SERVICE AREA · MANHATTAN
Façade restoration and Local Law 11 repairs on Manhattan's pre-war and landmark buildings
Manhattan holds more than half of all the buildings in New York's façade inspection program, about 9,100 in the last cycle. Most of them are pre-war masonry trimmed in stone and terra cotta, and roughly one in five tall buildings sits in a historic district. Banu restores façades and carries out FISP repairs here, where the Landmarks permit, the building next door and a street with no room to spare shape the schedule as much as the wall does. We plan for all three before the first drop.
Manhattan by the numbers
- FISP buildings, Cycle 9
- 9,151 (55% of the city)
- Initial reports filed Unsafe
- 24.0%
- Buildings reporting terra cotta
- 33%
- Buildings reporting natural stone
- 34%
- Buildings with an active shed permit (Oct 1, 2026)
- 3,041 (45% of the 6,766 citywide)
Source: NYC Open Data (DOB NOW: Safety – Facades Compliance Filings; DOB NOW: Build – Approved Permits), as of October 2, 2026. Method and full data →
What Manhattan is built from
Start with age. More than 4,000 Manhattan tax lots with buildings of seven or more floors were built before 1940, more than the other four boroughs put together. That pre-war stock is most of what we work on here: brick and limestone apartment houses on the Upper West and Upper East Sides, terra cotta-clad lofts in the Garment District and around Ladies' Mile, and cast iron in SoHo and Tribeca.
Then there's the post-war layer. The Upper East Side (Community District 8) has more post-war buildings of seven or more floors than any other community district in the city, about 367 in the city's PLUTO data. They include the white glazed brick towers that caught on after Manhattan House went up on East 66th Street. Since 2000, Chelsea, Clinton and Hudson Yards have added about 277 buildings of seven or more floors, a lot of them glass. Across Manhattan, about 665 FISP buildings have curtain-wall façades.
What goes wrong on them
- Terra cotta: On buildings roughly 100 years old, the units crack and their anchors rust. One in three Manhattan FISP buildings that reported materials listed terra cotta. Terra cotta restoration →
- Steel-frame "rust jacking": Buried steel rusts and swells, and the wall shows it as vertical cracks at corners and horizontal cracks at lintels and shelf angles.
- Cornices and parapets: The most exposed parts of a pre-war building, and a regular source of Unsafe findings.
- White glazed brick: Spalling and bulging on towers from the 1950s and 60s.
- Cast iron: Corrosion, failed joints and lost anchorage in SoHo and Tribeca.
- Curtain walls: Gaskets, sealant and hardware wear out on towers 10 to 30 years old.
Landmarks: about one in five tall buildings
Roughly 1,665 Manhattan tax lots with buildings of seven or more floors sit inside historic districts. The biggest concentrations are in the Upper West Side/Central Park West, Upper East Side, Ladies' Mile, Riverside-West End, Greenwich Village and SoHo-Cast Iron districts. In any of them, exterior work waits on an LPC permit. We work with your architect on the application, the material matches and the mockups so that the permit and the repair scope line up. Landmark restoration →
Working on a Manhattan block
- Your neighbors are part of the job. Most tall Manhattan buildings are attached, so roof protection and rigging often depend on the building next door. We rig under our own Special Rigger license, start license agreements early and leave room in the schedule for RPAPL §881 in case a neighbor holds out.
- The street is spoken for. Sidewalk sheds, curb-lane closures and deliveries each need DOT and DOB permits. At 60th Street and below, every truck is also entering the Congestion Relief Zone, so we plan deliveries as tightly as the work.
- The calendar counts. DOT's holiday embargo suspends routine street work on designated streets from November 15, 2026 to January 2, 2027, including most of Midtown and Lower Manhattan, unless DOT approves an exception.
- Everyone is tired of sheds. About 45% of the city's buildings with active shed permits are in Manhattan, and residents and retail tenants feel every month one stays up. We build the schedule around getting yours down. Shed removal →
Across Manhattan
- Upper West Side: The deepest pre-war stock in the city. Riverside Drive and West End Avenue alone account for about 300 FISP buildings.
- Upper East Side: Pre-war limestone on Park and Fifth, and more post-war high-rises than any other community district in the city.
- Midtown and the Garment District: Terra cotta loft buildings, often with retail at the base.
- SoHo, Tribeca and NoHo: The SoHo-Cast Iron Historic District holds the largest concentration of cast iron façades in the world, and most of the area's tall buildings are inside historic districts.
- Flatiron and Ladies' Mile: Turn-of-the-century department store buildings, about 175 of them seven floors or taller inside the district.
- Morningside Heights: A historic district since 2017, and home to large institutional owners.
Manhattan questions
Our co-op is in the Upper West Side historic district. What does that add to a FISP repair?
An LPC permit, issued before any work starts. FISP repairs that leave protected features unchanged usually get a Certificate of No Effect, and masonry repair that needs no DOB permit usually gets a Permit for Minor Work. Start well ahead of your filing deadline, because matching materials and building mockups is where the time goes.
Our neighbor won't let us put roof protection on their building. What now?
Start with a license agreement. Most neighbors come around once the protection plan and the insurance terms are spelled out. If yours still refuses, RPAPL §881 lets a New York court grant temporary access for necessary repairs, usually with conditions attached. Either way, build the time for it into the schedule early.
Does the holiday construction embargo stop façade work?
Work on the wall itself carries on. NYC DOT's holiday embargo (November 15, 2026 to January 2, 2027 this year) suspends routine street work on designated streets in every borough, including most of Midtown and Lower Manhattan. That hits curb-lane closures and crane and delivery permits, so we schedule anything that needs the street around it.
We have a white glazed brick building on the Upper East Side that keeps failing. Repair or re-clad?
Look hard at both. White glazed brick from the 1950s and 60s traps moisture behind the glaze, and every freeze-thaw cycle spalls more of the face. If you're replacing large areas every cycle, re-cladding can be the better long-term answer than repeating the same repair. We'll lay out both scopes and schedules side by side so your board can decide.
Our services in Manhattan
Let's talk about your building
Tell us about your Manhattan building
Send the address, the number of stories and what your last report said. That's enough for us to start.
