SUPERSTRUCTURES Engineers + Architects

Clever of the British to give a posh name to a common problem: Regent Street Disease. But there’s no mask requirement in London’s West End—this disease affects buildings, not people. London’s prestigious Regent Street lends its name to a form of facade deterioration common to the neighborhood’s proliferation of 19th-century buildings. The phenomenon is the same on either side of the Atlantic: When structural iron or steel corrodes, it expands (up to eight times its original size) causing cracks, spalls, or wholesale failure in the surrounding masonry and calling into question the member’s ability to sustain the load it was designed to carry. Compounding the problem in New York City, our buildings are also subject to more freeze/thaw cycling than their English counterparts, exacerbating masonry deficiencies with time and the seasons. While there’s no panacea for Regent Street Disease, early, proactive detection and restoration can mean the difference between a building that’s right as rain (though resistant to it) and one that ends up on life support. #london #historicbuildings #facades #restoration

From Harlem to Hell’s Kitchen and Jersey City to JFK airport, SUPERSTRUCTURES has restored buildings across the greater New York region. Each pin on this map represents one of our projects in progress and the renewal of part of the backbone of the city. Each project is an opportunity to advance our practice of the art and science of restoration. The reputation we’ve built over more than forty years—for innovative investigation, industry-leading construction documents, and client-focused construction administration—is thanks to our team of talented, dedicated engineers, architects, and technicians. And quality of projects is even more important than quantity. Most of these pins represent projects under way for universities, hospitals, schools, airports, courthouses, luxury coops, and public housing complexes—performed for NYC’s most prestigious and demanding clients. Are you a structural engineer or architect interested in joining our Wall Street-based team? We'd like to hear from you! https://lnkd.in/gmCFc9DH #map #newyorkcity #restoration #hiring

While conducting a test using a handheld, high-pressure spray nozzle to investigate water infiltration at a prominent condominium building in the South Street Seaport Historic District, we made our own mini rainbow! Non-destructive testing techniques like this (which we call leakage mapping) give us valuable information about the causes of distress in the building envelope and supporting structure. Interested in working for a team with an in-house Non-destructive Testing and Evaluation studio and robust technical resources? We’d like to hear from you! https://lnkd.in/gmCFc9DH #watertesting #condos #southstreetseaport

Year after year, SUPERSTRUCTURES successfully completes more exterior restoration projects than any other firm in the New York region. Each pin on this map represents one of our projects in progress. More importantly, each pin represents the renewal of part of the backbone of the city, as well as an opportunity to advance our practice of the art and science of restoration. And quality is even more important than quantity. Most of these pins represent projects under way for universities, hospitals, schools, airports, courthouses, luxury coops, and public housing complexes—performed for NYC’s most prestigious and demanding clients. SUPERSTRUCTURES has also worked with hundreds of contractors in our four decades of providing professional architecture and engineering services, so we know which ones are the best fit for each project. Overall, this map represents the virtues of continuous improvement: the more we do, the more we learn, and the better we perform going forward. #restoration #newyorkcity #map

