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-MAY 2021
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UNIVERSAL...
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meet the needs of the mobility impaired,” he
says, “and co-ops and condos must be careful
that they are adhering to those codes. For in-
stance, you have a front entrance to a building.
There are code requirements for ramps; doors
must open outward, and there are mandatory
heights for handles, as well as requirements
for the width of the doors, which must be at
least 36 inches to accommodate wheelchairs.
Stairs may also be an issue for the mobility im-
paired. For people with vision impairments,
there are signs in braille. For the hearing im-
paired, everything is visual.”
For older buildings built long before the
ADA was even a concept, there may be some
wiggle room, Baron says. “It should be noted
that some buildings are grandfathered in—
but if and when they redesign their public ar-
eas, they need to be careful about what choices
they make, since an architectural change to
the building may trigger ADA compliance re-
quirements. That can be very expensive.”
Cost vs. Compliance
Baron points out that while many older
buildings are grandfathered in under the ADA
and therefore not mandated to comply with
the Act’s specifications, even if they wanted to
update their spaces, the cost of doing so may
be prohibitive. This is particularly true for
smaller prewar co-ops and condos, and those
whose residents are on fixed incomes.
figuring a limited interior space—especially
within the confines of the condo association’s
or co-op corporation’s alteration rules and
parameters—requires a particular set of skills
and ideas.
Ximena Rodriguez, Principal and Direc-
tor of Interior Design for New York design
firm CetraRuddy, says that even before the
pandemic, new construction clients like the
Rockefeller Group, developers of the Rose
Hill condominium tower in Manhattan’s
NoMad neighborhood, were incorporating
multipurpose “flex spaces” into apartment
designs. In terms of COVID, she says, “As
people work from home, and as their kids
learn from home, they need the rooms and
areas within those homes to play more than
one role. Now flex spaces have become a seri-
ous value-add for buyers, because they offer
room to set up a home office or library, or a
learning space for children. This is a trend we
anticipate will soon become widespread.”
Gia Milazzo Smith, owner of Designs By
Gia, serves clients in Massachusetts, New
Hampshire, Connecticut, and Rhode Island,
and sees the same trends happening in New
England. “I see a lot of people that are going
to be working from home permanently,” she
says. “People have now proved that they can
work from home successfully, so their com-
INTERIOR DESIGN...
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These communities, says Baron, “nor-
mally function pretty well, so I suggest
they avoid triggering ADA requirements.
Co-ops and condos don’t want to trigger
the costs involved or lose their entire lobby
to a ramp, so we’ll often look for another
ingress/egress option, or perhaps recom-
mend a collapsible ramp. My advice is to
be ‘conservative’ in remodeling your space
in ways that might trigger ADA require-
ments.”
By contrast, Baron continues, buildings
with more services may be able to make
meaningful updates without necessarily in-
curring exorbitant expenses. “For example,
if you have services like a concierge desk,
when you’re building a new desk or replac-
ing an existing one, it might be designed
as a dual-level surface with a 42-inch-high
surface for standing individuals and a
30-inch-high surface for individuals using
wheelchairs. This is where ADA compli-
ance and Universal Design meet.”
Cohen reiterates that “the ADA was ini-
tiated as a civil rights act, not as a prescrip-
tion of dimensional code requirements”
and stresses that understanding the users
of a space and what they want and need is
what is most important. He points to New
York City’s Inclusive Design Guidelines,
which the city’s Department of Design
and Construction publishes in collabora-
tion with the Center for Inclusive Design
& Environmental Access at the State Uni-
versity of New York (SUNY) Buffalo as “an
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outstanding example of a document that
meshes an understanding of accessibility
codes with the nuances of how differently-
abled users make use of spaces and facili-
ties,” from those with mobility challenges to
those of varied heights, including children.
“Each section describes recommended
characteristics but also includes advisory
notes that allow for nuances in consider-
ation.” A full PDF of the guidelines can be
found here: https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/
ddc/downloads/publications/guides-man-
uals/universal-design-ny.pdf
In the final analysis, Universal Design—
design for everyone—is a concept whose
time is definitely here, but also one that
has evolved organically over decades. It has
also meshed and grown with the practical
implications of the Americans with Dis-
abilities Act to make real and lasting chang-
es in how we build, what we build, and who
we build it for.
n
A J Sidransky is a staff writer/reporter
for New England Condominium, and a pub-
lished novelist.