Historic Justice

Restoration Brings Back Grandeur of Long Island Courthouse

by Bruce Buckley

The Old Nassau County Courthouse in Garden City, N.Y., is the oldest government building in the county and one of the first public facilities in the United States constructed of reinforced concrete.

But the 103-year-old building, for which then-New York Gov. Theodore Roosevelt laid the cornerstone to start construction, suffered years of historically insensitive additions and renovations, followed by decades of neglect.

Now, in a $35 million restoration effort that is several years in the making, crews are peeling back the damage and breathing life back into the historic structure.

"I've worked here 18 years and I haven't seen anything rebuilt - I've just seen things deteriorate," said Carol-Lynn Friedman, chief architect with Nassau County's Department of Public Works. "This is a project where we are seeing it go in the other direction. It's coming back."

Work on the project began in 2002 with the restoration of the two-story, 135,000-sq.-ft. building's signature dome. Then, after nearly $1 million in demolition, a full restoration of the courthouse and an adjoining annex began last summer.

When completed next June, the renovation will return the courthouse to its look and 90,000-sq.-ft. size in 1916 - the year recognized when it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. A glass corridor will also link the building to a new annex structure also under construction.

The courthouse's renovated space will become the home of the county Legislature's offices. The $10 million, 25,000-sq.-ft. annex will house the county executive's offices and a new legislative chamber.

After the county built a new courthouse in the 1930s, it began converting the historic structure to an office building, with partition walls cutting through the original courts to create workspaces. Taking the courthouse back in time meant that the project team - led by the LiRo Group of Uniondale, N.Y., and New York-based Bovis Lend Lease as joint venture construction manager - had to remove major additions, the interior partition walls, and multiple ceilings.

From early in the planning stages, the project team realized it would take a monumental effort to renovate the structure, but it wasn't until the demolition phase that the full extent of required work became evident. One of the biggest tasks involved removing four large additions from the building, including extensions of historic wings and additional floors that had been added to loggias.

Friedman said the crews expected to find 28 hidden arches as they removed additions but found only seven still intact.

"[Earlier crews] had put a second floor on the loggia and the support was run through the old archways," she said. "There was no respect for it."

Crews delicately removed the partitions as well as three ceilings that covered the original ceiling on the main floor.

As they removed each piece, structural stability became more of an issue. Crews also discovered several structural beams that they didn't know existed and that needed to be removed. There were nervous moments, said Larry Blond, project executive with LiRo Group.

"There were a lot of cracks and no one was sure what might happen," he added. "We had removed an entire back wing and had to shore it from basement to ceiling with a double row of shoring."

The project team also put great effort into preserving one of the building's architecturally significant elements - a Ransome method slab. The building has one of the first examples of the turn-of-the-century technique, which uses a twisted metal rebar rib that runs across and supports a hollow slab.

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The slabs were bulging in spots and required strengthening so that new mechanical equipment could hang from them. The crews drilled holes through the slab every 3 ft. on center, placed an 8-in.-diameter washer on top, and hung a welded wire mesh along the bottom and sides. In some areas, crews also added Unistrut-brand metal framing to help support hanging mechanical units.

"It was quite an effort to come up with something that helps stabilize the slabs and at the same time gives us a way to hang our mechanical," Blond said.

The mechanical, electrical, and plumbing designs require careful coordination to add extensive new systems to the old structure, such as central air conditioning that is replacing window units.

Low ceiling heights in the basement forced the team to develop several designs to hang utilities while maintaining egress and access requirements. The plan included running some systems along the building's exterior and through trenches.

The project team topped out the structural renovation work with the final piece of steel in April. With the building structurally sound, much of the effort has shifted to restoring the appearance of the courthouse as it was in 1916.

The restoration effort is touching many parts of the building. To replace stone that can't be restored, the team is using cast stone and glass-fiber-reinforced concrete.

Meanwhile, replica wood windows from Marvin are replacing existing windows, providing the same look with more efficiency. Crews are also adding EPDM roofing and restoring terra cotta roofing.

Interior work will include restoring plaster ceilings, wood finishes, copper work, ceramic tiles, and terrazzo. The interiors feature several historic pieces, including Tiffany light fixtures and Works Progress Administration-era murals.

While returning to its 1916 appearance, the historic courthouse will have a connection to the new two-story annex building behind it. The link will be a glass curtain wall corridor that will wrap around a portion of the courthouse's exterior walls, leaving them visible from the outside.

"We didn't want to overpower the courthouse building," said John Gering, managing partner of HLW International in New York, the project's architect. "We chose the curtain wall to give it a much lighter feel. It reflects the landscape and the sky but doesn't fight with the courthouse."

The new annex's cast stone façade also echoes the exterior of the old courthouse.

County legislators will step into their newly polished spaces next year. Few of them may appreciate the change as much as chief architect Friedman, however, who recalls how the building had deteriorated because her department was one of the courthouse's last tenants before the renovation project began.

"It's hard to believe the difference this will make," she said. "Before, a lot of the beauty was hidden. I've got much more respect for this building now."

Key Players

Owner: Nassau County Department of Public Works, Westbury, N.Y.

Program Manager: Carter & Burgess, New York; Greyhawk North America, Woodbury, N.Y.

Construction Manager Joint Venture: Bovis Lend Lease, New York, and LiRo Group, Uniondale, N.Y.

Executive Architect-Engineer: HLW International, New York

Historical Architect: John G. Waite Associates Architects, New York

Structural Engineer: Robert Silman Associates, New York

Mechanical Engineer: Plus Group Consulting Engineering, New York

Site-Landscape: EDAW, New York

Survey-Civil-Geotechnical Consultant: Hirani Engineering & Land Surveying, Mineola, N.Y.

Environmental: JC Broderick & Associates, Holbrook, N.Y.

Demolition: Gramercy Group, Westbury, N.Y.

General Contractor: MA Angeliades, Long Island City, N.Y.

Mechanical Contractor: Sav-Mor Mechanical, Ronkonkoma, N.Y.

Plumbing: WHM Plumbing and Heating Contractors, East Setauket, N.Y.

Electrical: Eldor Contracting, Holbrook, N.Y.