Restoration, Renovation and Re-use
Restoration, Renovation and Re-use
Building on the Past
The preservation of our architectural heritage and the continuation of the buildings from the past as viable settings for contemporary life are important to the life of society. We believe that restoration, renovation and adaptive reuse, all fundamental sustainable design strategies, should embody the idea that the first responsibility of any architectural intervention is to make the whole better. Our approach to restoration is based on a rigorous evaluation of the building fabric. We design intervention protocols to ensure that the restoration process respects the history of each building and addresses both the natural behavior of building assemblies and the construction deficiencies that often hasten decay. We also explore existing architectural and structural patterns to identify opportunities to integrate the requirements and attitudes of today respectfully into the fabric of historic buildings. In this way, the new can reinforce the enduring traditions of society while accommodating the unfolding of human history.
Rendering of the Church, ca. 1924
West Side Presbyterian Church Ridgewood, New Jersey
Set in a bucolic residential neighborhood, the original West Side Presbyterian Church was much loved by the community. However, on January 8, 2002, the church suffered a catastrophic fire. Left standing were just a few walls and an adjacent Christian Education Building. The work entailed the design and construction of an entirely new church that could accommodate the needs of the growing congregation. The fire created the opportunity to rotate the axis of the church 90 degrees allowing for a new enlarged narthex, a much larger sanctuary, and a new entry plaza to be built on the north-south axis.
Fire Damage
Inspired by the ruins of the existing church which were open to the sky, we focused our design approach on the layering and filtering of natural light into the sacred and secular spaces. In the sanctuary the light animates the stone walls by raking their surface. In the chapel the light is filtered through screens; in the new gallery the glass ceiling permits a view to the open sky.
Kykuit Residence Rockefeller Brothers Fund Tarrytown, New York
Kykuit, the Rockefeller family home, required major infrastructure changes to enable it to accommodate group tours of the first floor and art gallery, and provide guest rooms on the upper floors. Our underlying preservation goal was to replace its heating, plumbing, life safety and electrical systems without changing the original fabric of the 30,000 square foot house. Moreover, all changes were designed to be reversible.
Entry portal, before
Pocantico Conference Center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund Tarrytown, New York
Originally a three-story utility building with horse stables, an automobile garage, workshop, and various maintenance and staff rooms, The Coach Barn is now the International Conference Center of The Rockefeller Brothers Fund. We cleared the ground floor, retaining a series of brickvaulted spaces with large windows and masonry walls, for construction of the conference center, designing two conference rooms, a lecture hall, a dining room, a catering kitchen and a flexible area adjacent to the dining room. We created a new loggia opposite the entrance for use as an informal gathering place, staff offices, bathrooms and mechanical spaces.
Former carriage entrance
The first floor, housing the family’s tack, carriage, and automobile collections, was left intact as museum space open to the public. Renovation of the second floor required major intervention that completely transformed the upper level staff quarters into guest rooms for conferees. We transformed the hayloft into a common room, and utilizing roof space, made an outdoor living room. To reconnect guests with the floors below, we widened the corridors and other public spaces, adding a new stair. The curving walls and portals enhance the clarity of the circulation, leading conferees back to the lower levels of the conference center.
Rockefeller Archives Center Tarrytown, New York
To maximize the utilization of the Archive Center and the adjacent Carriage House, Newman Architects developed a Master Plan to transform both buildings. The first phase relocated staff work areas, the kitchen, the Director's office, a conference room/library, and visiting scholar offices to the second floor of the Carriage House. The first floor of the Carriage House will contain a new conference room and library. The public spaces are to be renovated to their original intent while adding appropriate and energy efficient lighting. We retained the corridor’s original skylights and added track lighting to create an art gallery that “tells the story” of Rockefeller philanthropy.
Before
New Haven City Hall New Haven, Connecticut
Designed by noted architect Henry Austin, New Haven’s City Hall is an exuberant, early example of High Victorian Gothic architecture. Dominating the historic New Haven Green, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. Combining preservation, restoration and new construction, its renewal is the culmination of a decades-long effort by citizens to preserve the building and incorporate it meaningfully into the new government center development.
