‘‘Out with the old, in with the new” has been the mantra for the past decade’s construction boom. But with funding tight and environmental awareness permeating the industry, “restore the old, incorporate the new” is a more realistic goal for building owners trying to make the most of what they have.
This is good news for contractors that know their way around adaptive reuse projects, which aim to retain a structure’s unique historic features while giving it a new, revenue-generating purpose. A variety of factors are driving this category of restoration: the state of the economy, the availability of historical tax credits, and the demand for smarter, greener urban development.
“Historical work usually represents over one-third of our overall volume; in this kind of economy, it’s closer to 65 percent,” says Michael Bruss, founder and president of
Bruss Construction, Inc., Bradford, N.H. “In the northeast, it presents an opportunity for contractors to work and for building owners to implement a deferred maintenance plan that incorporates energy retrofits.”
This approach is particularly effective when a project focuses on exterior improvements, allowing occupants to stay put while the retrofit takes place—a major selling point for clients that can’t afford to be displaced.
An Old Home for a Modern Engineering Firm
In late 2009, James Petersen, owner of
Petersen Engineering, Portsmouth, N.H., approached Bruss about converting a Colonial house-turned-bed and breakfast into the engineering firm’s new headquarters. Having successfully worked together in the past, the companies were well matched to achieve the project’s overall goal: showcasing techniques and materials that promote both preservation and sustainability.
“A good part of Petersen’s work is doing occupied rehabs in the greater Boston area,” Bruss says. “James thought it would be a good experience for him and his staff to live through what they were subjecting other people to. They took it on as a challenge.”
Bruss Construction was up to the task, having recently modernized The McDowell Colony Hall at one of the nation’s oldest artists’ colonies in Peterborough, N.H., without leaving a trace of change on the exterior of the nationally registered historic building.
Portsmouth’s Historic District Commission unanimously approved the 335 Maplewood Avenue project Jan. 6; by February, Petersen’s staff had moved in, and the four-month exterior renovation was under way. Bruss Construction self-
performed the majority of work, covering 3,400 square feet, with a budget of less than $300,000.
“Our strategy was threefold: improving energy performance by 85 percent, matching existing architectural details and employing a strict durability plan,” Bruss says. “The previous windows and siding lasted close to 200 years, and we want our work to last just as long.”
As the construction team inventoried existing exterior features, it became clear that water infiltration was worse than expected. “Any time you’re dealing with old buildings, there are unforeseen situations. In this case, we knew water had been getting into the wall cavities, but we didn’t realize how bad the rot was,” Bruss says. “We had to do complete sill replacement. We had held a contingency for a percentage of the work, but it ended up being more extensive.”
Bruss’ crew replicated window, door and roof transitions with historic accuracy, using appropriate materials. New elements include historically accurate replacement windows (the old ones were too rotted to refurbish) and a new roof with 6 inches of insulation underneath. Another 4 inches of insulation went in the walls under the new siding—essentially wrapping the building in a blanket without changing the details of the outer shell.
Reducing air infiltration and upgrading the thermal performance of the walls and roof contributed dramatically to cutting the building’s heating load from 79 BTUs per square foot to just 12 BTUs per square foot. (For more project details, including daily progress updates and photos, visit the 335 Maplewood Avenue
blog.)
Bruss Construction performs a baseline audit of energy performance on each project it undertakes, strategizing solutions that tie back to the original goals of the building.
“An integrated design process is essential to success. You don’t want to design structural and mechanical systems without thinking about the envelope. If you do it together, you get high performance and lower capital costs,” Bruss says.
As a woodworker and former sculptor’s apprentice, dealing with the challenges that stem from having to solve problems on a building-by-building basis is one of the things that draws Bruss to restoration projects. “During my apprenticeship, we had to devise tools and methods to do what we wanted to do,” he says. “Having the perception that every project has a solution makes it more exciting. And the most satisfying part is that we make these historic buildings relevant again and ready for another go-round.”
