Condition Assessment

Bay Chamber Concerts & Music School, Camden

Adaptive ReuseAdditionsCondition AssessmentContextual DesignHistoric Preservation

B+W worked with the Owner to assemble a mostly local team of landscape designer, civil engineer and construction manager, and augmented the team with expertise in acoustical engineering, structural, mechanical, electrical, lighting design, and interior design.

The site design considered safety for the student drop off zone, but also, changes to make the experience more welcoming overall. Native plants, natural and locally sourced materials contribute to the beauty of the design.

The building addition is contextual yet designed as a modern counterpoint to the historic former church, offering a balance of old and new and signaling the new life that Bay Chamber’s use breathes into this property. The forms tuck neatly under the eaves of the old and set back to allow the historic building to rightfully retain its prominence. The project team worked diligently to find the most cost effective, best looking, sustainable and low maintenance materials to select for the exterior.

When Bay Chamber bought a historic landmark in Camden to house its concert series and music school, the magnitude of the project was not immediately apparent. Through a serendipitous introduction from another arts leader, we hired Barba + Wheelock and the work began to undertake a highly technical and also important architectural statement for our organization as well as the town. Melding a new addition with a 175+ year old former church was in B + W’s wheelhouse. Our new building reflects the mission of Bay Chamber to present traditional classical music while educating the next generation of musicians. Critical to the management and success of this project was team member Tim Morrison. His attention to detail, conscientiousness and patience were invaluable to a project that required tremendous forethought and flexibility. We offer our highest recommendation to the team at Barba + Wheelock.

– Monica Kelly, Executive Director, Bay Chamber Concerts & Music School

Geothermal heating was explored and eventually dismissed when the costs were found to be too high for the payback. A variable refrigerant flow Heat Pump system was selected as the project’s heat/cooling source and the system was designed to allow for solar photovoltaic arrays to be added to the roof later, if desired.

Acoustics play a critical component of the design with wall types and ceiling types designed with isolation clips and added sheetrock and doors with higher STC ratings and gaskets.

The Red House, Sweden, Maine

AdditionsCondition AssessmentContextual DesignHistoric Preservation

A beloved family summer home is transformed to year-round use.

This project is a Comprehensive Master Plan, Design and Construction for The Red House, owned by Nils Johnson and Becky Buyers. The original 5-bay house was reportedly built for Col. Samuel Nevers and his wife, Esther Trull Nevers, in 1805; a 2-bay Ell was added to the house in 1840.

In 1960, Nils’ parents purchased the historic farm and lovingly returning to it with their family each summer. Locally known in Sweden as “The Red House,” in December 2021, Becky and Nils acquired the house.

After spending several months exploring the house in its historic location, with a series of additions, the Owner opted to move the house off its foundation to a new location about 300 feet away, away from the road, and onto to a rise in the land that allowed full-on views of the local mountain range and sunsets.

The house is fully insulated, air sealed and provided with new, historically derived windows. A new geothermal system and solar roof panels heats the house and provides all of its electricity. The original house was restored, including plaster wall repair and replacement, and the addition was designed to be compatible and open for a new glass-filled living room oriented to the view.

In lieu of the historic rubble basement the Red House boasts a wonderful, tall-ceilinged walk-out basement below the house and addition.

Exposed post and beam construction was coupled with conventional framing to allow the interior to tie-in seamlessly. The original kitchen was restored to a function as a modern kitchen, with the great cook fireplace central to the room. Cabinets and millwork became critical as paneled for compatibility.

View progress on this project on the owner’s blog.

Conway Public Library

Condition AssessmentHistoric Preservation

The Conway Public Library is a circa 1900, one-story, Neo-Classical-style masonry building designed by Boston architect Thomas W. Silloway. The original Library massing has mass brick masonry walls on a raised foundation of gray granite and the window openings have brownstone lintels and sills. The original primary facade was designed with a brownstone portico supported by Ionic columns. The roof is slate, with a clock tower, cornices, cresting and other trim of pressed sheet copper.

It was a moment of tragedy for our institution and remains so today. A truck crashed into our historic building, killing one person and destroying multiple brownstone columns that had adorned our building since its opening, 122 years prior. As the Director of the Conway Public Library, I knew we needed to find a firm to run the repair process who possessed an understanding of, and sensitivity to, the unique characteristics of working on a historic structure such as ours, which is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Barba + Wheelock is that firm and I can not recommend them highly enough. They have been a “rock steady” partner and have displayed a high level of professionalism and expertise to their craft. Liz Reynolds has been a great partner for our project. Her background fit our needs perfectly and she has displayed great work habits. I recommend Liz and B+W in general without reservation.

