My name is Brian M. Curran, and I was hired by a Brooklyn based architect to create existing conditions drawings for a luxury townhouse renovation project located in the Greenpoint Historic District of Brooklyn, NY.
Below is a review of the project, including the as-builts I created.
The Project in Greenpoint Brooklyn
I have 18+ years of experience providing existing conditions surveys and as-built drawings for architects, contractors, and property owners throughout New York City and the tri-state area.
This project was an existing conditions survey for a large luxury townhouse located within the Greenpoint Historic District in Brooklyn, NY.
The building is a landmarked pre-Civil War structure originally constructed circa 1855. Over the years the townhouse underwent major renovation and reconstruction work, including a recent vertical addition and extensive interior remodel by a fix-and-flip developer. The completed property became a $7 million two-family townhouse totaling approximately 6,000 square feet, with multiple outdoor spaces including a rooftop deck.
The building was legally configured as a two-family residence, the property was owned by a single individual who occupied the upper portion of the townhouse while tenants occupied the lower levels.
After purchasing the property, the owner hired an architect to redesign portions of the upper residence due to a number of interior finish and construction quality issues that became apparent after moving into the home.
As part of that process, accurate existing conditions drawings were required before the architect could begin the redesign work.
Existing Conditions Survey Scope
For projects like this, the architect typically requires a verified set of field measured drawings showing the actual built conditions before beginning the redesign process.
Although architectural drawings for the townhouse existed from the recent construction work, those drawings could not simply be relied upon as accurate representations of what actually existed. Therefore my job was to field measure the areas that would be involved in the future renovation and create a complete measured drawing set based on the actual site conditions.
The survey scope for this project included the owner’s upper residence, which consisted of the third floor, fourth floor, and roof deck levels. I was also asked to measure the garden level for the owner’s future use.
The final drawing package included measured floor plans, electrical plans, reflected ceiling plans, a stair section through the owner’s unit, and interior elevations for eight rooms throughout the residence.
One of the important aspects of existing conditions survey work is that the drawings created during the survey process become the architectural base drawings used for the redesign phase of the project. The architect relies on those drawings to reflect the actual field conditions that the new design must work from.
Field Conditions vs Existing Drawings
The townhouse itself was an interesting property to survey due to both its size and layout.
The building contained multiple levels connected through a number of interior stair systems and also an elevator that ran from the parlor level to the third floor. It also included a mixture of historic building structure combined with modern luxury finishes and smart home systems added during the recent redevelopment.
While many portions of the residence were completed to a high standard, other finish conditions throughout the townhouse reflected areas where construction quality and detailing were not great. According to the architectural team, portions of the prior renovation had been completed under budget pressure, which contributed to some of the issues the new owner wanted corrected through the redesign process.
Existing Conditions Drawings Set
Below is the existing conditions drawing package created for this project. The drawings were developed from field measurements taken onsite and used as the base drawings for the renovation.
Click the image above to view the complete PDF drawing set for this project.
Walkthrough Video
The video below shows a brief on-site walkthrough of the townhouse at the time of measurement. It provides context for the scale of the building and the types of spaces included in the existing conditions survey.
Contact
If you require existing conditions drawings, as built drawings, or measured building surveys for your project, feel free to contact me and I would be happy to discuss your project requirements.
Contact me today at 718.441.3968, text me now at 646.504.5230, or email me now at brian@draftingservices.com.