Third & Bond Blog
July 2, 2009
Inside Third & Bond: Week 90
This week, the Hudson team comes through on a promise...
Since we imagine you are busy packing your beach bags and counting your illegal firecrackers, we’re keeping this week’s posting short...Above is evidence of our recent Brownstoner tour winners at Third + Bond. From left to right: David Kramer (aka David from Third and Bond), cmu, Alison Novak (aka Alison), shchune, and huntgrunt. (Thomas and Benson are touring separately.) Our guests had diverse backgrounds: computers/green building consulting, residential brokerage, and journalism, which made their great questions all the more interesting. We look forward to having them back when the models are open so they can see the final product.
The tour consisted of walking the three-bedroom garden duplex and two-bedroom floor-through that are to be our model sales units come autumn, as well as a studio and one-bedroom penthouse duplex. We took a look at the bathroom that cmu had advised us (during design) to move from next to the kitchen to next to the first floor bedroom, and the washer/dryer that huntgrunt had suggested we move away from the master bedroom. We debated the south views versus the north views. We talked about dog policies and pricing the terraces. Walking around with floor plans and looking at bare studs can be a challenging exercise in abstract visualization, but everyone took an active interest. We had fun and hope the tourists did as well.
Coming soon: keep your eye on our sidewalk shed...
Inside Third & Bond: Weeks 1-89 [Brownstoner]
The complete offering terms are in an Offering Plan available from Sponsor. File No. CD080490. Sponsor: Hudson Third LLC, 826 Broadway, New York, NY 10003.
June 25, 2009
Inside Third & Bond: Week 89
This week the Hudson bloggers talk ceiling height...
Ceiling heights matter. Imagine St. Patrick’s Cathedral without its vaulted ceilings or the tunnels of Penn Station made un-cramped. If we believe Joan Meyers-Levy of the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management, high ceilings encourage abstract thinking while low ceilings encourage detail-oriented thinking. If we apply her logic, then Penn Station is not only horrible because of the suffocating sensation of the low, gray ceiling, but also because it encourages you to notice all the grimy details of the nation’s busiest train station. But low ceilings aren’t always bad: Meyers-Levy suggests that complicated tasks like surgery should take place in low-ceilinged rooms.
Ceiling heights at Third + Bond are 9’ in most areas, including the living and dining areas and bedrooms. In the kitchen, hall, and bathrooms, the heights are 8’. With any luck, these heights split the difference on abstract and detail thinking so that we can attract both the left and right brained buyers.
Our preference was to do 9’ heights throughout but...
June 18, 2009
Inside Third & Bond: Week 88
This week, the Hudson bloggers get feedback on their "green" progress.
Last week, Bob and Rosie of Steven Winter Associates, came by Third + Bond for the second inspection on our journey to a high performance building. Steven Winter Associates is our green building consultant and assisting us with both USGBC’s LEED for Homes program and NYSERDA’s Multifamily Performance Program. By this time next year, we should be fully approved as LEED-Gold and Energy Star (rating for the entire building, not just appliances).
The first inspection took place several months ago and was to verify that we were installing the foundation insulation as planned. Bob also checked that we were using good construction practices in terms of waste management and the like.
The second inspection was to check progress and to note any potential issues. Bob and Rosie’s visit followed a construction site meeting, so a large group of Hudson and Kiska representatives were available to attend the walk through. While Bob and Rosie didn’t say anything we hadn’t heard before, we think it made a tremendous difference to have them point to areas that need extra care, as opposed to showing photos of an example building. When Bob pointed out the mastic on the HVAC ducts and complimented the subcontractor’s excellent application of the gooey substance to seal the joint between two metal tubes, it brought the abstract idea of air sealing into specificity.
Likewise, when he pointed out the floor to ceiling line where two wall panels come together and said the crack between them must be sealed off by spray foam, we could practically see Kiska’s project manager mentally calculating the amount of spray foam he needed to purchase.
The idea behind all this foam is part of the “seal it tight, build it right” school of thought on high performance buildings. We choose to heat and cool our buildings pretty much year round and that takes energy. There are repercussions of this energy use, from utility bills to air pollution. By minimizing the amount of energy that escapes through cracks and spaces in a building, we minimize the energy lost and thus energy needed to do the heating and cooling.
