cozy instead of cramped and
even create the illusion that a space is larger that it really is. Read More
New Trends, New Looks and a Sense of the Future
When it comes to issues of design and aesthetics, New York is the epicenter of all things style. That is certainly the case when it comes to architecture and perhaps most importantly, interior design. For co-op and condo buildings, style and design are keys to providing a unique identity and a welcoming place for residents and their families. In the last few years, design has changed and evolved, representing cultural shifts and the one simple constant that always holds true for aesthetics: times change, and so do people’s tastes. Read More
The Importance of Home Staging
How many times have you seen a property that’s a mess and visually unappealing with so much furniture and furnishings that it
is impossible to see anything? There are cracks that need spackling, walls that
need cleaning, and floors that should be polished. The lighting is dreary and the color questionable. There’s plenty of clutter, but no warmth, and perhaps, even a strange smell.
Read More
A Look at New York City's Legendary Architecture
New York City is filled with exciting and inventive
architectural styles. There are many different schools of thought
represented in the dense mix of office, residential, and commercial
buildings on the island of Manhattan and throughout the boroughs, and each
site may have been occupied by a succession of buildings, each reflecting
the changing needs and expectations of their times. The skyline, made up of
the outlines of these various buildings, is instantly recognizable, but
recognizing the individual features can be a challenge to the untrained
eye. Read More
Maintaining Stone and Metal Work
New York City's condos and co-ops are more than just apartment buildings—they're part of one the most famous architectural landscapes in the world. Next time you walk around the city, slow down and notice the beautifully designed structures with stunning façades: you might see wrought-iron gates, some as old as 100 years, or decorative metal balconies. Take a look inside, and you're likely to walk across marble floors—some of them with ornate inlays—or an elevator with polished brass walls. Read More
Conserving Energy
While increasing energy costs are financially painful, they do help motivate all of us to think a little bit more about resources and conservation. Read More