Interior before
Union Station
New Haven, Connecticut
Designed in 1917 by Cass Gilbert, New Haven’s Union Station was a grand public building until the decline of passenger railroads led to its closing in 1954. Suffering from lack of maintenance, extreme water damage, and graffiti, it was almost demolished, until the Northeast Corridor Improvement Project came to the rescue. Water damaged
ceilings,
exterior
masonry
and
windows, interior limestone walls, chandeliers, clocks, ticket windows and shop fronts were cleaned and restored. We installed new wooden benches replicating the originals, and removed offices on the balconies, allowing natural light to flood through the arched windows.
Union Station, ca. 1970’s
We performed a complete exterior and interior restoration of Union Station, rebuilding the dark tunnel passageways leading to the platforms, and constructing a connected commuter parking garage.
Before
Battell Chapel Yale University
New Haven, Connecticut
The architect Russell Sturgis built Battell Chapel for Yale University in 1876. It was much admired then for its gilding, bright stenciling, mosaic tile art, painted and oiled woodwork. In the 1920’s, however, the Victorian interior was painted over to emulate stone, as Yale turned to a Collegiate Gothic style. When the University hired us to renovate Battell’s interior, our initial research yielded clues to the original design hidden underneath. Battell Chapel now accomodated multi-faith services in a setting that serves a diverse religious student body.
Common Room, ca. 1930’s
Jonathan Edwards College Yale University New Haven, Connecticut
The oldest of Yale’s residential colleges, Jonathan Edwards College was designed in 1932 by James Gamble Rogers. Newman Architects’ renovation of Jonathan Edwards renews this architectural treasure to nurture and inspire future generations of Yale students.
The Architectural Studio Weir Hall, 1927
Taft Library Cubicles 1960’s - 2006
The design preserves James Gamble Rogers’ rich architectural collage created by his 1932 design that formed JE and its courtyard by adding to his 1926 Collegiate Gothic dormitory and to the earlier, eclectic-medieval Weir Hall. Here, modifications blend into existing fabric, deferring to Rogers and removing unsympathetic 1960’s interventions. New stair and elevator cores cut vertically through existing construction, connecting three separate college buildings with one coherent circulation network. To improve the dining hall experience, we carved a new servery out of existing floor area. A new monumental stair hall welcomes students into a revitalized basement social/recreational complex. Existing, under utilized basement squash courts were converted into an experimental theater, and additions to the basement circulation loop tie all these services together.
Jonathan Edwards College (continued)
Old Divinity School, current Calhoun College Site
Calhoun College Yale University
New Haven, Connecticut
At Calhoun College our design solution focused on
preservation.
Where
new
architectural
interventions were needed, we envisioned the building in the eyes of its original architect John Russell Pope, preserving and enhancing the historic building.
Location of future Calhoun Cabaret
The first floor servery has been redesigned and enlarged, to accommodate a modern food service program. The dining hall has been sensitively restored, inserting environmental
controls
in
the
most
invisible manner. The former basement was reconfigured and expanded below the courtyard to create a cabaret theater, dance studio, fine arts studios and other student life amenities. Calhoun College (continued)
Before
Vanderbilt Hall - Old Campus Yale University New Haven, Connecticut
Extensive
infrastructure
upgrades
brought
Vanderbilt Hall into the 21st century. Failing mechanical systems were replaced, life safety systems modernized and telecommunications systems fully equipped. New systems were concealed so as not to compromise the existing architecture. Refinishing of paneling and flooring, together with enhanced lighting, brighten and refresh Vanderbilt’s interior environment.
Dormitory Renovation Yale Law School
New Haven, Connecticut
This interior renovation elevates the quality of life for Yale Law School students. In our work, we remained faithful to the vision of the original architect, James Gamble Rogers, who designed the “Collegiate Gothic� building in 1929. The original closed floor plan clustered student suites around six separate stair entrances. The renovation program converted three of the six entryways into administrative offices and work space. Several existing rooms were converted to common spaces with the intent to provide areas for quiet meetings and study.
East Lounge, before
Jewett House Vassar College Poughkeepsie, New York
A primary focus of the project was to enhance the sense of community for residents of the 1907 Pilcher & Tachau building. The addition of common lounges, small and large meeting spaces, library and study spaces, and kitchen/ vending spaces served to meet this goal. The project includes a complete modernization to provide additional occupancy and variety in
student
room
arrangements,
increased
lavatory and bathing facilities, reconfiguration of internal paths to alleviate congestion and clarify circulation within the building.