Up next for the contractor is a design-build project with UK Architects, Hanover, N.H., to rehabilitate the Topstone Mill Building in Claremont, N.H., including a retrofit that will trim energy costs up to 60 percent for the new retail and office space owners.
A New Orleans Spin on Hollywood
New Orleans-based
Landis Construction Co., LLC discovered design-build is ideal for sustainable adaptive reuse projects when it teamed up with local developer Susan Brennan, architect John C. Williams and engineer
Schrenk & Peterson to re-imagine a vacant foundry-turned-taxi cab garage as Second Line Stages, a film studio in the Big Easy’s Lower Garden District.
The $26 million job involved restoring and connecting four circa-1900 buildings that encompassed 38,000 square feet. They were renovated into two sound stages and three flex stages in time to meet the November 2009 deadline. Landis also built a new five-story office tower with a digital theater, an 18,000-square-foot stage, dressing rooms, and make-up and rehearsal rooms, completed in phases in January and March.
Besides encountering the surprises associated with adaptive reuse projects—termites in brick walls, for example—the biggest challenge on the renovation portion of Landis’ work was meeting the deadline to qualify for needed historical tax credits. Surprisingly, integrating green requirements (to achieve LEED Silver certification) into the historical restoration was fairly seamless.
“Because we worked in concert with a LEED architect, we found it relatively easy to meet many of the requirements, especially with the historic work, which tends to use more organic materials,” says Linda Landesberg, Landis’ project manager for Second Line Stages. “It was a challenge in recordkeeping, but we were focused because we knew which LEED points to pursue.”
Still, adjustments had to be made, such as allowing extra curing time for the sustainable concrete, which had to be poured inside existing walls. There also was a learning curve with the special acoustical products needed to achieve an NC-25 rating for the sound stages.
“The rating means a lot to the studio’s customers because it shows the quality of sound available for recording,” Landesberg says. “We were unfamiliar with quite a few of the special products and construction methods needed to achieve the rating. We needed to understand the intent so superintendents knew they couldn’t just do the ‘norm,’ but rather had to step back and really learn how the products were put together.”
Onsite, enforcing recycling requirements was a daily battle. Although Landis Construction is fully engaged in the sustainable building movement—the firm restored the nationally registered historic American Chicle Building into its corporate offices and was named one of
Associated Builders and Contractors’ first Certified Green Contractors—many local subcontractors still require guidance on separating supplies, says Theresa Leger, Landis’ senior vice president. The contractors’ education efforts paid off: On the Second Line Stages project, more than 2,600 tons of waste was diverted from landfills, resulting in about 33 percent in cost savings.
The new office portion of the studio incorporates 50 percent recycled concrete, low-VOC adhesives and formaldehyde-free plywood products. The team also garnered the regional LEED credit, as all resources came from suppliers within 500 miles of New Orleans.
Now, Second Line Stages is the city’s first full-service media production facility and the nation’s first independently owned green studio. Filming began as soon as the studio opened—accommodating everything from television shows to commercials, music videos and feature films, including Millennium Film’s “The Mechanic” and Warner Bros.’ “Green Lantern.”
“This project required a lot more time than a hard bid job, but I felt a lot more ownership at the ribbon cutting,” Landesberg says. “We gave the owners exactly what they wanted: The revenue needed to support the project.”
Between the availability of tax credits and New Orleans’ aging buildings, Landis Construction enjoys a steady lineup of historical projects (about 35 percent of its annual volume). Landesberg is already hard at work on a two-building loft restoration up the street from Second Line Stages, and the firm is bidding on or has broken ground on historic renovations for a local university, nursing facility and mission house.
It’s no secret that many government-owned facilities have seen better days, making the public sector a viable place to find restoration work and give new life to well-worn, vacant buildings.
In Tennessee, for example, a federal courthouse built in 1884 is now home to a fresh batch of attorneys-in-waiting attending the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys Law School.
