Regenhardt, Collett, and Schwartz (audio)

Hi All,

Here's the link to the Regenhardt, Collett and Schwartz talk from last Friday. I'm sorry it took so long to get on-line.

I think this is decent quality - just bad enough resolution to lose my obnoxious, snarky comments, but just good enough to catch Chad's. :D Frederic Schwartz has a voice (and a beard) for radio, and he and all the other speakers came through better than Pat Alex did.

Also, by some miracle, the batteries of my recorder cut off at just 3 minutes after 1 p.m., so we got basically the whole talk.

David, you missed it. Come see me in my office after class.

Andrew

Link: http://saveandrewgarib.com/audio/08.04.04-13h03m50s_INV_Schwartz_Regenhardt_Collett.wma

Giambusso Gowanus Questions

(To be asked of Professors Richard Plunz, Architecture and Patricia Culligan, Civil Engineering, of Columbia and authors of Eco Gowanus: Urban Remediation by Design).

1. How have designs for Public Place compared with your own ideas and findings for the needs of the area?
2. Who or what stands essentially in the way of implementing your recommendations? Political will? Money?
3. Discuss briefly your research methods? Did you examine tax records, old titles, designs?
4. What are some of the immediate risks of living above and amidst this particular site?
5. Where else in the U.S. have your ideas of green industrial infrastructure been implemented?

Temporary Hold on Trump Soho After New Accident

Links below to two stories in today's (March 10) news regarding the Trump Soho, where work was ordered to stop again after a new accident.

New Accident Stops Work at Trump Soho Tower As Wind Wreaks Havoc (Daily News)

Temporary Hold on Trump Soho After New Accident Doesn't Appease Foes (New York Magazine)

(Photo taken from the Daily News article)

Scaffold Questions (Steagall)

Worker Safety / Scaffold

My questions will vary depending on who I'm interviewing, worker vs. administrator vs. legislator. Here are a couple, probably in a more formal style, but the same gist. In light of your (Professor Barry's) post regarding keeping questions on track, these questions don't live up to that. In fact, this topic might not be appropriate. Let me know if that's the case Professor Barry

Are you aware / in favor of the proposed changes to the Section 201 of the Labor Law, known as the Scaffold Law?

Have you received training on scaffold safety? What did it consist of?

Have you provided training on scaffold safety? What did it consist of?

Has you taken extra precautions in light of the recent deaths of construction workers?

Do you feel that the use of illegal immigrant workers is a detriment to worker safety, both their's and their co-workers?

Site to check out

I came across a site that might be helpful background info for a lot of people, The Safety Library

The site has information on:
Disasters (disaster safety, emergency management, terrorism)
Hazards and controls (biological safety, chemical safety, environmental safety, fire safety, physical hazards, etc.)
Industry Safety
Laws and Regulations
Safety Management

In addition to compiling research, the site also has a great number of links updated constantly on the issues listed above and others (the list is pretty long, but I selected the most relevant ones for the list above).

Two Reports:Employment Practices in Construction Industry

Two solid reports from 2007 relating to employment practices in the NYC construction industry:

1. Tearing Down Job Quality (Fiscal Policy Institute)

http://www.fiscalpolicy.org/publications2007/FPI_BuildingUpNY_TearingDownJobQuality.pdf

2. Unregulated Work in the Construction Industry (NYU Law School Brennan Center)

http://www.brennancenter.org/page/-/d/download_file_49377.pdf

“Despite the dangerous working conditions, workers in the underground economy are paid very low wages, are denied the protections of universal social insurance programs (workers’ compensation, unemployment insurance, disability), do not have health coverage or retirement benefits, are not able to join a union, and rarely are they entitled to paid sick leave, holidays or vacations. Working in the underground construction economy is like working in the 19th century when it comes to labor rights, protections and employment standards.”

“New York City and New York State should require prevailing wage for all affordable housing contracts and for any construction project benefiting from city and state government funding, subsidy or zoning or other land use action. Taxpayers get better value with prevailing wage. It is an effective anti-poverty program, and an obvious way to address New York’s widening income gap between the rich and the poor.”

A Tale of Three Articles

This is for those of you who wanted to see the evolution of my WSN piece from crappy article to crappier article.

To be publicly embarrassed by teenagers is to feel alive.

Memo re Deutsche Bank Deconstruction/Investigation

Memo

To: Scaffolding
From: Joy Wiltermuth
Date: February 21, 2001
Re: Deutsche Bank Deconstruction/Investigation
____________________________________

Timeline of major events:

September 11, 2001:

130 Liberty Street building (the former Deutsche Bank Building) badly damaged in terrorist attacks in lower Manhattan

August 18, 2007:

Fire breaks out at 130 Liberty Street and firefighters Robert Beddia and Joseph Graffagnino are killed fighting the blaze.

