890 Broadway is located in the Ladies' Mile Historic District in Manhattan. The restoration project consisted of restoring various elements of the Broadway and East 19th Street facades and the roof bulkheads including the Roman brick, limestone, copper cornice, and cast iron band, and the cleaning of the two street facades.
890 Broadway is an 8-story masonry building located in the Ladies Mile Historic District of Manhattan. The building was built in 1896 and is for the most part in good condition because of the quality materials and craftsmanship employed at the time. It was designed by John B. Snook and Sons in the neo-Renaissance style. It is located on the corner of East 19th Street and Broadway and the street façades are comprised of glazed ironspot Roman brick, and it is crowned with a large copper cornice. The façade is architecturally divided into 4 parts with the second floor being emphasized with continuous cast iron and limestone banding, while the 4thand 8th floors have continuous limestone banding. The first floor is comprised of cast iron and window storefront, and brick pilasters with block infill. Floors 2 and 3 are articulated with brick pilasters at each bay in the festive Composite order (Corinthian and Ionic) with terra-cotta capitals and limestone bases. Floors 4 through 7 are also articulated in the same manner with Composite order pilasters. The eighth-floor pilasters are decorated with copper filigree. All street façade window lintels and sills are comprised of limestone. The interior courtyard façades are composed of common red brick with bluestone window sills. There is a movie marquee on the corner of 19th and Broadway. On the main roof there are skylights, 3 cedar water towers, a mechanical room for the sprinkler supply, HVAC equipment, and bulkheads for the stairs and elevators. The windows are one over one double hung units and most of them are original historic wood windows. There are aluminum replacement windows at the 8th floor and part of the 7th floor on the street facades. At the north elevation, the 6th, 7th and 8th floors have aluminum replacement windows.
One interesting feature of this building is the Green Roof system that was recently installed. The new membrane is a TPO Roofing System and the green roof system consists of sedum plants on a growing medium with river stone at perimeters. The New York City Department of Environmental Protection provided funds through a grant for the design and construction of the green roof.
On the roof we observed cracked and eroded brick on 5 of the stair, elevator, and chimney bulkheads likely due to freeze and thaw cycles in the brick and the wear of the elevator mechanisms.
An inspection of the Broadway and East 19th Street facades was conducted via hanging scaffold drops. Since this building has a green roof, the scaffold had to be tied to the roof bulkheads to avoid causing damage to the roof. From this inspection we closely observed deterioration of the the historic wood windows, the eroded limestone cross joints, staining of the brick, copper, and limestone elements throughout the facade, and the deterioration of the cast iron cornice. The building was also visually inspected from street level and from the rooftops of the adjacent buildings.
The construction phase of the project involved replacing the wood windows, repointing the eroded cross joints in the limestone, replacing and repainting the cast iron band, and cleaning of the facades. We coordinated shoring the sidewalk vault below for the sidewalk bridge and scaffold, the masonry restoration, and the window replacement. Additionally, we reviewed mock-ups, and samples, and performed regular inspections. We also inspected hidden conditions that were uncovered during the work with our consultant structural engineer and directed the contractor to use the appropriate techniques forthose conditions.
During all phases of design and construction, we navigated COVID-19 protocols, delays, and other challenges as they came up. The project adhered to the requirements for Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Buildings since the project is in the Lady's Mile Historic District in Manhattan.
Needless to say, although the MBA design team had undertaken many similar complicated design tasks prior to this project, the ultimate success of the project would take numerous hours of corrdination as well as hours of field inspections and meetings. We successfully completed the façade project in 2022.