Successful Department of Buildings Project Management
P.Wolfe has developed an expertise in the area of Building Code & Zoning Consulting and Building Department Expediting for New York City projects. A few of the insights are highlighted below.
1. Evaluate the existing conditions:
When considering any construction project, especially alterations to existing buildings, it is indispensable to perform the necessary research up front to determine the existing legal condition of the building or property. More often than not, the property will have problems related to the Certificate of Occupancy, open violations, and open applications which must be examined for potential impact on the project. For instance, you may be performing a fit-out for a commercial tenant involving some minor Fire Alarm device relocation. During the course of plan approval, you may find that the Fire Department has no record of the base building fire alarm system, and therefore will not approve your alterations. Proper research can reveal this deficiency early on, rather than during the eleventh hour of Certificate of Occupancy issuance. Because these problems often extend beyond the scope of the project & contracts, they can be very difficult to solve when discovered too late.
2. Develop a sound filing strategy:
The NYC Department of Buildings has acquired an infamous reputation for being an agency that is difficult to deal with. Although this is true some of the time, I have found in equal measure that the difficulty begins when the Architect and Expediter lack the understanding and experience to file a job properly. There are a myriad of possible application types, and variations upon variations. It is preferable to think of these types as a palette, rather than a source of frustration. A proactive Architect or Expediter has the ability to discern the best available choices, and to guide the project along the shortest path of execution. Herein lies the importance of developing a sound filing strategy. Such a filing strategy might involve meetings with the Borough Commissioner to discuss the overall project goals and to secure the items you will provide the DOB at crucial milestones of the project. Once a common understanding is developed, you will find that the DOB is a very amenable agency to deal with.
3. Stick to the plan:
Even with a good filing strategy, the most important aspect of successful project management is to manage relentlessly through to completion. A project team may work diligently at the beginning to obtain the crucial Work Permit, but then lose the interest or ambition in the project. This is because the process is long and tedious, and demands meticulous record-keeping and organizational skills. Members of the team may begin focusing on other projects and put the close-out process on the back burner, where permits expire, signoffs are neglected, and the Final Certificate of Occupancy is never issued. It is all too common for us to be hired to obtain a Final Certificate of Occupancy for an abandoned alteration filed by others in the early 90’s. This type of corrective work is expensive, unnecessary, and inevitably fraught with major problems.
Our company, P. Wolfe Consultants, Inc., is successful at managing our projects because we adhere to these three basic principles. Implementing these principals has created a company culture at P.Wolfe that encourages early problem-solving, the sharing of knowledge, continuing education, and a pride in workmanship. This company culture has proven effective in completing projects quickly and efficiently, avoiding any problems, and is the reason we are often hired to fix the problems created by others.
