Rick Chandler, NYC DOB commissioner, is retiring.

NEW YORK CITY—Rick Chandler, PE, commissioner of the New York City Department of Buildings is retiring after working for the city for 31 years. He has served in the department for 20 years, four as the commissioner. Thomas Fariello, RA, who is the agency's first deputy commissioner will step into the role of acting buildings commissioner on Feb. 1, 2019.

The city credits Chandler with leading a comprehensive modernization of the department. This included launching DOB NOW, an online public portal for doing business with the department, and hiring more than 230 new inspectors and 150 technical staff. The city states this resulted in significantly faster permit reviews and inspections of construction sites and 311 phone call complaints.

“When I took office, I called for a fundamental reform of the Buildings Department and I am grateful to Commissioner Chandler for helping deliver on that promise,” says Mayor Bill de Blasio. “As buildings commissioner, Rick presided over an unprecedented building boom while at the same time launching an aggressive modernization plan to give the public faster service and greater transparency about DOB's operations.”