Ithaca Builds

Mapping, photos and information for Ithaca construction and development projects

Project Updates

Emerson: Chain Works District Meeting

April 12, 2014 // by Jason Henderson

The development team for the former Emerson site held a preliminary public meeting at Cinemapolis this past Thursday to present the project concept to the public. The team is an impressive group of local and upstate firms:

HARTER, SECREST AND EMERY – environmental, land use and zoning law
CHAINTREUIL │JENSEN │STARK ARCHITECTS – architecture and planning
D.I.R.T. STUDIO – landscape and site design
AUSTIN + MERGOLD – architecture, branding and outreach
FAGAN ENGINEERS & LAND SURVEYORS – civil engineering
WHITHAM PLANNING AND DESIGN – project planning approvals
STREAM COLLABORATIVE – zoning development and approvals
LA BELLA P.C. – environmental consulting

The developer is David Lubin, also of L Enterprises, the developer for Harold’s Square.

The presentation went through some history of the site, then talked about their approach and the concepts they’re hoping to use in the re-development. For starters, Emerson is a massive site: the parcels in question total to roughly 94 acres, and it’s no further from the downtown core than collegetown. The floor space of the existing buildings is 800,000 square feet, (the Chrysler Building is about 1.2 million), about the size of 10 football fields of interior space. The project will likely be a decade-long (or more), multi-phase process.

The intent is to open-up the site, and possibly demolish buildings that were built between the 60s and 80s that don’t have a feasible re-use case, but keep the vast majority of structures built in the first half of the 20th Century. This would create open spaces between buildings that could be leveraged as public gathering places, parks, open-air restaurants, and activities. The possible future Gateway Trail (a northern extension of the South Hill Recreation Way) would cut directly through the site.

The existing buildings have different spacial features that allow for a variety of desirable re-development scenarios. The long stretch of buildings 2, 3, and 4 are better for residential since there are reasonable floor spans between windows, whereas 13a, 13b, and 34 are more suited to manufacture and production. The co-location of housing and business space is great, since there would be several ways to walk there to and from downtown (Cayuga, Aurora, possibly Turner), and it presents the possibility of living and working on the same site. The industrial aesthetic also presents nice possibilities for creatively adapting existing spaces to keep the materials and structure exposed. Craig Jensen mentioned that one of the shop floor buildings actually has concrete slab as a supporting floor structure below 8″ solid wood floors that could be re-finished, scuff marks, oil stains and all. There’s no doubt that this could get really cool.

A long series of planning and site plan meetings should commence this Spring. The parcel is split between the City and Town, and of course the DEC will be involved in any further environmental work. Emerson still owns the site, but contracts have been signed to allow for the purchase at the end of a year long due-diligence process.

Goldwin Smith Roofing & Klarman Hall Groundwork Project Photos

April 9, 2014 // by Jason Henderson

There’s been some considerable equipment mobilization on this site since late March with the addition of a boom crane and a pile hammer, possibly a vibratory model for noise and speed considerations. The pile hammer is for beam shoring (geo-shoring) along East Avenue, in order to hold the hill together once the site is dug out quite far down for Klarman’s footprint. After the steel beams are in ground, they are followed-up with lagging boards, which are affixed to the beams for soil retention.

Goldwin Smith Hall’s central eastern-side roof has progressed with re-slating and new metal roofing installation, which will continue along that end, and also the south wing’s southern side. The schedule indicates that underpinnings on the south wing of Goldwin Smith Hall have been completed, and will continue along the rotunda area this month.

Steel Beams for Shoring:

Cross-section of Klarman Hall design along East Ave.:

More photos from April 6th:

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Photos from March 29th:

Collegetown Terrace Early April Photo Update

April 8, 2014 // by Jason Henderson

Some facade-panelling has progressed on Collegetown Terrace‘s Buildings 5 & 6 since mid-march, and Building 5’s eastern stairwell has its steel window wall framing installed, so glass should follow-up soon to match the installation currently on Building 6’s western end. The stairwell ends were used for loading-in building materials, so the closing-up is probably a good sign that the interior is well on its way.

Building 5 south face:

Building 5 east end:

Building 5 north face:

Stocking Hall Reconstruction Photos

April 6, 2014 // by Jason Henderson

I finally took the time to swing by Cornell’s Stocking Hall reconstruction to take some photos, so here are a selection of exteriors from this $105 million ongoing project. Stocking Hall (and the former Cornell Dairy Bar & Food Science Lab) closed down back in 2010 to demolish the 48,000 square-foot “runway” section built in 1921 stretching along Tower Road, and rebuild this new 105,500 square foot four-storey wing. The project includes the renovation of the Food Science Lab building and the Historic Wing of Stocking Hall, at a total of 81,500 square feet. The Dairy Bar re-opened for business back in August 2013, and has since began selling Cornell dairy products earlier this year. The ongoing work in the existing Historic Wing of Stocking Hall is a thorough interior renovation to make way for modern teaching labs, classrooms, offices, and conference rooms.

The new glass-fronted section along Tower Road prominently displays the dairy holding tanks, processing equipment, and dairy operations, while the upper stories contain research labs, teaching labs, offices and conference rooms. There are nice terrace areas on the front yard along Tower Road, but also in the back (southern side), just west of the receiving zone. The connection between the new wing and the Historic Wing has been built, but is closed-off for construction.

