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RIVERDALE RESIDENCE

Riverdale, Bronx, New York

RECONSTRUCTION, CONSERVATION & ADAPTIVE REUSE

The carriage house interior was fully rehabilitated with the original wood beams and brick walls exposed where feasible.  The garage was meticulously documented locating every stone and joint width, and disassembled to shore up and rebuild the hillside retaining wall. New stone was mixed with original stone units that could be re-used to ensure visual continuity and recreate the random pattern of the stone walling.  

Because of the extensive geo-technical reconstruction that required internal buttressing, the usable space would have been considerably reduced. Because the property fronts a mapped street, and other properties had been modified or originally built to the edge of the raod, a waiver was sought from the Board of Standards & Appeals (BSA) to enlarge the building 7'-0" towards the road to compensate for the lost square footage. The length of the house was also extended by 4'-0" reducing the width of the stepped walkway.   

The BSA agreed that the enlargement was no less compliant than the original construction.

Location

Riverdale, Bronx, New York

Project Team

Civil & Structural Engineer: Brooker Engineering, PLLC

Shoring Consultant: Richard C. Mugler Co., Inc.

MEP Engineer: Automated Design Consultants

Interior Design: Tom O'Toole

Landscaping: Richard Griffin
Contractor: A.S.C. Remodeling, Inc.

Client

Private

Completion Date

2012

This former carriage house, located within the Riverdale Historic District was built between 1873 and 1876, part of a larger farmyard and stable. A fire destroyed the upper floor in 1914 and was replaced with a new concrete roof.  The carriage house and stable were used as a garage from that date onward until 1995 when the roof began to fail. 

The project involved two distinct components:  restoration of the carriage house and adaptive re-use and reconstruction of the garage. The most pressing issue was how to disengage the garage and stabilize the hillside without placing the carriage house or the stepped stone walkway flanking the garage at risk of damage or worse, collapse. For the client, the concern was how to best use the building and in re-using it, how could a residence be fashioned out of a combination of the two very different building types.

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