It’s back-to-school time for New York City students—full of possibility for them (and relief for some of their parents). Students bound for one of the many school buildings designed by Charles B. J. Snyder may overlook the details that make them artifacts of a time when schools were “temples” of learning. SUPERSTRUCTURES has had the honor of working on various Snyder structures, including Westinghouse High School, Newtown High School, Patrick Henry Preparatory, The Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center (originally P.S. 160), Haaren Hall (originally DeWitt Clinton High School), Curtis High School, The Augustus Saint-Gaudens Elementary School, P.S. 47, and The Gravesend School. We’re proud to contribute to the preservation of his architectural legacy, whether students take note of their gargoyles, Guastavino tiles, and Neo-gothic details or not. As an architect, engineer, and New York City Superintendent of School Buildings from 1891-1923, Snyder left a legacy of hundreds of distinctive school buildings. He focused on improving the health and safety of students through enhanced fireproofing, increased daylighting, and an innovative “H” plan which encompassed courtyards for outdoor recreation. One of his most notable is Westinghouse High School in Brooklyn, a 1908 masterpiece of English Collegiate Gothic style. Our exterior masonry and roof restoration was honored with a Lucy G. Moses Preservation Award in 2018. Other Snyder structures in our restoration portfolio include the Clemente Soto Velez Cultural and Educational Center (originally P.S. 160) and Newtown High School, for which Snyder designed an addition. Both projects also garnered Lucy G. Moses Preservation Awards for SUPERSTRUCTURES’ work. More recently, SUPERSTRUCTURES conducted a restoration of Patrick Henry Preparatory (P.S. 171), comprising flood elimination, facade repairs, and window and door work. This project was guided by an incredible 93 sheets of contract documents, attesting to the complexity of the task and the firm’s industry-leading attention to detail. If students in Snyder buildings pause between classes to look, they may realize that the structure represents a golden age of educational architecture, when schools were major landmarks and civic centers. Well maintained, they can continue to be so today. #restoration #schools

We’re (always) hiring! Specifically, Structural Engineers and Project Architects with 5+ years of experience and an interest in the art and science of building restoration. Visit https://lnkd.in/gmCFc9DH to learn more and apply. #hiring #restoration #architects #engineers

A recent post by the Manhattan Contrarian argues for a pragmatic reexamination of New York’s mandates for a sustainable energy transition. It questions some of the aggressive provisions of NYC Local Law 97 aimed at “greening” NYC’s building stock—and it makes some valid points. SUPERSTRUCTURES is attempting to remain above (or beside) the fray. We have long subscribed to the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s position that “the greenest building is one already built.” The concept of embodied energy in the built environment calls for a fundamental shift away from disposable structures toward a new model of adaptive reuse, one that honors embodied energy as an “unnatural resource” we can’t afford to waste. SUPERSTRUCTURES’ growing list of Lucy G. Moses Preservation awards from the New York Landmarks Conservancy attests to the firm’s commitment to preservation that maintains the embodied energy of landmark buildings while often improving their future performance. If you’re intrigued by our mission to preserve New York City’s landmarks using state-of-the-art tools and methods, consider joining our team of skilled, resourceful architects and engineers: https://lnkd.in/gmCFc9DH #restoration #greenbuildings #hiring

We’re (always) hiring…Specifically, Structural Engineers and Project Architects with 5+ years of experience and an interest in the art and science of building restoration. Visit https://lnkd.in/gmCFc9DH to learn more and apply. #hiring #restoration #engineers #architects

Familiar from The X Files, this adage could be added to the inspiration that guides SUPERSTRUCTURES’ work. The currency of our practice is information, so we continually seek it in the investigation phase of each project. By studying existing drawings and reports and conducting strategic probes and non-destructive testing, we learn everything we can about a building’s construction, history, and symptoms of distress before designing restoration solutions. In the process, we add to our collective knowledge of materials, assemblies, and methods—each insight is a step toward the “truth” about a building (and other buildings of a similar type). Like Agents Mulder and Scully, we also apply leading-edge technology in our search for the truth. The latest example is creating “digital twins” of building envelopes through drone-based photogrammetry and our SurfaceCaptureSM system. They allow us to zoom in on fine details of a facade, creating a permanent record of conditions and allowing us to analyze them in the office and formulate a remedial strategy. While we draw from our experience of thousands of successful restoration projects, we know that there is still more to be discovered about the nature of building envelopes. There may be no ultimate truth in our practice; rather, it’s an evolving prospect. #information #technology #restoration #xfiles

Happy Professional Engineers Day to the outstanding PEs on our team and to all our colleagues in the profession. By the way, we’re always on the lookout for talented PEs with an interest in preservation and renewal of buildings and infrastructure. Learn more and apply: https://lnkd.in/gmCFc9DH #ProfessionalEngineersDay #restoration #hiring