While a building’s facade might draw the eye initially, it’s usually the first employee a visitor encounters that forms a lasting impression. And for many condominiums in New York City, the resident doorman holds this coveted, all-impor…
When you think landscaping, you probably don’t think of a swanky New York co-op or condo building. After all, landscaping in the usual sense is typically reserved for suburban homes where there is rolling turf, strategically placed tree…
For most of us, there simply are not enough hours in the day to do everything that needs to be done. We rush to pick the kids up from school, make it to that impromptu work meeting that just got called, or even find the time to grab som…
Valerie Smaldone lives in a lovely, well-kept, prewar building in the Midtown East area, known as the Beekman area. Her building was built in the late 1920's and, among other amenities, has an extraordinary rooftop garden where she occ…
The worst of the recession—big-time failures of investment banks and mortgage companies, huge banks in trouble, companies laying people off in the thousands—may be over. There are some signs of hope, and residential buildings that were …
As we city dwellers go about our busy lives, we often forget about the plain facts of life here on this spinning globe: gravity creates an unceasing tension in the materials we assemble into buildings and other structures. Whether or n…
Media room, game room, common room, party room—regardless of what you call them, the purpose of these shared spaces in co-ops and condos is to give residents a place to gather; to hold an in-house meeting, throw a graduation party or sc…
With the price of gasoline rising, daily traffic snarls, a desire to live a healthier life and the responsibility to lessen the effect of one's carbon footprint, there are many reasons to own a bike. Buying the bike is just the beginni…
Anyone who lives in a city that is a popular tourist destination has likely played host to a procession of family, friends, friends-of-family, and other assorted houseguests over the years. It's something of a running joke in places li…
With interest rates at historic lows, never rising too far above 4% these days, boards are looking at refinancing their co-op's underlying mortgage to build up their reserves as a viable alternative to raising maintenance fees or levyin…