June 11, 2009
Inside Third & Bond: Week 87
The Hudson Companies bloggers drop a pop quiz on you today.
Construction continues apace at Third + Bond. The rainy conditions have kept us from doing a concrete pour and starting some façade work, but inside plumbers and carpenters still vie for boom box dominance. But why take our word for it – come see for yourself!
We are offering 2 of our avid readers personal tours of the site. If you haven’t spent a ton of time on a construction site, it’s a pretty interesting way to pass a half hour. Plus, you might just walk away with some yet-to-be-released insider knowledge.
The first two readers to respond via email to info@hudsoninc.com with the most correct answers, will win a personal tour.
1. Who is our architect?
2. In Irene Berzak’s interview, she noted that the Department of Buildings has created a new term for expeditors. What is it?
3. What’s the name of the exterior insulation we’re using?
June 4, 2009
Inside Third & Bond: Week 86
Summer is nearly here and it’s been great weather for throwing open windows to let in fresh spring breezes. It’s also been good weather for installing windows at Third + Bond. In Week 36 we talked about the then-new idea of using a heavy gauge vinyl window. We wanted to meet the Energy Star guidelines but the energy efficient aluminum windows were way over budget. Our vinyl windows from Paradigm ended up costing around $150,000 and we’ve been happy thus far. Installation is around 20% complete and on-going.
The windows are chocolate brown on the exterior and white on the interior. It cost a bit more to have the dual colors but we thought it important for the interior to not have chocolate brown and we could hardly do white on the exterior alongside the red brick and brown panel. In the former case, we’d be making a (bad) bold design decision on behalf of future residents. And in the latter case, we’d probably be sued by Architects Anonymous for putting something so ugly in the public realm.
The window shown above looks into what is currently the construction office, eventually it will be a second floor living room. (Yes, that big, ole fluorescent light is only temporary and not the final fixture.) The largest pane is operable while the others are fixed.
May 28, 2009
Inside Third & Bond: Week 86
Last Friday, Kiska relocated the site office from an 8’ by 30’ trailer on Third Street to the spacious living room of a future two-bedroom condo. While the new “office” was still a jumble of cords, pieces of coffee makers, and piles of paperwork, it was already preferable to having six or seven people squeezed into a meeting space meant for two.
Having more room has made getting up to procure your own coffee feasible (not that anyone does) but more importantly, there is more room on the sidewalk and street for construction equipment. The development site is pretty tight since we’re building right up to the front lot line and cannot get into the rear yards unless we go through or over the project. Third Street is a wide street and we’re on a corner, both of which help us maneuver equipment and materials in and out of the site. We have Bond Street partially blocked as well as Third Street – and DOT permits do not come cheap.
Getting rid of the trailer also means saving money...
May 21, 2009
Inside Third & Bond: Week 85
This week, Hudson talks pavement and mailboxes...
Last week, we received approval for the Third + Bond Builder’s Pavement Plan. Before any of you get ants in your pants: in order to get a new building permit, the BPP must be filed but does not need to be approved.
The BPP is a drawing showing the work to be done to the public realm in conjunction with construction activity on a private lot. The BPP shows sidewalks, curbs and roadway to be reconstructed as well as street trees to keep or be planted. Stormwater catch basins, bus stops, pedestrian ramps, and utility poles are also shown on the BPP.
Often, the BPP is designed by the civil engineer who also does the water and sewer site connection design. It’s logical that these two things go hand-in-hand, since the paving has a direct effect on stormwater run-off and thus the sewer system. Unfortunately, there isn’t a tremendous amount of innovation allowed in either right now. There are a few pilot projects in Queens where DOT is allowing a larger than normal tree pit in order to provide more permeable space to absorb water, but it isn’t a practice that seems easily approved outside of the pilot. So, our BPP is pretty conventional.
Once the BPP is approved, the approved plan is given to the contractor who will pull the permit for the actual work to be done. For example, the approved BPP might require that you will replace ½ of the street width plus 5 feet (common standard), but you can’t actually put a jackhammer to concrete until you have street opening (opening the road bed) and street closing (closing to traffic) permits from the Department of Transportation. Street trees require their own permit from Parks & Rec (Amy Poehler is such a doll!) and sign-off.
