Tag: Jonathan Barnes

It will come as no surprise to anyone that between the cars, industry, residents’ power needs, and other energy use, New York City has a pretty mammoth carbon footprint. According to a recent carbon inventory of the city, nearly 80 perc…

 For the residents of a co-op or condo building, the building's lobby and common  areas function much as a front porch or entry hall might in a single-family  home; they're a spot to meet guests, get mail and packages, or to stop and chat …

There's no question about it: economically speaking, it's been a very weird couple of years here in Gotham. While the outright market collapse so many feared seems to have been largely avoided, sellers who have seen double-digit declin…

Concrete is the most prevalent building material in existence today, though most people probably don’t notice how widely used the material is until it begins to break up in front of their homes, or falls off of their buildings, roads an…

 Not so long ago, if you wanted to know who was on your stoop, you stuck your  head out the window and asked who was there. But these days, the demand for  greater security and the evolution of technology has led to the availability of  sy…

Even when living in a multi-family building, individual residents must handle some of the same responsibilities as those of a single-family homeowner. While board members will be more involved than other residents in helping to ensure …

Talk to enough property managers and board members, and eventually you’ll hear the phrase “owner’s mentality” mentioned in reference to co-op and condo dwellers. Usually the phrase is uttered by way of a complaint, as in, “Our residents …

Thirty-three years ago, during the summer of 1976’s energy crisis, 40 people gathered on the rooftop of 519 East 11th Street in Manhattan’s East Village, beers in hand, determined to create their own power source. With enthusiasm, flavo…

 Though often responsible for millions of dollars in property and charged with  the oversight of complex building functions, few co-op/condo board members are  real estate professionals. Board members are resident volunteers who come from …

Those who handle the management of any kind of residential building deal with contractors and contracts regularly—but they aren’t the only ones who should know about the process. It’s not necessarily an arcane topic—whether the project i…