Documenting Historic Resources at the Tremont Nail Company

Last modified: April 18, 2013

by Kelly Streeter

Tremont Nail Factory in Wareham, MA

Tremont Nail Factory in Wareham, MA

This past weekend I had the opportunity to speak to a Bachelor Design Studio class from Boston Architectural College (BAC) and demonstrate the documentation of historic resources using TPAS™.  Professor Johanna Rowley is directing her students in a case study at the 19th century factory of the Tremont Nail Company in Wareham, MA, a practical application of research and field work with real world implications.

Ms. Rowley first became aware of the site in 2011 while working on a BAC-funded project to investigate disaster recovery at restoration sites in the aftermath of the tornadoes that hit Springfield in 2011.   The site was purchased by the town in 2006 when Acorn Manufacturing moved the nail operation and has languished unused ever since.  Ms. Rowley’s goal is to mobilize her students and the community to help Wareham stabilize and document the site as an initial step in the effort to determine how the adaptation of the buildings and site could serve to fill existing needs of the community.

I met with Johanna and her students to discuss the goals of the site inspection.  The class had previously prepared background drawings from field measurements and archival data.  We then went into the field, with two separate teams working together with a TPAS™ kit to document and photograph the existing conditions at the site.  This information will now be used by the class to assess and prioritize the preservation needs of the site.

It was a fun day at an amazing landmark.  To follow the effort,  “Like”  their Facebook page.

Read article, Hammering out Tremont Nail’s restoration in Wareham

Return to the NJ State House Dome

Last modified: March 22, 2013

VA returned to the New Jersey State House dome for a condition survey with H2L2 Architects and Preservation Design Partnership on a sunny, but cold, day in March – 17 years after our first inspection with Jan Hird Pokorny Associates prior to the restoration of the dome.

Register for TPAS Webinar Feb 26

Last modified: February 7, 2013

Free TPAS Webinar
FEB 26, 2013 (Tuesday)
12:00 EST

Join us for an overview of the functionalities of TPAS including new and upcoming features. Q + A will follow.

red-register-button

TPAS software uses AutoCAD functions and formats you probably already know. It’s loaded into a ruggedized tablet PC linked to a digital camera along with project drawings letting you experience total digital inter-connectivity on site by entering graphical and numerical data, photographs and notes directly into your existing files.

And now, web-based TPAS report portals allow you to interactively search, view and format all project data and photographs within an internet browser.  You can create, edit and print reports from the browser without opening AutoCAD. This new feature  reduces the time and resources your project team spends on reporting tasks for complex, data-driven projects.

Vertical Access uses TPAS for existing conditions documentation, but its applications are as limitless as the reporting needs for your architecture, engineering or construction projects.

For morKelly-with-TPAS-CUe info:

Questions? Contact Kelly Streeter, PE at  kelly@tpasllc.com

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A Visit to Canning Studios

Last modified: February 4, 2013

by Kelly Streeter

I had the opportunity to visit John Canning Painting, Plastering and Conservation Studios in Cheshire, CT last week. Bill Barry, John Riccio and I met to discuss the application and customization of the TPAS software to the types of plaster surveys they routinely do. While there, I was able to tour the studio and get a sneak peak at the murals they are designing and executing for the Cathedral of St. Patrick in Norwich, CT. What a treat.

Flume Fever – The Video

Last modified: February 4, 2013

Catching Flume Fever
by Mara Ferris of Gen 9 Productions

Never realizing its rich history, I have stopped many times along the Unaweep-Tabeguache Scenic byway to view the remnants of the spectacular wooden structure hanging high on the red rock walls above the San Miguel and Dolores Rivers. As a filmmaker based in Western Colorado I had photographed the structure several times and always pondered the story behind this vibrant piece of living history.  Thankfully my team was hired to film the Hanging Flume reconstruction project in April 2012 and our knowledge of the rich and colorful history quickly grew. We caught ‘Flume Fever’ as soon as filming began!

Contracted by Western Colorado Interpretive Association to film the reconstruction and produce a short video we had the pleasure of spending four days shooting footage, gathering interviews and learning the story of the structure.  This short documentary will be used as an educational tool to help inspire future historical preservation projects along the scenic byway and promote the preservation of our local history for future generations. It was a thrill to see the Vertical Access team work, and I am grateful we were all able to share in the ‘Flume Fever‘ – enjoy the trailer to the film here!

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/51223922 w=440&h=247]

Watch the full-screen version of the Flume Fever trailer here

Ultrasonic Investigation for the Characterization and Evaluation of Guastavino Tile Vaults: A Pilot Study

Last modified: February 17, 2017

The third biennial meeting of The Construction History Society of America was held at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge MA November 2-3, 2012. This scholarly forum is a venue for professionals from a wide range of construction related disciplines to come together to exchange ideas and research findings about their passions for design, engineering, and preservation.

