Page 6 - NJ Cooperator Summer 2020

6 THE NEW JERSEY COOPERATOR —SUMMER 2020 NJCOOPERATOR.COM MANAGEMENT While there are strong arguments to be changed over the years,” says Susan Lau- made about the less-than-great impact the ren, the principal of New York-based Lau- internet has had on our lives and the world, ren Interior Design. “What was appropri- few would disagree that it's made a lot of ate 10 years ago is no longer sufficient for things a whole lot more accessible to a lot most buildings. The space set aside just isn’t more people—especially at the moment, large enough. Very often we are building out when the coronavirus pandemic has made package closets into existing lobby space, or regular brick-and-mortar shopping incon- venient at best, impossible or dangerous at ture like storage cabinets that are custom- worst. Even before municipal lockdowns ized to the space and match the décor and and shelter-in-place orders were issued, design of the lobby.” practically anything, from sushi to sports equipment to sofas, could be delivered right riving each day from Amazon, other regu- to your door—often within 24 hours of or- dering it. Convenience on a level once re- served for very wealthy people with house- hold staff they could send out to pick up cases, those items compete for space with whatever is now taken for granted by nearly online retail deliveries, including perishable everyone, regardless of tax bracket. In many multifamily buildings however, Direct and Blue Apron, which may also re- the result of this convenience is anything quire refrigeration, adding a whole new di- but. Doormen and frontline building staff are regularly buried in everything from clothing to books to electronics to grocer- ies, and residents in unstaffed buildings multifamily client, Lauren speaks with the worry about packages left unattended in concierge and doorman to get their input vestibules or lobbies. The piles were get- ting bigger even before COVID-19 put the need, and what kind—shelves versus hang- whole process into overdrive (and added the ing bars, for example—since they're the ones additional element of worry over the virus coping with the problem daily. “I let them spreading through contact with boxes and drive the direction of the size and objective other packaging). So what’s the solution? In of the new or redesigned space,” she says. a word: organization. Making Room for More “Storage needs for package delivery have by approximately 50%. The plan included adding storage capacity by creating furni- In addition to the avalanche of boxes ar- lar delivery items —things like dry cleaning and registered mail—are still being dropped off, and still take up plenty of space. In many food from meal-kit purveyors like Fresh mension to the bottleneck. When designing a new or upgraded storage space and box reception area for a on how much more space they think they At one client building, Lauren redesigned an existing storage area, increasing the space Managing Deliveries Solving ‘The Package Problem’ BY A. J. SIDRANSKY