September 8, 2007:

Fire Chiefs say 15-day inspection schedule is not realistic. Bloomberg said it is checking into whether or not other large buildings (in construction or deconstruction) are meeting the 15-day inspection schedule. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/14/nyregion/14deutsche.html?_r=1&scp=9&sq=deutsche+bank+fire&st=nyt&oref=slogin

September 2008:

The statement said Mr. Naftalis and his firm had been retained to help city lawyers respond to the storm of subpoenas issued by the office of Robert M. Morgenthau, the Manhattan district attorney, to advise the city and “to appropriately and fully cooperate” with the inquiry.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/19/nyregion/19bank.html?scp=6&sq=deutsche+bank+fire&st=nyt


October 9, 2007:

Uniformed Firefighters Association, the union representing city firefighters and officers, are alleging a cover-up. The union presidents cited two high-level meetings in mid-September at which, they said, two senior chiefs called for a cessation of e-mail messages about the [Deutsche Bank] building.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/10/nyregion/10fire.html?scp=4&sq=deutsche+bank+fire&st=nyt

January 14, 2008:

Fire Department alters its inspection schedule. In an effort to focus on larger and more complex construction and demolition projects, the Fire Department has decreased the frequency of inspections for some smaller projects. The move is part of a series of changes made in response to lapses exposed by the death of two firefighters at the former Deutsche Bank building. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/14/nyregion/14inspect.html?scp=8&sq=deutsche+bank+fire&st=nyt

February 14, 2008:

Sister of firefighter killed at Deutsche Bank sues LMDC and contractor at the site who “knowingly created those conditions.” “They had a responsibility to let the firefighters know, and they failed to do that.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/14/nyregion/14deutsche.html?_r=1&scp=9&sq=deutsche+bank+fire&st=nyt&oref=slogin



February 20, 2008:

Federal safety regulators have accused the contractors who were taking down the former Deutsche Bank tower in the summer of indifference or intentional disregard for dangerous conditions that led to a fatal fire there, and of a host of other serious safety violations, officials said on Tuesday.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/20/nyregion/20deutsche.html?scp=7&sq=deutsche+bank+fire&st=nyt


February 21, 2008:

The Bloomberg administration and the state-run Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, both under scrutiny in the criminal investigation into the fatal Deutsche Bank fire, have incurred more than $2.2 million in fees for outside lawyers to defend their roles in the events that led up to the blaze, officials said this week.

The Bloomberg administration and the state-run Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, both under scrutiny in the criminal investigation into the fatal Deutsche Bank fire, have incurred more than $2.2 million in fees for outside lawyers to defend their roles in the events that led up to the blaze, officials said this week.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/21/nyregion/21deutsche.html?scp=2&sq=deutsche+bank+fire&st=nyt


Major players:

1. The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, which owns the building
2. Bovis Lend Lease, construction manager
3. John Galt Corporation, the subcontractor
4. Robert M. Morgenthau, the Manhattan district attorney
5. Uniformed Firefighters Association
6. Dept of Buildings DOB

Construction and Corruption (VOIEN)

The "building boom" that has occurred in Manhattan since 2003 has strained an already corrupt system of construction regulation and enforcement. I will highlight the involvement of unions and the mob in construction. I will investigate the resultant illegal construction and how it effects building codes. I will address matters of jurisdiction, union politics, and bureaucratic mishandling on the part of the city, and what impact these factors have on how construction regulation is enforced.

Deutsche Bank, The Smoking Gun

DEUTSCHE BANK (Joy Wiltermuth) It was badly damaged on September 11, 2001 and acquired by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation to undertake its deconstruction. In August of 2007, a fire broke out at the site killing two firefighters and Morgenthau’s office quickly opened an investigation. Deconstruction has been halted amidst allegations of building code violations, negligence and corruption. Meanwhile, the city and the LMDC have retained prestigious criminal defense firms to deal with Morgenthau’s broadening inquiry and it is still uncertain under what conditions, demolition of the former Deutsche Bank would recommence. Are current building inspection plan realistic, safe or viable in light of the city’s construction boom?

Giambusso Budget Line

WHO'S PAYING ATTENTION? (Giambusso): In the rush to build new housing, stores, and community spaces are politicians and developers ignoring important safety precautions? Environmentalists, safety experts and advocacy groups have called for caution in the rush to build, but their voices are often drowned out by business friendly city agencies and political leaders eager to point to construction as a sign of progress. Only six years after 9/11 what lessons have we learned about building safety and environmental impact? Are those lessons being heeded by our political leaders? Through an examination of specific sites targeted for development, the piece will examine the political battles and interplay between pressure groups that brought these sites to bear.

