In Detail> City College’s masterpiece Shepard Hall gets a long-awaited restoration, gargoyles and all. Read Aaron Seward’s full article here.
On July 19th and 20th 1848, the first Women’s Rights Convention was held, resulting in the drafting of the Declaration of Sentiments which became the foundation for the struggle for full equality for women, including the right to vote which was not granted until the Nineteenth Amendment was passed in 1920. The 1848 Convention was held at the Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls, NY.
In the decades following the Convention, little attention was paid to the meeting place which went through a number changes. In the mid-1980’s, by which time the building was being used for snowplow storage, apartments and a laundromat, the National Park Service recognized its significance and purchased the Chapel as a National Historic Site. NPS, along with the National Endowment for the Arts organized a competition for a design that would commemorate the Convention utilizing the surviving fragments of the Chapel and some vacant, adjoining land.
(Image courtesy of National Park Service)
Beginning in 1985, NPS, along with the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) organized a competition for a design that would commemorate the Convention utilizing the surviving fragments of the Chapel and some vacant, adjoining land. In 1987, the competition was won by Ann Marshall and Ray Kinoshita, then students at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. They joined forces with The Stein Partnership (now Elemental Architecture) to complete the project. An adjacent building, originally designed as a car dealership but later used as a Municipal Building for Seneca Falls, was added to the scope to provide a Visitors Center and administrative facilities for the park. Two floors of interpretive material were designed by Chermayeff and Geismar.
The completed Chapel Block which presented the Chapel fragments in a way that spoke compellingly to the neglect long accorded to women’s rights, was dedicated in 1993 on the 145th anniversary of the first Women’s Rights Convention. In 1995, it received a Federal Design Award from the NEA. To read more about the award-winning design here.
In 2009, in order to provide year-round climate mitigation, the NPS opted to fully enclose the Chapel space by reconstructing the exterior walls based on projections of what the original might have looked like.
(Image courtesy of National Park Service)
Although more versatile, the current configuration lacks the elegant poignancy of the original design and, further, compromises the authenticity of the visitor’s experience.
Central to the entry redesign is the reconstruction of the original ground floor entrance. In addition to the salvaged schist stone wall, concrete retaining walls form the stair opening leading down to the original lower level stone arch entry. Earth and gravel fill are compacted to serve as a supporting base for the new concrete stair slab.
Scaffolding has been erected and selective demolition & removals have begun on the main building. The first step of the facade reconstruction is the selective removal of existing terra cotta sculpture to serve as models for new Glass Fiber Reinforced Concrete (GFRC) replicas.
A rigorously tested thin-shell GFRC, strong, light weight and durable, has been the material for all the terra cotta reconstruction. The entire reconstruction, totaling over 65,000 pieces, is currently the largest GFRC reconstruction project in the world.
Following careful removal of the representative sculptural pieces, demolition of the remaining terra cotta will begin.
Meanwhile, the demolition of the existing terra cotta window surrounds exposes the original steel lintels that support the window openings. Each steel lintel is inspected to determine its structural viability. Where possible, salvaging the original steel is preferred.
Local Manhattan Schist stone is the primary façade material of Shepard Hall as well as the other campus buildings originally designed by George Post. Through a process called “sounding,” each stone on the building is struck with a mallet and the sound produced is an indicator of the stone’s integrity. Stones that sound “hollow” or are visibly damaged or deteriorated are marked by the design team for replacement.
Stay tuned for continued updates from the field.
As construction continues, efforts to utilize the original schist stone entry ramp wall that was recently unearthed continue to make progress. Concrete underpinning (for an explanation of underpinning, click here) along with new steel reinforcement, will allow the original schist stone wall to be incorporated into the new entry design. Meanwhile, as the entry ramp work continues, Elemental Architecture and the team are preparing to commence full scale reconstruction efforts on portions of the main building itself. Stay tuned for continued updates from the field.
Last night, the AIA New York Chapter / Center for Architecture took over the West 4th Street subway station for the opening of their New York Now architecture showcase. Elemental Architecture’s historic reconstruction of New York City Landmark Gothic Revival building, Shepard Hall at the City College of New York, is among the work featured in the exhibit.
New York Now includes work of all type and scale – small, large, commercial, residential, public, private, interiors, historic preservation, engineering, landscape and urban design – presenting the scope and quality of projects by Chapter members in New York City today. This high-visibility exhibition offers a snapshot of where we are at this moment and celebrates the diversity of the Chapter’s membership.
The exhibit runs through the end of October. For additional information and online slideshow of work featured, click here.
Along with the recently unearthed entry stairs a major portion of the original entry wall has been unearthed. Following inspection, the team is now evaluating how this remnant of the original entry can be incorporated into the reconstruction. The wall, constructed of Manhattan schist likely from the building site, was buried under fill during a mid-twentieth century alteration. As part of the reconstruction efforts to the entire building, a new entry in keeping with George Post’s original entry is being created. Stay tuned for continued updates from the field.
Carl Stein is interviewed about the history and preservation efforts by elemental at Shepard Hall as part of the College’s Centennial celebration
The 9th & 10th phases of the award-winning historic reconstruction of Shepard Hall at the City College of New York has officially begun. The project, which includes the replacement of nearly 8,000 pieces of failing terra cotta sculpture ornament with new glass-fiber reinforced concrete replacement units and a new main entrance to the building, is expected to be complete by May 2011. Stay tuned for regular construction progress updates from the field.
