Dapper Downstairs
The first floor’s existing medical offices and the very steep stairway at the building’s entry were removed. Grosvenor and his team replicated a historic elevator where the original stair had been. “It is very slow moving; it’s all ceremony and it’s kind of an elevator within an elevator,” he explains. “We have a steel cage that is very reminiscent of turn-of-the century elevators and inside of it is a 2-story lift. That is a proper elevator, but it’s been made just to do the two stories.” A new marble stair was created off the south elevation as a second means to egress.
Because the building is only 15,000 square feet—7,500 square feet upstairs and downstairs—only 15 to 20 cars can fit into the museum at one time. “This actually is an advantage,” Grosvenor says. “Most museums get rather stale, so the fact that the collection needs to turn over—and they turn it over three times a year—is an enormous plus. It has ended up being an amazing attraction, bringing in 40,000 people a year to see the museum.”
To create the clear spans needed for the first floor’s museum while ensuring the building still could support the second-floor offices, Grosvenor designed a series of steel trusses featuring intumescent paint that were inserted while work was completed on the second floor. “I modeled the trusses off of what I saw at Henry Ford’s plant,” Grosvenor recalls. “We used a typical truss, and I dressed them up to look more turn-of-the-century.”
In addition, the team inserted six 6- by 6-inch steel support columns throughout the space. The columns are spread out so there’s plenty of room for cars to drive in, turn and be set up for display.
“I put Ls around the columns so they sort of expand out, and I put LED lighting inside facing the column so it leaves this really nice shaft of light that comes out of each of the columns,” Grosvenor explains. “The columns actually coordinate really nicely with the double truss up above. Ultimately, we were trying to place elements of the car in the museum structure; all this truss work with fasteners and steel is reminiscent of the antique cars, as well as hearkens back to the Ford assembly plant.”
Grosvenor notes the LED lighting, which mostly is a gray/white light, does a nice job of showcasing the columns and trusses, as well as the cars. “The lighting creates a very nice playfulness and it’s really quite beautiful,” he says. “And with RGB LEDs, we can change the color any time, even to holiday colors if we want.”
The cars drive and are showcased on 2-inch-thick douglas fir plank floors that were stained dark. “The floors are a nice contrast because you just wouldn’t expect a car to drive on a floor, so it sets the car off as a work of art, as a sculptural piece,” Grosvenor notes. “Then we installed wainscoting around the space, so that gives the museum a dressed up, very warm feel, and it’s a nice contrast to the cars themselves.”
Working with a 1903 building created some challenges for the design team. For example, the Audrain Building actually is a parallelogram and, Grosvenor says, you wouldn’t really know it until you look at it in plan. “The geometry was not so acute that I could make the rooms feel square, but I really had to keep with the geometry because walls, when they’re not parallel, feel a little odd,” he notes.
Unique Upstairs
The design team envisioned a classic turn-of-the-20th-century men’s club for the second-story offices. This required a major transformation, one that includes $3 million in millwork alone. An old photograph of the Audrain Building’s second floor shows very plainly detailed plaster walls with white moldings. “To transform the second floor, we doubled the size of the corridor and had it come out to where the elevator is into this wonderful sort of grand waiting area that the owner uses when attorneys come for real-estate closings,” Grosvenor notes.
Gas fireplaces were installed in all offices to relate back to the building’s original time period. However, the design team also relied on state-of-the-art 21st-century technology. For example, the skylight at the elevator actually is a 20- by 20-foot leaded glass LED “skylight” that simply is a recreation of the outside. “We can time it to the clouds passing over and essentially get an effect as though it’s open air,” Grosvenor says. “This gives us the opportunity to have a really nicely contained volume without any threat of leaks.”
Ensuring the museum does not transfer noise to the second floor when important business is being discussed was a concern. Insulation and soundboard were placed between the structure and finishes on both floors. In addition, the first-floor ceiling has a very high STC rating.
The Jewel of Bellevue Avenue
The project began in November and was originally supposed to be completed by June 1. However, the program change pushed the completion date back to the end of August—still an impressive timeline considering the transformation that ensued. Grosvenor recalls: “We knew from the get-go that we were going to have to closely coordinate with our contractor, Parker Construction. We also knew we were going to have to do double shifts for the project to get finished. Parker Construction did a phenomenal job, and we just had the best time with this particular project.”
Grosvenor is proud of the fact that the Audrain Automobile Museum has become a showcase on Bellevue Avenue. He says: “I knew the car collection was going to be spectacular and, having the opportunity to subtly light our interior trusses and combine that with lighting on the terra cotta, I think the building has a uniquely 24-hour presence on what is a very important section of Bellevue. The building is a little jewel, and I’m just so happy to have been involved in this Victorian turn-of-the-century block in the U.S. I think that what we did with the Audrain really brought it right back in alignment with all the other historic landmark buildings on the block, and I’m very proud of it.”
Materials
Terra-cotta Ornamentation: Boston Valley Terra Cotta
Custom Windows: Fontrick Door
Glass for Storefronts, Windows and Skylight: Lucid Glass
Gluman Beams: Power Beam from Anthony Forest Products
Custom Cage Elevator: Elevator Service Co. Inc.
Conference Table: Paul Downs Custom Conference Tables
Membrane Roof: Carlisle Syntec Systems
Insulation: Icynene
Soundboard: QuietRock
Awards
The Audrain Auto Museum captured five awards for Northeast Collaborative Architects, Newport, R.I.:
- 2014 AIA Rhode Island Honor Awards; two awards, one for commercial design of the museum and the other for commercial design of the offices
- 2015 Doris Duke Historic Preservation Award
- 2015 Rhody Award for Historic Preservation
- 2015 Rhode Island Monthly Design Award
Retrofit Team
Architect: Northeast Collaborative Architects, Newport, R.I.
John Grosvenor, AIA, NCARB, principal
Dan Herchenroether, RA, project manager
General Contractor: Parker Construction, Rumford, R.I.
Structural Engineer: Camera/O’Neill, Portsmouth, R.I.
Lighting Designer: Light Insight Design Studio, Boston
Millwork: Herrick & White Architectural Woodworkers, Cumberland, R.I.
Millwork/Woodworking: Mark Richey Woodworking, Newburyport, Mass.
Metalwork: Salmon Studios, Florence, Mass.
Structural Metal: West Bay Welding & Fabrication, Warwick, R.I., (401) 737-2357
Terra-cotta Lion Sculptor: Allison Newsome, Warren, R.I.
Photos: Ben Jacobsen, Courtesy of Northeast Collaborative Architects