When an old storefront is demolished, a landmark building moves forward.
Nestled in the West Village of Manhattan, this building known as ‘The Village Landmark’ was indeed landmarked, and in dire need of restoration. An old piece of glass on the storefront held up approvals but landmarks finally agreed to remove it as part of this restoration. The scope of work included gut renovating the storefront entrance, interior lobby and corridors including structurally reinforcing them; and to restore the exterior brick arched entrance. This desirable rental building contains 64 apartments filled with tenants coming and going all day. Klaracon is adept at renovating in occupied spaces and this project was no different. The historic nature of this building meant that the lobby was quite narrow, so executing the renovation work was tricky given the need to ensure tenants could safely and easily come and go from the building.
On the exterior, the red brick façade was repointed, cleaned and restored exposing the brick clad archway. On the interior, the lobby walls were clad with Rosa Aurora floor to ceiling which opened up the space and created a delightful welcoming lobby area. On the West wall, Klaracon installed a book matched Sun Onyx feature wall, set out to appear floating, and bordered with a stainless steel frame. As the mailbox area was upgraded and expanded, our team ensured that USPS could do their work in a temporary mailbox area. Small details like this require foresight, planning, and daily supervision to ensure the smooth running of the building. Preservation of landmarked buildings in New York can be time consuming and intricate. Like all restoration projects, this one had a structural component including reinforcements to C-joist framing in the ceilings and floors. The completed work does more than modernize a notable landmarked building, it ensures these buildings can sustain for decades to come, so that the city’s culture and history will live on.
