Excellence Award Spotlight: Building 207
The restoration and adaptive reuse of Building 207 in the Fort Totten Historic District is one of this year’s Excellence in Historic Preservation Award winners. This post is part of an in depth series exploring all of the 2020 Award winners.
A view of the front facade of Building 207 after its restoration. Credit: L-Ines Studio
The Colonial Revival style building that is now home to The Center for the Women of New York (CWNY) had been vacant since 1969. Built in 1905, Building 207 was constructed to house officers and soldiers — it is one of over 100 buildings located within the 136-acre Fort Totten Park. Fort Totten ceased being an active military base in 1995, but the US Army Reserve continues to maintain a presence at the site, along with the NYPD and FDNY. Ownership transferred to the City of New York in 2004 and the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation has stewarded this waterfront property ever since, maintaining the historic buildings and opening up about 50 acres as public parkland.
Fort Totten is a remarkably intact Civil War-era military base. The NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the park as a historic district in 1999. When CWNY was looking for a new headquarters back in 2002, they began negotiations with the New York City Parks Department. Building 207 was selected to be their new home. The former enlisted officers’ quarters are now the nonprofit’s research facilities, conference center, and museum. The organization’s founder, Ann Juliano Jawin, lived just long enough to see the project finished, attending the ribbon cutting in December 2019.
Top: Photos showing the extent of the building’s deterioration. From left: the two-story porch, an interior parlor room with fireplace and built-in bookcase, a detail shot of exterior columns.
Bottom: Photos showing the building after restoration. This project included restoring and/or replicating deteriorated columns, steps, railings and all wood moldings, fascia, and decorative elements. The two-story porch is one of the building’s most striking features and has been brought back to its former glory. Credit: L-Ines Studio
What was intended to be a 3-year project took almost 17 years to complete. The project team faced many challenges, including discovering some unexpected tenants — a nursery of raccoons! Thankfully, through a grant front the New York Landmarks Conservancy, they were able to humanely trap and relocate those critters and proceed to sanitize the building.
Page Ayres Cowley Architecture (PACA), the firm in charge of the restoration, could then begin tackling the challenge of making this site usable by upgrading building services that were neither functional nor code compliant. New water, heating , and electrical systems were installed. The actual restoration was sensitive to the many intact historic details, maintaining original fireplaces, built-in bookcases, and restoring tin ceilings, wood windows, and pocket doors. It was brought into the 21st century by making it ADA accessible and installing a fire alarm, smoke detection, and sprinkler system throughout the building. The PACA team did a remarkable job adapting this site for modern everyday use.
Bringing this abandoned building back to life involved a remarkable public-private partnership, involving several city and state agencies, guided by Parks Department staff. The Department of Design & Construction (DDC) Division of Public Building provided project management, with primary funding coming from NYS Senators and NYC Council members, along with numerous individual supporters.
Members of the CWNY and PACA teams standing in front of Building 207 while holding up a CWNY banner.
The Building 207 project team included:
Page Cowley, Principal, Page Ayres Cowley Architecture, LLC | Architect; Gustavo Carrera, Associate, Project Manager, Page Ayres Cowley Architecture, LLC | Project Manager; Victoria Pilotti, President, Center For The Women of New York | Client; Leith ter Meulen, Owner, LandAir Inc | Owner's Representative; David Oldham, Project Manager, LandAir Inc | Owner's Representative; Ari Golden, Partner, ADS Engineers, DPC MEP | Engineer; Kevin Poulin, Principal, Simpson Gumpertz & Heger | Structural Engineer; Lloyd Noel, Owner, Noel Building Consulting | Expeditor; Iftekhar Haider, Owner, SIBA Contracting Corp. | General Contractor; Al Centeno, Project Manager, Vertical Systems Analysis | Elevator Consultant; George Sahm, Senior Project Manager, NYC Department of Design & Construction | Construction Project Manager; Ellen Macnow, Capital Project Coordinator, NYC Department of Parks & Recreation | Owner Liaison