Building Design and Safety

I will be looking at skyscraper construction and safety considerations in their engineering and design.

Here are some articles that discuss how the World Trade Center's design and engineering contributed to the collapse of the towers.

USA Today: High Rises Remain Vulnerable After 9-11
New York Times: A Nation Challenged - Building Design, Report Sees Lower Towers That Can Empty Faster


Three important issues stood out from the article research:

1. Until June 2007, no fire or safety tests were done for multiple floors in skyscrapers, to see how materials would stand up to heat. The primary reason these tests were not done was cost.
2. Cost, is a factor again when thinking of protecting existing skyscrapers from a similar fate. It is relatively inexpensive in new construction to use better flame retardant materials however it becomes prohibitively expensive to upgrade existing buildings. The policy so far has been to grandfather older buildings instead of bringing them up to code.
3. Since building code changes could takes years, engineering and design firms help draft model codes for use locally to help developers, cities, designers, etc. react quickly to current flaws in engineering and design.

Going forward, I want to find out:

1. What engineering and design methods are being considered in skyscraper construction in the United States and overseas to facilitate mass evacuations
2. Case studies in the United States, Middle East (Dubai in particular where skyscrapers are being built larger and faster with the newest engineering techniques) and Asia (Kuala Lumpur and China especially).
3. Which materials can withstand heat, wind and fire on multiple levels in skyscrapers (what is being used currently and what is being considered and why)
4. Alternatives to common engineering techniques
5. Landscape Architecture considerations for safety and evacuation from tall buildings
6. Expert opinions from architects and engineers

Some organizations and firms that are active in New York:

Building Owners and Managers Association
Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat
Kohn Pederson Fox Architects
Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Other sources of information on skyscraper design and safety:
Fire/Safety Building and Design- The Safety Library (also a good site for disaster safety, emergency management, terrorism, etc.)

Sooyeon's Memo

I'm planning to do a profile of the UN renovation process, a $1.88 billion rehabilitation project.
I researched how the process has been going and figured this whole plan has been delayed too long for bureaucratic reasons, budgeting, looking for temporary building for workers and stuff.
But I expect this profile of the UN will focus the aspects on security, environmental and safety issues. They plan to achieve a LEED Silver rating and there
Also when I looked up news articles in the past, I could not find any criticism or conflict opinions about actual renovation, except the criticism of hight costs.
So I wonder if the plan is perfect. (is it possible?) I have to set up the interview with experts who can give some other opinions about this plan.


****** Brief note **********

They set up the plan called "Capital Master plan,'
That would be a glass-encased Secretariat tower and the General Assembly Building’s main hall which have gotten no major renovations since they opened more than 50 years ago.

The renovation targets include the Secretariat Building built in 1950; the Conference and General Assembly buildings opened in 1951 and 1952; the Dag Hammarskjöld Library, North Lawn Building, and South Annex Building, opened between 1961 and 1982; and the complex’s three-level basement with a parking garage.
Rrenovation also entails installation of new, energy-efficient and blast-resistant glass curtain wall that will have double or triple glazing.


http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/28/world/28nations.html
("The glass curtain wall will be replaced by a heavily laminated one that appears identical but is far stronger and able to withstand the blast of a bomb attack.Energy-saving additions include sensors that turn off lights in unoccupied rooms and solar power systems")

http://www.nysun.com/article/67949
(Once the project is completed, "the U.N. headquarters will not only be a safer, healthier, greener, and more secure place, but our renovated workshop for peace will also stand out as a symbol for building a revitalized U.N. for a better world," Secretary-General Ban said in a statement yesterday, thanking members for the approval of the plan.)


http://newyork.construction.com/features/archive/2007/12_feature1.asp
(The renovation program will introduce a full roster of green measures, some tied into broader tasks and others focused on sustainability. A recent UN staff report estimates that the project will achieve a 40% reduction in energy consumption.
The new curtain wall for the 39-story Secretariat Building, modern lighting, and more efficient building systems are examples of needed upgrades that will introduce energy savings. The HVAC systems, for instance, will use no CFC-based refrigerants, while electrical generators may run on biodiesel fuels and plumbing fixtures will use low-flow water technology.)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_7060000/newsid_7065300/7065366.stm?
(video report)

UN(Capital Master plan) (www.un.org/cmp)
UN procurement Division (www.un.eog/depts/ptd)
U.S. government accountability office (www.gao.ov)

Need to contact
-Experts who can give some neutral view of this plan
-Mr Werner Schmidt; Public Information Officer, capital master plan.
Tel. (917) 367-5420Fax (917) 367-5377

(good article!) Reconstructing New York’s Building Code Overhaul

This is the article about the building cord written in 2007.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg propsed a massive overhaul of the city's building code, the first in nearly 40 years in 2007.