15 Washington Street Commons Rutgers University Newark, New Jersey
Implementing Newman Architects’ Housing Master Plan, this project restores and the adaptively reuses the landmark 15 Washington Street building, a 21-story office building of 1929, later acquired by Rutgers, vacant for the past 13 years. The renovation’s new student apartments and restored ground floor public spaces transform the residential experience on Rutgers’ Newark campus and help catalyze Newark’s renaissance.
Before
Engleman Hall Addition and Adaptive Re-use Southern Connecticut State University New Haven, Connecticut
Located at the heart of the Southern Connecticut State University campus, Engleman Hall consolidates all non-science departments of the School of Arts and Sciences in one location, and accommodates increasing enrollment. Because of its size and location, Engleman Hall transforms the campus by developing and enhancing a series of lively exterior spaces.
Before
Environmental Education Center The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk Norwalk, Connecticut
The Maritime Aquarium first opened in the late 1980’s as part of an urban revitalization effort. After eight successful years, the Aquarium had clarified its mission and wanted to expand. We were hired to create a new master plan to give the Aquarium greater physical depth by restructuring the entry, circulation and paths and the linkage of its buildings, creating a more dynamic setting for exploring and explaining the aquatic world. An adjacent industrial building has become the aquarium’s Environmental Education
Center,
housing
state-of-the-art
demonstration laboratories, lecture rooms, a gift shop and restaurant.
Seaboard Building c. 1930
Slover Library Norfolk, Virginia
The Slover Library continues Norfolk’s downtown revitalization and provides a new public forum. The project restored a 115-year-old former customs house and town hall, adding a seven-story addition with connecting atrium that welcomes
and
displays
program
offerings. The addition’s transparent exterior reveals library activities to the city. To make the old customs house accessible from within the addition, the design team opened its historic western wall and restored its masonry.
Ferguson Library Stamford, Connecticut
The Ferguson Library is in the heart of Stamford, Connecticut. It has long been a strong resource for the growing, diverse community. Ferguson Library posed several challenges to our design team. The library needed to update its infrastructure and provide a state of the art information technology package, while integrating more group meeting spaces, and embracing the need for sociability and community within the library. While quiet study needs remained, the library as a family center, and an information hub required a reconfiguration of the existing spaces to better serve the needs of its constituency.
Fairfield Public Library, ca. 1910
Fairfield Public Library Fairfield, CT
Originally built in 1903, the library has undergone several piecemeal expansions throughout the years which have resulted in a building with many disparate elements. Newman Architects’ addition and renovation project unifies these additions into a cohesive whole, and brings the library up to contemporary standards in order to accommodate expected increases in library use.
Ridgefield Library Ridgefield, Connecticut
Set in a park-like setting on an archetypal small town main street, the original Beaux-Arts library building, diminutive yet monumental, was built in 1903. Behind it were numerous additions, all deferential in material and overall scale to the original, but inflexible and too small to serve the needs of its community today. All the additions were demolished and replaced with a new addition that doubles the size of the library. The original building has been restored. Designed to LEED standards and Intended as a library for the future, this design melds town fabric and life, creating a new focus for community.
Westport Public Library, ca. 1984
Westport Public Library Westport, Connecticut The Westport Library has long been an important town resource and meeting place, but its structure was lacking appropriate circulation and space to meet current demands of its visitors. Our solution renovates the original library, and provides a new addition that meets the needs of its growing community.
Case Library, ca. 1960s
Case Library - Dana Addition Colgate University Hamilton, New York
When it was built in 1958, the Case Library conformed to the notion of a library as a warehouse for books, and its architectural treatment reflected that idea. With our addition, we gave it a heart, reflecting its importance as the center of learning at the University, and a place for imagination.
Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library Yale University
New Haven, Connecticut
The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale (BRBL) is an architectural icon and its 500,000 rare books and over one million volumes make it one of the most important research facilities of its kind in the world. The building was originally designed by Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore Owings and Merrill in 1960 for roughly 25 staff and a modest level of acquisition of rare material. Today, BRBL has close to 90 staff members and acquires roughly 12,000 printed items, 1,000 linear feet of archives and 1,000 individual manuscripts annually. At age 50, BRBL is in need of substantial building envelope remediation as well as full mechanical, plumbing, electrical, security and fire protection system replacement along with programmatic/space utilization changes.
