Build It Back
In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, the five boroughs of New York suffered high levels of damage to buildings at or close to sea level. The storm did not discriminate in its damage - commercial, institutional and residential buildings alike were heavily damaged with the inundation of sea water.
While the commercial, institutional and high rise multi-family buildings were able to repair and rebuild quickly, thousands of homeowners were either rendered homeless or not able to make repairs to their homes for a multitude of reasons.
To assist homeowners, the City of New York created the Build It Back program dedicated to helping New Yorkers living in communities affected by the storm and to provide help in rebuilding along with improving resiliency of their homes and communities. There were over 8,000 1-4 units damaged due to the storm and, owing to the volume of resources required to rebuild 1-4 residences, the BiB program has divided the work into different city agencies.
Key Contacts
Client
Department of Design and Construction (DDC)
Location
Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island
New York City's Department of Design and Construction (DDC) is responsible for the oversight of 2,100 homes in the program. The resources are divided by borough (Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island) and the endeavor lead by a dedicated Construction Manager. The Construction Manager guides the process of the repair regardless of pathway (rehabilitation, elevation or reconstruction).
G&T was initially engaged by DDC to construct a cost model and guide, perform risk analysis and to report on cost reasonableness of the DDC part of the program - originally a three month process. The role has since expanded and the team is now reviewing estimates of construction costs of elevation, repair and reconstruction of individual homes. G&T continues to establish cost reasonableness on the construction value of each proposed home repair based on the NYC BiB parameters in all boroughs and is also auditing post construction costs to ensure compliance with FEMA and HUD requirements.