Once the work is complete, you call for a field inspection from DOB. You have to pass the field inspection to get your Temporary Certificate of Occupancy. When the paperwork for the BPP catches up, you call for an appointment with the in-office BPP reviewer. His sign-off is necessary in order to get a Permanent Certificate of Occupancy.
We spent as many as four years...
May 14, 2009
Inside Third & Bond: Week 84
In response to readers last week who were daunted by the idea of loping backward 82 weeks to find floor plans we’re showing off the garden duplex via a short (amateur) video of the space as it is this week. Click here for the youtube video:
Below are the floor plans for those of you who want a closer look. It’s helpful for us to refresh ourselves with the layouts, too. With all the issues that come up after the architectural plans are signed off we tend to forget how our end product will come together. We know the color of grout in the bathroom wall tiles but can’t remember if the toilet is next to the tub or the sink. It’s worth taking a moment to reconnect with the larger vision.
Inside Third & Bond: Weeks 1-83 [Brownstoner]
Our new legal fine print: The complete offering terms are in an Offering Plan available from Sponsor. File No. CD080490. Sponsor: Hudson Third LLC, 826 Broadway, New York, NY 10003.
May 7, 2009
Inside Third & Bond: Week 83
This week, the Hudson bloggers relay some big news...
Third + Bond’s condo plan has been approved by the Attorney General’s Office! We no longer need the fine print: From our lawyers: “This is not an offering. No offering can be made until an offering plan is filed with the Department of Law of the State of New York." We are excited to be able to market the project freely and SIGN CONTRACTS!
In the boom days, upon receipt of condo plan approval we would’ve immediately thrown open the doors to a (nearby) sales office and turned on the coffee machine. Keeping the prospective buyers from tripping each other on the way to the contract signing would have been routine. We remember several previous projects when the model apartments were finished, the brokers were hired, the waiting lists were antsy, and we sat around for weeks painfully awaiting plan approval. When the call finally came, there were always shouts and cheers, the plan is approved, we can start selling, go go go. Today we expect buyers to take more time to contemplate their purchase. We also expect that fewer buyers will be comfortable buying a residence they can see only on paper. So the good news about the Third + Bond plan was more of a by-the-way email instead of an urgent phone call.
We plan to wait until this autumn, when the model apartments are ready, to start marketing in earnest. Soon though, we’ll launch our teaser website to give you a hint of things to come and to help prospective buyers contact us. And as of RIGHT NOW you can call our (off-site) sales office at 718-290-2490. And yes, you can sign your contract(s) any time now, the phone lines are open.
Inside Third & Bond: Weeks 1-82 [Brownstoner]
April 30, 2009
Inside Third & Bond: Week 82
This is a major moment – milestone, a word without emotional weight, doesn’t even cover it – in the project’s life. It’s Third + Bond’s bat mitzvah or Quinceaños. She’s getting taller and a little awkward looking but pretty soon she’ll stop growing and start looking… finished.
This week we are “topping off” our first five buildings. If this project were a high rise, we’d tie an evergreen to the topmost beam and have t-shirts, a big lunch and maybe a couple of speeches to celebrate the occasion. A full-on topping off party seems, well, over the top for 4 stories plus mezzanine but the celebratory sentiment is no less.
Other moments toward which a developer looks for greater return than a mere business milestone are closing the deal, seeing the first rendering or model of the design, breaking ground, launching sales and marketing, getting C of O, closing the first unit, paying off the loan, and adjourning the first condo board meeting.
As developers, we have an appreciation for tangibility. A buyer isn’t an owner until the contract has closed. A design isn’t finished until the building is complete. We like bricks-and-mortar. If we didn’t, then we’d probably be in a different line of work. There are a lot of ways to make a living and be in real estate – construction loans, end loans, bonds, law, marketing, policy, zoning and permitting, on and on. To be a successful developer, it helps to appreciate the built environment itself. And to be a successful urban developer, you have to be keen on neighborhoods and the transformations neighborhoods take over time. These are things that help you understand and anticipate trends, objections and opportunities. And just as importantly, these are things that keep you excited about your job.
