construction | Ithacating in Cornell Heights

Simeon’s Reconstruction Update, 12/2015

16 12 2015

The intersection of State Street and Aurora Street is a busy little hive of construction activity. Steps from the Marriott and the Carey Building addition, the Griffin Block, better known for its tenant Simeon’s, is continuing reconstruction after June 2014’s tragic crash.

The chute and open windows indicate interior renovations underway in the salvageable part of the ca. 1872 structure, while structural steel framing serves as the the largest indication of the faithful reconstruction planned for the front entrance on the Commons. The outline of the steel approximately outlines where the rebuilt bay windows will be. It’s hard to tell just what work is specifically underway on the basement level and first floor.

According to the October Ithaca Voice article:

“The interior, however, will be thoroughly modernized and reworked. An elevator will be retrofitted into the existing building near where Simeon’s former Aurora Street entrance, and a sprinkler system will be installed throughout the building. Simeon’s will not only occupy the first floor in the new building, the restaurant will have a 40-seat dining area on part of the second floor as well.

Five luxury apartments, a mix of one and two-bedroom units, will also be built on the second and third floors. The Shens did consider applying for historic building restoration federal tax credits, but given the application complications posed by the interior renovations, and the slow process by which the credits are approved, they decided it wasn’t in their best interest.”

The new restaurant is expected to be open around the start of spring (end of Q1 2016), with the apartments ready by late summer. Local architect Jason K. Demarest is in charge of design, and Ithaca-based McPherson Builders is the general contractor. The Shen family received a $1.3 million building loan from the Tompkins Trust Company to pay for the renovation and reconstruction.

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Carey Building Construction Update, 12/2015

15 12 2015

Over at the Carey Building on the 300 Block of East State Street, much of the action is hidden behind layers of scaffolding, swaddling the building while construction work continues through this unseasonably warm (but much appreciated) December Ithaca’s having.

Some of the exterior has been furred out, meaning thing metal strips have been attached to the reflective surface cover (Hunter XCI polyisocyanurate exterior insulation) to help with facade installation. Documents filed with the project plans indicate that terra cotta panels will be installed over the gypsum sheathing boards, and in other less prominent sections of the building, NuTech Stucco (DAFS – Direct Applied Finished System) will be used.

Being that it is December, plastic sheeting has been hung over the future glass curtain wall, in an effort to keep winter’s (normally) icy breezes from making their way in. Looking at the backside, the dark material might be some type of waterproofing cover being applied under the exterior insulation. It looks like the new aluminum windows still have yet to be fitted into the vertical addition.

The Carey Building addition will add a third floor and 4,200 SF to the Rev business incubator (nearly doubling it from 4,500 SF to 8,700 SF), and on floors 4-7, there will be 20 apartments, most of which are studios. Local firm Travis Hyde Companies is developing, John Snyder Architects penned the design, and LeChase Construction is the general contractor. Look for a completion date sometime in spring of 2016.

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Tags: carey building, construction, downtown ithaca, general housing, ithaca, photos
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Ithaca Marriott Construction Update, 12/2015

14 12 2015

With the foundation work completed, the downtown Ithaca Marriott is heading skyward, now up to the third floor as of these photos from last week. From Green Street, one can see the rising south stairwell, the future trash and recycling room (basement floor), future restrooms and offices on the lobby floor, and hotel rooms on the floors above the lobby. Also on the basement floor are the fitness center, maintenance and linen rooms, storage space and utilities. Delivery trucks will pull in and unload under the cavernous space on the left side of the second photo.

The lobby area facing Aurora Street may just be a concrete shell with some temporary lighting rigs at the moment, but in a year or so, that space will host a new 80-seat restaurant, which will be combination of lounge seats, bar seats and traditional tables. The kitchen and prep area will be set back from the street, facing the Green Street garage.

The second floor facing Aurora Street, which will have a glass curtain wall (or as it’s called in the elevations, a “thermally broken translucent linear channel glazing system”), will contain two large meeting rooms. 4 guestrooms will also be located on the second floor. Above that, the third floor will have 14 guestrooms, assuming the 2013 construction docs are still accurate.

