New York City (NYC) Alterations

[Alexk2]

Does anyone have any guides or knows where I can find what lateral requirements are required for different types of alterations in NYC?

We are doing an alternation to an existing 4 story building. (ALT-1) Opening up the first floor completely and are going to install moment frames from the basement to the underside of the 2nd floor framing. One of the engineers in my office says we have to do a complete lateral analysis, that will most likely involve installing moment frames up the entire building to meet today's code. My take has been because we are not changing the lateral system above, we don't in theory have to check the lateral system for those floors. The new moment frames are positioned below the old brick walls and are designed to take the lateral load for all the floors above. What are peoples understanding of the code/rules/bulletins in NYC?

Thank you,

 

[bridgebuster]

Check the NYC Building Code

Link

If you can't find the answer, just call them, they're usually very helpful.

 

[bookowski]

You can basically do anything you want in nyc - but shouldn't.

Google nyc tppn 4-99, it's the closest thing they provide to guidance (but still generally not very useful).

Check out this past thread on this topic. I did all my venting on the topic there:

http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=379446