Just looking at the vacant lots that framed the old industrial building that used to be the site and seeing the homes now rising above the construction fence gives us a good feeling. The fruits of our labor are becoming more apparent every day. Becoming more and more real.
Inside Third & Bond: Weeks 1-81 [Brownstoner]
From our lawyers: “This is not an offering. No offering can be made until an offering plan is filed with the Department of Law of the State of New York."
April 23, 2009
Inside Third & Bond: Week 81
Earlier this week, we went to Green Depot’s Bowery store for an invite-only Earth Day reception. We were astonished to find that the crowd’s ratio of schlumpy socks-with-sandals environmentalists to polished heels-and-pearls environmentalists was nearly 0 to 1. As we wandered the room it dawned on us: many in the crowd were sales representatives for new green products (and the others ran green-themed design magazines or tv shows). Of course they dazzled – that’s half the job! And the Bowery store dazzled as well. The store’s tremendous inventory is representative of the multitude of products available on the market. From $90 stuffed monkey toys to $5 bottles of multi-purpose cleaner to a $15 quart of zero VOC grout, there’s something for everyone. Plus there’s Green Depot’s validation of the products. It can be overwhelming to sift through manufacturers’ and sellers’ claims about building materials, especially ones that are supposed to be “green.”
Fortunately we can rely also on our design team to source new products for us. One of our greener building materials came to us this way – the gentleman at Rogers Marvel Architects learned about a product called Roxul and suggested we look into it for Third + Bond.
April 16, 2009
Inside Third & Bond: Week 80
Today the Third & Bond bloggers from Hudson Companies explain the importance of everyone working well together...It isn’t about cooperation so much as coordination. At the site now we have six to seven trades working simultaneously. Each trade is focused solely on getting its own work done. To be efficient, they need to stay out of each other’s way and not fall behind. There’s a practical sequence for constructing a building that enables one trade to follow another. It starts with the obvious: excavation, then foundation, and then superstructure. Once the superstructure is in place, the trades must be coordinated with more forethought. The carpenter is first and comes through to lay out the track for the demising walls.
April 9, 2009
Inside Third & Bond: Week 79
This week, the Third & Bond bloggers sweat the market.
You might be asking yourself what we are concerned about, given that we are comfortable with the project’s schedule, made the 421-a deadline, and have our construction financing in place. The obvious answer is the market. It’s hard to tell when the economy will be back on the upswing. Dan Doctoroff recently gave a rousing keynote speech to a Citizens Housing and Planning Council luncheon crowd. He recounted the 7 (or was it 17) downturns NYC has faced since the 1800s, all of them doozies that caused someone or other to remark that New York would “never” recover. If clapping could bring recovery – just as millions of children have brought Tinkerbell back from the edge of death with each reading of Peter Pan -- it would have been done last week at the Marriott Marquis.
Yes, we clapped politely and are believers in the recovery… but when? And will it be enough, soon enough for our buyers not to worry about getting end loans (aka mortgages)? If you pay an iota of attention to the media, then you know that banks are reticent about lending and when they do lend, their underwriting has become very strict.
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April 2, 2009
Inside Third & Bond: Week 78
President Obama is in Europe this week where he continues to pull the U.S.’s popularity out of the deep abyss it was left in by his predecessor and by the financial crisis. In celebration of the uptick and our neighbors around the globe, this week’s post is a look at the melting pot of ethnicities that make up a typical NYC construction job.
At Third + Bond we took an informal survey as workers hauled rebar, soldered beams, sawed pipe, and generally just put in a hard morning’s work. In most cases the ethnicity of the company is linked to its owner and much of the top dog employees, all or most of whom are first generation immigrants. Slightly more than half of the time the laborers also share the same ethnic background as the company’s owners. Pretty much everyone got their job by their social-ethnic networks – the old-fashioned way.
March 26, 2009
Inside Third & Bond: Week 77
The ceiling height felt good.
That’s the first report from the field delivered by one of the Hudson partners and Sally who were able to walk into the lower level of the first duplex this past Monday. As Sergey noted in his interview, construction of the superstructure is expected to go quickly with the Signature Metals system. They started at the site on March 13 and so far they have poured the first and second floor for 5 out of 8 buildings.
