A Landmark Rehabilitation
They may not build them like they used to, but in the case of Public School 157, a circa 1907 Gothic Revival, they restore and rehabilitate better than ever.
In its inception, the Brooklyn, N.Y., school featured a limestone statue of Benjamin Franklin as a penniless boy over the entrance and forty terra cotta wise owls stood sentry at the parapet to symbolize the power of education to provide opportunity to all.
The five-story school, currently serving grades K-3, was designed by NYC Board of Education architect C.B.J. Snyder in his signature H-shape, which emphasizes daylight and suits its location in the middle of the city block; his architectural eye more than compensated for the less then desirable real estate.
"There is not a dark corner in the whole structure," wrote Jacob A. Riis (1849-1914), a journalist and social reformer, of the H-shaped template, "from the …indoor playgrounds on the street floor, which, when thrown into one with the two yards that lie enclosed in the arms of the H, give the children nearly an acre of asphalted floor to romp on from street to street."
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| A view of the parapet ornamentation once the façade restoration was complete. The terra cotta owls were handmade by craftsmen at Gladding McBean. |
Snyder designed many of New York City’s public schools in the beginning of the 20th century in the H-shape. His work can be described as highly ornamental, profiled, scripted, and detailed. And his use of materials such as terra cotta, limestone, brick, and ornamental copper supported that style.
"The Snyder school is not like the standard, or typical school, if there were such a thing as the little red school house," commented Matthew Monahan, spokesperson for the NYC Department of Design and Construction (DDC), the agency responsible for coordinating capital projects.
However, after experiencing the effects of decades of deferred maintenance and misguided alterations, P.S. 157 was in urgent need of rehabilitation work to make the building safe and serviceable. Notably, the façade had extensive terra cotta failure and there was significant water infiltration because of failed roofing and flashing systems.
Historic Sensitivity
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| Completed lintel reconstruction. The decorative roundels and pier ornament is original, cleaned terra cotta. The parapet and window terra cotta is new. |
With the replacement of the exterior concrete deck above the auditorium, the entire ceiling was reconstructed and a full lighting upgrade was conducted in a historically-sensitive manner. The backbone was put in place for audio-visual equipment, and the entire auditorium was repainted. Also included in the project was the replacement and reinstallation of the rooftop mechanical system.
"[P.S. 157] was restored to a higher level of historic detail than what had been there," said Monahan, referring specifically to the replacement of the decorative plaster ceiling in the auditorium, which was brought back with a higher level of detail than what previously existed.
The work at P.S. 157 was largely conducted over two summers, 2000 and 2001. Project team members on this $12.5 million project not only had safety and security issues to contend with, but they also needed to ensure they adhered to the right level of detail. It was necessary that the rehabilitation be aesthetically appropriate and in keeping with the original documentation. Historic photographs and original drawings were available.
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PROJECT TEAM
Architect: Swanke Hayden Connell Architects |
The school was fortunate to have escaped the city’s modernization efforts started in the 1950s and continued through the early 1980s. According to Swanke Hayden Connell Architects (SHCA), those efforts effectively devalued the historic significance of many school buildings throughout New York City.
SHCA worked to not only make the building safe and serviceable, but also to restore it in a historically sensitive manner. Where possible, historic materials were repaired rather than replaced. Where repair was not possible, materials were replaced in-kind.
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| This image shows the backside of the parapet on P.S.157, in 1997, prior to rehabilitation. Note failing roofing and flashing, cracked brick and terra cotta, and unsympathetic concrete caps. |
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| This photo shows the backside of the parapet, in 2002, after rehabilitation. The entire roofing system, parapet assembly, and ornamental terra cotta were replaced. |
Architects at SHCA developed a methodology for rehabilitating existing historic structures based on the Secretary of Interior Standards, which are federal standards.
Project Manager Robert Vail Cole, AIA, director of historic preservation, said they are the most objective standards that exist in the United States.
Testing the Masonry
Some of the original iconographic ornamentation, including the learned owls, were removed from the school prior to construction. The statue of Benjamin Franklin was in situ on the building, headless and armless, when the project began. The statue was replicated and fitted for a new arm and leg and repositioned above the school entrance in August 2001.
