Masonry Magazine October 1989 Page. 27
Careful Analysis,
Innovative Methods
Yield Huge
Cost Savings
Design firm restores and renovates bank building for 11% of the expected cost.
After renovation, the Citizen's Bank headquarters, Flint, Michigan, looks like it will serve another 80 years.
Citizens Bank, before the restoration of the terra cotta shows missing pieces above the second floor (arrowheads, lower right side) and the general discoloration of the terra cotta where moisture had penetrated behind the building facade.
Careful analysis of the work needed and innovative methods of doing it enabled a Michigan design firm to restore and renovate the exterior of bank headquarters building for only 11 percent of the expected cost. Citizens Bank, in Flint, Michigan, had been told by a respected renovation contractor that the entire brick and terra-cotta facade of its 10-story building would have to be removed and refastened. The cost estimate was $1.5 million.
Interior renovations of the building were proceeding nicely under the direction of Ford & Earl Associates, Inc. of Warren, Michigan, one of the nation's top-ranking design firms. While exterior work is not Ford & Earl' specialty, the firm does have architects on its staff and two of them agreed to take a close-up look at the bank's facade from the window washing gondola.
F. Graham Dickens, AIA, senior vice president of Ford & Earl, and Nancy J. Lovaas, AIA, senior associate, found that contrary to what they expected, not all of the building's facade would have to be removed.
Moisture had penetrated behind the yellow brick walls and had loosened much of the decorative terra-cotta that formed a frieze around the building at several levels. Some of the terra-cotta had become so deteriorated that they had crashed to the street, but fortunately no one had been injured.
Restoration needed to be done in sections of the facade, but the original construction drawings of the 80-year-old building had vanished. Instead of going to the expense of drawing new ones, Ford & Earl took the innovative step of having the building photographed from all sides. The photos were enlarged, marked and became new working drawings.
The terra-cotta trim had become loose because the moisture penetrating behind it had rusted its iron fastenings. Much of the decorative tile could be removed and refastened with stainless steel rods to replace the iron.
Some tiles, however, had to be replaced because they had either fallen, crumbled away, or been removed. These pieces that had been removed were in such bad condition that they could not be reused.
Some missing tiles could be duplicated by forming latex molds of adjacent pieces and casting replacements. In a few spots, mostly corners, however, there were no duplicate tiles that could be copied. So, in another innovation, Ford & Earl's contractor retained an architectural sculptor. He spent many hours on the scaffold.