SITUATION

Full gut-renovation of pre-war coop on the Upper East Side whose building had many complex requirements that were not included in the alteration agreement.

CHALLENGE

After the alteration package submission, the building notified our team that they required two layers of drywall to mimic “original quality and character” of the 1920s building which is twice what is typical for new, luxury apartments in NYC.

SOLUTION

mdg knew the assemblies being proposed for this renovation were contemporary partitions that were up to code and considered luxury.  Additionally, adding an extra layer of drywall throughout the apartment would add costs and space constraints. mdg went above and beyond for their client by creating a narrative and presenting a case to the building board and building architect to ask for an exception to this archaic rule. mdg showed the rule was outside industry standard, and requested that our proposed code-compliant, luxury assemblies be accepted as alternates. After we made our case, the building accepted our proposal.