SERVICES

Architect Ira Shapiro has provided expert services related to owner-architect, owner-contractor, landlord-tenant, owner-operator, and condominium ownership disputes, both as part of litigation and not, and for both attorneys and individuals.

Expert Services

AIS has provided expert services related to owner-architect, owner-contractor, landlord-tenant, owner-operator, and condominium ownership disputes, for both individuals and attorneys.

Examples include:

  • Residential owner-architect disputes, Greenwich and Milford, CT (6 projects)
  • Church renovations and additions, owner-architect dispute, Darien, CT
  • BOMA calculation of usable and rentable areas in a commercial office building, Wilton, CT
  • Investigation of infiltration of air from a swimming pool bubble enclosure into an attached building for the YMCA, CT
  • Evaluation of storm damages to country club buildings, golf course, swimming pools, tennis courts, and sprinkler system caused by Hurricane Sandy, Long Island, NY. AIS testified in Federal Court regarding these damages.
  • Defective premises evaluation of a high school athletic field, Westchester, NY
  • Multi-family residential building, owner-contractor dispute, Norwalk, CT 
  • Evaluation of common and limited common areas in a condominium, Greenwich, CT



ADA Consulting

The Americans with Disabilities Act, the ADA, is far-reaching civil rights legislation. It requires owners of places of public accommodation that predate the law (1991) to renovate their buildings to make reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities as defined in the law and that those accommodations be readily achievable. Reasonable accommodations and readily achievable are carefully defined in the ADA; there are exemptions for architectural barriers, for example, steps at an entrance where the installation of a ramp is impractical, or where the cost of the accommodation is unreasonable. It also allows for accessible solutions that, while not meeting the exact letter of the law, adequately meet the intent of the law, essentially not making the perfect the enemy of the good. 

Architect Ira Shapiro provides ADA consulting services to both proactive clients – those who are providing accessibility either as a stand-alone project or as part of a larger renovation – and reactive clients – those responding to a lawsuit. Both require in-depth evaluations of the existing facilities to demonstrate what is readily achievable and what is not. 

The example to the left is of a restaurant at the corner of two narrow, busy streets in the West Village in NYC. Proximity to a street planter, light pole, transformer vault grate, and cellar access doors precludes the installation of a permanent ramp on the street.

Other projects include restaurants in Midtown East, Times Square, and Harlem, NYC.

ADA Consulting

The Americans with Disabilities Act, the ADA, is far-reaching civil rights legislation. It requires owners of places of public accommodation that predate the law (1991) to renovate their buildings to make reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities as defined in the law and that those accommodations be readily achievable. Reasonable accommodations and readily achievable are carefully defined in the ADA; there are exemptions for architectural barriers, for example, steps at an entrance where the installation of a ramp is impractical, or where the cost of the accommodation is unreasonable. It also allows for accessible solutions that, while not meeting the exact letter of the law, adequately meet the intent of the law, essentially not making the perfect the enemy of the good. 

Architect Ira Shapiro provides ADA consulting services to both proactive clients – those who are providing accessibility either as a stand-alone project or as part of a larger renovation – and reactive clients – those responding to a lawsuit. Both require in-depth evaluations of the existing facilities to demonstrate what is readily achievable and what is not. 

The example to the left is of a restaurant at the corner of two narrow, busy streets in the West Village in NYC. Proximity to a street planter, light pole, transformer vault grate, and cellar access doors precludes the installation of a permanent ramp on the street.

Other projects include restaurants in Midtown East, Times Square, and Harlem, NYC.

ADA Consulting

The Americans with Disabilities Act, the ADA, is far-reaching civil rights legislation. It requires owners of places of public accommodation that predate the law (1991) to renovate their buildings to make reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities as defined in the law and that those accommodations be readily achievable. Reasonable accommodations and readily achievable are carefully defined in the ADA; there are exemptions for architectural barriers, for example, steps at an entrance where the installation of a ramp is impractical, or where the cost of the accommodation is unreasonable. It also allows for accessible solutions that, while not meeting the exact letter of the law, adequately meet the intent of the law, essentially not making the perfect the enemy of the good. 

Architect Ira Shapiro provides ADA consulting services to both proactive clients – those who are providing accessibility either as a stand-alone project or as part of a larger renovation – and reactive clients – those responding to a lawsuit. Both require in-depth evaluations of the existing facilities to demonstrate what is readily achievable and what is not. 

The example to the left is of a restaurant at the corner of two narrow, busy streets in the West Village in NYC. Proximity to a street planter, light pole, transformer vault grate, and cellar access doors precludes the installation of a permanent ramp on the street.

Other projects include restaurants in Midtown East, Times Square, and Harlem, NYC.

ADA Consulting, New York City

SEE PROJECTS

Read article in Forbes