31 East 74th Street, New York
Retrofit Team
Architect: Beyer Blinder Belle, New York
General Contractor: New Line Structures Inc., New York
Sheet-metal Contractor: B&B Sheet Metal Inc., Long Island City, N.Y.
Materials
In 2010, Entrepreneur Daniel E. Straus turned his hand to development, remaking six historic brownstones, including 31 East 74th Street, and two townhouses on the Upper East Side into boutique mixed-use property. Because five of the six brownstones date back to the 1890s, their redevelopment had to be approved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission. The main goal was to maintain the historic details on the façades.
The cornice, baluster and ornamental pieces on Madison Avenue had to match the preceding color but, throughout the years, many layers of paint and rust had accumulated and made it difficult to decipher the original material. The new storefront cornices and balusters are made in 20-ounce copper and cover 30 linear feet, so they had to be made in three segments to facilitate transportation and installation.
The architect wanted to incorporate structural pipes to reinforce the baluster system. The spacing of the rods and balusters had to be homogeneous to avoid any setback in the scheduling. The entrance pediment hood’s design at Madison Avenue followed a curvilinear shape, which had to be made very accurately. Exact dimensions of the eyebrows shape were constantly being ascertained for B&B Sheet Metal to make it in one piece and slide it in place.
Multiple mock-ups were made for the arches and, as a solution, smaller segmented pieces were fastened together to provide the overall arch shape. All the ornamental moldings featured on the cornice were meticulously selected to portray the preceding ones. Although the building’s ground level encompasses 15,000 square feet of new retail space, the completed project retains the vintage façades.
Copper Supplier: Aurubis Buffalo Inc.
The Retrofit
The progression of construction on East 74th Street typifies the development pattern on much of the Upper East Side. Beginning in the early 1870s, at the end of the Civil War, an explosion of speculative brownstone row houses began to surface. Most of the façades of these brownstone houses were replaced in the early years of the 20th century; by then, Fifth Avenue was filling with lavish mansions and the side streets followed the trend.
The restoration of this project wasn’t an uncomplicated process but bringing this façade back to life pays homage to the original design. In a city where new skyscrapers are rapidly getting erected, preserving the old is becoming rare. Exposing the work of builders whose designs took many hours to create helps this generation improve its skills by building and learning from the legacy left for us. In fact, the project earned a 2017 North American Copper in Architecture Award bestowed by the New York-based Copper Development Association Inc.
Photos: B&B Sheet Metal Inc.