7th REGIMENT ARMORY

Armories and urban fortresses decorated the Manhattan landscape up until the early 1900s, serving as drill halls and private clubs for the volunteer militia. Yet none of these facilities was grander than the Park Avenue Armory, built in the late 1800s by Charles Clinton. Part industrial shed and part palace, the building has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1975 and is currently used as an alternative space for visual and performing arts.

The Conservancy for the Park Avenue Armory commissioned Seaboard Weatherproofing & Restoration Company to rehabilitate the brick and granite Lexington Avenue elevations as part of its $68 million electrical, acoustical, structural and exterior façade renovation.

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Seaboard’s work involved partial rebuilding of the crenellated corner turrets, brick and granite façade repair, repointing, cleaning, repair of roofing and copper flashing, and waterproofing of the building’s Lexington Avenue façade and fire escape corners. Since an exact brick match was not commercially available, Seaboard salvaged brick from areas undergoing reconstruction to repair the more visually prominent areas of the façade. Lack of rooftop and scaffolding storage space forced the Seaboard team to lift heavy granite blocks off the turrets, carefully lower them to ground level for repair, and hoist them back up to be reset in their original position.

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As part of this LEED project, Seaboard was required to track all construction waste and document and send all debris generated on the project to recycling facilities. Seaboard worked closely with the architects and construction manager to achieve the necessary functional, aesthetic and authentic requirements established by the New York State Historic Preservation Office for this historic building. In addition, the Seaboard team adapted its schedule and protocols to work under the project’s limited work hours, noise restrictions, active shows and exhibits and safety demands necessitated by the high traffic location.