OWNER: New Jersey Sports & Exposition Authority, Atlantic City, NJ
ARCHITECT, STRUCTURAL, MECHANICAL, ELECTRICAL, PLUMBING ENGINEER, LIGHTING CONSULTANT: Ewing Cole Cherry Brott, Philadelphia
HISTORIC PRESERVATION CONSULTANT: Watson & Henry Associates, Bridgeton, NJ
HISTORIC PRESERVATION CONTRACTOR: Evergreen Paint Studios, NYC
SCAFFOLD CONTRACTOR: Regional Scaffolding & Hoisting Inc., Bronx, NY
STRUCTURAL SLAB REPAIR CONTRACTOR: Quinn Construction Inc., Folcroft, Pa.
ICE RINK CONSULTANT: Ice Builders Inc., Baldwinsville, NY
SPORTS DESIGN CONSULTANT: Rosser International, Atlanta
CONSTRUCTION MANAGER: Tishman Construction Corp. of New Jersey, Newark, NJ

Like school, the construction industry also has its three "Rs" - renovation, restoration and rehabilitation. With the Atlantic City Boardwalk Hall Restoration project, there is now a fourth "R" - rejuvenation.

The $90 million Atlantic City Boardwalk Hall Restoration project is a rejuvenated project because new life is being breathed into a grand, old structure whose cultural significance is not only being maintained, but whose architectural firsts will be modernized, if not reincarnated, bringing back what was a state-of-the-art facility in 1928 to a state-of-the-art facility for the 21st century.

The 340,000-sq.-ft. concrete, brick and steel neoclassic structure is a national landmark governed by New Jersey's historic register law. Therefore, work undertaken on it has to conform to the United States Secretary of the Interior's Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties.

This project is architecturally and historically significant because when it opened, it was the world's largest clear span enclosed building.

The project included the main "auditorium" or hall - a hall that has been the home of the Miss America Pageant since the building was first completed. In addition, the building still contains the world's largest organ.

Among the building's historic "firsts" is that it used the first acoustical ceiling tile system in the U.S. It was made by Cellotek and it consists of compressed sugar cane material.

The project's scope included removing all of the ceiling material and replacing it with a metal pan ceiling to replicate the original ceiling. The trusses were wrapped in glass fiber reinforced gypsum material to replicate the original truss wraps.

The ceiling system features painted wood molding; the balcony level features flags of all the U.S. states and territories that existed in 1928 and 1929; and the stage area features a 7-ft.-to-8-ft.-dia. leaded glass globe that is backlit to emphasize the letters "WPG" for "World's Greatest Playground" - which is what Atlantic City used to be called.

The ceiling was illuminated using indirect lighting from a very sophisticated system of floodlights mounted in the hall's 10 truss enclosures. These truss enclosures span the barrel vault of the ceiling. In all, there were 540 floodlights used in a system of colored filters and prismatic lenses to cast different lighting themes on the ceiling. All of this was controlled from a panel behind the stage where color themes could be preset similar to what we might do today using much older electrical technology.

This lighting system was supposed to recreate the illusion of a sunrise, a sunset and the illusion of being under water. What's remarkable about this is this is pretty early lighting technology - technology that was removed three years after the building was completed and then replaced with a conventional pendant lighting system which was hung from the ceiling.

The change in lighting systems completely changed the architectural experience in the hall because originally the lights bounced off a silver-painted ceiling. But when the pendant lighting system was installed, the interior of the hall became darker and more cave-like. That is why the project's plans called for recreating the effect of the original lighting system so people could experience the hall as it was originally intended.

To replicate the building's original lighting, a modern Irideon Luminare system was installed. Fixtures for this system offer full spectrum color. In all, 54 new fixtures were installed along with a computerized control system.

The removal of the asbestos, the replacement of the ceiling and lighting systems and the installation of a 12,000-seat to 14,000-seat arena all take place in a building whose historic fabric had to be preserved, To meet these challenges, a custom-made scaffolding had to be created.

The scaffolding for this project was a suspended platform system that not only followed the curve of the ceiling, but safely and expeditiously permitted access to the ceiling for the removal of the ceiling tile and asbestos.

A key solution to the success of this project was the sequencing of its design and construction. The sequencing revolved around the Miss America Pageant and incorporated construction blackouts. These were periods when work was halted and trailers and equipment were removed from the site for 1999 and 2000 Miss America Pageants could be held in the hall during the third week in September. These "construction blackouts" added five months to the schedule.

To compensate for the additional five months, an aggressive ceiling replacement schedule was established along with a schedule for the movement of the scaffolding. Furthermore, all of the schedules had milestones within each phase to permit work to be performed simultaneously and with the expected quality of work required to meet all of the project's objectives.

The jury said this project had "a lot of complex challenges with equally impressive solutions." They called it "an amazing job deserving of an award."