Under the proposed regulations, for example, all new buildings over 55 feet tall, which would include the Bronx home, would be required to have a more fire-resistant stairway, automatic sprinkler systems, and hardwired smoke alarms that sound in every room.
Also still there are issue of cost of construction and in turn, increase the cost of housing.

link.
http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/issueoftheweek/20070514/200/2181

Giambusso Memo

Building Battles:

OVERVIEW:

I am attempting to examine the political battles that go into building and development. I hope to examine specific sites and demonstrate how the pressures of City Council, Congress, developers, community groups etc, shape building safety. I would like to look at a development that has been finished, one that is being constructed and ne that is in the planning stages.

I am looking specifically to examine how the race to develop may be having a deleterious effect on building safety. Politicians and developers are often involved in projects that garner government funds (affordable housing, brownfield development) making enterprises more lucrative for builders.

The question I hope to raise is how safe are these projects, what are the standards and what have been the real-life consequences of projects that perhaps moved too quickly for political economic expediency while ignoring safety standards.


FIRST SITE: Gowanus Canal, “Public Place”
Lede(?)

Along the trendy restaurants of Cobble Hill and the nouveau-chic bars of Park Slope, underneath the lacquered hardwood walkups, where hipsters, yuppies and trustafarians, meet, live, and raise their young, between two lands conquered by the inexorable armies of gentrification, there runs a river of poison--a mile and half of putrid waterway that once served the factories and chemical plants lining its banks.

For over a century the Gowanus Canal has acted as an industrial sewer, suffering the runoff of tanneries, machine shops, and factories churning soap, paint, ink, and sulfur. The waterway, which connects Upper New York Bay to the neighborhoods of Red Hook, South Brooklyn, and Park Slope, runs along a flood basin of toxicity.

In the eyes of politicians, the banks of the Gowanus are a fertile ground for green spaces and affordable housing. In the eyes of developers, the Gowanus valley is a gold prospect promising government funding and quick profits. For the starry-eyed denizens of the outlying neighborhoods, the land along the Gowanus is another chance to recreate the city’s landscape in their own image--complete with coffee shops, dog runs, and tree lined walkways through which to push the seemingly endless stream of baby carriages that follows the march of young urban affluence.

In the fever to develop this infamous stretch, though, some in the community have raised the unwelcome flag of caution and warned that we may not know exactly what has been created underneath these banks. There is skepticism that a layer of sod and some shrubberies may only mask the feet of sledge and chemical waste that have built up over the last one hundred years. Some warn that the consequences of living among these noxious deposits may be dire…

SECOND SITE: Atlantic Yards

THIRD SITE:


LINKS:

http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=5&id=18585

http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=27&id=18300

http://www.gowanus.org/gowanus.htm

http://www.waterfrontmuseum.org/dredgers/links/voice.html

http://www.gowanusartists.com/home.html

http://www.plannyc.org/project-75-Gowanus-Development

CONTACT:

Jessica Pozzuoli: Television Producer, Environmental Activist, Urban Planner
Sarah Ryley: Reporter, Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Bill deBlasio, NYCity Council
David Yassky, NYC Council
Jim Brennan, NYS Assembly
Nydia Velazquez, U.S. House of Reps, 11th District. (The fightin 11th!)
Toll Brothers Development Co.
A.J. Carter, press person at the Empire State Development Corporation
Bob Zuckerman, GCCDC
Patricia Culligan, Professor Engineering Mechanics at Columbia University
NYC D of Buildings
DEP
Seth Donlin, spokesman, Department of Housing Preservation and Development (NYC DHPD)
Bette Stoltz, executive director of the South Brooklyn Local Development Corporation (SBLDC)

TO DO:

GOWANUS
• Get a copy of Culligan’s report/conduct interviews to learn what clean up methods are used in brownfields.
• Also from Culligan, where else have cleanup methods been used and what have been the consequences.
• Contact policymakers, agencies, advocates to determine who is pro, who is against Public Place (GCCDC, SBLDC, EDC, NYS DEP, HPD, D of B, Yassky, Brennan, Velazquez)
• Determine how much Public Place will cost: cleanup, design, construction commercial rent, residential rent, government funding
• Visit other Toll Brothers sites. Do they usually flip brown fields? What do residents say of their developments what is their reputation, who are the architects?
• Visit sites listed in Culligan’s report