Night lights:

Existing Historic Wing:

Food Science Lab:

Thurston Avenue Apartments Framing Blitz

April 6, 2014 // by Jason Henderson

The RABCO Highland House Thurston Avenue Apartments project being constructed by G.M. Crisalli has made some impressive framing progress, as Buildings C & D have topped their final storeys since late March, and Building B has gone up another storey, and is almost ready for its third and final. I’ve learned that Building A, the smaller building that had been planned for the right-side entry on this site has been postponed. Building A would have contained 2 one-bedroom units, so the pending unit count on this current project is now 15 three-bedrooms and 3 four-bedrooms:

Photos from April 6th:

Photos from March 29th:

Commons Rebuild: Telecom Vaults & Gas Line

April 1, 2014 // by Jason Henderson

The Commons Rebuild project entered Phase Three this past month, as Vacri Construction is back on site digging-out trenches for the installation of telecom pipe ducts and utility vaults (the large pre-formed concrete blocks with manhole access). The duct bank run along the western end near Cayuga Street is being worked on right now.

In addition to the duct piping and vaults, NYSEG is installing a new gas main along several of the outside edges of the construction fence to replace the old one. The concrete slab is cut and removed in sections, then several feet of soil is dug out to install the piping. The gas main is not part of Vacri’s contract, but since the gas main is quite old, NYSEG requested to replace it during the same timeframe since the project presents an ideal opportunity to do so. As of now, the concrete is cut, but not yet removed.

CrossFit Pallas is Going Up on Cherry Street

March 31, 2014 // by Jason Henderson

Well, this one caught me by surprise, but courtesy of a heads-up email (thanks Charles), I grabbed some photos today of this gym structure well underway as of a few weeks ago. I last wrote about the plans back in December, when renders for the 10,368 square foot building on Cherry Street to house CrossFit Pallas and a Boxing Gym were released in site plan review. The owners currently have a gym at 711 West Court Street, but the space is quite small compared with this footprint- here’s their website, and it has a page explaining what CrossFit is.

The structure is actually wood-framed, faced with corrugated metal panels, and what appears to be laminated veneer lumber (LVLs) for the rafters and also LVLs braced diagonally along the top structure walls. The major joints are joined with steel brackets, and the structure is not sitting on a pad, but a graded bed of gravel, with pre-formed concrete support blocks. The rest should probably go up quite fast.

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Cornell’s Sage Chapel Preservation Project

March 29, 2014 // by Jason Henderson

Cornell University has hired a design team that has assessed the current conditions of Sage Chapel in order to carry out a large preservation effort. The primary motivators for the project are the conditions of the slate roof, roof flashing, and brick and stone masonry. The lead architect, John Milner Associates specialize in historic preservation, the same group that has assessed and designed the repairs for the Washington Monument, which will be reopening May 12th this year. Robert Silman Associates has been working on the structural engineering aspects, along with Princeton Engineering Group for mechanical engineering needs.

Photos property of Cornell University

The original Chapel was built in 1873, and was designed by Reverend Charles Babcock, one of the founding members of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), and Cornell’s first Professor of Architecture. It was the first non-denominational chapel built on a college campus in the United States, a gift from Henry William Sage, a lumber-magnate and early benefactor of Cornell. The Chapel has undergone four separate additions, with the Memorial Chapel addition in 1882, the 1898 addition, the 1903 addition, and the 1940 addition (pictured above), all of which maintained a design consistent with the original building.

The planned work is fully detailed in the application to the Ithaca Landmarks Preservation Commission. The design team has documented areas where the ribbon slate is nearing the end of its service life, necessitating replacement, flashing and seams on the roof (especially rake and gable ends) that must be reconstructed, and deteriorated brick and stone masonry on the memorial chapel. There are also a few stained glass windows that have gap seams to repair, work to be done by stained glass conservator E.S. Taylor Studio. Several items will require repainting decorative finishes, work to be done by John Tiedemann, Inc.

Klarman Hall Schedule & Goldwin Smith Roofing for March

March 26, 2014 // by Jason Henderson

Cornell University’s Klarman Hall project has posted a schedule for the next six months, while LeChase Construction and Welliver have completed more roofing work throughout the month of march. The southern wing’s roof looks nearly complete, along with most of the southern portion of the main building, as the previous slate and metal roofing has been completely removed, re-surfaced with synthetic underlayment, and replaced with new slate and metal.

Underpinnings for Goldwin Smith and Klarman’s foundation have begun installation as indicated on the schedule. They’re typically used to support an existing foundation by digging underneath section by section, and backfilling the trench with concrete to provide additional support and stabilization. The crews will be digging all along Klarman’s future footprint, and along East Avenue. The future weight of Klarman Hall would likely have an adverse affect on existing footings as the new building settles into the soil, so the work will ensure that the existing foundations are safe and sufficient. For certain situations (especially repairing unlevel settling), a building’s foundation is actually jacked up with hydraulics to fix the level.

Photos from March 24th:

Photos from March 10th:

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Thurston Avenue Apartments Framing Progress & One Ridgewood Road Photos

March 24, 2014 // by Jason Henderson

There’s been some framing progress on Building D of RABCO‘s Thurston Avenue Apartments project since early March. The structures are being framed on top of the Insulated Concrete Forms with wood studs and joists, and faced with plywood, then Tyvek wrap on the exterior- the buildings will be fully sprinklered once completed. G.M. Crisalli Construction has been contracted for this project, and Compass Builders has been completing the framing work. Building D will top-out at one more storey plus attic, along with the other three structures.