Next FGA Neighborhood Meeting
Tuesday, June 29 7:30PM
Irondale Center (85 South Oxford Street)
Refreshments and neighborhood mixer at 7pm
RENOVATION: THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY
All of us who live in historic brownstone neighborhoods of Brooklyn know that an inescapable part of maintaining our environment involves renovating our apartments, buildings and infrastructure. Everything man-made, no matter how permanent it seems, will eventually weather, rot, fall apart and return to the elements if not attended to. The buildings we live in brownstone Brooklyn are mostly old, which is a good thing. We enjoy the historic flavor of our neighborhoods and feel connected with generations past and future by being immersed in a historically grounded environment which is constantly changing. Constant change always accompanies the historic environment due to the fact that built structures must be maintained and renovated over time and, even more significantly, our way of life and the way we use our buildings also change over time.
One of the great challenges in conceptualizing and designing a renovation project is figuring out how to adapt a building built in a certain time, for a certain type of clientele in a certain society, to our current way of life. There are many ways of realizing this adaptation, some of which leave the building very much in its historical form, others which drastically change the appearance and feel of the spaces. Regardless of the approach, executing it well is not easy and, as many of us who have lived in awkwardly reconfigured brownstone apartments can attest to, somewhat rare.
Another great challenge is the reality of the renovation process. Those of us who have been through it know how daunting it can be. It involves the coordination of many different people, from architects, designers, engineers and expeditors to contractors, plumbers, carpenters, electricians, millworkers and the list goes on. It involves countless iterations of design, planning, municipal filings, as well as a healthy dose of the dirty and noisy stuff - demolition, structural work, framing, plumbing and electrical work, installation of finishes, painting and plastering and so on.
Those of us who do this for a living mostly find this to be an exciting and rewarding process. On June 29 join Perfect Renovation and others to discuss both the design and construction aspects of renovation for an educational and entertaining event. Richard Goodstein, RA, Design Director and Larry Montgomery, Construction Manager will discuss theory, planning and implementation of renovation projects with an emphasis on design-build project delivery. The team will also be on hand to answer any questions you may have regarding the renovation process. We look forward to seeing you.