21 Recommendations of Task Force

As recommended in class, we should all be familiar with these

21 Recommendations from the Department of Buildings Task Force

1. Publish structural design guidelines for optional application to enhance robustness and resistance to progressive collapse.
2. Prohibit the use of open web bar trusses in new commercial high-rise construction over 75 feet in height, pending the development of an appropriate standard recommended by NIST.
3. Encourage use of available impact resistant materials in the construction of stair and elevator shaft enclosures until appropriate standards can be developed.
4. Work with the Department of City Planning to exempt floor area of stairwells above minimum requirements from zoning Floor Area Ratio (FAR) calculations to encourage the inclusion of more stairwells or wider stairwells in buildings.
5. Prohibit the use of scissors stairs in high-rise commercial buildings with a floor plate of over 10,000 square feet.
6. Improve marking of the egress path, doors and stairs with photo-luminescent materials and retrofit existing exit signs with either battery or generator backup power.
7. Mandate a full building evacuation plan for non-fire related events.
8. Work with the Department of City Planning to exclude floor area of "fire towers" from Floor Area Ratio (FAR) calculations to encourage their use.
9. Mandate protected vestibules at elevator lobbies in newly constructed occupancy group E buildings greater than 75 feet.
10. Require controlled inspections to ensure that fireproofing is fully intact on all structural building members exposed by subsequent renovations to ensure continued compliance with applicable code requirements.
11. Require all high-rise commercial buildings over 100 feet without automatic sprinkler protection to install a sprinkler system throughout the building within 15 years.
12. Require all occupancy group E buildings to maintain a Building Information Card (BIC) listing a building's vital features.
13. Enhance Fire Department emergency response communications in high rise commercial buildings.
14. Provide additional training for Fire Safety Directors.
15. Limit diameter of fuel oil transfer piping in systems using day tanks.
16. Implement standards for piping that is utilized to distribute fuel oil to equipment without the use of a day tank.
17. Exclude floor drains for elevator vestibule and shafts from being counted as fixtures in calculating normal waste water pipe capacity.
18. Require air intakes in all new construction to be located at least 20' above grade and away from exhaust discharges or off street loading bays.
19. Require controlled inspections of HVAC fire dampers in newly constructed occupancy group E buildings.
20. Wait for the recommendation of Mayoral Commission on adoption of national model code and incorporate Task Force recommendations into any locally specific modifications.
21. Encourage buildings within NYC geographic boundaries and subject to other jurisdictional authority comply with NYC Building Code through collaborative agreements.

13 Recommendations Adopted. Proposed in Legislation September 23, 2003 and Passed June 24, 2004

• Full Sprinkler Protection for Office Buildings. Owners of all existing office buildings 100 feet or greater in height which are not already fully sprinklered will be required to fully sprinkler their buildings on or before January 1, 2019. Owners may apply for an extension of the sprinkler installation deadline in cases of hardship and partial waivers where installation would be impracticable due to structural conditions or interior Landmark designations.
  
  
• Improved Markings, Exit Signage, and Back-up Power to Exit Signs. Exit stairs and doors in new or existing high-rise office buildings will be required to have glow-in-the-dark markings. New and existing high-rise (75 feet or greater) office buildings will be required to install additional signs where exit stairs have horizontal extensions, where stairwell re-entry doors are recessed to assist egress. Existing high-rise office buildings with grandfathered exit signs will be required to provide back-up power to those signs.
  
  
• Restrict the Use of Open Web Steel Joists. The failure of open web steel joists under extreme heat and fire are prime suspects in the WTC collapse. (A possible related cause for the collapses was the failure of spray-on fireproofing to remain adhered to these joists.) This recommendation will prohibit the use of open web steel joists in all new, non-residential high-rise buildings until appropriate fireproofing standards are developed and promulgated by the Commissioner of the Department of Buildings.
  
  
• Inspection of Sprayed-on Fireproofing. Spray-on fireproofing is only effective when it remains on the steel structure to which it was applied. This recommendation mandates that controlled inspections be performed to assess the integrity of spray-on fireproofing during building alterations where such fireproofing is exposed.
  
  
• Impact-Resistant Stair and Elevator Enclosures. In many accounts of the WTC tragedy, the drywall encasing the stairwells in the impact area disintegrated, blocking egress for some. This recommendation would require the use of more impact-resistant stair and elevator enclosures in high-rise office buildings constructed or altered after January 1, 2006. The Commissioner of the Department of Buildings will promulgate appropriate standards by July 1, 2005.
  
  
• Restricted Use of Scissor Stairs. “Scissor” stairs are two intertwining sets of staircases separated by a common wall and floors. While this allows for more square footage in a building, it concentrates the number of exit stairs in one area of the building – which may prevent occupants from escaping during an emergency (for instance, if a fire is blocking the only stairway entrance on a floor.) Under this recommendation, scissor stair assemblies will be prohibited in new high-rise office buildings with relatively large floor plates (over 10,000 square feet).

Other Task Force’s recommendations include:

• Full Building Evacuation Planning. High-rise office buildings will be required to have plans for full building evacuation for events other than fires.
  
