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COVER STORY: Commissioner Eric Ulrich......................................10
COVER STORY
One-on-One with Eric Ulrich
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constituent services approach to the agency. The offices, ranging from the main one in Manhattan to the borough offices, were closed to the public at noon according to Ulrich. So when he stepped in on day one, he made it clear that people are to work in-person, to not rely on using Zoom or Microsoft Teams and be open to the public from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
“I serve at the pleasure of the mayor. But I also serve at the pleasure of the taxpayers who are paying my salary and I’m a public
employee like everybody else. And what I tell them [DOB employees] constantly is we have to serve the public,” Ulrich said. “ We don’t get to pick and choose who our customers are.”
Ulrich also said that a major focus of the department is to create pathways for career development, as to not lose more civil servants to the private sector where they can make a lot more money, as well as trying to get the workers a raise with upcoming contract negotiations.
Ulrich and the Department of Buildings have also found ways to break the idea of the department being an agency that just issues violations.
Ulrich has hired Joseph Esposito, a former chief of police, as the Deputy Commissioner for enforcement. They will be rolling out a program in November, styled after the NYPD’s Neighborhood Coordination Officers, a neighborhood policing program, in order to bring greater ties with inspectors and the communities they inspect. It will be a ten person program starting with Brooklyn, the leading borough in construction, where they will introduce themselves to community boards, churches and local businesses.
“The department thinks small businesses and homeowners should be able to work with us before they do alterations,” said Ulrich. “We can give them advice and set them on a path to a safe building.”
The Department of Buildings also hosts free in-person informations session on Tuesdays from 4:00 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the local borough offices, as part of the “Buildings After Hours program, where whether you’re a tenant or a building man-
ager the department will be able to provide information and answer questions.
On the Mayor’s second day in office, he signed an executive order for five agencies to cut penalties and regulations, of which the Department of Building was included. So far, Class 2 violations, which are defined as having life threatening factors but don’t require immediate correction (and are the most common complaint) have been made curable, by having 60 days to fix the problem.
“Fix it, and then let us know – give people the opportunity of the benefit of the doubt,” Ulrich said.
“It’s not about issuing tickets and violations. That’s not the inspectors’ goal, ‘let me go out and give out 100 tickets today.’ The goal is to make sure that contractors are keeping themselves and the public safe.”
From Left to Right: Nadya Stevens (Chief of Staff), Eric Ulrich, Kazimir Vilenchik (First Deputy Commissioner), Guillermo Patino (Deputy Commisisoner, External Affairs)
QUEENS CHAMBER NEWS & EVENTS
Chamber Building Awards 2022
Every year, the Chamber of Commerce recognizes buildings and projects in the world’s borough in different categories, such as residential, commercial, hotels, and mixed use.
Each building was recognized at the Chamber of Commerce’s building award ceremony, held on Wednesday, Oct. 13.
The “Historic Renovation” of the T Building
By Alicia Venter
The T-Building of Jamaica won their building award in the Rehabilitation, Readaptive Use (Residential/Commercial/Industrial).
Once a hospital primarily treating tuberculosis patients, the 10-story T-Building underwent a “historic rehabilitation,” said Jonathan Huang, the executive on the project shared.
“We had to save, restore and reuse a lot of elements of the building,” Huang said. “The entire facade was restored. There is a marble lobby and bronze storefront that was completely restored. There is a historic library that we completely restored.”
Working with Dunn Development, the building was gutted, renovated and now serves as an affordable and supportive housing residential building.
The process took approximately two and a half years. Construction completed around the end of last year, and tenants were moved in during the spring and summer.
“We’re really excited that the building won the award,” he shared. “Most definitely, yes.”
Notable features of the building that Huang shared include restored balconies, open terrac-
The rooftop view at Beach 21st Plaza in Far Rockaway.
es, a playground, a wild lawn — a garden using native plants.
The building is located at 82-41 Parsons Boulevard. The 124 newly constructed apartments are available with preferences for municipal employees and Queens Community Board 8 members.
By Ryan Schwach
Two Rockaway buildings have been given special building awards by the Queens Chamber of Commerce: the Margaret O. Carpenter Women’s Health Center at Episcopal Health Services’ building on Beach 105th Street, and the new Beach 21st Plaza in Far Rockaway were given awards.
The Margaret O. Carpenter Women’s Center opened its doors last year, and has since brought much needed Women’s health services to the Rockaway community.
