COMPANY ANALYSIS EXAMPLE

Small Steps, Big Skills

Small Steps, Big Skills is an evidence-based video game that teaches 22 skills for independence. The software combines Applied Behavior Analysis methods of video modeling and least-to-most prompting by having players watch the skill being completed (video modeling) then practicing it in a game format (least to most prompting). The interactive software rewards players with 8 fun games and shows a variety of materials to promote generalization skills. The software covers 6 different activities with multiple skill sets shown from a first-person perspective. For example, Helping in the Kitchen lets students learn the requisite skills for washing hands, making a sandwich, setting the table, and pouring a drink. During Washing your hands, students are led through the process step by step starting with turning on the water, wetting their hands, etc. The game teaches skills by first presenting a video-model of the skill being taught then allowing the student to play a game where they complete the skill with varying prompt levels. Prompt levels for the game range on a scale from 1-4, level one being an Independent prompt where students complete the task independently; level 2 being a verbal prompt where players hear a voice over of the step; level 3 being a verbal plus video model prompt where players watch a screen video of the step; and level 4 which is a verbal plus simulated physical prompt where players see the correct step highlighted. This DVD also includes a variety of settings allowing you to customize the program for each individual including response time per step, distractor sounds, percentage correct for mastery, reward games, and videos before the skill session. The Skills covered in the program are: Helping in the Kitchen, Getting Ready for the Day, Helping at Home, Cafeteria Time, My Clean Room, and Time to Relax. Windows XP or Vista, Macintosh 10.4x

Theater District, Midtown, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States

Erected in 1888, the former Fire Engine Company No. 54 was designed by the prominent firm of Napoleon LeBrun & Son, architects for the New York City Fire Department, between 1879 and 1895. Former Fire Engine Company No. 54 is a late but excellent example of LeBrun & Son’s numerous mid-block firehouses, reflecting the firm’s attention to materials, stylish details, plan and setting. Napoleon LeBrun, who had established his firm in New York City in 1864, achieved renown as a designer of office buildings, including those for Home Life Insurance Company and the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company.

LeBrun & Sons helped to define the Fire Department’s expression of civic architecture in more than forty buildings, constructed between 1879 and 1894. Built when midtown was developing into a rowhouse and tenement district, this firehouse represents the city’s commitment to the civic architecture of essential municipal services. The tenure of the LeBrun firm with the Fire Department coincided with a campaign to provide a strong presence through an increase in public building projects. During this era, it was often the practice of architects to adapt the same design for different locations, as an economical and rapid means of creating public buildings that clearly identified there civic function. Fire Engine Company No.15, built in 1883-84 at 29 Henry Street, and Fire Engine Company No. 53 built in 188384 at 175 East 104th Street, have virtually identical facades to the Former Fire Engine Company No. 54.

Like most late nineteenth–century New York City firehouses, former Fire Engine Company No. 54 has a large central opening flanked by smaller doorways. The design incorporated elements of the Queen Anne and Romanesque Revival styles. The cast-iron trabeated base is enlivened by foliate capitals incorporating sunflowers and torches. Molded brick panels above the windows and terra-cotta medallions in the form of stylized sunflowers adorning the frieze below the cornice are among the Queen Anne motifs of the design. At the roofline, stylized console brackets executed in corbelled brick support small pedimented forms adorned with sunbursts.

After nearly ninety years of use as a fire engine house, the building was converted to a permanent 194-seat theater and offices for the award-winning Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre in the late 1970s. Founded in 1967 as a means of bringing free theatre to the streets of New York’s Latino neighborhoods, the PRTT helped launch the Spanish bilingual theater movement in the United States. For forty years, the group – which also has a training unit in East Harlem– has encouraged youth of economically disadvantaged backgrounds to pursue careers in the theatre.

DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS

The Fire Department of the City of New York

The origin of New York’s Fire Department dates to the city’s beginning as the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam. Leather fire buckets, first imported from Holland and later manufactured by a cobbler in the colony, were required in every household. Regular chimney inspections and the “rattle watch” patrol helped protect the colony during the Dutch period. By 1731, under English rule, two “engines” were imported from London and housed in wooden sheds in lower Manhattan. The Common Council authorized a volunteer force in 1737, and the Volunteer Fire Department of the City of New York was officially established by act of the state legislature in 1798. As the city grew, this force was augmented by new volunteer companies. Between 1800 and 1850, seven major fires occurred, leading to the establishment of a building code and the formation of new volunteer fire companies on a regular basis. The number of firemen grew from 600 in 1800 to more than 4,000 by 1865.

Intense rivalries among the companies developed, stemming in large part from the Volunteer Fire Department’s significant influence in political affairs. The Tammany political machine was especially adept at incorporating the fire department into its ranks. Since the 1820s it was common knowledge that “a success in the fire company was the open sesame to success in politics.”

During the peak years of Tammany’s power, increasingly intense competition among companies began to hinder firefighting, creating public exasperation with the volunteer force. Brawls among firemen at the scene of fires and acts of sabotage among the companies became commonplace. In the 1860s, an alliance between the Republican controlled state legislature, which wanted to impair Tammany Hall’s political control, and fire insurance companies, who wanted more efficient firefighting, played on this public sentiment to replace the volunteers with a paid force. On March 30, 1865, the New York State Legislature established the Metropolitan Fire District, a paid professional force under the jurisdiction of the state and abolished New York’s Volunteer

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