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Hello again! Missed us?
The past few years have been challenging for the preservation and building industry. To cope with this downturn, we here at the Howard Hall Restoration Group were inevitably lead to projects that were in New York City. As a result, our focus was shifted away from the ongoing restoration at Howard Hall Farm, and work on the house slowed. In between projects in the city we were still able to keep the restoration of the porch moving along, and we are very pleased to share that this is the year the porch returns to its original fluted column design after many decades. We will be blogging about the remaining porch construction and column installation, tweeting pictures, and generally sharing the excitement!
Top L: The porch as it is today. The blocks at the top are where the new capitals will be attached.
Click images to enlarge
We've been involved in many projects over the past couple years, and as we mentioned above, the majority of them took place in the city. Below is just a sampling of our most recent projects so you can see what we've been up to. (We've also added a ton of other new projects to our projects page!) |
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Imagine trying to restore a 107 year old intricately molded, arched and coffered ceiling. Now imagine trying to complete this work in the middle of a busy building lobby. The fact that we were able to complete such a dramatic restoration under these conditions was not the most stunning part of this project; it was actually the gorgeous murals painted by our good friend Nora Johnson. This ceiling has to be seen to be believed. Read more...
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You never really know what you're working with in an old building until you strip away the walls and get into the guts. Sometimes you find exactly what you thought you would, and sometimes you get a little surprise. This townhouse in Brooklyn reminded us to always expect the unexpected. The sag in the upper brick wall in the rear of this home was obvious, but the reason for it was a little more shocking and caused us to rework our entire approach to the project. Read more...
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Saving a building from the damaging effects of Portland cement is probably one of the most rewarding projects we can take on. This wall in Williamsburg, Brooklyn was a classic example: because Portland cement had been used in a prior repair, the wall was wicking up and retaining moisture, and the bricks were being crushed under their own weight and falling right out of the wall. See how we were able to save this wall through the use of lime mortar. Read more...
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Having more than the standard stair issues we usually encounter (cut spindles, sagging supports and broken railings), the staircase in this Brooklyn brownstone required a complete rebuild. This project required some engineering ingenuity and turned out better than we could have imagined. We love being able to restore beautiful staircases like this. Read more... |
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Now, we don't want to sound braggy, but we've had a couple of wonderful pieces of press come out about us that we're very excited to share:
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"Adopted by a Brownstone," by Constance Rosenblum |
"Old Rebuilding an Old Building," by Abby Luby |
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Houses aren't the only thing we've been renovating. Take a look at our newly redesigned Howard Hall Farm Restoration Group site. You can also like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter and Pinterest!
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