Change Orders

Opinion and analysis on where the industry's headed.

Where NYC construction is headed, what the bid data is really saying, and the calls the rest of the industry press won't make out loud. Opinion, clearly labeled as such — the reporting stays in the other sections. This is where we say what we think, so you can decide what you think.

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August 2026

• The Curb Is Not Your Staging Yard AnymoreBus lanes with cameras, bike lanes with concrete, embargoes with calendars. The street in front of your site is being redesigned out from under your logistics plan.August 31, 2026
• Mental Health Is Now Site SafetyMore construction workers die by suicide than by every jobsite hazard combined. As of this year, the training card finally says so.August 31, 2026
• The 99-Unit CityOne Brooklyn developer just filed 297 apartments as three separate 99-unit buildings. That's not a quirk — it's the shape of every pro forma in the outer boroughs right now.August 31, 2026
• The $85 Million Parking GarageAt 125 Perry Street, a 1931 garage is being hollowed out behind its own brick face and rebuilt as seven residences. It is the hardest kind of job in the city — and the most profitable square footage in the Village.August 31, 2026
• Rebuilding the Building Everybody HatesThe $10 billion bus terminal replacement is fifteen months into construction, a $1.87 billion package is already let, and a decade of work is still coming. It may be the best sustained job in the city.August 31, 2026
• The Gas Ban Survived Court. Now It's an Engineering Problem.The Second Circuit upheld both all-electric laws in June, and the state ban comes off suspension October 28. The argument phase is over — what's left is hot water, switchgear, and the envelope.August 30, 2026
• The City Just Put a Meter on Every Sidewalk ShedNinety-day permits, engineer sign-offs at every renewal, and idle fines that hit $6,000 a month. The stall is now more expensive than the repair — which is exactly the point.August 29, 2026
• Twice the Filings, One Super Per SiteFirst-quarter permit applications doubled, and the paperwork wave is about to become an excavation wave — straight into a one-job superintendent rule and a safety-enforcement regime with no slack in it.August 27, 2026
• The $268 Line ItemCarbon caps stopped being an ESG slide and became a bill. For the trades that do heavy mechanical and electrical work, the 2030 wall is the biggest retrofit pipeline this city has ever scheduled.August 25, 2026
• A Million Dollars for a Wine CellarWhile the middle of the market argues with its tax math, 80 Clarkson has moved a billion dollars of condos it hasn't finished building. The top of this city runs on a different economy — and it's hiring different trades.August 22, 2026
• The Co-op Board Is Now on the Critical PathSince February 2, DOB won't touch a unit-owner alteration filing until the building's board logs in and attests to it. The renovation schedule now runs through a volunteer with a password.August 20, 2026
• New York Didn't Stop Building. The Hard Part Moved.Ground-up is parked, the gut renovation is king, one super now means one site, and the shed clock is running. The margin lives in pre-construction now.August 18, 2026