Rau Fastener

Mill Complex

Providence, Rhode Island

Introduction

Summer 2003 The Developer The Architect Reviving a Brownfield Tour the Site

Fall 2004 The Developer The Architect Tour the Site

Summer 2006 The Developer Tour the Site

The Numbers

The Architect: November 2004

Douglas Brown inspects wall partitions, November 2004.

Douglas Brown is a principal at Durkee Brown Viveiros Werenfels Architects and the lead architect for the Rau project.

A lot has happened since the last time we discussed the project. Phase One of the construction phase has been completed. This involved the demolition of the large former plating building and a number of infield buildings in the courtyard. The environmental remediation and abatement work has also been completed.

Construction will be carried out in staggered phases. Building D is going first, and building B will follow.

The interiors of buildings B and D have been sandblasted, exposing the brick walls and pine floors and beams. These will be left exposed.

Restored pine beams, brick walls, and flooring, November 2004.

We're carefully evaluating all the wood flooring, demolishing sections that are unsalvageable, refinishing the rest, then infilling with new maple flooring in preparation for installation and construction of the interior partitions. The partition work has begun on the second floor and is proceeding fairly quickly. The rough-end plumbing and electrical work will follow.

As the interior partitions go up, the floor plans of the units are becoming more visible. The remaining walls on the second floor will be completed within the next several weeks. Once all of the walls are up and the rough-end plumbing and electrical work have been started, visitors will be able to see the variety of unit sizes and shapes. In some units we have clearly identifiable bedrooms with closets; in other areas we have loft-style units with sleeping areas not necessarily segregated by full-height walls and doors.

Restored exterior masonry, November 2004.

In addition to the interior work, the restoration and cleaning of the exterior masonry are proceeding. The installation of structural, insulated panels on the roof will provide reinforcement and insulation. The roofs of some of the lower areas — such as the community room — are being completed.

Phase One is slated to be completed in the early fall of 2005. Building D — the larger, four-story building — is scheduled to be completed a little bit before building B.

The new windows will go through a vigorous shop-drawing review before installation. The review and approval process for window details is quite extensive in projects funded with federal and state historic tax credits. Before the shop drawings are released for fabrication, they are reviewed very carefully, with the detailing of the new windows compared with the original windows. The National Park Service and the state Historic Preservation Commission require that we preserve the scale of the original windows.

Right now we're seeing the underground excavation and installation of utilities on the ground floors of both buildings. This involves substantial trenching and careful excavation to avoid disturbing the existing stone footings.

The installation of underground utilities also involves careful coordination with existing local utilities. We have some underground injection systems that will introduce storm water — roof runoff and water from parking lots — into the ground through underground injection systems. This runoff won't be put back into the city's storm-sewer system.

We can't take this approach in every area of the project. Ground contamination in the plating building (which was demolished) and in the adjacent parking lot require that rainwater from those areas be channeled into the city's storm-sewer system. This will avoid having the runoff leach through potentially contaminated soil into the ground water. Electric, gas, water, and sewer utilities also need to be hooked up.

Although the project is going well now, it has been a much slower process than anticipated. It's a complex project in every way. I think the coordination of all the agencies involved with the review and completion of the environmental work was very complicated and took more time than we had expected.

We found two underground oil tanks that we didn't expect to find, but the soils were for the most part in the condition predicted by the earlier studies. An environmental consultant oversaw all of the Phase One work.