Present: Fred Atherton, Andy Baer, Roysin Billet, Bill Barry, Matthew Bronski, David Coe, Jean Carroon, Alison Gould, David M. Hart, John Hecker, Steve Hewitt, Lisa Howe, Wendall Kalsow, David Kelman, Michael Lynch, Doug Manley, Richard Marks, Henry Moss, Beth Nathan, Elizabeth Randall, Albert Rex, Ophelia Richter, Brian Roche, Roberto Rosa, Carlos Santos, Susan Schur, Malcolm Smiley, Jonathan Smith, Laurie Soave, Eric Ward, John Wathne, Brian Wynn 1. Pine Street Inn Restoration, Repairs and Reconstruction: It all began with a leaking roof on this former fire station. Brent Gabby of Simpson Gumpertz & Heger (SGH) traced much of the leakage back to masonry failures in the 1874 brick, hose-drying tower. SGH recommended repair/reconstruction of the tower with a preliminary cost estimate of 2 million. With an initial maximum budget of only 1 million, Ann Wonderly of the Pine Street Inn asked Beacon Construction for scope and project management advice, and Jim Becker sent her to Richard Marks at Daedalus Projects. Daedalus helped the Pine Street Inn organize a design team, choosing Einhorn, Yaffee, Prescott (EYP) and John Wathne's structural engineering firm, Structures North. It was necessary to stage the tower to mitigate falling hazards, which also allowed for better access by cost estimators. New England Restoration's (NER) Steve Hewitt began counting brick courses and thinking through the disassembly process to estimate and bid the work. NER was chosen as the general contractor after the project was competitively bid and a negotiation led to some generous concessions on their part. By the end, NER had generously donated roughly 1/4 million in labor to this worthy project. The tower had been substantially repaired in the 1970's after the fire station had been stripped of its copper roofs and stood vacant for a decade and a half with water pouring into the tower's masonry. The 4' thick tower walls were primarily built of red brick backing a veneer of buff bricks. Although the red brick itself was generally in good condition, condition of the mortar in the back-up varied from sound to completely deteriorated. Working stresses were too low to explain why there was so much cracked masonry in the veneer. Differing rates of thermal and moisture-related expansion between the face brick and back-up brick contributed to the cracking. John Wathne mentioned that although it has not been documented in any of the technical literature, his empirical observations of this and other buildings have led him to surmise that in most cases, the thermal and moisture-related expansion of buff-colored brick is generally higher than that of red brick. The design team decided to remove the buff brick skin entirely and replace it with a similar brick IXL from a Canadian manufacturer that they located through the Consolidated Brick Company. They turned the mass masonry wall into a cavity/veneer wall, separating the yellow brick skin from the red brick core by hanging it on a concealed structural steel frame. To minimize the depth of the steel frame - reducing it to about 1" in additional dimension - they cut vertical slots into the red brick tower core and placed relieving shelves 20'on center up the tower, and placed mini-plate girders behind the stone shelves where the tower's architecture changed plane. Wagdy Anis at Shepley Bulfinch Richardson & Abbott (SBRA) analyzed breathability and moisture characteristics of the new wall and advised the team that they would not be creating a condensation or drying problem with the new wall section. Wagdy noted that although the new wall is not a true pressure-equalized rain screen wall, it shares some characteristics with a pressure-equalized rain screen. As a result of the change to a veneer/cavity wall system, the face veneer brick was panelized with soft joints to allow for movement. Each corner now has quirked miter joints that NER caulked and sanded to blend with the new buff mortar and allow for movement. These allow the brick skin to grow horizontally. The shaft of the tower grew out about 1" all around, but the shaft was now a functioning cavity wall with a true air space. Overall, this new veneer/cavity wall approach reduced the tower's lateral load resistance by 3%-5%, which was accepted by code officials. Supporting and anchoring the projecting corbels and machicolations was no small feat - Wathne's clever solution involved new reinforced concrete ring beams at the top of the dramatically projecting brick corbels and lantern, and cruciform cast stone restraint blocks at the springing of the corbels help to tie the upper portion of the tower together. This corbelled level is mass brickwork. Where voids occur, they are filled with non-shrink grout and Perlite as well as a corrosion inhibitor. EYP dimensioned the new masonry skin to account for the new standard bricks of lesser height than the originals (Carlos Santos and his masons managed the coursing from vertical dimensions that were taken from the tower prior to disassembly.) Nevertheless, it