Adaptive ReUse

Saving the Country Club!

by Michael on January 10, 2012

in Adaptive ReUse, Building Material ReUse, Demolition, Green Building, Green Demolition, Services

ReUse Action’s Restoration crew began a project to save this “Country Club”, built in the 80′s and greatly in danger of being lost.  The building boasts huge timbers and locally milled hemlock lumber. Unfortunately, years of neglect has resulted in severe deterioration to the southwest wall. It’s our hope the new owner will be able to provide the necessary push to get this building to the point where it can be utilized and appreciated for years to come.

Here are some initial photos of the building it was found Friday.

The top photo shows the building, completely finished with locally milled hemlock. The picture below shows the southwest Wall and the beating it has sustained from the elements, combined with years of neglect.

Day 1 was predominantly spent jacking and shoring the second floor which had nearly collapsed due to the deterioration of the wall.; We jacked the southwest corner nearly a foot to return it to level.

The structure has been shored and stabilized. On Day 2, we will demolish the remainder of the southwest wall and begin rebuilding.

Stay tuned to the progress of this unique structure.  ReUse Action’s restoration and rehabilitation team is estimating projects for 2012. We have several barns in the hopper, once we get this Ski Lodge back on the recovery path. Call us at 716-884-3366 (DEMO). If the building is too far gone our demolition team can give you a quote with the emphasis on saving as many materials as possible for reuse.

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Go Rocco!

by Editor on August 13, 2011

in Adaptive ReUse, Business, Community Revitalization, Jobs, Media, People

Lafayette Hotel developer Rocco Termini, speaking out for historic tax credits:

Lafayette Hotel Washington Street Entrance

Lafayette Hotel Washington Street Entrance

Termini blasts lawmaker for tax credit stance

Most of Rocco’s very successful redevelopments would be impossible without tax credits to support the financial side of things. Benefits include many positives aside from the saved building itself, as Rocco points out:

Lafayette Hotel

Termini said the report fails to appreciate the “multipliers” — economic spinoffs — that the projects cited will provide.

He said the renovation of the Lafayette Hotel is creating 150 construction jobs, including 60 African-American trainees, and will result in 100 permanent jobs by April, when the building is expected to reopen as a boutique hotel, apartment building and retail establishment.

“This urban project, in the second poorest city in America, creates the critical mass you need to start developing retail and produce tax revenue, both locally and nationally, while raising the value of all the buildings in the vicinity,” . . .

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Lafayette Hotel and The Outsource Center in the News

by Editor on July 28, 2011

in Adaptive ReUse, Apprentices, Building Material ReUse, Jobs, Media, People, Salvage, Training, Young Adults

Here’s an informative article by Mark Sommer in the Buffalo News, all about the current state of Rocco Termini’s Lafayette Hotel renovation.

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Salvaging at the Lafayette Hotel

by Michael on June 17, 2011

in Adaptive ReUse, Building Material ReUse, Jobs, People, Salvage

Lafayette Hotel Sign

We’ve hinted at our current big salvage project, and some of you may have seen activity downtown at Washington and Clinton. Here’s the scoop on what ReUse Action’s salvage team is up to:

The Lafayette, Buffalo’s Most Palatial Hotel . . . Absolutely Fireproof . . . European Plan . . . 300 Rooms . . . Designed by the first female professional architect in the US, Louise Blanchard Bethune.

Tubs On StreetOpened in 1904, every room featured hot and cold water and a telephone. Built in the French Renaissance style, befitting its name, Lafayette, after the French general who fought in America’s Revolution. Much of the main floor was redone in the 1920′s in the Art Deco style. Located on one of Buffalo’s earliest public spaces, formerly Courthouse Square, used for public gatherings since 1816, before Buffalo became a city.

Tubs in Main Hall

Adaptive Reuse

Developer Rocco Termini will convert the 448-room hotel into a mixed used building, with a small hotel, apartments, several restaurants and some retail space. The first floor will retain many of its features – check-in desk, brass-covered elevators, tile and stone floors, ornate plaster details, several large public rooms, lots of turn of the (19th/20th) century and later Art Deco styling. The upper floors will be gutted to make room for modern hotel rooms and small apartments. These rooms contain porcelain bathtubs, radiators, solid wood doors, baseboard molding, sinks, “subway tile” and other fixtures.

Lafayette Doors

Our Role

ReUse Action is handling the heavy lifting of removing, organizing and storing the salvageable items. We’re partnering with Demolition Depot, a New York City antique dealer. Together, we’ve purchased the items from the building owner and will be working to make them available for sale.

Our Goals

Putting A Tub Into StorageWith this large project, ReUse Action is accomplishing several goals. First, we’ll make a profit on the work – at this point one of our specialties is the recovery and handling of this type of material. Second, we’ll put our crew to work and increase their job skills in an area of business, salvage and deconstruction, that is steadily increasing in Western New York and particularly in Buffalo. Lafayette Tubs In StorageThird, this is preservation of a kind – in quite a few cases, even material as valuable and authentic as this ends up in the landfill. Very little of it will be reused on site in the new development, and the local market would only be able to absorb a fraction of the large quantity of material. So these historic items will be available for sale around the country and indeed around the world and will continue to serve their mundane purposes a plumbing and heating fixtures while providing some real “history” for their new owners.

Photos

Here’s a link to our flick photos of this project.

PS: Steve Watson at the News did a quick article for Friday’s paper: Tubs awash with new life.

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reuse at Livestrong Foundation

by Michael on February 2, 2011

in Adaptive ReUse, Building Material ReUse, Green Building, LEED

Not only is the Livestrong Foundation fighting to improve the lives of people across the nation and the world living with cancer, their National Headquarters in East Austin, Texas, is an amazing example of reuse in action. 

Previously a paper plant built in the 1950′s, this LEED Gold Project now models the tremendous artistic and aesthetic potential of incorporating existing elements and reclaimed materials into design and rehabilitation.

In this second photo, you can see how the old manufacturing building was modified and fashioned with a new sawtooth roof.  To accomplish this new design modification, which greatly increases natural lighting into the large office space below, several thousand square feet of existing flat room deck was removed.  The reclaimed 3/4″ roof decking and 2″x8″ roof rafters were used to create the structure and slat siding for the cubicles, office and meeting spaces, and grand entry.

The final photo demonstrates how even the laminate beams were incorporated and used for benches around a large general purpose meeting space and throughout the space.  The floors were the existing concrete floors and there is a large solar array that provides the majority of the electrical needs

I was visiting Austin to participate in my final Echoing Green Conference.  The Livestrong Foundation hosted us for half of the conference and Echoing Green alum and current Executive Director of the Livestrong Foundation, Doug Ulman served as our generous host for the weekend.  I was inspired by the innovation of the space and for their commitment to social change. 

If you know of someone close to you that is struggling with cancer, please share their website, livestrong.org.

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