CHALLENGE
How do you take a structure that NYC DOB has deemed condemned and actually gotten a court order to have it demolished, stabilized and repurposed? That was the challenge presented to Promont by the new owners of the vacant structure that stood vacant and partially collapsed for over four decades. The process would have to include first stabilizing the structure to an acceptable level for the court to remove the demolition order it had in place. Then we would need to figure out how to restructure the existing structure to accept additional floors and be repurposed as a large boys school.

APPROACH
First we needed to persuade the powers that be that it could be done. We met with the lead engineers at DOB and presented our plan in theory on how we think it can get done. Lucky for us, the engineer already knew our reputation and past experience with like-kind projects and he signed off on the approach. Now came the hard part of getting it on paper and staging the work correctly. We got to work with our engineers and designed a full plan with complete staging. We started the work with daily visits by NYC DOB and after a few months we had accomplished our mission. The building was stable and the DOB removed the demolition order. Now we got to work on designing a brand new school with additional floors and major parts of the existing building needing to be removed. The construction work was meticulous and mind numbing in its complexity, but we got it done and we got it done safely