The 10-story, 159 room hotel is expected to cost over $32 million and. According to the Ithaca Times, a general manager has been named and the hotel will officially open for its first guests on August 23rd, 2016. Suburban D.C.-based Urgo Hotels is the developer, Atlanta’s Cooper Carry Architecture is the designer, and William H. Lane Inc. of Binghamton (with a new Ithaca office as of last year) is the general contractor.

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Tags: construction, downtown ithaca, hotels, ithaca, ithaca marriott, Marriott, photos
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Village Solars Apartments Construction Update, 12/2015

13 12 2015

There’s been a fair amount of progress during the late fall at the Village Solars apartment complex site off of the 1000 Block of Warren Road in the town of Lansing. 12-unit Building “D” is finish up attachment of its exterior facade, which like buildings A-C, looks to be a combination of a wood grain board and earth-toned fiber cement board. Balcony railings and trim still have yet to be attached. I didn’t look inside, but based on the photos, it looks like the wood stud walls are still exposed near the entry doors on the first floor.

Across the future pond, 18-unit Building “G/H” (backstory here) has been framed out and some Tyvek-type sheathing has been attached (the material is labelled “Croft Lumber“, which is a building supply store down in Sayre, PA). Some first floor windows and doors have been fitted, but most of the future windows and doors are still rough openings. The roof trusses are all in place, and workers were installing ZIP system plywood sheathing while these photos were being taken.

11-unit Building “E” has had its foundation poured and is only just beginning framing, with just one standing exterior stud wall.

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Kendal at Ithaca Construction Update, 12/2015

11 12 2015

This will probably be the last update for this project, since it’s slated to open next month. The new 24-unit apartment wing is completed from the outside, the carports are ready, and the new skilled nursing wings (48 beds, 16 in each wing) are mostly if not completely done. Originally, it appeared the skill nursing wings would have some decorative roof element (second image), but that appears to be from an early site plan of the design and may have been dropped. The landscaping has been prepared, with new saplings planted and hay strewn over the new grass seed.

More information about the project and Kendal can be found in the October update here, and the June update here.

Local architecture firm Chiang O’Brien partnered with the NYC office of Perkins Eastman to design the Kendal expansion. National contractor Lecesse Construction, with an office out of suburban Rochester, handled the build-out. The $29.3 million dollar expansion will create an estimated 20 to 25 new jobs. The project will be applying for LEED Gold certification.

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Tags: construction, kendal at ithaca, photos, senior housing, tompkins county
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307 College Avenue (Collegetown Crossing) Construction Update, 12/2015

10 12 2015

Unlike the other two Collegetown midrises under construction, Josh Lower’s project at 307 College Avenue, Collegetown Crossing, is already starting to make a noticeable dent in the Collegetown skyline. The front concrete stairwell reaches up to the third floor, with the structural steel not far behind. Corrugated decking has been laid into place and sprayed with fireproofing material. Plastic tarp has been put up for weather protection while workers go about the first steps of interior work, including the installation of sprinkler pipes and plumbing, stud walls, and so on.

The $10.5 million Collegetown Crossing project will bring 46 units and 96 bedrooms to market when it opens next august, as well as a 3,200 SF full-service branch of the Greenstar Co-Op grocery store. Two other commercial spaces and an indoor TCAT bus stop are planned. Collegetown favorite Jagat Sharma is the designer, and Hayner Hoyt Corporation out of Syracuse is the general contractor.

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205 Dryden Road (Dryden South) Construction Update, 12/2015

9 12 2015

As with 327 Eddy a couple of blocks away, Pat Kraft’s 6-story building underway at 205 Dryden, called “Dryden South”, has yet to reach street level, but it’s close to going vertical. It was a little difficult to get to this site due to traffic, but the last photo shows what appear to be columns rising from a shallow mat slab foundation. Unlike the low-lying parts of Ithaca, the soil on East Hill is amenable to shallow foundations for a medium-sized building like this; all the better for the developer, since shallow foundations are cheaper than deep foundations. The steel rods at the top of the concrete columns will tie-in to the structural steel – the weight of the upper floors will be channeled down into the columns, which will then transfer the weight to the rebar mesh and concrete slab at the base (basement bottom) of the new building. The rebar mesh helps to distribute the weight of the building evenly across the slab. The thicker the mat slab is, the more weight it can support.

