Remodeling an Upper East Side apartment or townhouse

What this page covers

This page is for owners of Upper East Side apartments in co-op and condominium buildings, and owners of townhouses, planning kitchen, bathroom or whole-interior work. Building permits come from the NYC Department of Buildings (DOB). Lot figures combine DCP's three Upper East Side neighborhood tabulation areas (MN0801, MN0802 and MN0803; 39 census tracts, Roosevelt Island excluded). They are statistical areas, not official boundaries. Structural alterations, additions and new construction are outside the work this page describes.

What the lot data shows

Apartments: the board comes before the city

About half of the neighborhood's homes are in co-op or condo buildings, and in Carnegie Hill co-op classes alone hold just over half. 85.5% of units are on lots with 20 or more units. For most apartment kitchens and baths, the board or managing agent reviews the plan under the building's alteration agreement first, and the agreement often sets work hours, insurance requirements and whether plumbing may move.

The 1981 Upper East Side designation report describes how that mix arose: the town-house era on Fifth Avenue was brief, from about 1890 to around World War I, and most apartment houses along Fifth, Madison and Park date from after World War I.

LPC districts

Townhouses: nine district names

Two of the names PLUTO uses do not appear as separate rows in LPC's dataset, so the address search on LPC's Discover NYC Landmarks map is the check, not a district list. In a designated townhouse, LPC lists interior work that needs a DOB permit, and interior work that shows outside such as vents, among the work that needs its permit. In a townhouse, the legal unit count also matters: HPD requires annual registration for three or more units.

Special districts on the avenues, and flood maps

PLUTO maps lots with homes in three special purpose districts here: the Special Park Improvement District (341 lots), the Special Madison Avenue Preservation District (254) and the Special Transit Land Use District (124). Their Zoning Resolution chapters deal with uses, streetscape, building bulk and transit access, which shape buildings rather than kitchens; ask a design professional if a plan touches the facade or a ground-floor use. Flood exposure is limited: 54 lots with homes (1.1%) are flagged on FEMA's 2015 preliminary map, 45 of them in the Yorkville area near the East River.

Upper East Side brief: what to write down

1. For an apartment: the alteration agreement, the managing agent's requirements, permitted work hours and the insurance the building requires.
2. Where the risers and gas line are, and whether the board allows plumbing to move.
3. For a townhouse: the LPC map result and the legal unit count on the Certificate of Occupancy.
4. Anything that shows outside, listed separately.
5. Freight-elevator or delivery rules for cabinets and stone.

Room-by-room planning is on kitchen remodeling in Manhattan, bathroom remodeling in Manhattan and home renovation in Manhattan.