RPS Consulting Corp: no job too big or small.

RPS Consulting Corp., a Manhattan-based construction and design firm, has been specializing in the comprehensive renovation and development of commercial and residential space around the New York Metropolitan area for the past six years.

Richard Santoro and Peter Franck, partners in RPS Consulting, both have discovered that design/build is the most efficient and cost-effective way to complete a project.

"We're able to bring the job from beginning to total end, and the client never has to interact with tradesmen or subcontractors," said Santoro, 38, who previously was a project executive with H.J. Kalikow & Co. before starting RPS in 1997.

While with Kalikow, Santoro over-saw the construction of projects valued in excess of $34 million, including two 26-story residential towers at 62 West 62nd S&M and 47 Park Avenue South, and the renovation of a 35-story office tower in lower Manhattan at 195 Broadway. He decided to found RPS Consulting, located at 95 Horatio Street, in order to utilize his experience in large-scale construction projects for creative work on jobs of all sizes and types around New York.

"With design/build, there's no conflict between the client, the architect and the contractor," said Franck, 31, who has a degree in architecture from Pratt Institute and has also studied at the Universite de Paris, La Sorbonne. "We just deal with it, we don't have to go back to the architect, our obligation is to manage a project on a day-to-day basis."

RPS Consulting, which is skilled in construction, architecture, engineering and furniture design, has been involved in the successful completion of projects ranging from residential renovations to high-rise commercial office and apartment buildings, as well as hotels, retail outlets, and medical facilities.

Recently, RPS Consulting completed the $700,000 interior renovation of three floors in the eight-story building owned by the Cancer Prevention Research Institute (CPRI) at 11 East 22nd Street.

RPS Consulting completed the renovation of the 2,500-square foot floors, comprising CPRI's executive offices and laboratory, in approximately six months, providing a high-tech, efficient design. More important, however, the project was completed on time and on budget.

"We're almost under a contract obligation to come in under budget," said Santoro, a graduate of City College, where he earned a degree in civil engineering. "We design the scope of the work."

According to Franck, an architectural designer and modern construction specialist, the CPRI laboratory floor was designed to project an image of professionalism and innovation commensurate with CPRI's important mission.

"We used aluminum to give it a high-tech look, but also a greater feeling of warmth with mahogany," said Franck, who has participated in the design of such projects as the DeLorenzo Gallery on Madison Avenue and the construction of a new $52 million community college in the Bronx.

RPS designed the laboratory floor at CPRI around a custom aluminum glazing system with glass panels, structurally self-supporting and custom assembled to fit any application.

"These materials are easily cleanable and lend a high-tech medical imagery to the space," Santoro said. "They also allow a maximum amount of natural light to infuse the area."

On the two executive office floors at CPRI, RPS Consulting customized the glazing partitions, adding elegant, solid mahogany frames, panels and doors, complemented with by maple trim.

"We also installed new windows into the masonry wall of the existing building, providing each exterior office with at least one window, with most having two," Franck noted. "The space is filled with natural light, yet maintains an atmosphere of elegance and confidence."

RPS began designing the space for CPRI in January and it was ready for use in July by the not-for-profit cancer research organization and laboratory.

"I was impressed by RPS Consulting's creativity and flexibility, especially their willingness and ability to take many of the apparently unworkable aspects of the design program and make them work, often improving upon them in the process," said Douglas Lederman, Esq., a representative of CPRI.

RPS Consulting works as a team with its clients, from preliminary design and budgeting to the delivery of the completed project, managing each and every aspect of the job to meet the most challenging scheduling, monetary and architectural goals.

"With design/build, we give a complete package and budget," said Franck, who has been with some of New York's most prestigious architectural firms, including Gwathmey Siegel & Associates, Agrest & Gandelsonas Architects, and Eli Attia Architects. "Unlike an architect situation, where designs go out to bid, we give a budget and go out to contractors."

Two other notable projects completed by RPS were the $380,000 new addition and interior renovation of the King's Bay Medical Center in Brooklyn and the $150,000 interior design and renovation of the Sun Studio photography studio at 528 Broadway.

The King's Bay Medical Center involved renovating a building and adding a new addition to create a full-service, community-based facility providing X-rays, mammography, blood analysis, physical therapy, overall medical examinations and treatment for patients of diverse age and ethnicity.

RPS designed an exterior for the center, located on a busy corner of Avenue U in the Marine Park section of Brooklyn, using a variety of glazing materia]s to introduce light into the exam rooms, and they also cut away part of the floor of the existing building in order to double the height of the waiting room.

Sun Studios called in RPS Consulting after it leased the top floor of a SoHo loft building and wanted to create a commercial photography studio as rental space for the industry's finest photographers.

The space, including a 20' by 30' skylight in the center, required movable partitions to divide it into as many as three separate studios, a waiting/reception area, conference room, small cafe, executive office, accounting and equipment rental and storage rooms, in what the client described as a "knock dead" design.

"It was a raw empty space, the only thing was the elevator," said Santoro. "We designed it so you could open up all three studios so it would be one."

Santoro observed that the space posed some difficult design problems, including the possibility of a 200-foot long corridor, as well as dealing with constructing up to a sloped ceiling and limited square footage available for a dramatic entrance and reception area.

RPS created a corridor of two diagonal walls flaring toward the skylight, with the sloped glazing and diagonal walls bringing a visitor's eye to the center of the spectacular skylight. Underneath the existing skylight, RPS built a curved interior skylight providing tremendous amounts of natural light for the corridor, a central focus for the entire space, and a pleasant surrounding for the cafe,

"It can be opened up for a fashion show, it's a multi-purpose facility, and very flexible," Franck said.

No job is too small, Santoro stressed, adding that RPS Consulting approaches every project with the goal of providing an exquisite and unique finished product, always completed within budget and on schedule.