One-on-one with Department of Buildings Commissioner Eric Ulrich
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Department of Buildings Commissioner Eric Ulrich. Eagle photo by Jacob Kaye
By Jacob Kaye
It’s been about half a year since Eric Ulrich, the former councilmember from Queens, was appointed by Mayor Eric Adams to serve as the city’s Department of Buildings commissioner.
Ulrich, who represented District 32 in the City Council from 2009, when he was 24 years old, until he was term-limited out of office in 2021, says he came into the DOB with a mandate – slash red tape and turn the DOB into an agency known for providing resources and not punishment.
At the heart of what he says is a new approach for the agency, Ulrich and Mayor Eric Adams have launched a new 90-day commission that aims to compile recommendations for changes to the department’s services, programs, regulations, operations and processes. The commission features over 100 stakeholders, including those in development, city government, advocacy, contractors, labor unions and design firms.
“What we are doing is truly transformative, it’s going to shape the Buildings Department and the construction industry in the city for the next 50 years,” the commissioner said. “It is going to bring the Buildings Department into the 21st Century.”
The Eagle recently sat down with Ulrich in his office in downtown Manhattan to discuss his time on the job so far, his goals for the agency and the city, how the agency aims to balance safety and regulations, his time on the council and more.
The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Eagle: Broadly speaking, how would you describe your time as DOB commissioner so far?
Ulrich: This has been the best job I've ever had. There's so much work to do here, so much to learn and so much room for improvement for someone like me, who's a workaholic, to really just dive right in and get right down to it. The Buildings Department is comprised of roughly 1,600 very dedicated employees and they are at the heart of everything that we do here. There are some things that we do particularly well, that we're very proud of, and there are lots of things that we don't do well, and that we need to change. But the problem is not the people, the problem is the process.
Eagle: Have there been any major surprises since taking the job? Any challenges that you didn’t foresee?
Ulrich: When you are managing any large organization, a corporation, nonprofit, a business or a government agency, changing the culture is always the hardest thing to do. It’s like trying to get a cruise ship to turn at a 90 degree angle – it can happen, but it doesn't happen overnight. I'm a very impatient person, I have a sense of urgency and a lot of energy, and I'm trying to bring about many changes here. The only challenge that I see is my lack of patience. I have tremendous support from City Hall, from the mayor and the City Council, and the unions. But again, changing any codes, changing any rules, changing policies – these are not changes that happen overnight. And that's the only frustration that I have. But I'm working on it.
Eagle: Compared to the previous administration, what would you say are some of the biggest changes that you've tried to implement since taking office?
Ulrich: I don't want to compare myself to the previous administration, because former Commissioner Melanie La Rocca [who now serves as the city’s chief efficiency officer], wanted to do many, if not all of the things that I'm now doing, but her hands were tied by COVID – the Buildings Department was literally closed and the city was shut down. But I will say we need to change the public perception because there are things that we do particularly well that we're very efficient in doing. We want to facilitate safe, code-compliant construction in the city, because we know it's good for the economy and creates jobs and creates housing – which we desperately need – and it supports our business community. There are so many benefits to what we do and I think if the public knew more about it they might appreciate us a lot more than they do.
But again, that didn't happen overnight. People didn't just wake up one day and hate the Buildings Department. This has been decades of poor management, poor oversight and now, I think that for the first time in a very, very long time, Mayor Eric Adams has made reforming and improving the Department of Buildings a top priority. It's not a vote getter, but he's elevated the level of importance about fixing the Buildings Department.
Eagle: How have you approached changing that perception?
Ulrich: Reducing red tape regulations, streamlining the plan review process, cutting the backlog and the inspections, making our borough offices a lot more helpful and accessible, fully reopening them having expanded customer service hours. Also giving our employees better training, better support, better supervision. From a management perspective, all of these things are definitely going to improve the customer experience, and the external perception that people have of the Buildings Department. We'll never compromise safety, we’ll never look the other way or pretend that we don't care about safety. But we can't make it so difficult and keep putting another layer of unnecessary processes, or keep raising the bar so high that people can't jump over it.
Eagle: Are safety and regulations mutually exclusive?
Ulrich: I'll give you an example to illustrate the point. Not having a paper copy of the plans on site used to result in the issuance of a full stop work order. Why, is beyond me. Now, does the code say you have to have paper copies of plans on site? Yes, of course you do. If you don't have paper copies of the plans on site are you going to get a violation? Yes, because the code says you have to get a violation. Should not having a paper copy of the plans on site – and that being the only violation that inspector finds – result in a full stop work order which will cost you thousands of dollars in additional construction costs and weeks or months of delays in getting reopened by the Buildings Department? Absolutely not.
It's not about dollars and cents, it's about common sense. There are many people in the city who think that we're only concerned with raising revenue for the city or that we are strictly punitive. We're not. We're here to ensure compliance and safety and to facilitate safe, legal, code-compliant construction in the city. We want more housing, we want more construction jobs, we want more responsible development. But we can't have people cutting corners or breaking the rules and thinking that we're just going to look the other way.
Eagle: We’ve seen the city struggle to retain and hire city workers in the past year. How has the city’s high rate of job vacancies affected the DOB?
Ulrich: We have about a 24 to 25 percent vacancy rate, which is slightly higher than what other agencies are experiencing, but not inconsistent with what almost every other city agency is facing. We're competing with a highly competitive job market – the private sector is able to pay architects and engineers more money than we're able to pay them. Also, our salaries are determined by collective bargaining agreements that are negotiated with the unions and the Office of Labor Relations, so it's not like the commissioner has a magic wand and says, “You know what, I want to give my architects a $10,000 raise.” I would do it. But I don't have that power, that ability. I think we have to find ways to attract, recruit and also retain our employees. We, as a city, need to identify more ways to do that – to make working for the city personally and financially rewarding.
