History

Major revisions of the New York City building code have come largely as the result of tragedy or economic concerns. In 1911, about 150 workers at the Triangle Shirtwaist factory died in a fire, prompting major changes that can be researched beyond the Cornell link below. The changes in 1937 and 1968 were mainly the result of builders complaining about the price to build here. We are in the fourth phase of code upheaval, obviously as the result of the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
History shows that safety often competes with bottom-line concerns in reshaping New York City building codes. Media reports show arguments in 2004 between members of the building community hoping to save money and others worried more about the safety of the building. In 1968, the debates were similar. Here’s a quote from a 2002 New York Times story referencing the building code revisions in 1968.

''With the old buildings, you know the building's going to hold,'' said Neil P. Winberry, a retired New York fire captain. ''You've got time to work.'' After the city fire code was changed in 1968, allowing a widespread shift from masonry fireproofing to a light, spray-on product, Mr. Winberry said, ''we could not understand how this was going to work; we had no faith in it.'

The debates are normally very polarizing so I wouldn’t jump to the conclusion that these builders are ignoring safety precautions. Many of the reports beyond the links below should give us some sources to contact, which I plan to begin doing next week. I am going to focus mostly on the history of code changes, why they come about and what the real changes have been.

Obviously not knowing much yet, here is a rough version of a potential budget line:
Changes in New York City building code meant to make life in high-rises here safer have followed disasters like a devastating 1911 fire that claimed about 150 lives and the Sept. 11 attacks. But economic concerns have had a similarly substantial impact on high-rise construction and maintenance. Often, the two concerns – economic and safety – clash. With the memories of Sept. 11 still fresh, the history of how building construction has evolved in the world’s tallest city can help explain how safe skyscrapers here are now, if many are still vulnerable, and why.

Below are links to many New York Times reports on the subject. The first two get into the history of the subject. The third seems to be written by an expert on a site I didn’t recognize but it’s amazingly interesting, expecially from the historical perspective and why things are the way they are; I’m going to look this guy up and give him a call. The fourth goes to Cornell’s very thorough project about the Triangle fire that includes numerous primary documents. .
Starkey
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F05E2D9143FF934A25756C0A9629C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=3
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9904EEDB123AF931A35757C0A9649C8B63&st=cse&sq=April+2+2002+Lipton&scp=5
http://www.todaysfacilitymanager.com/tfm_02_05_topstory.asp
http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/
Some more Times articles at the time of historic building code revisions here:
http://select.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F00F12FD3D54157493C5A9178AD95F4C8685F9
http://select.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F20C12F73C581B728DDDAF0A94D1405B818AF1D3
http://select.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F40A17F73E54107A93CBA9178CD85F4D8385F9
http://select.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F40716FB3C5D12738DDDAD0894DA415B878FF1D3

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

Dean Memo

I'm looking into safety gadget patents at the moment. The story is promising. There's been a safety gadget boom since 9-11. Everything from ramps to parachutes are quite lucrative. I'm also looking into emergency handicapped access.

(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

New Task Force to inspect construction sites

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer announced yesterday the creation of a task force -- the Manhattan Borough Construction Watch -- to inspect and monitor construction sites throughout the city.
On Tuesday, the federal government fined contractors working at the old Deutsche Bank building $464,500 for the safety violations.

Writing budget lines

Once you've written a memo re what you're working on, the next step is to write a tentative budget line (see example below), that provides a working title for your story and briefly describes what it's about. If more than one reporter is working on the same topic, do a joint budget line (with last names in parethesis). These can be updated and even refocused as your research progresses. Label your budget lines under "project notes." We'll talk more about this on Friday.

(Example)
WANAQUE DUMP (Barry) Are toxic fumes from an old landfill seeping into the Passaic County Community College building in Wanaque? Environmentalists are raising this question. A previous building was torn down because dangerous levels of methane were rising from the landfill. What is known is that a driver for a Ford hauler says he dumped paint sludge at a landfill in Wanaque, a DEP investigator in the 1980s reported paint and drums in a wooded area behind where the college building is now, and a consultant for the county reported paint in a test pit in the same area. Groundwater and soil were contaminated by lead, PCBs, TCE and other toxic substances as of late 1990s, the last time records show testing was done.

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