Adaptive Reuse

Leon L. Bean Home & Archive Center Phase 1

Adaptive ReuseAdditionsContextual DesignHistoric Preservation

Leon L. Bean and his wife, Bertha, purchased the house in 1912 and it remained his home until his death in 1967. L. L. Bean, Inc., purchased the building in 1987, with the intention to create a museum and archives honoring L. L. and the company he founded.

Barba + Wheelock with Malcolm L. Collins AIA, Preservation Architect and Planner, were retained by L. L. Bean, Inc., to prepare design and construction documents for the house and attached carriage barn’s restoration. The project resulted in faithful restoration of the building’s exterior to its 1912 to 1917 appearance. Period features were replicated, including cedar roof shakes and polychromatic exterior color scheme. Other significant features include a new contemporary entrance addition to allow easier accessibility, integrated with a substantial landscape and site changes.

2018 Maine Preservation Honor Award.

Hathaway Creative Center

Adaptive ReuseHistoric PreservationTax Credits

Built as a textile factory on the shores of the Kennebec River in 1887, this building is known to most Mainers as the Hathaway Shirt Factory, its use from 1957 until 2002. Barba + Wheelock led a team of design professionals to redevelop this building and the surrounding site into a mixed-use building which now serves as an anchor for downtown Waterville.

The project team included architects; mechanical, civil and electrical engineers; remediation specialists; historic preservationists; landscape architects and construction managers. Challenges included negotiating flood plain, increased traffic generation, planning board review and lengthy coordination with the National Park Service and Maine Historic Preservation Commission for Historic Preservation Tax Incentives Program. Among the services completed for this project was the successful application for listing on the National Register of Historic Places and a Historic Preservation Certification Application (Parts 1, 2 and 3).

Phase One was a fast-tracked construction project completed December 2008. The third floor was renovated to house offices for Maine General: HealthReach and the second floor for TD Bank’s insurance division. Completion of Phase Two followed in May 2009 with the construction of sixty-seven apartments on the fourth and fifth floors, exterior improvements, and core components for the business and retail occupancy of the first and second floors.

Barba + Wheelock continued to work on an array of fit-outs for offices, retail tenants and a radio station. When the third phase is completed, the 230,000 sf building, one of three in the original complex, will include: a restaurant, offices, apartments and amenity spaces for the residents, including a fitness room and business center.

Working with a team of two out-of-state developers, funding for this project came from a variety of sources:

Conventional Mortgage
Developer Equity
Federal Rehabilitation Tax Credits
State Rehabilitation Tax Credits
New Market Tax Credits
TIF Financing

Hathaway Center was awarded a Maine Preservation Honor Award in 2009.

Cumberland Club

Adaptive ReuseCondition AssessmentContextual DesignHistoric PreservationMaster Planning

Located in downtown Portland, the Cumberland Club occupies the historic, Federal-style Stephan McLellan Mansion. Built in 1802, the building has received at least six major campaigns of additions, including renovation designed by John Calvin Stevens.

B+W’s involvement with the Cumberland Club began with a master plan to study conditions, accessibility and expansion needs to all three stories for the 130-year old social club. Steeped in history, the Club was also looking to update its staid image with a new gathering space central to the operations: a bar that was traditional in style, complementary to the Maine Room and yet, innovative enough to set a tone to revitalize membership.

In the master plan, B+W established that the bar’s location would be adjacent to the Maine Room, in what once was a dining terrace with French doors. Later additions and remodeling had enclosed the space and hidden its character. The new bar transforms the once-tired interior into a comfortable, wood-lined extension of its adjacent room. A key challenge overcome in the planning was the design of the back bar, which integrated a sophisticated set of kitchen/bar equipment in a limited amount of space.

For the Cumberland Club brownstone main entry restoration, their embedded knowledge of the project details led them to serve as de facto construction managers, orchestrating a diverse group of construction specialists in achieving a unified project. They shepherded the project through the Historic Preservation Commission with unanimous approval.

– Paul Stevens, Cumberland Club, Building Committee, Club President

Two different species of wood were selected for the striped floor for their inherent characteristics to allow for a one-step process of clear finish. The granite countertop picked up the tonal quality of the room in a permanent and utilitarian surface. The German-made glass is transparent enough to allow views out from the room to a hint of the green landscape beyond, but translucent to disguise the identity of nearby diners. The leading pattern is modeled on the historic windows in the Maine Room. Daylight filters in through the glass wall illuminating the bottles; concealed specialty lighting augments the natural light and provides a sparkle. Scope also included furnishings and fabric selection.

