New York Metro · Upper West Side, New York
Smart Home, Lighting & AV on the Upper West Side.
A classic seven on Central Park West, a Riverside Drive co-op with river light, a brownstone on a side street. The Upper West Side is landmarked block after block, and its best apartments were built long before anyone pulled a network cable.
Upper West Side, Specifically
Grand Rooms, Old Bones.
The Upper West Side's apartment houses went up between the 1880s and the 1930s, and much of the neighborhood is now protected: the Upper West Side/Central Park West Historic District since 1990 and the Riverside-West End district, which reached 1,255 buildings with its 2015 extension. The facade is the Commission's; the interior is the board's.
Large prewar rooms are where good lighting and shading make the most difference, and where a careless installation shows most. We plan around the plaster, the beams, and the building's riser, and we put the equipment where the super can reach it and the board can approve it.
01 · Light
Shades for Park and River Windows
Central Park West faces east and Riverside Drive faces west and the late sun. We size motorized shades and fabrics to each exposure, power them by battery or one low-voltage drop, and tie them to the lighting so a room holds its look all day.
02 · Brownstones
A Network Up Four Floors
A side-street brownstone has party walls, one stair, and plaster on lath. We find one vertical path for the network and run wireless Lutron keypads and Ketra lamps in the existing boxes and fixtures, so the walls stay closed.
03 · The Board
Drawings Before Equipment
The alteration agreement sets the trades, the insurance, and the hours. We produce the technology drawings the board's architect reviews and schedule the installation inside the building's window.
At a Glance
Upper West Side in brief.
- Historic districts
- The Upper West Side/Central Park West Historic District was designated by the Landmarks Preservation Commission on April 24, 1990; the Riverside-West End Historic District grew with extensions in 2012 (about 194 buildings) and 2015 (344 buildings), bringing it to 1,255 protected buildings.
- Building stock
- The Upper West Side/Central Park West district is primarily residential, built mainly from the 1880s through the 1930s: rowhouses, tenements, and apartment towers in Neo-Grec, Romanesque Revival, Beaux Arts, Neo-Renaissance, and Art Deco styles.
- Alteration agreements
- Co-op boards commonly require an architect's plans before work begins, NYC-licensed electrical, plumbing, and HVAC trades, and contractor hours such as 9 AM to 5 PM on weekdays.
- Prewar construction
- Prewar apartments typically have plaster-and-lath walls, steel beams, and poured-concrete subfloors; older buildings often still carry 60- to 80-amp service.
- Internet
- Verizon Fios fiber and Spectrum are the two wired providers in most of Manhattan, and availability varies building by building.
Sources: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission, Upper West Side/Central Park West Historic District map; Historic Districts Council, Upper West Side/Central Park West Historic District; CityLand, 344-property extension to the Riverside-West End Historic District; CityLand, Riverside Drive-West End Historic District Extension I designated; SRNY, the NYC alteration agreement process; Gallery KBNY, prewar remodeling; Allconnect, internet providers in Manhattan.
What We Install and Service
Every System. One Keypad.
Lighting & Shades
Lutron HomeWorks, Ketra and Rania light, Palladiom keypads, and shades that disappear into the ceiling.
Lighting →Whole-Home Control
Crestron and Lutron on one set of keypads and touchscreens, programmed the same way in every house you own.
Residential →Cinema & Music
Dedicated theaters, media rooms, and music in every room without a speaker in sight.
Residential →Network
Enterprise Wi-Fi and fiber sized for a large house, guest houses, and the far end of the lawn.
Networking →Security & Gate
Cameras, access control, gate intercom, and an alarm that a UL-listed central station answers.
Security →Outdoors
Landscape lighting and outdoor sound on one buried infrastructure, on the same keypad as the house.
Outdoor →Upgrades
Older Crestron and Lutron systems brought current, reusing the wiring already in the walls wherever possible.
Upgrade paths →Support
Monitoring, remote fixes, and priority response under one plan.
Cave Watch →Questions From Upper West Side
Upper West Side, Answered
Who installs Lutron and Crestron systems on the Upper West Side?+–
Cave Group does. We are a Crestron Elite Gold Partner and Lutron Gold Dealer with an office in Long Island City, and we design, install, and service lighting control, shades, cinema, audio, networking, and security for co-ops, condos, and brownstones from Lincoln Square to Riverside Drive.
Can you work within our co-op's alteration agreement?+–
Yes, and the paperwork comes first. The building's alteration agreement names the licensed trades, the insurance that must cover the building, and the hours in which work may happen. We produce the technology drawings and the contractor documents the board's architect reviews, and we schedule inside the hours the building allows.
Can we add motorized shades without rewiring a prewar apartment?+–
Yes. Battery-powered shades need no wiring at all, and line-voltage shades need one drop per window group that we route along existing paths. The shades join the Lutron lighting system, so one keypad sets the room, and the fabric is chosen for the exposure: morning light over the park or afternoon sun over the Hudson.
Does Landmarks need to approve our system?+–
Only what shows on the outside, or interior work that needs a Department of Buildings permit. Cameras, intercom panels, and exterior lighting on a landmarked facade need a permit; keypads, speakers, and the rack inside do not. We design around that line and prepare the filing with your architect when something must show.
Do you support the system after installation?+–
We do. 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. Central-station alarm monitoring and live guard video monitoring can be added to the same plan.
Nearby
Other New York areas we serve.
Start Here
Walk the Home With Us.
Bring the drawings if it is on paper, or the list of what no longer works if it is built. We will tell you what we would do, in what order, what it would take, and what the board will want to see.
Start a Projector call · +1 (888) 712-2283 · [email protected]