When I first moved to the Bushwick area a bit over a year ago, one of my first sublets was a room in a shared loft at 1717 Troutman. It was not so much a room as a plywood cocoon, floating above the living space and accessed through a hatch in the floor. At a height of less than 6 feet, I had to crouch in order to clear the ceiling, and the only natural light came in through a stained glass window that opened out into the living room.

While the sleeping quarter was a miserable cave, the living area more than made up for its faults. What was not carved up for the four floating bedrooms amounted to roughly 2,500 square feet of double height open living area, with massive industrial windows flooding the space with light and air. There was roof access next door, and on a nightly basis I would watch the sun set over Manhattan, a city block’s worth of flat tarmac framing the horizon — an urban ocean view. It was a deeply affecting introduction to the city that I now consider home.

I moved out of 1717 Troutman on the first of September, 2007, to a permanent apartment on the Bushwick side of Cypress Avenue. A month later, the remaining 220 tenants of 1717 Troutman would also leave their apartments behind. They, however, would be leaving by force, given ten hours to clear the premises of all of their belongings. The Department of Buildings determined in the fall of 2007 that the loft units that occupied the second and third floors of 1717 Troutman were unsafe, as they did not adhere to the standards set out by the New York City Building Code, nor were residences permissible on a lot zoned for manufacturing.

This determination was not surprising to me, but it did bring to light my naivety as a renter. As a subletter, I was given no prior information regarding inspections that had occurred a year prior, until inspectors returned during my stay. “Don’t let them in” were the instructions provided to me by roommates.

Working as an architect in Brooklyn for the past year, I have come across a slew of resources for determining the legitimacy of that potential apartment — or if it is known, verifying whether there have been any prior complaints. One of these resources is OASIS, the Open Accessible Space Information System for New York City. OASIS is a mapping system supplied by the City of New York that contains information on every address in the five boroughs.

On looking up 1717 Troutman, we are able to determine that its land use is set for zoning and manufacturing, that there are no residential units, and by linking to its Department of Buildings file, that it has a total of 76 complaints filed against it, 13 open Department of Building violations, and 52 open Environmental Control Board violations. Had I known about about these complaints prior to renting at 1717 Troutman, I doubt I would have signed on.

The next time you find yourself scouring Bushwick’s industrial hinterlands for an oasis to make your home, do make sure that you know at least as much as the City.