  
• Smoke Stop Elevator Vestibules. In new high-rise office buildings, elevators serving four or more stories will be required to have smoke stop elevator vestibules, which will help to prevent smoke from spreading throughout a building during a fire.
  
  
• Controlled Inspections of Fire Dampers. Currently, mechanical ductwork is required under the Building Code to have “dampers,” which close shut to prevent fires from spreading. A specific controlled inspection of these dampers will be required when new ventilation systems are installed.
  
  
• Raising Air Intake Locations. Current code calls for air intakes for mechanical ventilation systems to be a minimum of six feet above ground level. That minimum would be increased to 20 feet above ground, and existing requirements that such air intakes be located away from exhaust discharges and off-street loading bays will be clarified.
  
  
• Prohibition of Oversized Fuel Oil Transfer Piping. To help prevent unauthorized storage of fuel oil, oversized fuel oil transfer piping will be prohibited for all new installations and alterations.
  
  
• Excluding Certain Floor Drains from Normal Fixture Counts. Water that is used to fight fires in high-rises may end up draining into elevator shafts, causing elevator equipment to malfunction. To allow that problem to be avoided, this recommendation will exclude floor drains in elevator shafts and vestibules from wastewater capacity calculations.
  
  
• Setting Standards for Fuel Oil Transfer Piping. New minimum technical standards will be required for fuel oil transfer piping to generators where there is no storage tank above the lowest floor for all new installations and alterations.

Corruption and Construction

The Sunday Times had a great article that says almost exactly what I was thinking-

Highlights-
'The fact is the dollars involved in the construction industry are so great and the opportunities at so many levels for corruption are so broad that this is a problem that will never, ever go away,'' he said.[Robert D. Luskin, a former federal organized crime prosecutor who is special counsel to the Laborers' International Union of North America].

Gordon S. Heddell, the inspector general for the United States Labor Department, said-"Organized crime is like a cancer. Sometimes we treat it and beat it, but sometimes new forms emerge.''

There is a Daily News article that is also great, but totally packed, called "Extreme Makeover, Now," (couldn't link to it, sorry). It takes a less dire view of the unions' role in construction corruption. It also mentions the Brian Kates series in the Daily News which is useful but also very dense. More importantly it makes some of the key points I had hoped to verify, such as the fact that the code was known to not be up to speed nor enforceable by the department of buildings due to the building boom, and the importance of the role of unions (whatever it may be) in this debacle.

I now need to:

1. Follow up on the changes in enforcement not just the code in the wake of [Dept of Building's head] Lancaster's getting lambasted by the Daily News
   
2. Talk to unions

But this has made me more interested in the duality of the nature of unions and how they protect and workers as well as help enforce codes in some ways when they are working correctly and how they are so difficult to control and open to corrupt leadership on the other hand. I think my research should look more at this in the future.

Scaffolding in the City: 2/14 Memo

The following is the research I've done so far on scaffolding in the city, a subsection that falls under both topics i've chosen; workers and construction.

I've included a section from Andrew's post. My aim is not to be redundant, but to condense the information we do have into a more inclusive, comprehensive text.

So, scaffolding in the city:

2006 -- The Building's Department, OSHA and the Office of Immigrant Affairs convene a Scaffold Worker Safety Task Foce. They found that "speaking English as a second language or speaking a language different than that spoken at the job site was often a factor in fatal construction accidents."
Steps Taken: "Outreach events across the five boroughs to distribute safety information in multiple languages to day laborers and discussed with workers how to stay safe on the job"
Questions: How effective can this outreach program really be? how are day laborers, if they're picked up at a Home Depot to do a day's work, going to access this "safety information" and even if they do get access to it, how does it help them as, possibly, exploited labor?
Tasks at Hand: Get a copy of this "safety information," talk to laborers on job sites to see if they are aware of the safety information, etc.
Contacts: Department of Buildings, Carly Sullivan Jr., day laborers (I speak Spanish and can most likely take care of this. There are several spots that I know where day laborers get hired)

Some Statistics:
from Andrew's posted emails "construction incidents on high-rise construction sites, which comprise union and non-union labor sites, increased 49% over the last year, from 69 in CY 2006 to 103 in CY 2007." DOUBLE CHECK STATISTIC. Just glancing at it, her percentage is wrong, so who knows how correct the rest of the information is.

2006 Census US Department of Labor: 5,703 workplace accident fatalities in 2006, 14% of which were falls. 11% of 809 fatal falls in 2006 (nationwide) occurred from scaffolding.

