A Pair of Metropolitan Projects
In 2007, anticipating a growing trend in the industry toward more sustainable building, Frank Mosomillo became a LEED AP and member of the USGBC. The president of Ryder Constrcution, Inc., a general contractor and construction-management firm in the New York City metropolitan area, Mosomillo works with a team that is clearly comfortable with high-profile work that must be innovative and sustainable, but the firm isn't overly costly, either. “We’re predominantly a nonunion contractor, and that has served us well for customers who are looking for more economical methods of delivery,” Mosomillo says of his firm’s popularity. “We saw a trend of using nonunion workers starting to emerge about 15 years ago, and we decided to take the company in that direction.” In the last few years, two of the company’s projects have stood out in particular, one for blending with its existing neighborhood and the other as an inimitable warehouse renovation.
211–217 Elizabeth Street
New York City
Started
2007
Completed
2009
Size
30,000 square feet
Cost
$15 million
Building Type
High-end residential
1
Sited on the corner of Elizabeth and Prince Streets in the older neighborhood of NoLIta (North of Little Italy), this mixed-use commercial and residential building was one of many high-profile projects Ryder Construction completed in the past few years. Fifteen upscale residential condominium units are situated over ground-level commercial units, and the exterior of the seven-story red-brick building mimics the surrounding buildings built in the early 1900s.
“Its overall design and level of detail make it unique,” Mosomillo says. “If you look at the building, it looks like it was built 100 years ago. It blends so well into this older neighborhood.”
One of the challenges of the project was the demolition of the previous building, which had to be conducted without damaging the surrounding historical structures. Now, the new building’s units, ranging in size from 787 square feet for a one-bedroom to 2,190 square feet for the penthouse, all have walnut herringbone parquet floors, multizone HVAC systems, seven-foot custom wood-framed windows, and individually controlled Governair baseboard heat. The master baths have honed Calcutta gold marble walls and floors and bronze-trimmed moldings, the kitchens are outfitted with high-efficiency kitchen appliances, and all units have Bosch front-loading washers and dryers.
Brooklyn Brewery
New York City
Started
2010
Completed
Currently in Phase 2 of construction
Size
35,000 square feet
Cost
$6 million
Building Type
Commercial
2
More than 50 percent of Ryder Construction’s projects are adaptive reuse or renovations, and one standout piece of retrofit work is the Brooklyn Brewery in the Williamsburg neighborhood. The craft brewers of the popular Brooklyn Lager hired Ryder Construction to renovate their warehouse to increase production tenfold.
The brewing equipment, ordered from Germany, came with its own installation crew, but Ryder Construction completed all piping and wiring to the apparatus. Along with the retrofit of the brewing area, Ryder Construction also repaired and restored the brewery’s façade, and it spruced up the interior to make better use of the empty warehouse space.
“We reconstructed the facility around the existing operation,” Mosomillo says. “They didn’t need to shut down. They operated very efficiently while we were constructing it, and the client was very satisfied. They increased their capacity tenfold.”
In April 2011, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg cut the ribbon on Phase 1 of the project, and Ryder Construction is now working on phase two. The firm also has installed an external wort boiler, which uses less heat consumption to retain a desired temperature. And another new efficiency involves the reuse of heat from the kettle vapors through a vapor-heat stack-recovery system. ABQ