The Signature Metals system (see Week 20 and Week 39) is a proprietary building system composed of panelized walls and a Vescom composite joist system. Vescom consists of open web bar joists, ridged metal decking and poured concrete. In contrast, a typical mid-rise superstructure – and the one originally designed for this project – is block and plank. (Block and plank uses pre-cast concrete to form structural walls and floors.) Kiska suggested we use Signature because it would save time and money.
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March 19, 2009
Inside Third & Bond: Week 76
Time plays funny tricks during real estate development. To the outside world, nothing is happening while you’re working away inside on excavation, shoring, underpinning, foundation pours, etc. Then, the project begins to sprout like a weed, and the slowest contractor on earth all of a sudden seems hyper efficient. As you can see from the photo, our structural system has begun to rise from our slab foundation. However, if you read the comments from the past several weeks, our biggest critics want to let us know how incredibly slowly this project is going. Ethan, in particular, thinks we’re going so slowly, that we should simply quit. After all, the Empire State Building was built in a year, yadda yadda. But it does raise a fair question. Are we going slowly? Where, ideally, should we be in week 76?
March 12, 2009
Inside Third & Bond: Week 75
Today, the Hudson Companies bloggers introduce to another key member of the Third & Bond team...
What is your role in the Third + Bond project?
I am a construction project manager for Third + Bond.
How long have you been with Hudson and how’d you end up here?
I’ve been with Hudson since July 2008. I was working with Plaza Construction – basically in the same type of position as Hakan [link to Hakan’s interview] – and I was pretty happy there. But I always wanted to see what it was like on the developer’s side and so I submit my resume by email to Hudson when I saw the opportunity.
Have you always been in construction?
I grew up in Leningrad, Soviet Union which is once again known as St. Petersburg, Russia. It is the most beautiful city in the world. When I went back two years ago for a visit, I got completely lost in my own hometown because they changed the street names back to the pre-Soviet names. [Editor’s note: For readers struggling to remember the history, the Soviets were in charge 1917-1991.] I studied civil engineering in college but I really wanted to be a dramatic actor like my father. He discouraged me from acting because it’s a hard life – especially hard in the Soviet Union. Instead I went to the same college as my older brother. We went there in part to avoid 2 years military duty by going to a college with a military education program. By the way, my brother then became a rock star (in Russia).
So your dad, the actor, made you study civil engineering but your brother got to be a rock star?
Yes, it seems a bit unfair. In addition to their limelight careers, my uncle was an opera singer.
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March 5, 2009
Inside Third & Bond: Week 74
Today our Hudson Companies bloggers use the recessionary times to play hardball on pricing with suppliers.
It’s not just stocks that are “buys” this week. Construction material prices are dropping and we are in a position to take advantage. One construction company rep we spoke with said he’s calling up suppliers and telling them to take 10% off their bid or else he’s going to someone else. That’s pretty bold and far from where we were with pricing a year ago.
Yesterday we had a buy-out negotiation meeting with a potential plumbing supplier. Let’s call them PPS for now. (We won’t use names until the contract is signed.) It was a typical meeting and thus this week’s “mini topic” as ‘Make My Heights the P Heights’ put it last week in the comments.
Before the meeting, the supplier gets the specifications and drawings for the materials to be provided. The supplier puts together a bid that shows the quantities of each item, the price for each item, total cost for materials, delivery and taxes. (Actually, suppliers often leave out tax and sometimes delivery – part of the psychology of looking like they’ve given you a low price.) For example, the quantity of kitchen sinks is 44 and the specification is for the Grohe Minta model in chrome. The bid might be listed at something like $200 per sink and then would be totaled at $8,800 + 8.375% tax + delivery. We get this bid before the meeting and start “qualifying;” we check for any missing items or unnecessary additions. If it looks close to what we want, then we’ll set up a meeting with the bidder. We look to get at least 3 real bids and usually meet with all of them. In this case, there are other bidders waiting in the wings. (Check out Week 16 if you want to see the fixtures.)
Our meeting with the PPS started out with the usual countdown. (On your marks.) We asked the PPS to cut his bid by 4%, which gets us below our budget but is somewhat arbitrary. (Get set.) The PPS reacted with mild alarm. (Go.) The PPS started looking for the angles that would cut his costs and thus his bid.