7 of 25 workers killed in workplace accidents in New York City construction sites between Oct 2001 and Sept 2003 were day laborers (get more up to date stats)
NEW YORK SCAFFOLD LAW:
Section 240 of the Labor Law, it requires contractors and property owners to build or furnish whatever equipment is necessary (for example, scaffolding) to keep workers safe from on-the-job falls. It allows for legal action against the owners of the building, and the contractor. Over the course of the last two decades there have been attempts to repeal this legislation (NY is the only state to have something of its type), and this debate is ongoing. Governor Spitzer has stated his intention to address the issue. There are differing interpretations. Pro-business types, and personal injury attorneys eager to get cases, try to label it as the right to sue even if the fall results from personal negligence on the part of the worker, and that insurance premiums go way up on account of this "outdated" law. Pro-worker types are quick to point out that it is essential protection for workers. The former is seemingly debunked right here.


Accountability of Contractors: taken from Andrew's posted email
"For recent example, you can look at the permits issued for the new building under construction at 525 Clinton Street, the site in Brooklyn where the scaffold worker died last week. A general contractor called Clinton Court Development LLC pulled the permits issued for that job site. When we search our data as it relates to Clinton Court Development LLC, we find only violations and permits issued related to work at 525 Clinton Avenue. It is possible the owners of Clinton Court Development LLC also own corporations that are building developments in other parts of the borough or the city, but there is no way to know for sure. With the infrastructure we have in place today, we cannot holistically track contractors’ performance across job sites and hold them accountable, unless the general contractor retains the same name across job sites.
As the Commissioner said in response to a question at the hearing, it is surprising that in this day and age, of the 29 trades licensed by the Buildings Department, general contractors are not one of them. Requiring a general contractor to register would empower the Buildings Department with a tool to track a contractor’s performance across job sites and hold him accountable for his actions."

Question: Is it possible to track this contractor by the equipment they use, such as the scaffolding they rent? If we could trace them back to previous job sites and look at the incidents that occurred at said sites it could reveal some good stuff.

Follow-Up: I live near Clinton Hill and I'll be taking pictures of the job site as well as asking some questions, maybe looking for serial numbers on the scaffolding equipment as well as the company that rented it to them (usually displayed somewhere on the scaffolding).

Questions on the Topic as a Whole: How will the debate on the scaffold law evolve? how serious is the Department of Buildings about passing an accountability scheme for contractors (is it just lip service)? Get into specifics of the code and see how strictly those specifics are enforced at different job sites. On buildings such as Deutsch Bank, where the work is done at significant elevation and there is no quick form of egress or ingress, how is the scaffolding situation made to account for the condition?

Clearly this is a very preliminary sketch, but we can move forward on the scaffold issue from here, or I can spearhead this since it is only one subsection of the worker / construction issue.

Some updates: construction safety & Triangle Shirtwaist history

Two things.

1) Here are two e-mails I got today and yesterday from the Department of Buildings. Forgive the basic nature of the questions I ask. I actually asked them about a week ago but they've been slow to reply ("Hi! I'm Andrew, from the Washington Square News!"). Included is a link to Patricia Lancaster's testimony in the first graf.

---- email 1, begin ----

In [DoB Comish. Patricia Lancaster's] testimony [on Feb 4th, the topic of the NYT article we read last week], the Commissioner recommends the City pursue three pieces of legislation: 
  
 1) a law for general contractors to be licensed through a
registration requirement, 
  
 2) a law for concrete contractors to be licensed through a
registration requirement, and 
  
3) a law requiring a concrete safety manager to oversee
concrete operations on high-rise construction sites. 
  
The impetus here is the absence of an accountability scheme
amongst the contractors on a job site. 
  
A registration requirement for GCs and concrete contractors
would obviously provide sharper enforcement teeth, as there would be the threat of revoking the registration if contractors are found after to due process to routinely violate or disregard safety rules and regulations. 
The registration requirement would also empower the Department to track contractors’ performance across job sites. Currently, this is nearly impossible to do because a corporation can change its name from
job site to job site. For recent example, you can look at the permits issued for the new building under construction at 525 Clinton Street, the site in Brooklyn where the scaffold worker died last week. A general contractor called Clinton Court Development LLC pulled the permits issued for that job site. When we search our data as it relates to Clinton Court Development LLC, we find only violations and permits issued related to work at 525 Clinton Avenue. It is possible the owners of Clinton Court Development LLC also own corporations that are building developments in other parts of the borough or the city, but there is no way to know for sure. With the infrastructure we have in place today, we cannot holistically track contractors’ performance across job sites and hold them accountable, unless the general contractor retains the same name across job sites. 
  
 As the Commissioner said in response to a question at the
hearing, it is surprising that in this day and age, of the 29 trades licensed by the Buildings Department, general contractors are not one of them. Requiring a general contractor to register would empower the Buildings Department with a tool to track a contractor’s performance across job sites and hold him accountable for his actions. 
 
