At first glance, architects had a banner year this year.  The number of permits filed for many of the city’s top architects doubled or even tripled from last year. The incumbent top architect, Nikolai Katz, had his filings explode to 61 this year from 15 last year.  But dig a little deeper, and the numbers show a different phenomenon — one that appears to be entirely driven by the city’s affordable housing tax abatement, 485-x, which was rolled out in April 2024.  The abatement requires projects building over 99 units to pay construction workers the prevailing union wages, resulting in […]

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