{"id":5530,"date":"2019-07-08T11:31:27","date_gmt":"2019-07-08T15:31:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/randpc.com\/blog\/?p=5530"},"modified":"2019-07-08T14:29:42","modified_gmt":"2019-07-08T18:29:42","slug":"keys-to-a-successful-capital-improvement-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/m.randpc.com\/blog\/keys-to-a-successful-capital-improvement-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Keys to a Successful Capital Improvement Program"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Nordeck<\/p>\n

Project: Capital Improvement and Storm Resiliency Program at Nordeck Apartments<\/strong><\/p>\n

We were the project engineer\/architect for a large capital improvement project at Nordeck Apartments, a six-building, 343-unit complex near the Atlantic Ocean in Arverne, Queens, that was heavily damaged by Hurricane Sandy. It was a $50 million project with a very wide-ranging scope of work \u2013 replacing bricks, windows, parapets, and roofs, an electrical upgrade, new boiler rooms, renovating interiors, and bringing apartments up to the standards of the Americans With Disabilities Act. We also did a lot of work on the grounds around the buildings. It was an enormous project with many moving parts and many different players.\u00a0 At its height, there were over 100 workers on the site at one time, from many different disciplines.<\/p>\n

\"Nordeck

Top: Nordeck Apartments original single heating plant was decimated by Hurricane Sandy. Below: As part of the capital improvement and storm resiliency program, a new heating plant was created in each of the complex's six buildings.<\/p><\/div>\n

No Heat, Hot Water, or Electricity<\/strong><\/p>\n

The storm had flooded Nordeck\u2019s crawl spaces and single heating plant, catastrophically knocking out heat, hot water, and electricity to the entire complex. To prevent this from happening again, the decision was made to construct a new boiler room in each building. One of our challenges was constructing boiler rooms in buildings that were never meant to house a boiler room, all the while keeping the new equipment above the design flood elevation. This was further complicated when the Department of Buildings, which originally approved sidewall-venting, changed its mind after the installation was complete, requiring vertical flues for both the boiler and hot water heaters at each building, resulting in a large change order.<\/p>\n

Collaboration, Cooperation, and a Construction Manager<\/strong><\/p>\n

Capital improvement projects demand a lot of time, energy, and focus from all involved. You really have to have the right players working together, and on a project of this size, keeping everything coordinated is no easy feat. When you have six different projects occurring at a six-building complex, it's unrealistic to expect your property manager, contractor, or engineer\/architect to manage it all. That\u2019s when you need a construction manager to oversee the project \u2013 to coordinate meetings, gain approvals, relay information to the owners\/board and managers, ensuring they are happy, and maintain the project schedule and cost \u2013 basically making sure all the trains run on time. Nordeck\u2019s property manager is FirstService Residential, and fortunately, they have an effective construction manager arm, which made everyone\u2019s job so much easier.<\/p>\n

\"Nordeck

Rooftop after the storm (top); new roof and newly clad bulkhead (below).<\/p><\/div>\n

As the architectural\/engineering team, we were actively involved from scope development and design through construction administration. An important part of our job was to foster open communication between all parties, and to ensure that all understood the thinking and reasoning behind the design. Meeting regularly to thoroughly discuss the intricacies of the project, keeping everyone in the loop, and communicating candidly kept things running smoothly, especially when we came up against challenges such as the unexpected change order.<\/p>\n

The Result<\/strong><\/p>\n

This project is just about complete \u2013 the storm damage has been repaired, each building upgraded and its resiliency strengthened. It\u2019s been very successful, considering all that had to happen. On any project, regardless of its size and scope, you\u2019re going to have challenges and frustrations, but Nordeck\u2019s capital improvement program is a great example of how open communication, collaboration, and cooperation is vital for a successful project and the key to weathering any storm that may come.<\/p>\n

For a copy of the article, you can download the pdf here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

Stephen A. Varone, AIA, is President of RAND Engineering & Architecture, DPC.\u00a0 This article was originally published in the June 2019 issue of Habitat Magazine<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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We were the project engineer\/architect for a large capital improvement project at Nordeck Apartments, a six-building, 343-unit complex near the Atlantic Ocean in Arverne, Queens, that was heavily damaged by Hurricane Sandy. It was a $50 million project with a very wide-ranging scope of work \u2013 replacing bricks, windows, parapets, and roofs, an electrical upgrade, new...<\/p>\n Read more<\/strong><\/a><\/span>","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":5551,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[602,159],"tags":[598,365,599,371,384,600,601],"class_list":["post-5530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-capital-improvement-program","category-disaster-preparation","tag-capital-improvement-project","tag-capital-improvements","tag-construction-manager","tag-rand","tag-rand-engineering-architecture","tag-storm-damage","tag-storm-resiliency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/m.randpc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/m.randpc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/m.randpc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/m.randpc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/m.randpc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/m.randpc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/m.randpc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/m.randpc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/m.randpc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/m.randpc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}