Sometimes the latest thing is also the lamest, particularly in poorly designed and shoddily built residential projects.
Missing dining rooms, shallow closets and low ceilings are some examples of sloppy work or mistakes developers and architects appear to be repeating in projects all over the city.
Some of these errors are simply examples of lousy workmanship, but others may come from communication glitches between developers, architects and brokers when they collaborate on the development and marketing of new residential properties.
When The Real Deal explored design shortcomings, pet peeves cropped up, but so did the underlying tension and delicate balance of power between these groups.
Max Dobens, a vice president at Prudential Douglas Elliman, said: “Anybody with $10 million and half a quarter of ambition is a real estate developer in New York. You have guys with sub-standard ethics and no experience running around out there building and designing things without any proper thought as to how they’re going to resell it. That’s a bit dangerous, I think.”
Poor planning by these types of developers leads to designs that sacrifice livability, Dobens said.
“There’s too much selling the sizzle of the steak and not enough functionality today,” he said.
The C line at the Impala at 404 East 76th Street, for example, has two-foot closets and no dining area.
“Anyone who buys a $1 million apartment has a couple coats. It’s a bit absurd,” Dobens said. “When you have a family and kids, you have strollers and diapers and golf clubs.”
Dobens recommends that all buildings dig one story deeper and install storage bins for every apartment in addition to providing reasonable closet space. He also suggested that no two-bedroom apartment should have fewer than 1,100 square feet.
Alissa Bucher of Rogers Marvel Architects agreed with Dobens about the unscrupulousness of some developers. “Almost everything that you can’t see ends up being scrimped on,” she said, citing infrastructure and materials as examples.
Bucher and other architects, brokers and developers emphasized the importance of finding the correct mix of apartments in a building.
William Ross, the executive director of sales at Halstead Brooklyn, said, “You have to identify your potential buyer before laying out your very first apartment, because the unit mix and the sizes within that mix are imperative to directing the architect.”
Certain neighborhoods call for young singles, young couples and very few kids, Ross explained.
Ross cited 110 Livingston, developer David Walentas’ conversion of the former Board of Education headquarters in Downtown Brooklyn, as an excellent example of unit mix, design and sizing of apartments.
Yet some new projects in Williamsburg, he said, have poor unit planning as well as extremely low ceiling heights and small closet space.
The black sheep of Williams-burg, 55 Berry Street, offers examples of practically everyone’s idea of design problems: poor unit planning, low ceilings, little closet space and bathrooms without bathtubs.
“The theory of the architects is that buyers won’t notice,” Ross said. But “buyers have a lot of choice all over the city and they are extremely sophisticated.”
Ross, whose job involves reviewing blueprints for errors, has found several other common — and avoidable — design flaws. He said that 50 percent of architects make fundamental mistakes in laying out kitchens, failing to make enough space for full-sized refrigerators, sinks and stoves.
Ross also highlighted the impracticality of a kitchen island in a small kitchen/dining space.
“Too many people are following too many trends,” he said. “The presumption that grown-up people, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars, are going to eat at the kitchen island is absolutely wrong.”
Developers, often blamed for cutting corners over preoccupation with the bottom line, said common errors start with laying out a building based on brokers’ impressions of the market.
“What I don’t understand is that I rarely see anyone using the amenities,” said Donald Capoccia, a principal with developer BFC Partners, which developed Schaefer Landing on the Williamsburg waterfront.
“Gyms, lounges, playrooms: I know they’re very helpful in the marketing of a project. But Schaefer Landing has about 6,000 feet of amenity space — a library, a lounge — and they are very underutilized.”
“We’re better off spending the money on improvements to the space than the expansiveness of the space,” he said.
But buyers can find gems instead of lemons by moving where brokers and developers move. Dobens, for example, lives at the Dunhill at 401 East 84th Street, in the same building as the developer, Arun Bhatia. “When I sell at the Dunhill, and the developer still lives there, I’m not just making a quick buck,” he said. “I put my money where my mouth is.”