Buildings News - February 2019

Buildings news

February 2019

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Construction Safety Week and Build Safe | Live Safe Conference 2019

Mark your calendars:
Construction Safety Week is May 6-10, 2019, during which staff will visit construction sites to promote safety during our annual multi-lingual Experience is Not Enough campaign.

"The purpose of Construction Safety Week is to remind the industry of the
Department's efforts to promote safe worksites and protect the public, which is our highest priority, and a
responsibility we take very seriously," says Acting Buildings Commissioner Thomas Fariello, RA. "No building is worth a life, and
tha's a belief every person in the development industry should keep in mind whenever they step onto a construction site."

Construction Safety Week in NYC culminates with the Department's annual Build Safe | Live Safe
Conference 2019, a daylong series of seminars, where Department experts discuss industry trends and
highlight safe construction operations. This year's conference will take place on Friday, May 10th from 8am-4pm at Convene, a
conference center located at 117 West 46th Street in Manhattan.

Tickets are on sale now, and the schedule and credit information will be coming soon.

Sign Amnesty Program and Moratorium on Accessory Sign Violations

Pursuant to
Local Law 28 of 2019, as of February 9, 2019, the Department is no longer imposing civil
penalties for work without a permit violations for business storefront signs that are smaller than 150 square feet and less than 1,200 pounds in weight.

Those who received these violations on or after December 28, 2017, and have not
paid the penalties, may submit an L2 to request a penalty waiver. The form is available
online and at
DOB's borough offices.

In addition, LL28 has also imposed a moratorium on accessory sign
violations that is in effect from February 9, 2019 through February 9,
2021. During the moratorium the Department will not issue violations for
business storefront signs that existed on or before February 9, 2019,
unless the sign creates an imminent hazard to public health or safety,
or the Commissioner determines the sign is not otherwise eligible for
the moratorium.

DOB Celebrates the Contributions of Black Architects and Engineers

In honor of Black History Month, DOB is celebrating the contributions of notable
African-American design professionals, including:

Norma Merrick Sklarek, who was a pioneering American architect. Sklarek was the thrid black woman
to be licensed as an architect in the United States, after Beverly
Loraine Greene and Georgia Louise Harris Brown. Sklarek, who was born in
Harlem in 1926, was the first woman to become a licensed architect in
the state of New York (1954) and later the first woman to be licensed in
the state of California (1962). She remained the only licensed black
woman in California until 1980. Author Anna Lewis calls her "The Rosa
Parks of Architecture." Sklarek's notable projects include San
Bernardino City Hall in San Bernardino, CA (1963-65), the Embassy of the
United States in Tokyo, Japan (1976-78), and the Mall of America in
Minneapolis, MN (1989-92).

Beverly Loraine Greene, who is believed to have been the first African-American female licensed
architect in the US. She was born in 1915 in Chicago, IL, and became a
registered architect with the State of Illinois in 1942. She completed
her master's degree in architecture at Columbia University in 1945, and
joined the firm of Isadore Rosefield. She also worked with Edward
Durrell Stone on planning the Arts Complex at Sarah Lawrence College in
Bronxville, NY (1952), and with Marcel Breuer on designs for the UNESCO
UN Headquarters in Paris (1956).

J. Max Bond, Jr.,
who was born in 1935 and was educated at Harvard University, where he was
awarded a bachelor's degree in 1955 and earned a master's degree three
years later. In 1970, together with Donald P. Ryder, he founded the
architectural firm of Bond Ryder & Associates which was responsible for
the design of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social
Change in Atlanta, and the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute in
Birmingham, Alabama, as well as Harlem's Schomburg Center for Research
in Black Culture. The firm was merged with Davis, Brody & Associates in
1990. Bond became a partner at the newly combined firm of Davis Brody
Bond, which had been best known for its work at Manhattan residential
developments at Riverbend Houses, Waterside Plaza, and Zeckendorf
Towers, and was responsible for the museum component at the National
September 11 Memorial & Museum at the World Trade Center. Bond also
served as chairman of the architecture division at the Columbia
University Graduate School of Architecture and Planning from 1980-1984,
and as dean at the City College of New York School of Architecture and
Environmental Studies from 1985-1992. He served as a member of the New
York City Planning Commission from 1980-1986.