This year, in conjunction with the opening of the exhibit, Palaces for the People: Guastavino and America’s Great Public Spaces at Boston Public Library, all of Saturday’s agenda was devoted to the exploration of  topics pertaining to his work.

VA’s presentation, Evaluation of In-Service Tile Vaults, was based on findings from a pilot study performed on a mockup of a Guastavino vault with simulated faults, such as voids and delaminations, built into the vault as it was being constructed.  The abstract and full report are included below.

Abstract

Presentation by Kelly Streeter, P.E. and Kent Diebolt
3rd Biennial Meeting of the Construction History Society of America
Cambridge, MA | November 3, 2012

In response to aging infrastructure in the United States, nondestructive evaluation (NDE) is increasingly used as a monitoring tool, a method of investigation and in a quality control capacity.  The adaptation of existing NDE techniques to the evaluation of historic architectural and structural materials provides great potential for increasing the information available to professionals evaluating historic structures.

Guastavino ceiling tiles on the south arcade of the Manhattan Municipal Building

Guastavino ceiling tiles on the south arcade of the Manhattan Municipal Building

The process of addressing the significant public safety concerns of aging tile assemblies, such as Guastavino tile vaults, can be complicated by the difficulty of access – the undersides of the tiles often soar over heavily-used public spaces commonly filled with pews and other structures which make temporary scaffolding problematic.  The proposed sounding method examines the feasibility of evaluating Guastavino tile vaults from the top, which would allow architects and engineers to evaluate the vaults from the often easily-accessible attic spaces, thereby reducing the need for expensive and disruptive scaffolding systems for evaluation.  This could also facilitate more frequent periodic inspections.

Engineers evaluating the structural condition of existing tile vaults often need to determine construction details, including combined wythe and mortar bed thicknesses, in order to model vaults. Hammer sounding is frequently employed to qualitatively evaluate the condition of the soffit layer of Guastavino tile.  The ultimate goal of this research path and the basis of this pilot study on the ultrasonic investigation of Guastavino tile vaults was the removal of the aural subjectivity inherent in hammersounding by the quantification of this same phenomenon: the differing acoustic quality of delaminated and bonded tiles.  By capturing and quantifying the impact response of steel hammer taps with an ultrasonic transducer and data acquisition system, the raw signals can be analyzed in the frequency domain using modern computational methods in an effort to characterize vault construction and condition.

Download the full report

The Old Post Office in Washington DC

Last modified: December 10, 2012

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The Old Post Office building in Washington, DC, constructed between 1892 and 1899, was designed by Willoughby J. Edbrooke, the Supervising Architect of the Treasury Department.  Purpose-built to house the Post Office, it is considered the last significant building of the Romanesque Revival style constructed in Washington DC.  It was also the first building in the city to incorporate a steel frame to support the interior structures of the building while exterior granite (Vinalhaven, ME) is load-bearing and tapers from 5’ thick near the foundation to approximately 1’ thick at the eave of the mansard roof.

In the 1880s Congress approved the building of a new post office.  Planned to be a grand edifice to act as an anchor to revitalize the neighborhood between the Capitol and the White House, the construction dragged on for seven years.  By the time it was completed the Beaux Arts style of architecture had gained favor making the newly completed Post Office appear almost immediately outdated.  In fact, the new structure was derided in the New York Times as “a cross between a cathedral and a cotton mill”. The post office moved into the new headquarters when it was completed, but in 1914, the Mail Depot was moved to a larger building constructed next to Union Station, leaving the purpose built landmark underutilized.  Since the 1920s the massive structure has served as overflow space for various government agencies.

In the 1920s the building commission of the Treasury Department was actively developing the surrounding Federal Triangle complex and promoting the building’s demolition.  This act was only suspended by the deepening depression: the government could not afford to tear the building down.  Given its mixed use and orphan status with no government agency directly responsible for its upkeep, the Old Post Office slowly fell into disrepair.  In 1964 the Pennsylvania Avenue Commission, organized by President John F. Kennedy, recommended that the building be demolished to make way for the completion of the Federal Triangle.  By the early 1970s, demolition permits were in place and the funds for the demolition were appropriated by Congress.

The building narrowly avoided the wrecking ball again when a preservation group led by Nancy Hanks, the then chairwoman of the National Endowment for the Arts, prevailed upon Congress to reverse its decision.  The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973, treated to an extensive renovation beginning in 1976 and officially renamed the Nancy Hanks Center in 1983.

In early 2012 The Old Post Office building was deemed surplus building stock by the General Services Administration, which entered into a long-term lease agreement with The Trump Organization, whose plan is to rehabilitate the building as the Trump International Hotel Washington, D.C.  Vertical Access worked with Robert Silman Associates for the Trump Organization to complete the due diligence survey in advance of the lease of the property.  In August 2012 a VA team completed a thorough exterior survey of the tower and areas of the main building.

