Design 2147 CEO Sisto Martello recently had the opportunity to speak with John Rusk, President of Rusk, an award-winning contractor and construction manager specializing in luxury townhouses and apartments in Manhattan.
Q. The company you founded, Rusk, is an award-winning contractor and construction manager specializing in luxury townhouses and apartments in Manhattan. Tell us about one of your favorite projects.
A. We renovated a family home for a client on the Upper East Side. They were experienced clients who had renovated before, so they had the ability to really work with the design team and create a series of differentiated rooms which each had their own personality but hung beautifully together. The client had a first-rate design team with the Architect, John Murray, and the Interior Designer, Katie Ridder. During the project, the clients did an amazing job of encouraging our crew. They took regular trips through the apartment, giving appreciation and encouragement to the many people. They had a great relationship with our Project Manager and Site Supervisor, and I think that the whole team would have done anything to meet those clients’ expectations. It was rewarding all around and has lasted magnificently.
Q. What are some of the recent trends you’ve observed in the building of luxury residences?
A. AV has gotten much simpler in operation. Apple TVs have replaced movie servers. Lighting control is often wireless now, with really high-quality color rendering that warms as it dims. Early LED lights did not meet these standards. We are seeing a resurgence of simplified plaster trim work; the creativity of three-dimensional stone layout allows designers to “paint” in stone, creating beautiful vein matching. Gold tones are in vogue. The Upper East Side is in vogue. (So is every other place in NYC but I am excited to see a move to snap up great apartments uptown.) And we are getting to do amazing staircases as three-dimensional design aids are coming into their own, both in fabrication, but also for quick model making using 3D printing.
Q. What is the most important thing for a Manhattan townhome or apartment owner to know before embarking on any kind of construction project?
A. Overspend on the quality of design. And then overspend on the quality of the Construction Manager. Overall, a talented team who really understands you and the project and has the connections to make it happen, will provide an amazing return on their investment. You will see cost efficiency, reliability, longevity, and minimized frustrations letting clients focus on their own work and family.
Q. Every project is different, but are there general approaches or processes that you find work better within New York City’s rules and regulations?
A. The grain of sand creates the pearl. New York City’s laws and regulations are meant to be obeyed. Better to allow them to spur creativity than to try to circumvent them. And that is where a great code consultant that is truly experienced, like Design 2147, is worth their weight in gold. Let those rules help you push to creative solutions. While requests for reconsideration may be worthwhile, be sure to get the approvals. The worst thing you can do is to get an approval of a plan, only to have it rejected later, on final inspection. It is the architect and engineer’s responsibility to meet code, so even if a plan reviewer made a mistake and missed something, you still must make it right if a later inspector notices it. This includes removing extra floors from buildings. On the other hand, co-op and condominium boards often have rules that, with good and persuasive arguments, may be adjusted. A quality design team will help you.
Q: Rusk is the only Wellness Trained General Contractor in Manhattan. What does that qualification mean?
A. We built the first wellness property in Manhattan employing Delos systems a little over 10 years ago. It had purified water, purified air, and circadian lighting. We love bringing these elements into residences using what we have learned from Delos. Over time, their business model has changed, and they are not producing their central controllers as other manufacturers caught on to their ideas, but we can help projects implement wellness elements in concert with the design team that is based on science. We are still regularly lecturing on wellness.
Q. How have wellness concerns changed over the past four years?
A. I think that everyone is looking for circadian lighting now which dims and becomes warmer as evening approaches, and brightens and becomes whiter during the day. Once you see it, you cannot unsee it.
Filtered air is still a tough sell and I think because people do not understand how incredibly simple it is. For me, Delos’s greatest innovation from the millions they poured into research was the “sidecar” approach to air filtration. Rather than filtering all the air going to the air handlers at a HEPA level, which slows down the air too much and causes coil freezing, Delos realized you could draw some of the air off from the return, and fully HEPA filter it, and then return it to circulation. While this approach may take a few hours to filter all the air in a house, it can do an amazing job of cleaning the air simply and cost-effectively.
Everyone wants their water filtered.
Q. What do you think the “future of wellness” looks like?
A. Everyone in New York City will hire Rusk and we will install filtered air systems, circadian lighting, and filtered water. We will build these clients’ homes filled with enduring beauty in collaboration with some of the greatest design professionals and expediting/code consultant teams in the city.