The Bar’s name honors Maine native, former Governor, Civil War general and Club member, Joshua Chamberlain.

Barba + Wheelock undertook the design, specifications and construction management for the main entry rehabilitation. This included a study of options for the no-longer available brownstone including flipping the stones to expose the undersides, replacement in granite, precast or special stone polymer substitution material. The final finicky solution to the restoration of the original brownstone steps and cheek walls led the mason to remove the later inappropriate surfaces down to the original brownstone, infill with polymer solution (with brownstone dust and color agents to match) and finish the project with an appropriate coating.

The restoration also involved intensive, multi-layer lead paint removal and repair to the bases of the fluted wood columns. The engaged pilasters were repaired on site, while the freestanding columns were craned to a flatbed and moved offsite for steam softening of the paint for removal.

Rubber roofing, copper flashing, gutters and downspouts, lighting, and painting rounded out the project. We also engaged a cast iron craftsman to restore the stair wall balusters and provide new railings. B+W coordinated multiple specialized craftspeople in their respective trades.

Harriet Beecher Stowe House

Adaptive ReuseHistoric PreservationHistoric Structures Report

Originally constructed in 1805 for Benjamin Titcomb by noted Brunswick master builder Samuel Melcher, the house at 63 Federal Street in Brunswick was home to distinguished residents such as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, then a student at Bowdoin College. It was listed as a National Historic Landmark in 1963. The house was purchased by Bowdoin in 2001.

Its most famous resident was Harriet Beecher Stowe, who wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin while living here. Stowe and her family rented the house while her husband Calvin Ellis Stowe was Professor of Natural and Revealed Religion at Bowdoin (1850-1852). While attending a service at First Parish Church, Mrs. Stowe had a vision of the death of a slave named Uncle Tom. From this small spark grew the serialized story which became the influential book Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

Following the residency of the Stowe family the structure remained a private residence until 1946, when it became an inn. Bowdoin College commissioned B+W for a Historic Structure Report to determine the history and evolution of this building. A primary concern was the identification of any surviving fabric from the Stowe family’s residency.

The report is organized into two volumes. The first volume of the report includes measured drawings, documentation of existing conditions, paint and material analyses, examination of construction methods employed in original construction and later alterations, and historical research. The second volume presents preservation and maintenance recommendations, as well as two possible restoration approaches. Our approach preserves spaces that retain their historic appearance and fabric, and inserts modern necessities in already compromised spaces. All the recommendations are based on the findings of the first volume of the report and follow Secretary of the Intentions for treatment.

The rehabilitation project evolved as a construction managed project where B+W was engaged to prepare construction documents, negotiate equivalencies with the State Fire Marshal, and follow through construction administration to completion.

Bowdoin College ultimately decided to create faculty offices and dedicate one of the original parlors to the Harriet Beecher Stowe Writing Room, that is open to the public.

Smith Union Campus Center

Adaptive ReuseHistoric Preservation

The new design preserves all the original features that define the architectural enclosure: perimeter brick walls, regularly-spaced, paired windows, a clerestory monitor and exposed metal trusses – yet introduces new spaces for activities around a center gathering space that also serves as performance space. The central space is surrounded by a spiral ramp that engages the entire space. The Campus Center includes public gathering areas such as a café, pub, game room, mailroom, campus services and college store.

One of Maine’s leading architects, Ms. Barba has been a key player in this design from beginning to end… We knew in making this selection that she would bring to this project not only first rate architectural services, equal to those found anywhere, but also a Maine perspective on preservation, design, and building practices-which is exactly what she did.

– Mark Wethli, Chair, Department of Art, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine

B+W was involved throughout the process from programming through furnishings, special signage and occupancy. B+W’s primary role was the exterior detailing for preservation and integration of new elements. We shared in the production of the construction documents as well as conducted reviews with the State Fire Marshal to achieve equivalency ratings for the historic building, successfully retaining its historic features. B+W provided the leadership role in the construction administration of this complex, multi-disciplined project.

Smith Union presented a major unifying element for the Bowdoin College Campus, drawing together previously segregated groups – banned fraternity houses, faculty and staff, and changing the social paradigm of siloed facilities to one of integration and inclusion.

Adaptive Reuse

2018 Maine Preservation Honor Award.

Hathaway Center was awarded a Maine Preservation Honor Award in 2009.

Award: 1996 National American Institute of Architects Honor Award for Interiors

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