While it sounds like a natural fit, construction manager
Bell & Associates Construction, L.P., Brentwood, Tenn., needed two years to adapt the 126-year-old courthouse, custom house and post office to the needs of a modern law school. The $35 million project, which wrapped up in January, required careful planning due to the building’s status on the National Register of Historic Places and the fact that two additions in 1903 and 1929 incorporated distinct types of construction.
“The architect surveyed the existing building before we started work, but of course a lot was not on the as-built plans or the original documents. Every time we opened up a ceiling or a wall, a question came up,” says John Thayer, senior project manager for Bell & Associates.
Though the project team restored the building to the needs of the law school more than a specific architectural style, the Memphis Historical Society was heavily involved in approving designs and monitoring the use of salvaged materials. The final product features original limestone columns on the façade and marble columns in the lobby, as well as Palladian-style wood windows and brass-clad elevators—with many materials being reconditioned offsite due to tight jobsite conditions.
“The most historically significant areas were maintained, but portions of the interior required a total gut,” Thayer says. “In one wing of the building, the exterior walls stayed in place but we tore off and replaced the roof and the second through fourth floor slabs to accommodate the new auditorium.”
A new HVAC system supports 190,000 square feet of classrooms, study areas, courtrooms and offices, plus a library, legal clinic, bookstore and coffee shop. A seismic upgrade, including new interior shotcrete walls and exterior steel reinforcements, also was performed to alleviate the risk of earthquake damage from the nearby New Madrid fault.
Memphis-based
Fleming Associates Architects PC and
Askew Nixon Ferguson Architects Inc. shared the design responsibilities. Major subcontractors included
Arc Electric, Millington. Tenn., and NDI Construction and
Quality Iron Fabricators, both located in Memphis.
Following pressure from construction businesses, industry trade groups including
Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) and the
National Association of Home Builders, and Republican and Democrat members of Congress, the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) agreed to delay enforcing its new Lead-Safe Renovation, Repair and Painting program.
The final rule implementing the program initially took effect in April, requiring contractors to be certified (through lead-safe training) to perform work that disturbs more than 6 feet of lead-based paint in a pre-1978 home, apartment, school, daycare center or other facility occupied by a pregnant woman or child under the age of 6.
Now, per a memorandum from the EPA’s assistant administrator for enforcement, the agency has stated it will withhold enforcement action against firms for violating the rule’s certification requirement until October. Enforcement action will not be taken against individual renovation workers who have applied for or enrolled in training classes by Sept. 30.
To comply, both general contractors and subcontractors working on a renovation covered by the rule must be certified and must have a certified individual work on affected portions of the job. To become certified, contractors must apply with the EPA every five years (at a cost of $300) and pay for employees to complete an agency-approved training course on lead-safe work practices.
Initially, contractors were exempt from the program requirements if a homeowner certified that no pregnant women or children under the age of 6 occupied the residence, but that provision has since been eliminated.
As of April 22, the EPA had accredited only 204 training providers nationwide—making it difficult for many construction businesses to access and complete training before the deadline. Several chapters of ABC in California, Iowa, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Hampshire/Vermont, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee and Utah offer accredited courses; other trainers can be located at
www.epa.gov/getleadsafe.
The expenses incurred by companies to comply add another financial burden. However, the price of noncompliance is much greater: Fines can reach up to $37,500 a day.
Despite pushback from legislators and industry members, the EPA is moving forward with more lead regulations. It recently issued a notice of proposed rulemaking that would require contractors to perform post-renovation dust-wipe testing and to provide the results to building owners and occupants. The rule is expected to be finalized by July 2011.
The agency also issued an advance notice of proposed rulemaking announcing its intention to apply lead-safe work practices to renovations on public and commercial buildings. If EPA investigations reveal lead-based paint hazards exist in public and commercial buildings, a proposed regulation is likely to follow in December 2011, with a potential effective date of July 2013.
For updates on how these proposed rules play out, visit
www.epa.gov/lead/pubs/renovation.htm or
www.abc.org/rulemakings.