Nathan Hale School K-8 New Haven, Connecticut
In New Haven, the old brick neighborhood schools built in the early twentieth century spoke simply but emphatically of a public duty to provide instruction to the young of the community. The original Nathan Hale School in the Morris Cove neighborhood was typical - a red brick 3-story building set back about 25 feet from the street, with a combination gymnasium and auditorium at its center and classrooms on the perimeter.
We restored the old building to retain and clarify its original character, introduced more natural light, turned the gymnasium into a library and increased the building efficiency, turning spaces that had been unneeded stairs, washrooms and mechanical spaces into classrooms and teaching support spaces.
Nathan Hale School, ca. 2002
Troup School, ca. 2007
Augusta Troup Magnet Academy of Sciences New Haven, Connecticut
This Pre-K to 8 project restores, reconfigures and adds space to a 1920’s school building to increase its efficiency and functionality in order to meet the needs of a contemporary curriculum. A large, red brick mass set apart from neighbors on a full city block, the original school building was an imposing but unwelcoming presence in its inner city neighborhood setting. Using a few large new building elements - the gymnasium, stair tower, and mechanical building - we turned what was an uncongenial place into a light-filled entrance to the school.
Lobby Interior, before
One Long Wharf Drive New Haven, Connecticut
One Long Wharf Drive is a multi-story manufacturing/industrial building which was converted to office use approximately 20 years ago. Our design provides improvements to the public spaces of the building, to attract new tenants to the complex. Transforming the quality of the interior started with the full renovation of the existing lobby. Newman Architect’s scheme creates a contemporary design intervention reflective of the building’s historic industrial origins. The space, which was once cluttered and uninviting, has been cleared and greatly simplified so that the “good bones” of the original space are manifest.
Yale Club Tap Room New York, New York
The Yale Club of New York engaged Newman Architects to design a sensitive renovation of its iconic Tap Room, originally a billiard room. The project enables the club to utilize the space as a three-meal dining venue while restoring its original character and creating anew a room for use in the twenty-first century.
Before
Boger Hall Wesleyan University Middletown, Connecticut
Newman Architects designed an addition to the University’s 1934 Squash Building designed by McKim Mead and White Architects. This adaptive re-use provides faculty offices, meeting spaces, libraries, classrooms, and seminar rooms for The College of Letters, Art History, and the Career Resource Center. Located along the eastern edge of the University’s central space, the addition draws from the great architectural character of “College Row” in massing, alignments, and materials while using contemporary languages of craft to articulate the exterior facade.
The mission of the Wesleyan Career Center is to establish and sustain relationships with current undergraduate students and Bachelor of Arts alumni that assist them in translating their Wesleyan liberal arts education into a lifetime of meaningful work. The importance of establishing a visible street address and home for the Career Center that is located at the heart of the campus enables this important resource to be available to all Wesleyan students and campus visitors.
Our Philosophy
As architects, we believe that what we make can improve the lives of people. We want to realize the idea of a better, richer place, made palpable through the shaping of space, place, form, and climate. The places we make reflect our affection for ordinary human interchange and commerce, and for what lies beneath. People need to belong to something larger, to make connections with others and the world, and to make order out of chaos. So the architecture they inhabit needs to represent something larger than either the individual or the group, yet provide places where they can both be themselves and recognize the social and cultural structures that surround them.
Design Process
Team Structure An open office environment supports our ‘studio’ style organization, with staff grouped into teams supporting principals-in-charge to address project challenges in a flexible manner - delivering talent where needed, when needed, with efficiency and effectiveness. We add consultants to the team as each project progresses to provide the right engineering and specialty expertise for the task.
Consensus Building We listen. We meet regularly with stake-holders to gather essential project information and to assist with decision making, building the essential consensus to move the project forward to completion. Our communication and coordination skills achieve success with complex constellations of constituency groups and in demanding regulatory environments.