And although no entire terra cotta unit had broken loose, some units were crumbling and cracking in places. Prior to construction, a bridge was placed around the building to prevent any possible injury, before each and every terra cotta unit on the façade was tested for soundness.
On the entire exterior of the H-shaped school, more than 6,000 terra cotta pieces were replaced, probably 2,000 on the parapet alone.
"This project had a lot of unique shapes, and each shape requires a mold of its own," said Program Manager Alex Abusitta of O’Brien Kreitzberg. "Several of these molds were made from original pieces that were removed from the building. And that is where the uniqueness of this job lies."
Abusitta emphasized that "really the intensity of the terra cotta job is in the numbers of molds that have to be made."
Hand Crafted
Gladding McBean, whose craftsmen combine computer-aided design with traditional clay molding and firing to produce the terra cotta pieces, manufactured all units for the project. There were several thousand pieces that Gladding McBean supplied, both hand-made and machine-extruded.
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Installation of the new steel replacing failed steel lintels. The steel lintels had seriously corroded at the fifth floor, about half of them were replaced and half were repaired. |
The prestigious owls, which measure three feet in height and stand individually on the building’s upper-most parapet, were handmade. Pete Pederson, national terra cotta sales manager at Gladding McBean, said that his company was able to make a model owl, and from that model the molds were produced and the pieces were hand-pressed.
Also included in the restoration were ornate window pieces, explained Pederson, machine-extruded units used in window jams, parts of the window lintels, and mullions.
Safety and Security
Gladding McBean also formulated and manufactured a glaze that was used on the facade to replicate the appearance of the original terra cotta.
"The main purpose [of the glaze] was aesthetic but it also provided a protective coating," said Pederson. "However, with ceramic finishes, graffiti can be easily removed."
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PROJECT DATA Brick: Glen-Gery Brick |
The elaborate school is limestone up to the second floor and because of graffiti problems there were close to 20 layers of paint on it, some of which were starting to peel off; there was a potential for lead paint.
"[That much paint] is bad for the stone because it can’t breathe, it traps moisture and can cause failure to the stone," said Project Manager Cole. "The other thing about all these layers and layers of paint is it obscures the stone." The layers of paint were removed and the limestone cleaned and repaired before application of the glaze, which were serviceable by the custodian.
Also of concern were the original recessed-panel profile wood doors. They had transoms over all of them, said Cole, which was an aesthetic device as well as one that allowed daylight into the first floors of the building.
"Unfortunately because they are wood doors, and because transoms have glass in them, they are a security issue."
To meet other requirements for security and to further combat vandalism, custom steel doors were installed and the hollow metal doorframes were concealed beneath profiled wood door casings that match the original.
Well Received
The conditions and deficiencies encountered on P.S. 157 are representative of many of New York City’s schools that are more than 50 years old, of which only 29 are designated landmarks.
Though P.S. 157 is not a formal landmark, the DDC received the Lucy G. Moses Preservation Award for 2001, from the New York City Landmarks Conservancy.
In addition, the agency won a second award. The DDC received the "Excellence in Historic Preservation Award," an organization award, from the Preservation League of New York State for recognition of their work on P.S. 157.
Jerrold S. Cohen, AIA, assistant commissioner at the DDC, said he is most proud that the P.S. 157 project demonstrated that "historically sensitive, appropriate work can be accomplished in the public sector."
The architect, program manager, and terra cotta manufacturer all concur with the commissioner. They are proud to have been able to restore P.S. 157 to its original glory.
Turn-of-the-twentieth-century social reformer Riis, who has a housing project and park in NYC in his name, described Snyder with a succinct phrase: "Mr. Snyder builds New York’s schools, and he does that which no other architect before his time ever did or tried; he ‘builds them beautiful.’"
So although we may not build schools quite like we used to, and as Project Manager Cole stressed, "terra cotta is non-conventional in terms of new construction," how fortunate for the students in this urban area of Brooklyn to attend such a well rehabilitated and received Snyder school.