The center won the award in the medical facility category. It was designed by architect Thomas J. Mesuk, and constructed by the Facility Resource Group.
“I am so humbled and honored to be able to lead this initiative of providing care for women in this community,” said Rosemary Bonilla, Vice President of Physician Practices & Ambulatory Care and EHS. “We intend to help many people stay healthy, and we will save lives while we are at it.”
The older building, the newly opened Beach
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QUEENS CHAMBER NEWS & EVENTS
Chamber Building Awards 2022
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21st Plaza in Downtown Far Rockaway, was given an award in the mixed use category.
The Plaza, part of a $234 million effort to revitalize the surrounding area, brings 10-stories of mostly affordable housing to Far Rockaway.
The architect behind the project is Urban Architectural Initiatives and constructed by Mega Contracting.
“It is so big for us,” said Mega Contracting Project Executive Boris Metavoy. “Just to be part of something so big, it's humbling.”
Metavoy said that the win came “out of the blue,” but that he was happy the work done by the contractors was honored, especially since much of the work was done in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Renaissance Charter 2 adds a rooftop playground to an urban school
By Matthew Fischetti
The new Renaissance Charter 2 school wasn’t an easy feat.
The four-story 69,000 square-foot kindergarten through 12th-grade school in Elmhurst was completed in 16 months through the heart of COVID. Despite the manpower shortages,despite the cost increases and despite material delays – builder Scott Barone was able to pull it off.
“If you miss a day, you miss a year,” Barone said simply about his commitment to getting the project at 45-20 83 street off the ground so quickly.
Barone, the founder and principal of Barone Management, got into the charter school building business back in 2018. While it is financially rewarding, Barone said that his “bottomless appetite” for building charter schools, of which he currently has 11 in his portfolio, stems from the positive impact they bring.
“We're doing the right thing at the right time. Charter schools are fully public free schools that are overwhelmingly built-in economically disadvantaged communities, communities of color. So, there's just no question about that you're doing the right thing,” he said.
The building will house 1050 kids at full enrollment, complete with a multipurpose music performance space, a chemistry lab, and an inner courtyard. The first floor, which serves kindergartners, shares bathrooms between two classrooms to be more space efficient.
While the Department of Education says that you need at least 100 square feet of space per student, Barone approached the building differently.
“We want our school operations teams to tell us what it is that they need inside the box. And whether that box is 70,000 square feet, 170,000 square feet, or 700,000 square feet – it's irrelevant. As long as we make sure to get them all of the uses that they need within the building, so that they can do their job educating these kids as best as possible,” he said. ”That's what we care about. We are far more focused in regard to the design of the building to be more purpose and function-driven than we are working to some type of arbitrary standard.”
Barone and leaders from Renaissance worked together throughout the process, to build a space with more amenities while delivering the same kind of education as the original Renaissance School, one of the oldest charter schools in the city, located at 35-59 81st street in Jackson Heights. Originally the New Vision Annenberg Challenge School, over 95 percent of parents and teachers voted to convert the school into a charter back in 2000.
Stacey Gauthier, the principal of Renaissance and Executive Director for both Renaissance and Renaissance 2, said that because of their collaboration with the developers, they were able to deliver a quality facility for children in one of the most overcrowded school districts in the city.
“I think that because we were really involved in the design of the building, we learned some good lessons about things that were important in terms of a facility which included having ample outside space – especially when there's a school that has no school yard, because this is an urban school,” Guathier said.
Instead of having a traditional outdoor courtyard for kids to play, Renaissance 2 got creative. It features over 10,000 square feet of outdoor space, with a rooftop playground with rubberized roof pavers, an inner courtyard, a sunroof and a full-size court.
“I just have to say that it's exciting to really see that the plans that we discussed and put on paper to have been realized,” Everett Boyd, Principal of Renaissance Charter 2, said in an interview.
This year is the second year Barone’s company has won recognition at the Queens Chamber building awards.
“Two years in a row feels pretty good,” Barone said. “We're already looking at what we can put on the slate for 2023.”
31-05 21st St. exterior
Caliendo scores with two building awards
By Alicia Venter
Architect Gerald J. Caliendo, R.A., A.I.A. has secured two wins in this year’s building awards.
In the New Construction – Multi Dwelling Residential Buildings category, Caliendo’s luxury apartments at 31-05 21st Street and 25-28 30th Drive — both located in Astoria — have received awards this year.
“I believe that the Queens
