The Department of Buildings works to ensure the health of all people who build, work, and live in New York City by managing the lawful use of over one million buildings and construction sites throughout the five boroughs. The Department is committed to delivering efficient service to all New Yorkers by constantly evaluating fair resource distribution that meet safety regulations and the residents needs. By doing so, they make the lives of a New Yorker, safer and easier (https://www1.nyc.gov/site/buildings/about/about.page)
This year the DOB welcomed three WHSAD seniors: Emmanuel Perez (far right), Ajani Thorpe (far left), and Fransisco Sandoval (back right).
When asked about their work, each student described the experiences they had, what they learned, and how the work affects them in a bigger picture.
This first portion is the interview with Ajani Thorpe.
Tell me about your work at NYC department of buildings.
Do you think this job will help you in the future? If so, how?
“At the department of buildings, I’m a plan examiner. What a plan examiner does is look at the different floor plans that are sent to us and but regulate safety throughout the building based on those floor plans. If something looks off, we either deny it or let it slide and continue to look at the rest of the floor plan.”
“This job will definitely help me in the future because let’s say for example, I want to become an architect, I know what things need to go in a floor plan, and I know how to use that to get around in the Department of Buildings.”
Tell me something about the job that you liked.
“Something that I like about the job is denying floor plans, because, even though the architect comes back for revaluation, I think it’s kinda fun, even though, you have to fill out a letter of objection explaining to the person who’s sent in the floor plan that they haven’t responded to any of ours emails or picked up our phone calls, so this is just saying that whatever you are trying to get built, you can’t really build it until you clear up the floor plan, make the corrections and send it back to us.”
This second portion is the interview with Emmanuel Perez.
Tell me about your work at NYC department of buildings.
“We worked on floor plans with Moammar and Vincent. We also learned about letters of objections and verifications.”
Did you collaborate on any projects?
“For the letters of no objections, all the students had to to look for a certificate of occupancy, and building codes and laws. We had to look if the plans had fire suppressions or gas shut offs. If they didn’t, the planners would have to redo the floor plans. If they didn’t fix it, then they wouldn’t be able to continue with their plan.”
Tell me something specific about the experiences you had.
“It was fun working with people there. I really enjoy it, but it’s also tiring coming from school to work. I definitely gained experience but not only that, the supervisors such as Moammar taught us certain things about what goes into a floor plan, what cellars should have, the space, and what type of lighting an apartment should have. I just found it really interesting.”
This last interview is with Fransisco Sandoval.
What exactly are you working on? What does your work with the DOB entail?
“So far, we’ve done plan examination, floor plans, elevation plans, and have even looked at electrical structural and lighting aspects of several buildings. We decide if these design plans should be approved or not. We also do something called letters of objection that is in essence, a “perfect project” statement that gives the ok for people to actually start building. We also learn basics such as folding and scanning.”
So far, what’s your favorite part about working for the DOB?
“Since the DOB has been around for a while, they have a wide collection of older documents from way back in the day. Being able to scan and look at these documents that are over 20 years old is my favorite thing. Looking at such historical documents they had from way back then, and seeing what people had to work with and create in their own time is pretty cool.”
What have you learned? How would you say this experience adds to your professional development?
“The examination planning we do teaches me to be more precise and attentive when studying details. I’ve learned to be very thorough when looking through plans.”