Design Professional Is the Traffic Cop for Alteration Projects

The recent trend to upgrade and combine apartments in New York City has inspired smart co-op and condo boards to draw up highly specific alteration agreements. These documents establish the scope and time duration of apartment alterations – but they’re worthless if they’re not enforced. That’s where the board’s design professionals come in. 

The design professional, usually an architect or engineer, should make sure that the board has “quality plan” reviews of alteration and construction projects, either ongoing in the building or proposed by unit-owners or shareholders. The professional also provides quality control during the projects, making sure contractors are actually doing what was approved by the board and the Department of Buildings (DOB). Finally, and most importantly, the design professional should be sure that the project is completed properly and the appropriate government agency or agencies sign off on it. 

A design professional should be on call at all times, not only to assist the property manager with daily issues as they arise, but also to protect the building and the infrastructure. Reviewing all renovation and reconstruction plans should be the responsibility of a building’s design professional. Additionally, when a shareholder or unit-owner is doing renovations, a design professional can oversee repairs or upgrades that will benefit the entire building, such as replacing risers. 

Quality control is another issue. Is the building using DOB-approved contractors? That’s something that’s often overlooked and something that, although a burden for the shareholder, is a necessity for the building. The contractor must also provide testing for such areas as kitchens and bathrooms where there may be wet areas requiring flood-testing and also certain types of waterproofing that need to be checked and verified.

Your design professional must be on hand to be certain that the building does not have countless open jobs. That can cause problems in the future when a financial institution denies a loan because there are open and/or unresolved violations. A qualified design professional can prevent this from happening. 

Joseph Fernandez is principal at Joseph Fernandez, Architect.