– David Smolen, Director, Conway Public Library

B+W’s design phase of the project included research of cleaning and repair products and vetting options for placing the brownstone columns and pilaster that each broke into several pieces. It is preferable to reuse original material wherever possible, but after careful review and discussion about the broken brownstone elements, we determined that attempting to rebuild the columns from the broken pieces would be extremely challenging, have long-term performance issues, and would be aesthetically displeasing. B+W understands that brownstone is not quarried in the United States anymore, therefore they looked into other alternatives including shipping sandstone in from abroad, coating another natural material, limestone, to replicate the appearance of brownstone, and replacing with cast stone columns.

B+W determined the best solution was to have replica columns cast in colored cast stone to replicate the brownstone. It was very important to the client that the columns be replicated in one monolithic unit, as the original, nearly 14 foot tall, columns consisted of one continuous piece of brownstone each.

Little Brick_West End Residence

AdditionsCondition AssessmentContextual DesignHistoric Preservation

The project included a site plan with the construction of a new garage, adaptation of the former garage into an indoor/outdoor entertaining space, contextually designed Mudroom Addition, new landscaping and hardscaping, restoration of exterior elements, such as the exterior masonry and wood trim work, and replacement of the original slate roof in-kind. The interior was a custom adaptation to the client’s needs and involved all four floors of upgrades and improvements. B+W ushered all of the exterior work through the City of Portland Historic Preservation review board for unanimous approval.

Thornton Academy Main Street Dormitories, Saco

Adaptive ReuseCondition AssessmentContextual DesignHistoric PreservationMaster PlanningNew Construction

The initial design challenge was to integrate a new building type and new construction form into the historic campus. The designs respond to the historic context of Main Street in the Saco Historic Preservation District as well as a predominately red brick campus, which has evolved via several construction campaigns during its nearly 125 year history. The residential quality of other Main Street (and Academy) houses and historic detailing from the campus’ education buildings informed our design. We believe this approach has achieved a dormitory and future village that complements both the community of Saco and the Academy.

Locating the first dormitory building – Nelson Residence Hall – on a previously unoccupied lawn at the campus’ main entrance, now forms a gateway to the historic campus. The long axis of the dormitories faces south-southwest for optimal solar exposure and frames the entry to campus create greens or courtyards between each of the proposed buildings. The street façades, of this and the forthcoming buildings, are designed to establish the street rhythm found on Main Street south of the campus.

Nelson Residence Hall, completed in Summer 2009, is constructed with durable standing seam roofs and fiber-cement cladding in neutral colors that acknowledge existing patterns and textures found on campus buildings without resorting to mimicking the brick, which the project’s budget could not justify.

A tight building envelope with high thermal insulation performance was achieved with the use of ICF (insulated concrete forms) for the foundation and first floor walls and conventional framing with dense pack cellulose insulation at the second-floor level. The use of ICF benefits the interior architecture as its wall depth creates deep recesses at the windows adding a layer of space for use by the residents. ICF also allowed an economical and seamless construction season as the contractor was able to pour concrete walls throughout the winter without concern for special freeze protection. The ICF walls achieved a R-48, far exceeding any current energy code.

Friends’ Central School, Wynnewood, Pennsylvania

Adaptive ReuseCondition AssessmentContextual DesignHistoric Preservation

The carriage house for the original estate – c. 1885 – was an “underperforming asset” that now has a new life for great creative ventures with its complete adaptive re-use!

The “Light Lab” was designed with four maker spaces in the areas of: natural sciences, fabrication, media and computing, and design.

Because the original building had been so extensively altered, the School opted for a complete removal of interior walls and finishes, taking the spaces down to their masonry bearing walls. From this B+W was able to add back a completely continuous thermal envelope and new second floor structure, and new fully integrated mechanical, plumbing, electrical, sprinkler and fire alarm systems. It is essentially an all-new building inside. Part of our work included an investigation of the thermal dynamics of the wall construction to assure that the new work would not affect the long-term performance and viability of the original walls.

The Mechanical engineer explored multiple options for energy systems including geothermal and ended up determining that the best system for this project would be mini-split heat pumps.

As part of a Lower Merion Township historic district, the review board required restored windows on the sides visible to the public way. The balance of windows were new replacement windows, with details to complement the historic windows.

We removed a later garage shed uncovering the original form to create a U-Shaped plan with an outdoor courtyard. The new layout naturally lent itself to a welcoming entry, elevator, stair and bathrooms; as the central core it creates a wonderful mixing bowl of activity between classes.

Condition Assessment

Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania’s Historical Commission Historic Preservation Award, 2017.

Footer