2B — June 26 - July 16, 2020 — Owners, Developers & Managers — M id A tlantic Real Estate Journal
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O wners , D evelopers & M anagers Architectural & engineering challenges of adding upward SKAPC completes +50 vertical expansions to existing buildings N EW YORK , NY — During the past twenty years, Steven
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Owners, Developers &Managers and time delays. “For instance, rather than upgrade the shared wall, there is an option to build inboard of the party wall parapet on each side,” said Kratchman. “The downside is that approximately 12 to 18 inches is lost on each side at the upper floors of the vertical addition. When lot widths are small to begin with, as is often the case in urban settings, these floor area losses can be significant.” Integrating Existing Engineering Systems In addition to structural is- sues, engineering disciplines can influence a project’s design strategy. Existing mechani- cal, electrical, plumbing and fire safety systems, and ca- pacities must be considered and weighed against the intended uses. “The locations of units, pumps, tanks and other equip- ment can affect the design bulk,” said Kratchman. “Marry- ing these engineering systems and integrating them with the planned enlargement is essen- tial to ensure maximum per- formance, comfort and safety.” At 480 Park Ave. in Manhat- tan, a vertical solution provided tenant access via an existing, underutilized roof. After ana- lyzing the three elevator cores of this pre-war Emory Roth building with a classic E plan, SKAPC found that one shaft had an existing bulkhead and water tank above it with un- used mechanical elbow room. The building owners allocated their capital upgrade expense to cover the cost of raising the elevator one stop. This allowed the Kratchman team to carve out a new glass-windowed el- evator lobby at the roof and an elevator runby at the tank room in the bulkhead above. continued on page 16B
Kratchman Architect, PC (SKAPC) , has completed over 50 vertical expansions to ex- isting buildings. The projects range from commercial build- ings in Manhattan and town- house structures in Brooklyn to single-family residences in Westchester and the Hudson Valley. While adding upward is cer- tainly not a new concept, its desirability has increased in tandemwith development and redevelopment in congested urban environments where space is at a premium, as well as in suburban neighbor- hoods where property values continue to rise. However, the complexity of many of today’s building expansions often makes them far more challenging than ground-up construction. “Any enlargement, whether it’s vertical, downward or side- ways, can trigger a complexity factor,” said Steven Kratch- man , the firm’s owner and founder. “These projects can be design intensive depending on a variety of factors, such as the condition of the site and exist- ing building, the availability of design documentation, lo- cal ordinances and codes, and the building construction type and use.” SKAPC specializes in re- purposing and reinvigorating existing spaces with design concepts that are both sophis- ticated and practical. “My first experience working on a verti- cal expansion was as the design architect for a three-story ad- dition to an existing five-story school structure,” said Kratch- man. “We added a classroom floor and a new gym on top of a partially built out roof, and the existing floors required reinforcing of the columns and footings. The work was com- pleted while the children were attending school, and the en- tire experience demonstrated first-hand the range of issues vertical additions can present.” Addressing Structural Challenges One of the first consider- ations when assessing the fea- sibility of a vertical addition or expansion is gaining a thorough understanding of the existing building’s structural capacity. Light construction, masonry wall bearing capacity tests, foundation and footing probes,
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SKAPC's design for a townhouse on Manhattan’s Upper East Side involved adding a three-story vertical addition to an existing three-story storefront. and original filed and approved structural documents can as- sist the designer in enlarging the building efficiently and at lower costs. Foundation work and party walls are sometimes the most challenging issues. When found to be lacking capacity, founda- tions need to be underpinned to support the weight of ad- ditional floors and increased wind load. A prime example is situated on 13th Street in Man- hattan’s Meatpacking District, where SKAPC was hired to maximize a commercial condo- minium’s square footage with a six-story, 60,000 s/f vertical addition. The structure was originally built in the 1900s as a three-story, loft-style indus- trial printing warehouse, and the foundations could not eas- ily be expanded. Lightweight materials and insulated metal panels were employed for the additional stories with the ex- ception of the masonry street wall addition, where a glazed black brick was selected to contrast with the buff-colored existing building. The new non-combustible structure now stands on six steel columns that rise out of the existing heavy timber and mason base. If the wall or walls between two adjoining buildings are shared or touching, they must be underpinned as well. Under the NYC Department of Build- ings’ (DOB) new protection re- quirements, access agreements are required between the par- ties involved to underpin, pro- tect and access the neighbors’ air space. Workarounds are of- ten used to avoid complications or the additional expense of fees
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