Of wind and mortar
“I remember standing there in the winter and the curtains were just blowing in the breeze because the air was coming in so much,” Bellingham said, adding for sustainability and preservation purposes the goal was not to replace but restore them, some 16 feet tall. Brick work was cleaned – the limestone repointed, and Bellingham noted because the bricks are German (thin and long), repairs had to come from cutting other bricks when nothing comparable could be found.
In what was once a greenhouse in the back of the building but is currently a public space for presentations and the like, exquisite Calavera tile was restored with tremendous effort. When a match could not be obtained from its manufacturer in Puebla, Mexico, Richmond, Va. celebrated artisan and sculptor Charlie Ponticello was commissioned to replicate the tile.
Scalpel, please
“In buildings of this age, typically there are a lot of vertical chases as they were heated with hot water radiators,” Bellingham explained, adding the question of how to cut the art-laced walls for equipment upgrades was a painstaking issue. “It’s a matter of finding the chases again, opening them up, taking out abandoned piping in some cases and replacing it, and forming new chases,” he said.
In the third floor library, with its polished walnut ceiling, years of incursions for construction or mechanical purposes had damaged it considerably, and Monarc also had to install components of its safety systems. Bellingham said by the end of the process, there was no way to determine where any work had been done, resulting in a great enhancement of the space.
With the original wood balustrade just 30 inches high, safety concerns abounded for those gathered on stairways, especially during parties and receptions. “You could be pushed or literally fall backwards,” Bellingham said, “with the handrail coming up only to the back of your legs – not your waist.” Seeking not to impinge on the beauty of the balustrade or disturb it any way, a glass handrail was fabricated to stand in front of it.
And among the project’s more prickly challenges was the method in which to “sprinkle the stairs,” Bellingham recounted. “It’s a four-story lobby with an atrium that goes all the way from the ground floor to the roof,” bathed in murals and more. A decision to enhance the original cornice – which ran up under the stairs – and hide new pipes between the old and new cornice work camouflaged necessary pipes, Bellingham explained.
Located on 15th Street in back of the structure, a 1,500-s.f. carriage house with collapsed roof was also restored, transformed into a new housing unit for visiting dignitaries and other personnel.
“The whole building is a solid masonry structure,” Bellingham said of the Institute. “There was a lot of exploratory work, and we took down parts of the ceiling, went through walls, cut passageways and took down moldings to hide pipes and wiring, not to mention working around an old organ. We had to protect these great artifacts.”
Washington DC commercial design
3 comments:
Will they take down the foreboding black fencing? Also, will there be lots of events hosted here similar to the House of Sweden?
Is it possible to see the place and potentially have an event in it? Ep@lnf.com
Thanks for sharing this historical treasure with the DC community. A great restoration; kudos to Bellingham and his team. I hope the public will get a chance to bathe in its grandeur soon...
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