Greenwich Village Co-op Facade Repairs Reveal Critical Condition of Historic Cornice

It’s a reminder of the unique challenges faced by boards at landmarked buildings: A facade inspection at a 48-unit prewar co-op in Greenwich Village revealed rusted steel supports under the building’s terra-cotta cornice. In addition, an eroding historical frieze of winged torches, decorative flowers and lion heads was in critical condition. “The bottoms of the lions’ jaws were breaking off, and there was cracking such that it was on the verge of collapse,” says Eric Vonderhyde, co-principal at Bertolini Architectural Works. 

What lay beneath. While terra-cotta repairs often present special challenges, outdated construction techniques at the landmarked Broadway building added complexity. A steel beam ran parallel to the top of the facade with hooks operating like a lever to support the cornice. “By putting more masonry weight on the inside, it had prevented the cornice from collapsing,” says Oswald Bertolini, co-principal at Bertolini Architectural Works. With the steel rusting, it was clear both the cornice and its support structure needed to be replaced. New waterproofing also needed to be added, a feature that was missing from the original late-1800s construction. 

The architects ruled out a partial repair because the cost of trying to keep some of the better-preserved cornice sections and replacing the rest did not make financial sense. “Replacing, say, 60% of the cornice and then having the last 40% fail over the next 20 years would cost the building more over time,” Bertolini says. The total cost of the full replacement, along with substantial facade repairs on a side wall, plus new lintels and sills, was $2 million. Fortunately, “the building is quite narrow,” Vonderhyde says. “If it had been much wider, it would have been double that cost.” 

Two-part fix. To replace the frame for the cornice, the architects embedded and welded new steel posts, beams and steel plates so it fully supported the weight of the heavy terra-cotta. Brickwork, previously serving as ballast for the cornice, was also replaced. “Before, masonry was holding the projecting cornice down, but now it just restores the facade thickness,” Bertolini says. 

Since this is a landmarked building, the cornice needed to match the original design. To do that, the co-op turned to the manufacturing firm Boston Valley Terra Cotta. One of the challenges with terra-cotta is that when you bake it, it shrinks. “The pieces need to be 7% larger so that when they shrink it will come back to the correct size,” Bertolini explains. Creating the cornice detail is also very time-consuming. The process involved digitally scanning the 27-foot-wide cornice before it was taken apart and removed. Each piece was then numbered so it could be reassembled. Fabrication of the new pieces took about 10 months.

Finishing touches. Construction work began in March 2023, and the project was finally completed in August 2024. Working with the Landmarks Preservation Commission, the architects also added terra-cotta detail lost over the years. Based on an early-20th-century photo, the cornice was missing a series of posts at roof level, which had been removed in the 1960s or 1970s. “We were able to estimate the size and rebuild them as they would have been in the original construction,” Vonderhyde says.