Lewis H. Latimer, who was a self-taught draftsman and designed some of the 19th
Century's most important inventions. In 1874, he co-patented (with
Charles W. Brown) an improved toilet system for railroad cars called the
Water Closet for Railroad Cars, and in 1876, Alexander Graham Bell
employed Latimer, then a draftsman at Bell's patent law firm, to draft
the necessary drawings required to receive a patent for Bell's
telephone. In 1879 Lewis was hired as assistant manager and draftsman
for the U.S. Electric Lighting Company, a company owned by Hiram Maxim,
a rival of Thomas A. Edison, and in 1881, Latimer, along with Joseph
Nichols, invented a light bulb with a carbon filament, an improvement on
Thomas Edison's original paper filament. The Edison Electric Light
Company in New York City hired Latimer in 1884 as a draftsman and an
expert witness in patent litigation on electric lights. While at Edison,
Latimer wrote the first book on electric lighting, Incandescent Electric
Lighting (1890), and supervised the installation of public electric
lights throughout New York, Philadelphia, Montreal, and London.

Major
Disciplinary Cases

$66,250 in total
penalties issued to 138 Blossom Inc., owner of 134-34 Blossom
Avenue, Queens, for illegal transient use violations after multiple
short term rentals, advertised online, were found on three
floors of the four-story building occupied by tenants without
long-term leases.

$25,000 in
penalties issued to Construction Superintendent Frank Deblanco for
failure to perform his required duties on a construction site at 42
Sharron Street, Brooklyn, after DOB observed a 40 foot wall at the
site without proper bracing or support, causing it to be in danger
of collapse.

$23,500 in total
penalties issued to West 47th Street Assoc., L.P., owner of 321 West
47th Street, Manhattan, for the illegal transient use of three
apartment units occupied as illegal Airbnbs.

$5,000 in penalties
issued to Forest City Jay Street Assoc., owner of 1 Metrotech
Center, Brooklyn, for a privately owned public space (POPS) that is missing
amenities, and signage that failed to state the POPS is "open to the
public."

DOB publishes monthly bulletins detailing
the agency's efforts to sanction and deter bad actors in the
construction industry. You can find this information posted on the

Enforcement Action Bulletin page of our website.

Additional Disciplinary Actions & Voluntary Surrenders

Industry Code of Conduct for Construction
Professionals

Sign up for Weather Advisories

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Service Updates

Electronic Registration Renewal: Class 2 Code and Zoning Representative

Cranes & Derricks Forms Updated

2014 Construction Code Updates

Update Page # 71 reflects changes made by

Local Law 28 of 2019 (effective
2/9/2019), in relation to establishing temporary programs,
conducting education, establishing a task force related to accessory
sign violations and waiving penalties for violations for signs that are
accessory to a use on the same zoning lot.

Update pages are printable
inserts to keep your hard copy Construction Codes up to date.

All

update pages for the 2014 NYC Construction Codes.

Local Laws

Local Law 28 of 2019 (Int. No. 728-B) A Local Law in relation to establishing
temporary programs, conducting education, establishing a task force
related to accessory sign violations and waiving penalties for
violations for signs that are accessory to a use on the same zoning lot.

Hearings +
Rules

1 RCNY 105-03 Construction Site Safety Training Rules (Department-Approved Courses Amendment)

Public Hearing: 03/08/18 @
10:00 125 Worth Street, 2nd Floor Auditorium

1 RCNY 3321-01 Construction Site Safety Training Rules

Public Hearing: 03/08/18 @
10:00 AM 125 Worth Street, 2nd Floor Auditorium

1 RCNY 103-07 Amendment of Rules Regarding Energy Audits and Retro-Commissioning

Public Hearing: 03/12/19
@10:00 AM Spector Hall, 22 Reade Street, 1st Floor

All Department Rules

Buildings
Bulletins

All Buildings Bulletins

Website
Updates

Language Access Plan

Cranes & Derricks Forms

Local Law 78 of 2017 Incident Report

DOB NOW: Inspections User Manual

ERIC Meeting Minutes

Licensing

Department Approved Course Providers

Become a Course Provider

Registration Renewal: Class 2 Code and Zoning Representative

Approved Agencies to Qualify Pipe Welders

Did You Know?

DOB has produced an ongoing
series of DOB NOW video tutorials, providing step-by-step instructions
for a variety of DOB NOW functions, from submitting compliance filings,
to responding to objections to job applications and paying fees online.
Tutorials are available on DOB's

YouTube page.

Thomas Fariello, R.A. Acting Commissioner

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