Emily Myers in Bricks & Bucks
At an Upper West Side co-op, a $800,000 custom fiberglass cornice replaces a terra cotta original that could have cost two or three times as much in stone or clay. (Photo courtesy Bertolini Architectural Works)
When the decorative terra cotta cornice at 310 West End Avenue — a landmarked Upper West Side co-op — started to deteriorate, the temporary solution was to enclose it in mesh. “It was a stop-gap measure,” says board president Dan Ripp. The Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) typically requires an historic clay or stone cornice to be replaced with a near identical material. What followed was a bold suggestion from a board member who was also an architect. Rather than using traditional terra cotta, she suggested using an alternative, like fiberglass — a material with a much shorter lead time and significant cost savings.
Bertolini Architectural Works was engaged to figure out the repairs, and although co-principal Eric Vonderhyde knew the benefits of fiberglass, he was initially skeptical the LPC would approve its use on such a prestigious prewar co-op. “It is a name brand building from Emery Roth from 1927,” he says. However, the LPC tends to be more flexible with materials used above the seventh story, as it’s generally considered too high for pedestrians to perceive the difference. This presented an opportunity for the board to put forward the fiberglass alternative for the feature, which tops the 16th floor.
The custom material went through multiple rounds of samples. “Imagine what a ship's hull is made out of. That's essentially what it is,” Vonderhyde says. The back and forth continued until the texture, color and thickness was a match. “When we got the thumbs up to go for what amounted to a cheaper, safer option that looked nearly indistinguishable from how [the original cornice] looked before,” Ripp says. “It was a no-brainer.”
The board didn't want to spend money on erecting scaffolding twice so, it made sure the cornice repair was paired with essential maintenance to the brick and stone facade. This included repairing details on a band of decorative sandstone at a lower level of the building. The combined $2.8 million project was paid for with a multi-year assessment as well as funds generated by refinancing the co-op’s mortgage when rates were low a few years ago. “When you spread that kind of expense over 100 units, that’s one thing, but we are just 64 units,” Ripp says. “It’s not cheap.”
Even so, using fibreglass to mimic the terra cotta generated savings. “Installation costs were probably a third of what they would've been for terra cotta, but that doesn't factor in the much shorter fabrication time,” Vonderhyde says. Preparing a terra cotta cornice for installation can take a year or more, but the fiberglass could be fabricated within months. The cornice repairs amounted to $800,000 of the total budget. “It was either real terra cotta, which would have doubled the price and the length of the schedule, or this fiberglass material,” says Oswald Bertolini, co-principal at Bertolini Architectural Works.
A new substructure was engineered to support the fiberglass, which was installed in five to six foot-long panels bolted directly onto the building. One striking feature — the stone portico over the main entrance — was left untouched for now. It's suffering from sugaring, a term used to describe stone that’s slowly dissolving. To prepare for its future restoration, the architects conducted a high-resolution laser scan to digitally preserve the intricate details. At a later date, the scan will help in fabricating a stone replacement.