Category: Association Operations

When the mercury hits 95, the last thing most people have on their mind is a major snowstorm, and how it might affect their building’s entry vestibule, lobby, and other high-traffic common areas. Be as that may, summer is actually the time …

First-time buyers in condo associations, co-ops, and other multifamily residential communities are often surprised—and a bit confused—by the way in which their new building or HOA operates. Whether they are coming from a rental background o…

Even before the pandemic and social unrest of the last few years, interpersonal conflict and outright hostility often surfaced in the co-op and condo environment, forcing boards and managers to deal with both legitimate grievances and confl…

Thanks to COVID, managing co-ops and condo communities over the past couple of years has been a vastly more complicated job than it was in ‘the Before Times.’ From staff shortages and supply chain disruptions to the struggle to enforce mask…

Do you remember when you were a kid and the closest thing you had to a cell phone at the time was two cups with a string attached between them? You pulled the string taut, spoke into one cup, and hoped your friend holding the other would he…

The psychosocial impact of the pandemic is far-reaching. And like the rest of the world, residents living in condos, co-ops, and HOAs have been conditioned to keep their distance and turn inward. But even with infection rates slowing overal…

As both a writer about and resident of high-rise residential buildings, I followed the June 2021 collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium with a hawk’s eye. I read about the people who perished and the loved ones left to carry on;…

Whether you're a manager or a board member, running a condo, HOA, or co-op has never been an easy job. There's always a capital project to fund, a contractor to hire, a dispute to resolve, a leak to repair...the list can feel endless. Add t…

With hurricanes and other torrential storm events on the rise around the nation, the issue of flooding has come as something of a wake-up call for homeowners and local governments alike. The real-world effects of climate change are upon us,…

The idea that ‘form follows function’ is one of the basic concepts underlying nearly every design discipline—but function for whom? For many people living with disabilities, it often seems that ‘function’ covers a very narrow range of abili…