670 Broadway is part of NYC’s NoHo Historic District. Completed in 1873 in the Victorian Romanesque style, it was built as one of the first Brooks Brothers stores in the NoHo neighborhood.
The building retained this same commercial use throughout much of its history. This exceptionally engineered building also features a brownstone cornice, something of a rarity, and for good reason. While brownstone was widely available at the time, the material properties and pattern of deterioration do not lend themselves well to overhead Installations. The cornice had severe delamination and spalling and was an imminent life safety concern as it extended over public sidewalks.
CANY worked with the client, contractor, product manufacturers, and Landmarks Preservation Commission to create a specialized repair scope that corrected the unsafe conditions while also retaining the historic character of this unique building feature. CANY was contacted by the client, Paramount Group, to complete a Due Diligence for the building in 2015. Inspection of the façade, sidewalks, and roof was completed to provide short-term and long-term priorities for necessary repairs and ongoing building maintenance. When the building was purchased in late 2015, CANY was retained in due course to fulfill the essential needs of a façade restoration, rooftop railing installation, and sidewalk vault repairs.
The CANY team prioritized pricing for the client for the necessary façade work and sidewalk repairs. Once contracted, we implemented an Investigation phase and developed construction documents. CANY further fulfilled a bid admin phase by completing a bid walkthrough consisting of Interviews with contractors and bid leveling. DOB and LPC project filings were then completed along with the CA phase. The sidewalk repair project required coordination with additional municipal agencies including DOT and MTA as the sidewalk vault ran adjacent to the MTA subway tunnel under Broadway.
CANY's façade scope included repairing the original arch-headed wood windows, replacing damaged or missing wood molding in-kind, and repainting to match the original color as determined by a finishes analysis. Additional services during the investigation phase included roof and cornice probes to determine underlying conditions for the installation of rooftop railings.