Building Information Modeling - BIM Newman Architects was an early adopter of 3-D Building Information Modeling to support our design process. We use BIM for all projects, enhancing our ability to study a variety of project alternatives quickly, to monitor project scope and cost, to improve coordination and reduce conflicts, and to support enhanced project visualization. With MEPF systems coordinated in 3-D, our BIM models have reduced contractor bids, construction clashes during construction and anticipated construction costs.
Integrated Delivery We use our leadership in 3-D design to support the construction process. We are participating in the development of new practices in the delivery of architectural projects, collaborating with construction managers at all phases of design, bidding, and construction, utilizing BIM as the common platform for communication of intention and realization.
Design Visualization We employ a wide range of powerful visualization methods to help our clients and ourselves understand and test design concepts and alternatives, including: physical and virtual modeling, photo-realistic synthetic imaging and fly-over and tour-though animation.
Public Outreach We have developed an extensive repertoire of skills and tools for helping institutions successfully present to the public and to obtain community acceptance of proposed projects.
Cost and Schedule Control We maintain control of cost and schedule through a range of tools and processes. We specify the creative use of testing and mockups to verify feasibility and constructability; early setting and periodic review of project schedules together with the use of Microsoft Project scheduling tools; early setting, benchmark testing, and periodic review of budgets; rigorous and regular risk assessment at each project phase; and BIM systems that export detailed information about scope to guide estimating and procurement. We have also gathered extensive experience with alternative procurement and contractdelivery strategies that can speed schedules and reduce cost, including: fast-track documentation, design-build, early enabling projects, and early-purchasing.
Quality Control We employ an arsenal of quality-control techniques, including: a detailed office design and procedures manual; outside code/regulatory reviews; internal third-party document reviews of our work and that of our consultants at each project phase to ensure correctness, coordination, and constructability; coordination with project CM’s in developing and checking documents; and BIM systems that unify project information in single models and greatly reduce opportunities for conflicts.
“I am very closely familiar with a good deal of Newman’s work, having frequently visited and used--almost inhabited--many of the public spaces that he has designed or helped to build. At Yale Law School and Yale colleges, for example, where he has done such sensitive and creative renovation, I have appreciated his ability to retain the best of the past while adding new features and advantages. At these and other academic settings, he has demonstrated insight into the particular human traits and needs likely to be present-- insight that involves deep and profound recognition of the interests and activities of those who will use them.”
“Newman Architects are uniquely adept at making sensitive connections between new additions and existing historic architecture. They understand how to cohesively integrate old and new. In addition to their design talents, the firm is accessible and committed to needs of their client and to resolving problems quickly.”
Richard Blumenthal United States Senator, State of Connecticut
David Yager Senior Architect Planner, Program Manager (Ret.), Yale University
“Newman Architects has done a number of jobs in New Haven particularly the restoration of our landmark City Hall and its addition. Much of old City Hall had been destroyed when the design of the renovation and addition began. It has been beautifully restored and the new addition respects and pays homage to the existing in wonderful ways. Both old and new wings are knitted together functionally and spatially. Much of the wonder of the architects' work is the manner in which they brought natural light into a new "gallery," and the new Aldermanic Chamber. The design is very successful in making a welcoming environment for New Haven's citizens and municipal staff. As mayor, I have worked and lived in the building for 16 years. It still delights me, my staff, and the citizens of New Haven.”
“Our current library, originally built in 1910 and part of the Federally Designated Historic District of Sag Harbor, is non-compliant with ADA regulations; it leaks, it’s drafty, crowded, and cramped. It is also regal, beloved, and breathtakingly beautiful. The Newman were forerunners from the start because of their design sensibility, knowledge of libraries, and project portfolio that included both new construction and historic preservation. But what really set them apart, and ultimately secured the project for them, was their willingness to listen to the community about what a newly-imagined library for the 21st century should be, and their clear excitement about designing a significant piece of architecture that will celebrate and complement the historic building despite site and zoning limitations. Their outreach through public forums and charrettes resulted in an immediate increase in public awareness of the library; our circulation is up almost 40%.”
John DeStefano, Jr. Mayor, The City of New Haven
Catherine Creedon, Director John Jermain Memorial Library, Sag Harbor
300 York Street, New Haven, CT 06511
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203.772.1990
1054 31st Street NW, Suite 140, Washington, DC 20007 www.newmanarchitects.com © 2016
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202.525.2726