Eagle: In September, the DOB launched its 90 day commission to review a number of the department’s policies. Tell us about the commission’s goals and where it currently stands.
Ulrich: This is the first time the mayor has said, “Get everybody to the table and tell us what we need to fix and how to fix it.” Now, that doesn't mean at the end of the day, they're going to give us a litany of hundreds of complaints and we're just going to wave a magic wand and everything goes away. It does mean however, that we will come up with a list of actionable items at the end of these 90 days. What we are doing is truly transformative and is going to shape the Buildings Department and construction industry in the city for the next 50 years, and is going to bring the Buildings Department into the 21st Century. The 90 day commission is long overdue. The mayor has charged me, and everybody in this building, with getting this thing off the ground, getting all of our stakeholders and our partners in the industry to the table, getting the best ideas, getting best practices from other jurisdictions, finding out what's wrong by looking under the hood and diagnosing the problem, but not just whining about what's wrong here, but actually telling us how to fix it. Give us the solution.
Eagle: Last year, 11 Queens residents died as a result of Hurricane Ida. Many died in illegally converted basement apartments that flooded. There was talk at the time about changing regulations surrounding basement units in an effort to make them safer. Those conversations seem to have stalled. Where do those conversations currently stand and what are your thoughts on legalizing more basement units?
Ulrich: We cannot legalize dwellings that are not safe. We can never put people in fire traps or death traps. First of all, it's illegal and it's immoral – that should never happen. That being said – are there basement apartments that can be made safer, and that can be habitable? Absolutely. We've said that. This doesn't involve just the Building Department. If we legalize a basement apartment and we make it safer, a three-family house now becomes a four-family house, and so on. Now, that building is no longer compliant with the zoning regulations. So now it involves the Department of City Planning.
Making sure that an apartment is habitable and safe, that's something that we can work with landlords on and do on our own. But making sure that it's compliant with the zoning, that's something that City Hall would have to get the Department of City Planning to do, because we don't we don't control that.
Eagle: So, do you think the effort to legalize more units has stalled because it involves so many agencies?
Ulrich: It's a discussion that's still ongoing. We get called to City Hall often to talk about it. Given the crisis right now, with the migrants and asylum seekers, the need for a larger housing stock is ever more apparent. The mayor has spoken to me and many of my fellow commissioners about trying to identify more opportunities to build housing. So, we're a partner in this. It’s a multi-pronged strategy, but it's one that we are actively engaged in.
Eagle: What’s your favorite building in New York City?
Ulrich: I have several. I love the Empire State Building. I've been there so many times. And I love St. Patrick's Cathedral because I love Gothic Revival architecture style.
Eagle: What about in Queens?
Ulrich: Queens is such a historical place. I like the Queens County Farm Museum. In Brooklyn, Greenwood Cemetery. I mean, that’s a cemetery but there are buildings there and it might seem a little morbid but that's a great place. In the Bronx, Yankee Stadium, although I miss Shea Stadium. But the greatest asset that we have in the city are not the buildings, it's the people. And the architecture and the buildings in the city reflect the beautiful diversity that exists here.
Eagle: What’s your least favorite building in New York City?
Ulrich: I'm not an architect, but there was this postmodern, very German influenced design and architecture that was basically a steel glass box. People thought this was chic. And now you see that there's a return to the more traditional, neoclassical forms of design and they'll incorporate it into some of the modern developments that are going up. In the past, it was red brick houses, it was cookie cutter and it lacked character. But now the city’s the housing stock is so different and so diverse and so blended that you'll see a Tudor home next to a Japanese style structure. So, it's kind of interesting.
Eagle: You represented part of the Rockaway peninsula when Hurricane Sandy struck in 2012 and you were around during what has turned into a decade-long recovery. What role does the DOB play in the city’s effort to fight climate change?
Ulrich: The department plays a big role in the city’s response to the climate crisis. I announced the creation of a new Sustainability Bureau at the department back in September, and we have a large, talented team of experts on staff working day-in and day-out on the implementation of these initiatives, including Local Law 97. The majority of greenhouse gasses in our city comes from buildings, and this important law puts limits on those emissions for the larger buildings in our city. The new Sustainability Bureau is being led by Deputy Commissioner Laura Popa, one of our city’s top sustainability experts. Laura and her team are spearheading this important work for the Adams administration, helping the city reach its carbon neutral goals by 2050.
Eagle: How do you view the future of development in Queens and in New York City as a whole?
Ulrich: From what I see the future is very bright. The number of applications is up, the number of permits is up. Brooklyn is on fire, Queens development is booming. If anything, we are doing our best to keep up with the momentum. We are the construction capital of the world and we need a world class Buildings Department to serve the construction capital of the world. We can't do it the way we were doing it 10, 20, or 30 years ago, it's simply not enough. It's not going to be able to keep up with the demand that's out there for building and building safely.
Eagle: What do you miss most about your time in the City Council?
Ulrich: I miss the people in City Hall, working with them every day. I still drop in to see them. I was there for 12 years and it was a great privilege and a great job. Do I miss the four-hour hearings that sometimes went on and on and on? No. Do I miss some of my constituents, seeing them more on a regular basis? Yes. I still run into them in the district and they say they miss me. I don't know if that's true, but they say they miss me. But I have no intention of returning to any elected office.
Eagle: Anything else you want to add?
Ulrich: We're going to be rolling out a number of other initiatives that I can't go into right now in the next month – the mayor's office is going to help us announce them. But the point is, I am extremely optimistic. I'm excited. And I want New Yorkers to feel that energy and that excitement because good things are on the horizon here at the DOB.