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February 26, 2009
Inside Third & Bond: Week 73
The blogging team from Hudson Companies today tackles the, um, hairy problem of crafting a dog policy for the condo. Above, a photo of the work site.
We’ve often found that once a condo project is complete, the units are occupied and the punch lists are performed, the first thing condo owners and board members argue about is….the condo’s dog policy. We’ve seen board members almost come to blows regarding whether dogs should be allowed to access the building’s rear yard. We’ve seen DNA tests performed to determine if a dog was really a Pit Bull. And we’ve seen doggie character references submitted from prior neighbors. Since we’re finalizing the offering plan for Third + Bond which codifies the house rules, we thought we should re-review our dog policy and see if we’ve learned anything from all these previous dogfights.
Should we prohibit certain breeds or are we just a bunch of canine stereotypers?
In prior offering plans, we’ve said the following: “Under no circumstances will ‘Pit Bulls’ be permitted in any portion of the Buildings...
February 19, 2009
Inside Third & Bond: Week 72
In 1948 the American Public Health Association predicted that the garbage disposal would cause the garbage can to “ultimately follow the privy” and become an “anachronism”. This prediction was made some twenty years after the garbage disposal was invented but fifty years before garbage disposals would be legalized in New York City. The garbage disposal was meant to be a healthier way to dispose of kitchen scraps – resulting in less vermin and stench. The downside was that sewage systems had to deal with considerably more organic material than ever before. Today, around 50% of American households have garbage disposals, most of which were produced by the InSinkErator company. Not even in those households has the garbage can disappeared but the garbage disposal’s popularity has fluctuated.
Well, the garbage disposals maintain steady popularity at Hudson. From the beginning, we planned to have garbage disposals in every kitchen sink at Third + Bond. Then, as we were running through the cabinetry bids, we came across a smelly problem. The cabinetry designed for the kitchens does not have a specific location for a garbage can (or recycling). The cabinet beneath the sink is too small given the disposal to provide room for a regular sized kitchen garbage can. Other under-counter cabinets are too far from the sink to be practical for garbage or are needed for things like silverware drawers. The result: residents would have to set out a freestanding trashcan in the kitchen, use a smaller can beneath the sink, or we have to figure out a redesign for the cabinetry.
The dirty little secret of most developments, even with beautiful kitchen renderings, is there’s no place to put a garbage can...
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February 12, 2009
Inside Third & Bond: Week 71
One bright spot in our dreary real estate world recently has been interest rates. Mortgage rates are very low and conforming loan amounts are increasing, which will be relevant for our studio and one bedroom sales and maybe even our two bedroom sales. Developers refer to the mortgages that our buyers secure as “end loans,” and there are numerous issues we’re always discussing in terms of end loans: getting project approval for Fannie Mae or FHA loans; deciding to work directly with a specific bank or mortgage broker; pre-sale requirements of different lenders; and offering buyers “forward commitments” through lenders so that buyers can lock-in their interest rate at the time they sign a contract for a period of time necessary to cover their closing date. (And some developers in truly desperate times spend huge amounts to pay down the interest rate of their buyers’ loans). However, there’s one juicy threshold issue we’ll discuss today: mortgage contingencies.
In the good ole days (for developers), providing a mortgage contingency in the contract for a unit in a new development was verboten...
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February 5, 2009
Inside Third & Bond: Week 70
This week, the Third & Bond bloggers walk us through how they coordinate with a utility—in this case Verizon—throughout the construction process.
Have you seen Verizon Wireless’s latest ad campaign? It’s a series of horror parodies that end with the Verizon guy giving the almost-victims a thumbs up. Nope, no dead zone here scary axe man or creepy motel guy. We’ve got Verizon! Meanwhile Verizon’s FiOS gets a more understated approach: two techs, one from Verizon and one from “the other cable company” run into each other in an apartment building. Though the Verizon tech tries to be modest, it’s clear he’s offering the superior service and the other guy resents him. Despite the differences in style, what message about Verizon can we take from both? There are people, real humans, who make sure Verizon works. They are polite, dedicated, and there when we need them.