Berta’s World Travel Journal

Last modified: December 10, 2012

by Berta de Miguel

I am back in the New York City office after 5 months traveling. In April I flew to Spain, where I spent some weeks visiting family and traveling through ancient cities such Avila, Salamanca or Ciudad Rodrigo in my way to Portugal, a country that I love for several reasons, being its wonderful people and their amazing food two of the main ones. Also, the cultural and architectural heritage of the country is awesome and kept as a secret treasure … Coimbra, Santa Maria da Feira, Aveiro, Porto … are amazing cities that I never get tired of visiting. There, you can close your eyes and feel transported to the old times at the same time that you enjoy a wonderful Porto wine hearing fado music and eating a plate of breathtaking bacalhau al bras (a dish with cod, potatoes, eggs and black olives).

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I reentered Spain through Galicia, from where I headed to León; I spent some days visiting Leon city and its Gothic Cathedral: a thirteen century temple, also called The House of Light. It was built on the site of previous Roman baths of the 2nd century which, 800 years later, King Ordoño II converted into a palace. I also had the chance to visit Logroño and its gothic-baroque Cathedral, recently beautifully renovated. If you go to Logroño, you can’t miss Laurel Street with its Rioja wine, mosto and tapas, another well kept secret from the north of Spain.

Before the arrival of the summer I flew to Thailand and traveled through the north visiting ancient villages such as Sukotai. From Chang Mai I crossed the border with Laos by boat and arrived in Luang Prabang. The city was formerly the capital of a kingdom of the same name. Until the communist takeover in 1975, it was the royal capital and seat of government of the Kingdom of Laos. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The main part of the city consists of four principal roads located on a peninsula between the Nam Khan and Mekong rivers. The city is well known for its numerous Buddhist temples and monasteries. Every morning, hundreds of monks from the various monasteries walk through the streets collecting alms. From there, we took a boat upstream the Mekong River and then the Ou River, with the aim of arriving to Nong Kiao and Mon Ngoy, small villages nested in the middle of tropical forested mountains, the later with no electricity nor road traffic. I contacted some masons and craftsmen of the area with the purpose of understanding the vernacular traditional architecture based in wood, straw and ceramics.

After one week in Lao, I flew back to Bangkok in order to take a flight to Myanmar, the most amazing country I have ever visited. My travel through Myanmar started in Yangoon, the capital, with its rich colonial architecture, its street vendors and its life; everything surrounded with warm decay. After some days I headed to Bagan; from the 9th to 13th centuries, the city was the capital of the Kingdom of Pagan, the first kingdom to unify the regions that would later constitute modern Myanmar. During the highest time of kingdom, between the 11th and 13th centuries, over 13000 Buddhist temples, pagodas and monasteries were constructed in the Bagan plains alone, of which the remains of over 2230 temples and pagodas still survive to the present day.

I had the chance to visit some restoration sites and learn the techniques of restoration, which are no much different from the techniques used years ago. The two basic materials used are brick and mortar. I also visited the second largest city in the country, Mandalay, and the area of the Inke Lake, an otherworldly place with its floating markets, fishermen, villages and gardens; a society on the water. Then I directed my steps to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, with its world known Petronas Towers. The mix of tradition and different cultures makes KL and its architecture a very interesting city worth of visiting. Aside of Kuala Lumpur I crossed all the west coast of the peninsula from north to south stopping in the islands of Perenthian, Kappas and Tioman, before entering to Singapore.  Singapore is a city where the most futuristic buildings and the vastest extension of shopping malls I have ever seen merge with the east Asia tradition such as churches, hawkers (food courts), pagodas, Hindu temples, and mosques.

Once back in Europe I took a break in Spain with my family and then I traveled trough the west coast of France, where you could taste the wonderful French food, enjoy nature, middle age villages, sea and excellent climbing. Bourdeaux, Pays de la Loire, La Bretagne, Normandie, Saint Emilion, Paris… but the most striking place was, without doubt, Le Mont Saint-Michel, MtStMichelan island full filled of middle age buildings with the castle-church crowning the top of the mountain. The island has held strategic fortifications since ancient times, and since the 8th century AD been the seat of the monastery from which it draws its name. The Mont Saint-Michel and its bay are part of the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites. Years ago you could not reach the island but in low tide, even though it was very dangerous because of the quicksand surrounding the area. That is the reason why this place was so difficult to assault.

Among the numerous historical sites I have discovered I would highlight Yangon, the magic of Shwedagon pagoda and the temples of Bagan in Myanmar, University of Coimbra, Oporto city center and Mont Saint-Michel. The best part without doubt has been sharing my trips, time and life with family and friends.

Since I came back to New York and returning to Vertical Access I have had the chance to participate in very interesting and challenging projects such as the former MetLife Tower on Madison Square, the Ritz tower in New York, and the Robert C. Weaver Federal Building in Washington DC, among others. I am very happy to be back and share what I have learned.