was impossible to predict the exact sizes and angles of all the bricks that constitute the arches in time to preorder them from Alberta. Instead, Carlos built wooden formwork for the arches at home, and then cut tapered bricks on site to make the arches. A close visual match between brick and mortar color helped compensate for the slight change in the height of horizontal joints as the brick skin rose. EYP's dimensions worked, but NER's meticulous masons made it happen. There are multiple lessons buried in this case study. The collaborative nature of the project orchestrated by Richard Marks is especially impressive. The Pine Street Inn's commitment to a lasting solution for a building that they do not own (they rent it from the City) in spite of construction costs just short of $2.5 Million (not including the donated labor) is a model of commitment to this landmark building. Tasteful advertising on the scrims surrounding the scaffolding, highly visible to thousands of daily commuters on the Southeast Expressway, were an ingenious fundraiser for the project. The innovative concealed steel framework used both to support the new brick veneer and to simultaneously reinforce the brick masonry back-up is not an obvious solution to pursue for most structural engineers. Maintaining the dimensional integrity of the tower and replicating considerable detail, in spite of different brick sizes in 1874 and 2002 and the new cavity, required unusual skill and flexibility on the part of the masons. 2. BSA Preservation Award: Eric Ward and Laurie Soave of our Honors and Awards Sib-Committee will follow-up with Jean Carroon's recommended recipient directly. 3. Sargent Murals Restoration at Boston Public Library, McKim Building: Elizabeth Randall described a recent scaffold tour with Bill Barry to see the restoration of the John Singer Sargent murals at the McKim Building. Gianfranco Pacobene of Harvard's Strauss Center is directing the restoration team's work on site. McKim allowed Sargent to alter the architectural framework for the space in which the murals are mounted, including shifting the rhythm of pilasters and detailed design of lighting fixtures. Sargent spent 29 years completing the murals with trips back and forth between his London studio, where he had a 1/3 scale maquette of the space, and Boston, where he handled the installation. The murals are strikingly rough compared to easel paintings and include a variety of three dimensional materials including heavy plaster relief, paste jewels, and deeply striated anaglypta. Visit the Strauss Center's remarkable website for the project at http://www.sargentmurals.bpl.org 4. Postscript- State Historic Tax Credit: Preservation Mass helped put together the twelve groups that make up the Massachusetts Preservation Coalition, a group that filed House Bill 2801 for a State Historic Tax Credit. They raised money to hire Paul Fusella to be their lobbyist, a decision that helped bring this bill and its sponsors to the attention of lawmakers. The bill is "broad based" in terms of the state's geography but is primarily aimed at supporting new private investment in core urban areas. The Tax Credit is set at 30%. The Senate Ways and Means Committee wants to include the tax credit in this year's budget, then send it along to the Joint Committee on Taxation. Buildings that are eligible for the National Register may be eligible for the tax credit, including residences. Massachusetts is not a pioneer in this effort. Twenty four states now have or are developing such a rehabilitation tax credit as part of their "smart growth" packages. Maryland, Michigan, and Rhode Island are good examples. Marilyn Fenollosa of the National Trust drafted the bill. Jim Igoe of Preservation Mass and Secretary of State William Galvin provided important political guidance. (Trinity Financial had done two federal historic tax credit projects near the home of the Speaker, which proved to be persuasive.) The State Senate has incorporated a version of this bill in its recently voted Economic Stimulus Package. [On November 26, David Dixon, BSA President and Henry Moss sent a letter of support from the BSA to the legislature.] 5. Mass Mental Health: This 1912 building at Longwood Medical Center is eligible for listing on the National Register. Now empty, it is owned by the State's Division of Capital Asset Management. Its future is uncertain. Albert Rex announced an event of recognition and advocacy for the next Saturday featuring art installations (rivers of fresh flowers in the corridors and lobbies)* and panel discussions about mental health policies and treatment methods. * It is not customary for visitors to bring flowers to mental health patients. featuring "Managing the Waste Stream in Rehabilitation Projects" Vance Freyman, Consigli Construction 8: 00 a.m., Thursday, December 11, 2003 The Architects' Building, 52 Broad Street, 5th floor, Boston
Henry Moss AIA, Matthew Bronski, and Sara Wermiel, co-leaders and scribes
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