Owners of buildings higher than six stories take note: The New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) has adopted its Facade Rule 103-04, which governs details of the Facade Inspection Safety Program (FISP) for Cycle 9A, commencing on February 21, 2020. Read on for Cycle 9 updates, as they represent important new complexity in the program.

In our extensive experience with roof projects, we often encounter the challenge of working on occupied buildings, including schools, hospitals, and other structures with sensitive residents. But at NYU’s Silver Center, we had to accommodate sensitivity of another sort: scientific experiments in progress in the building’s labs. SUPERSTRUCTURES’ project to restore the roof in two sections of the 11th floor called for a design that could be stealthily installed and replacement materials that were odor free.

In the latest seminar in our monthly continuing education series, Harold Henry of Hanover Architectural Products presented “Plaza Pavers, Blocks, and Masonry Units.” His talk on January 15th explored an array of paver assemblies and their applications for plaza decks and roofs for about 90 clients and colleagues in our classroom.

Last July, we shared a celebratory post when the scaffolding and sidewalk shed on the Sun Building (280 Broadway) started to come down after 11 years of obscuring the National Historic Landmark. Penelope Green’s recent article in the New York Times explores scaffolding and sheds as essential protection for pedestrians but also as a quirky feature of the New York streetscape and the “City’s biggest canvas,” inspiring artists and designers. Fascinating as these ubiquitous, utilitarian structures may be, we have one goal: to see them come down as soon as possible.

A recent Crain's Op-Ed argues in favor of using drones to facilitate the City’s mandated facade inspections. This would be a reversal of years of City prohibitions against flying drones within the five boroughs—and none too soon. We applaud this initiative and our FAA-certified pilots look forward to giving our squadron of four drones a good shakedown within the city limits.

“There is nothing more uncommon than common sense,” quipped famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright.* More than just a misanthropic jab at his contemporaries, Wright was advocating for intuitive responses to common problems, not overthinking or overcomplicating a situation. SUPERSTRUCTURES follows this maxim by considering the most logical, economic, and sustainable solution to each restoration challenge—not the trendiest or the most impressive. A good example of this approach was our work on the facade of the Luna Park Co-op in Coney Island, Brooklyn.

While efforts to make existing buildings “greener” tend to dominate the environmental conversation, the energy already embodied in those buildings should be higher on the sustainability agenda. Essentially, it’s the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s position that “the greenest building is one already built,” an assertion that SUPERSTRUCTURES has long subscribed to. Thomas de Monchaux’s recent article in Metropolis makes this case through a sophisticated look at the meaning of embodied energy and how it’s been factored into recent projects, from Google’s California headquarters to Brutalist housing blocks in Bordeaux.

“If I had an hour to solve a problem I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.” Attributed to Albert Einstein, this quotation resonates with SUPERSTRUCTURES’ approach to solving restoration problems. It’s not that our solutions don’t get due diligence; it’s about a “measure twice, cut once” approach to reaching those solutions. Our extensive experience has taught us not to jump to conclusions, even when restoration challenges appear cut and dried. We believe that an open-minded approach and meticulous preparation is key, focusing on thorough investigation and precise documentation and drawings.

On this day in 1992, the New York Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) designated the Tribeca East Historic District adjacent to SUPERSTRUCTURES’s current home in the separately landmarked AT&T building. The firm’s portfolio includes projects nearby within the historic district.

The problem that plagues most sidewalk vaults sooner or later is water infiltration causing corrosion of their steel elements. This degrades structural integrity and, if left unresolved, can lead to a sidewalk collapse. When a vault is inspected and corrosion is observed, it may appear that the steel requires removal and replacement. But in many cases, this damage is superficial and steel can be salvaged instead of scrapped. In our extensive experience restoring sidewalk vaults, we’ve developed various methods of rehabilitation that don’t require complete, costly reconstruction.