Carly Sullivan
Assistant Press Secretary
NYC Department of Buildings
T: (212) 566-3473
F: (212) 566-3865
 
www.NYC.gov/buildings

---e-mail 1 ends -----

---e-mail 2 begins ---

Andrew:  See Below.  Let me know if you have any questions.  Thanks.
 
On Background:
  
RE: Who has the DOB consulted in creating this new proposed set of regulations? Labor? Industry? Immigrant groups? Builders who use non-union workers? Other jurisdictions?
  
Please specify which regulations you are referring to.
  
RE: Who has opposed this new set of regulations, and who is for?
  
Please specify which regulations you are referring to.  
  
RE:  Was the DOB planning on making these changes beforehand?
  
Since November, the Buildings Department has been working to devise legislative and non-legislative solutions to address the problem of concrete operations on high-rise construction sites.  On January 23, 2008, Commissioner Lancaster sent a memo to the industry outlining best practices to avoid concrete-related accidents. 
 
RE: Unions say that non-unionized work is to blame for the majority [73%] of accidents during construction. Is this true?
 
The Buildings Department does not track this data.  Buildings data shows that construction incidents on high-rise construction sites, which comprise union and non-union labor sites, increased 49% over the last year, from 69 in CY 2006 to 103 in CY 2007
 
RE: Do you have any data that bears this out, or disproves it? How does the DOB intend on tackling this issue?
 
See above.
 
RE: Does the DOB see illegal immigrant and non-English workers as a major concern for construction safety?  How does the DOB intend to address these issues, if so?
 
In 2006, the Buildings Department, Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs and Occupational Safety and Health Administration convened a Scaffold Worker Safety Task Force after a series of scaffold-related incidents.  The Task Force found speaking English as a second language or speaking a language different than that spoken at the job site was often a factor in fatal construction accidents.  Since 2006, Buildings, MOIA and OSHA have conducted outreach events across the five boroughs to distribute safety information in multiple languages to day laborers and discussed with workers how to stay safe on the job. Under the Task Force, the training requirements for suspended scaffolds are being streamlined, the Buildings Department and OSHA are conducting cross-trainings and performing joint inspections, and a Scaffold Safety Team, which proactively inspects scaffold, was created at the Buildings Department in August 2007. 
 
RE: Why were concrete workers not required to register with the City in the past? 
There was no law requiring them to do so.  
 
RE: What problems do you foresee in this registration process? (For example, I hear that the DCA sometimes has problems registering home renovation contractors to any effect because businesses appear and disappear to evade accountability.)
 
First of all, the Commissioner has recommended the Council seek legislation requiring concrete contractors to register. She has expressed her support for such legislation. But let’s be clear, the legislation hasn’t been proposed yet or signed into law. We are well aware of the issue you bring up here with the HIC contractors. The Department is exploring ways in which it can avoid this evasion of responsibility and accountability.  

---- end e-mail ----

2) Here's an e-mail from Prof. Richard Greenwald, NYU grad and professor at Drew University in Madison, NJ. He's an expert on the Triangle Shirtwaist fire. Of course this is just an overview: most important is his contact information, below. The NYU History faculty has not been so helpful. The link to his book on the fire is below.

---- begin e-mail. -----

>> Could you please describe very briefly the significance of the 1911 fire, and what it helped change in city government and regulations in the following years?

The Triangle Fire, which was the subject of my 2005 book, had an enormous effect on both labor policies and regulations over building in NYC and beyond. After the fire, the state of NY created the Factory Investigating Committee, a committee chaired by Al Smith and Robert Wagner, then leaders of both the state assembly and senate repressively. Smith and Wagner were joined by public members of the FIC. From 1911-1915, the FIC rewrote NYS factory regulations, including occupancy rules, fire safety rules and significant labor regulations. The uproar in the city and state and the death of so many mostly young immigrant women, created a political atmosphere where quick action was possible. Part of the answer is that Tammany Hall, then in firm control of both the state and city government was moved by the fire and working-class political action. Many scholars look at the fire as one of the moments in the creation of modern liberalism.. Frances Perkins, then a lead investigator for the FIC, later a New deal Sec of Labor, said that the new deal was born on March 25, 1911. So, part of the reason for the change was a change in political sensibilities.

Richard Greenwald, Dean Caspersen School of Graduate Studies Director, Business, Society & Culture Program Associate Professor of History Drew University Madison, NJ 07940 Ph: 973/408-3958 Email: rgreenwa@drew.edu 

----- e-mail done----

Daily Eagle

Two recent, interesting articles from the Broolyn Daily Eagle:

safety legislation:

http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=27&id=18200

and toxic legacies , Brooklyn-style:

http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=27&id=18300