New York Apartments and Estates, Fully Integrated.

Cave Group does. We are a Crestron Elite Gold Partner and a Lutron Gold Dealer with an office in Long Island City, and we design, install, and service lighting control, shades, audio-video, home cinema, networking, and security for apartments, townhouses, and houses in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Westchester, Greenwich, and the Hamptons. Our published New York work includes a Tribeca penthouse completed in 2024, a Southampton waterfront residence completed the same year, and the technology at Casa Cipriani in Lower Manhattan.

Yes. Our New York office is in Long Island City, Queens, across the East River from Midtown, with a second office in Fairview, New Jersey. That matters less on installation day than it does two years later, when a keypad stops responding on a Friday evening.

Yes. Most Manhattan and Brooklyn apartment work runs under the building's alteration agreement: the board or its architect reviews the drawings, the contractors carry insurance that names the building, the licensed trades are identified, and the work keeps to the building's hours. We prepare the technology drawings and the contractor documents the package asks for, coordinate with your architect and the managing agent, and plan the schedule around the hours the building allows. The board approval paperwork, explained →

Inside the apartment, usually not. The Landmarks Preservation Commission regulates the exterior of a landmarked building, and interior work only when it needs a Department of Buildings permit or touches a designated interior landmark. Anything that reaches the facade, such as a through-wall vent, an exterior camera, or a window change, needs a Landmarks permit alongside the building application. We keep equipment inside the envelope, use wireless shades where the window frame should stay untouched, and give the architect what the filing needs when something must touch the outside. Manhattan apartments →

Usually, yes. Lutron's wireless systems replace the switches in the existing boxes and talk to the processor by radio, so plaster walls stay closed; Ketra lamps fit existing fixtures; and motorized shades run on battery or on a single low-voltage drop. What we check first is the apartment's electrical capacity and what the building allows, because older buildings often have limited service and strict rules on who may touch it. Automation in prewar apartments →

Yes. We take over existing Crestron, Lutron, and Savant systems, and when a system can no longer be supported, whatever the brand, we plan a replacement that reuses the wiring already in the walls. It starts with a survey: we assess and document the equipment, recover or rebuild the programming, replace what has reached end of life, and bring the result under a Cave Watch support plan so the next problem has a phone number. Crestron upgrade paths →

Manhattan, including Tribeca, SoHo, the Upper East and Upper West Sides, Chelsea, and Flatiron; Brooklyn, including Brooklyn Heights, Park Slope, Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, Fort Greene, and DUMBO; the Queens estate neighborhoods of Douglaston, Malba, Jamaica Estates, and Forest Hills Gardens; Westchester from Bronxville and Scarsdale to Rye, Bedford, and Armonk; Greenwich, Darien, New Canaan, and Westport in Fairfield County; and the Hamptons from Westhampton to Montauk. We also work across the Hudson in Bergen County, New Jersey. Bergen County estates →

Before the drawings are final. In an apartment that means before the board package goes in, because lighting control changes the panel schedule and shade pockets change the window details the building's architect reviews. In a house it means design development, when the equipment room, the conduit between buildings, and the generator still cost nothing on paper. When to engage on new construction →

It depends on how many rooms are lit, shaded, and wired for sound and video, and on whether the space is new, under renovation, or occupied. We price from drawings, room by room, so you can see what each decision costs and cut or add with the numbers in front of you. If you are comparing proposals, make sure each one counts the same loads, shades, and rooms. What home automation costs in New York →

Us. Cave Watch is our support program: round-the-clock remote monitoring of the network, control system, audio-video, and lighting, remote fixes and software updates, priority response, and an annual health check. UL-listed central-station alarm monitoring and live guard video monitoring can be added to the same plan. We also document every system we build or take over, so the next technician knows what is in the walls. Support and monitoring →

Yes. Cave Watch monitors the network, the control system, audio-video, and lighting around the clock, so a dropped connection or a device that goes offline in February is noticed and fixed remotely rather than discovered in June. Central-station alarm monitoring and live guard video monitoring can be added to the same plan, and we document every system we build or take over so a service visit does not depend on the person who installed it. Monitoring a Hamptons house off-season →