Just like these ads, our Verizon contacts were at Third + Bond when we needed them. They were polite, dedicated, and they scared away a big, scary beast. Or was that the electrician? As developers of a new building, we set up all of the utilities including Verizon, TimeWarner, ConEd, and National Grid. By coordinating with the individual companies during design and construction, we ensure the building will have the proper wiring for all the services that inhabitants might want. The process is similar for each of these so we’ll just take Verizon as the example.
Continued below...
January 29, 2009
Inside Third & Bond: Week 69
This week the Third & Bond bloggers from Hudson Companies interview Sally Gilliland, a member of their Third + Bond team.
What’s your role in the Third + Bond project? My job title is “Director of Architecture”, which essentially means I manage all the work of architects, engineers and other consultants who do the design of any project.
How long have you been with Hudson and how’d you end up here? I came to Hudson in 2001, having worked as an architect in various firms since getting my Master of Architecture from Columbia University in 1988. I spent my first 3 years after graduate school working at Kohn Pedersen Fox, a big New York firm where I worked on the design team for several large office buildings. Then I spent 9 years at a small firm, Beyhan Karakhan and Associates, where the projects ranged from apartment renovations to EMS ambulance stations. The bookkeeper there knew an architect who had worked on one of Hudson’s projects – she put me in touch with David Kramer.
Why did you decide to work for a developer rather than continuing at a design firm? I wanted to be on the decision making side of the table in the design process.
January 22, 2009
Inside Third & Bond: Week 68
Today, the Hudson Companies bloggers talk stairs. As far as staircases go, Third + Bond’s stairs are more on the order of what Michelle wore for the Barbara Walters interview than for the Inauguration or the Inaugural Balls. Simple, classy, and straightforward. The stairs will look good, befit a modern brownstone, and, of course, function perfectly.
We have 8 buildings each with a set of internal common stairs. Our budget is $35,000 and was originally based on steel stairs (stringer, riser, pan into which the tread sits, and railings) with a poured concrete topping for the treads and landings. But now that buy-out time has come and we are about to put pen to paper, we are taking another look at tread options. We’ll keep the steel stair because we like the look and price. It also meets the requirement for a fire rated stair.
The review of options that follows is nearly verbatim the discussion at this week’s construction meeting. (Did we tell you we’d take you behind-the-scenes or what?!) We talked through a lot of ideas and posed a lot of questions…
Tread Options
1) Poured concrete, trowel-finished. This is what we originally specified. To accomplish this tread, the sub has to mix up a batch of concrete and pour it carefully onto the top of each stair. Then he has to smooth it with a trowel. Anyone who has iced a cake knows that getting a smooth surface isn’t as easy as it looks. Concern: It could end up very messy to do in the field. We could have bits of concrete dried onto the metal riser and stringers and it could be tricky to trowel the tread flat enough so that it looks good. Benefit: If it’s well done, it will look good, maintain well, and comes in at or under budget.
January 15, 2009
Inside Third & Bond: Week 67
The Open Kitchen
The era of the open kitchen has been with us for awhile now and it has had profound implications for what the kitchen means as a space in the home. No longer is it the narrow galley down the hall and behind the swinging door. More often than not in NYC condos today, the kitchen opens up onto a living space. From your spot at the stove, you can look out over the counter top to watch your kids playing on the couch, speak with dinner guests crowded around the island on bar stools, or catch the inauguration on your plasma tv.
The open kitchen offers developers...
Latest Restaurant Additions
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Carroll Gardens Classic Diner
added July 2, 2009 12:00 PM in Boerum Hill -
Tripoli
added July 1, 2009 12:00 PM in Cobble Hill -
Williamsburger
added June 30, 2009 12:00 PM in Williamsburg -
Brooklyn Bread Cafe
added June 29, 2009 12:00 PM in Carroll Gardens, Park Slope -
Naidre's
added June 26, 2009 12:00 PM in Carroll Gardens, Park Slope -
Amorina
added June 25, 2009 12:00 PM in Prospect Heights -
Caracas Arepa Bar: Brooklyn
added June 24, 2009 12:00 PM in Williamsburg -
Dawg Shack
added June 23, 2009 12:00 PM in Gowanus -
Mitchell's
added June 22, 2009 12:00 PM in Prospect Heights -
City Sub
added June 19, 2009 12:00 PM in Park Slope