The NYC Department of Building has launched a monthly newsletter specifically about the new Existing Building Code: here. They don’t explicitly say, but given that the code goes into effect next July, my guess is that there will be exactly twelve issues of the newsletter, explaining various aspects of the code.
The newsletter seems to be public outreach to provide short summaries of the various issues and alert people to the longer explanations available on the DoB website: here. And my response is that it’s all to the good. The new code is the first time we’ve had a consistent organized way to address work in existing buildings. Up until 1968, there were few code provisions to provide guidance on alteration work, which was generally judged by the standards of new buildings. From 1968 until 2008, a designer could opt, for some topics, to have an alteration considered under the “old code,” meaning the 1938 code that was entirely replaced in 1968. And from 2008 until next summer, you could file alterations under old code using the 1968 code provisions for those same topics. Structure has, for the most part, not been filed old code because there’s little advantage and often a disadvantage to do so, but that also means that the structural aspects of alteration have not been properly addressed.
I have only criticism of the newsletter: the crossword seems superfluous.
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