By Emily Myers in Bricks & Bucks For HABITAT Magazine
It started as routine facade work, but quickly turned into a major structural rescue mission. Faced with necessary masonry repairs, the board at 250 Cabrini Blvd., a 77-unit co-op in Hudson Heights, took the opportunity to address leaks that had been plaguing shareholders over the years. That’s when they uncovered a far more serious issue than deteriorating brickwork — dangerously corroded steel beams. “Some of them were like Swiss cheese,” says board president Caroline King. The alarming discovery forced the board to launch a massive effort to stabilize the building from within and more than double the project budget from $1.8 million to $3.5 million. “It really took nerves of steel to do this,” King says.
The original plan was to tackle masonry issues classified by facade inspectors as SWARMP — safe with a repair and maintenance program. But with 44% of residents reporting water damage in apartments, it became clear a leak inspection was needed. “Some of the apartments had a lot of damage — damaged paint, plaster, sections of the wall falling out,” says Yessica Marinez, project manager at RAND Architecture and Engineering. “There were too many problems in the building that we didn’t think were just attributable to masonry,” King says. “So we decided to bite the bullet and go deeper.”
What they found confirmed those suspicions. In some units, fake walls had been installed in front of original ones to disguise the leaks. “That didn’t solve the water infiltration, it just hid it,” Marinez says. When the building’s deteriorating parapets were removed to investigate how water was getting in, the rusted beams were exposed. Corrosion was initially identified in a ninth-floor apartment, but when bricks on the facade were removed to add waterproofing, it became clear the damage was more widespread. The steel lintels were also in very bad shape. “You could get [building] failure,” Marinez says. “There were already some very large cracks developing along the interior.”
The board had to act quickly. “We had two major change orders that were very costly, and they were able to review and make decisions so the job could keep moving,” Marinez says. Additional engineers were brought in to help stabilize the structure, and the team found creative ways to minimize disruption. In one top-floor apartment, a temporary roof allowed the resident to remain in place during beam repairs. Shoring on the interior walls was kept localized. And rather than remove deteriorated lintels, the engineers came up with a workaround. “We call it a lintel sandwich,” Marinez says, describing how new lintels were bolted either side of the damaged ones to preserve the building’s structural integrity.
The building went into the facade project with healthy reserves, but as the scope of the work increased, additional funds were needed. The board imposed an $850,000 assessment to complete the work and top up the building’s reserves ahead of a planned $250,000 boiler conversion project. The co-op is switching its oil-fired boiler for gas to meet city mandates to phase out No 4. fuel oil. A third of shareholders paid their portion of the assessment up front and the remaining funds will be collected over the next three years.
The 14-month project was completed in August. The building now boasts new waterproofing, strengthened beams and lintels, repaired sills and masonry, new cast stone details and new parapets. With engineers already on site, it also made sense for the board to complete inspections for the next facade inspection cycle. “Sometimes you have to do things that don’t mimic your ideas of personal finance,” King says. “But you just have to stick with it.”
Both King and Marinez credit the project’s success to the teamwork and coordination between the board, engineers, contractor and building staff. As a result, shareholders finally have a watertight building — and peace of mind. “Knowing we really got to the bottom of it is a tremendous relief,” King says.