On a side note, it doesn’t look like John Novarr’s project at 209-215 Dryden is underway just yet, though it was originally slated to start last month. But given that Cornell has already signed up to occupy the whole building, Novarr’s project has a very good chance of moving forward, it’s just a matter of time.

Dryden South will bring 10 4-bedroom apartments to market when it opens in August 2016. The ground floor will hold 2,400 SF of retail space for Kraftee’s book and apparel store. The $6.4 million project is being built by LeChase Construction, and the design is by local architect Jagat Sharma.

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327 Eddy Street Construction Update, 12/2015

8 12 2015

327 Eddy is almost ready to rise from the ground. The mat slab foundation for the upper tier has been poured onto the rebar mesh, with more rebar sticking out of the concrete, ready to tie-in the walls as they’re built up. On the lower tier, it looks like some forms are still in-place for further concrete pours (which sounds right, based off the elevation drawing below). No doubt the work crews have appreciated winter’s delayed arrival this year.

Plans call for a new 5-story building split into “steps” on the steeply-sloped site. The mixed-use building will bring 1,800 SF of retail space and 22 new apartment units with 53 bedrooms to the market in August 2016. Longtime Collegetown landlord Steve Fontana of the Fontana’s Shoes family is the developer, Jagat Sharma is the architect, and GM Crisalli & Associates of Syracuse will be overseeing construction. A construction loan of $4,824,000 is being provided by Tompkins Trust Company. A 2-story mixed-use building and the one-story Pixel Lounge building were demolished to make way for the project.

Note in the elevation drawing below, the building is six stories. It was reduced to five, and the decorative crown was reworked after approval was granted. It also looks like the latest render was stretched to compensate the loss in height.

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804 East State Street Construction Update, 12/2015

7 12 2015

Modular projects tend to move quickly. Such is the case over at 804 East State Street. The modular units have been assembled and fitted – since the interiors comes partially finished and the windows and doors come already fitted, the builder/assembler saves on not only time, but labor costs. For further reading, Ithaca Builds provides a great discussion of how modular units are assembled, including a tour of modular manufacturer Simplex Homes’ factory here.

Perhaps the big surprise during this visit is that there are three duplexes underway – a third duplex is being built at 810 East State Street, which previously held a mid-century 3-bedroom bungalow. The three existing duplexes on the parcel are being spruced up as well, with the addition of small porches at their front entries. Each duplex houses 2 3-bedroom units, about 1150 SF per unit.

It appears that some exterior siding/trimming and interior finishing remains to be completed, and then landscaping once construction wraps up. Although the duplexes themselves are rather bland (some residents in the East Hill Historic District can see the site from their windows, and were opposed to construction), the developer met with residents and oriented the new units to minimize visual impact on Orchard Place, with heavy landscaping to better conceal the State Street properties. The neighbors also pushed for stick-built houses, but the owner/developer ruled it out due to costs.

A building loan agreement filed November 10th states that Tompkins Trust Company is lending the Nestopoulos family (operating under the name “Demosjohnny LLC”) $560,000 for the project. The units should be ready for their first renters by mid-January.

Schickel Architecture is the architect, and Costas Nestopoulos is the general contractor.

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Gannett Health Center Construction Update, 11/2015

13 11 2015

A lot of progress has been made with the Gannett Health Center addition on Cornell’s campus. The new addition has been framed up and topped out. Some of the interior walls have been framed with metal stud walls, with more work yet to come. The primary glass curtain wall is still being framed out, but some of the smaller sections to the north and east have some window panels installed. The variety of glass color used in the facade isn’t quite apparent just yet, since many of the panes are still covered with a blue cellophane wrap for protection.The dark blue material on the concrete stairwells is likely a water-resistant barrier, not unlike that used on the Planned Parenthood Building when that was under construction a couple years ago. The addition, which is phase one of Gannett’s three-phase expansion and modernization program, should be open for its first patients and staff next summer.

The Pike Company‘s Syracuse office is serving as general contractor for the $55 million project. Local architecture firm Chiang O’Brien designed the renovation and addition, and Ithaca firm Trowbridge Wolf Michaels Landscape Architects will be doing the site landscaping.