Rockrose Development Corp.

Andrew Baranello

Construction Delivery Authority

I grew up in a construction family, so getting into this business was, I will admit, low-hanging fruit. It was familiar, and I was good at it. However, what keeps you in it over a career are the teams, the problemsolving and the ability to walk away from a completed building and say, ‘that was an accomplishment.’

 You build a book of work that stays behind, and that part never gets old.

Respect Over Rank

A part of what shaped how I manage were the mentors I found along the way. I remember being a project manager in my thirties, assigned to a job where the superintendent was 62 years old. He embraced the reporting structure without hesitation, and I never pulled rank on him because I understood what he brought to that job site. That experience set the course for everything that followed.

“You are not a prince. You are not a king. You do not pound your fists and order people around. You take proxy of your teammates and respect their opinions and respect their feelings.”

Working that way produces the best answers, and it also tells you whether the right people are in the room. If someone’s experience earns your respect through the work, they belong where they are. If it does not show up in that process, you have your answer. That kind of respect does not stop with the people on my own team. It extends to the trades who show up on site every day, and that is where the real economics of this industry get complicated.

Labor Costs and a Market that Corrected Itself

After the 2008 crash, the union trades lost their market share in the residential sector, and the development community filled the gap with non-union labor. The materials were always identical, the same pipe, wire and fittings. The difference was always labor cost.

What happened over time was a market correction. Nonunion contractors had to compete for workers. Wages climbed, benefits followed. One contractor would offer more to attract workers, then the next would follow, and that competition drove wages up. By 2012, the non-union trades had become very good across the board. Cost remains a challenge, and it does not get easier once you add what the city is asking of its energy infrastructure.

Electrification and a Grid That is Not Ready

New York City is pushing towards an all-electric future for new buildings, heating, air conditioning, hot water and even cooking gas, with regulatory deadlines and penalties driving the transition toward 2035. I will be candid about this. The electricity has to come from somewhere, and I am not convinced the system behind it is as clean as it is presented. To me, the harder problem is infrastructure. The cart has been put before the horse.

When we build 500 or 600 apartments and go to Con Edison for service, they often tell us the grid requires embellishment, new vaults and transformers underground. The supply chain for those transformers is already strained. You cannot legislate demand onto a system that cannot carry it. I work for a developer whose legacy buildings stand for decades, and grid uncertainty is a long-term liability in every project. The energy code is a good thing, but insulation requirements alone can produce an eighteen-inch-thick exterior wall, reducing usable floor area.

The answer is not to slow the transition but to prepare for it. Build out the grid first, then mandate the shift to allelectric buildings. Hurricane Sandy exposed railroad switches a hundred years old. Do not wait until it is a problem to solve the problem.

Technology and the Disconnection It Created

I admit to being something of a Luddite when it comes to technology. I use Procore because the design teams and construction managers are on it, expensive as it is, and Microsoft Project for scheduling because I understand it. I have even come around on some newer field tools, like a carpentry contractor with a camera on his head, recording what he has in place for his requisition. That kind of practical application makes sense to me.

Project managers are a little more removed from the work than they used to be. Mechanical coordination moved to CAD, and with it, the PM moved from the table to the screen. When it was done by hand, you were closer to the problem, and there was a sense of seeing it come together that is harder to replicate now. That gap only widens as what we are building becomes more complex. Some of that complexity comes from what these buildings are now being asked to do.

The Work That Lasts

Buildings are becoming more amenitized and more integrated into daily life. Transit-oriented development, retail and hospitality partnerships and big box spaces shifting into medical use are all part of that shift.

But the work that matters most to me is the people. No curriculum teaches what I do. You learn it by standing next to someone willing to teach it. Design professionals especially need time on job sites. Too many coordination meetings end with us asking the same question. Can we actually build this? Paper does not refuse ink. That gap only closes when people are taught how to build, not just how to design.

As an individual, your reach to affect change in the world only goes so far. But within your own circle of influence, you can make better people and better professionals, and that work sustains the industry too. Electricians need to make new electricians. We need to make new steamfitters.

If you can mentor somebody, teach them your trade and they build a life around it, happy in their career, their family, their earnings, you have made a life path for somebody. At this point in my career, that matters more than the buildings.