BUILDING FACADE RESTORATION AND REHABILITATION IN NEW YORK CITY
Overview
An unfortunate accident occurred on May 16, 1979. A student attending Barnard College was struck by a piece of Terra Cotta stone that fell from the 8th floor of a building on 115 West Street in NYC. As a result of the incident, NYC Mayor Ed Koch signed the Local Law 10/1980 in February 1980. The law mandated that a New York State Licensed Engineer or Registered Architect should conduct the inspections of the street-facing facades of all the buildings taller than six stories in the 5 boroughs of the city. The inspections would occur once every 5 years in the city buildings and the reports would be filed with the Department of Buildings. The visual inspections would be carried out using telephoto or binoculars.
Subsequently, other fatal accidents caused by pieces of cornices, bricks, concrete, or stones that fell from the top of buildings were frequent, causing injury or death to pedestrians. This was an indication that the Local Law 10/1980 had to be amended.
In and effort to stop these occurrences, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani signed the Local Law 11/98 in March 1998, which modified and expanded the previous ordinance, highlighting the following items:
Carry out at least one complete “close up” examination via scaffold from ground level to roof level.
No exterior wall of the building was exempt from examination.
Inspection of balconies and railings, after a woman fell from a damaged balcony.
The Engineer or Architect must evaluate the building in one of three ways:
a) Safe, b) Safe With A Repair and Maintenance Program or c) Unsafe. An unsafe condition must be reported to the DOB and addressed immediately; repairs should be completed within 30 days.
A previously rated condition could not be reported in two consecutive cycles. The previously reported conditions had to be repaired before the beginning of the next cycle.
What is FISP
Starting in 2010, the Local Law 11/98 once again was strengthened and its name changed to FISP (Facade Inspection Safety Program).
It was designed to protect and give security, avoiding bricks, stones, concrete or rods falling and injuring or killing human beings on the streets. It is a set of regulations addressing the conditions of exterior walls of NYC buildings, many of which have been in service for more than 50 to 100 years.
FISP currently applies to approximately 15,000 buildings subject to compliance with New York City Department of Buildings regulations.
Definitions:
Building Facade Restoration : Returning a building envelope to a former, original, normal, or unimpaired construction. Requires the re-establishment of the form and detail of the building facade. May require the removal of previous work, or reconstruction of earlier work which had been removed.
Building Facade Rehabilitation : The returning of the building facade to a useful state by repair, alternation, and modification.
Major Repair: Especially stonework and brickwork affected by weather, acid rain, and pollution and which has decayed to a structurally unsound or aesthetically displacing condition.
Rebuilding: To replace a severely damaged or missing part of a building.
Building Cleaning: Most especially cleaning the facades of the building, typically needed in cities that have suffered from pollution.