Parks & People Foundation | Superintendent’s House Restoration

The 4,400 SF Superintendent House Restoration was the first phase of this two-phase project for the Parks and People Foundation that took place at Auchentoroly Terrace, near the Maryland Zoo. The largest challenge on the project was overcoming the deterioration of the building and the instability of the structure. There had been two arson fires in the house and a tree had fallen on the back of the house—these misfortunes left very little roof structure to protect the house and, as a result, the front and back walls of the house were falling in, making it unsafe to enter the structure to start demolition. The Lewis team worked to remove the crumbling walls down to the first floor windows and then carefully rebuilt them—all the while keeping the stone in the same configuration as the original construction. The remaining exterior walls were supported in place with temporary shoring until the roof structure was eventually installed.

The team also pursued LEED Platinum certification on this historic building; however, many items in the building, such as lack of perimeter insulation, slate roofing, and the species of wood necessary for the trim were detrimental in this LEED pursuit. Special attention had to be paid to other areas such as the mechanical and plumbing systems so that Lewis could maximize this building’s contribution to the overall project certification. The entire Parks & People Foundation campus project successfully earned the USBC’s highest green building certification of LEED Platinum.