Brooklyn’s Rescue Co. #2, seen above, is a firehouse that opened in 2019 as part of a past Project Excellence contract. Image Credit: NYC DDC.

Projects will be awarded to the selected firms on a rotating basis. On March 16, 2022, the Department of Design and Construction (DDC) announced the selection of twenty firms the agency has contracted with for architectural design services for future public building projects. The firms were selected as part of the Project Excellence Program. The Project Excellence Program pre-qualifies firms to provide design services for public building projects to ensure high quality while saving time on the procurement process. The previous round of the program expired in 2021. (more…)

Rendering of Archer Green, a new 100 percent affordable mixed-use development in Jamaica, Queens. Image Credit: NYCEDC

The addition furthers the City’s goal of financing 200,000 affordable households by the end of the de Blasio administration. On December 3, 2021, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) announced the creation of an additional 1,221 affordable homes between two completed projects in Queens and two projects that have broken ground in the Bronx and Brooklyn. (more…)

Governor Kathy Hochul speaks with local residents during a visit to a storm damaged neighborhood in Queens, NY earlier this month. (Photo: Don Pollard/Office of Governor Kathy Hochul)

The program offers assistance to those who cannot qualify for federal relief. On September 26, 2021, Governor Kathy Hochul announced that $27 million will be available for relief from Hurricane Ida for undocumented New Yorkers. Undocumented New Yorkers who suffered from the historic flooding and storm damage are not eligible to receive storm recovery assistance through the FEMA Individual Assistance Program or other programs due to their undocumented status. The New York State Office for New Americans (ONA) will manage the program. (more…)

Image credit: NYC Department of Parks & Recreation.

Fialkoff recently served as the Senior Advisor for COVID Relief Efforts to the Mayor. On September 24, 2021, Mayor Bill de Blasio appointed Gabrielle Fialkoff as the new Commissioner of the Department of Parks and Recreation. She succeeds Acting Commissioner Margaret Nelson, who took the helm after former Commissioner Mitchell Silver stepped down earlier this summer.  (more…)

Artist’s rendering of the new Rego Park Branch of the Queens Public Library. Image Credit: DDC

The new library will be over double the size of the existing one. On July 28, 2021, Department of Design and Construction Commission Jamie Torres-Springer joined elected officials and the Queens Public Library President and CEO Dennis M. Walcott to reveal the design for the new Rego Park Library. Located at 91-41 63rd Drive, the new library will replace the current one-story library that has operated since 1975. The Rego Park branch currently serves nearly 200,000 people a year and lends approximately 190,000 items annually, making it one of the busiest library branches in Queens.  (more…)