Here's to the next 10 Years!

Posted: November 30, 2020

This concludes our series of “10 Years, 10 Projects” celebration of Cirrus’ 10 Year Anniversary! Thank you for joining us in a short look back on our decade-long venture.

We are truly grateful to serve our clients and for the amazing opportunities to fulfill our mission of preserving historic, cultural and environmental resources.

As we look forward, the lessons that we take from this extraordinarily challenging year will allow us to serve in ever more adaptive and resilient ways.

Cheers to the next 10 Years!

Old Tolland County Courthouse

Posted: November 29, 2020

The TENTH and final of 10 feature projects to celebrate our 10 Year Anniversary!

The Old Tolland County Courthouse on Tolland Green in Tolland, CT is in the final preparations to go out to bid for restoration of the Bell Tower. The Courthouse currently operates as a museum showcasing its use as a courtroom on the second floor, and houses the French Canadian Genealogical Society of Connecticut library on the first floor.

This 1822 structure is a rare remaining example of civic architecture from the Federal period. The Tolland Green National Register District nomination reads: “the essence of the Federal style is recalled in the district in the form of the slender corner pilasters, fanlights, Palladian window, and cornice enrichment on the courthouse.” Restoration of the 1822 Doolittle bell, made in Hartford, CT is part of the current project, along with exterior restoration and interior structural repairs of the supporting timbers.

Wadsworth Stable

Posted: November 28, 2020

The NINTH of 10 feature projects to celebrate our 10 Year Anniversary!

Now located on the Governor Jonathan Trumbull House campus in Lebanon, CT, the Wadsworth Stable was originally constructed in downtown Hartford in 1774 and refashioned in 1820 into its current Palladian style. In its relatively inconspicuous role as an accessory building, the Wadsworth Stable stood witness to the immense growth and development around it during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It served its original purpose as a Stable under Jeremiah and Daniel Wadsworth’s ownerships, a neighbor to the first public art museum in the United States, a storage space for historic fire equipment during Perkins/Clark ownership, a gift to and candidate for expansion of the Hartford Public Library, and a spectator to the century-long conversion of the neighborhood from residential to large scale masonry commercial insurance and civic structures. In the mid-1900’s, the historic significance of the building was recognized and fought for by Katharine Seymour Day, who fundraised the money to move the building out to Lebanon in 1954 before its block was razed for expansion by the Traveler’s Insurance Company.

The Wadsworth Stable is currently undergoing a comprehensive exterior and interior restoration and repair campaign, starting with a wood shingle roof replacement completed in 2020.

Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Arch

Posted: November 27, 2020

The EIGHTH of 10 feature projects to celebrate our 10 Year Anniversary!

The 116-foot tall Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch at Bushnell Park in Hartford, CT was erected in 1886 in memorial of Hartford’s Civil War veterans. The ‘Bushnell Arch’ was designed by architect George Keller and is considered to be one of the first Triumphal Arches in the United States.

The monument is constructed primarily of Connecticut Brownstone with a complementary buff-toned terra cotta frieze. The finial angels on top of each conical roof tower were originally constructed of terra cotta. After falling into disrepair, the angels were removed and reinstated circa 1987 using bronze replacements.

After a survey and maintenance project flagged concerns about the East Angel, Cirrus performed a Conditions Assessment and identified areas of corrosion in the angel’s mast support structure caused by breaches in the stone roof envelope. Due to stability concerns, Cirrus quickly prepared a repair design and it was implemented shortly after.

Swift Factory

Posted: November 26, 2020

The SEVENTH of 10 feature projects to celebrate our 10 Year Anniversary!
A true smorgasbord of construction types, the Swift Factory includes former factory and residential structures dating from 1887 to 1948, ranging from slow burn timber to heavy industrial reinforced concrete construction. This former gold beating factory in Hartford, CT is currently in the process of re-opening after a top-to-bottom adaptive re-use into a commercial and community center.

The structural design that we did to give the campus it’s second life mirrors the variety of its building types…. a little bit of everything! Once a key player in Hartford’s well known metalworking industry, Swift is again playing a central role in the commerce of it’s home, now within it’s North End neighborhood.

Montgomery Mill

Posted: November 25, 2020

The SIXTH of 10 feature projects to celebrate our 10 Year Anniversary!  Reinforced concrete was in its infancy when “Building 3” of the Montgomery Mill industrial complex was constructed of “girderless slabs” and concrete curtain walls in 1920. Montgomery Mill is located on the Connecticut River in Windsor Locks, CT.

Our scope of work on this adaptive re-use project included development of a concrete repair program to address areas of damage due to rebar corrosion after a few decades of delapidation, along with the general structural design needed for the rehabilitation of the mill structure for residential use. With a little persistence, we found copies of the original drawings from the archives of Buck & Buck, LLC whose predecessor performed the original design under the name Ford, Buck & Sheldon. The drawings allowed us to understand the concrete reinforcement at a time before rebar sizes and shapes were standardized, and in the early days of structural firms generating concrete designs following the 1900-1920 norm of design-build contractors using patented proprietary concrete reinforcement systems. Of particular interest on this project was the use of slag concrete in the building frame as evidenced by the telltale green aggregate.

The building was recently completed and received a 2020 Connecticut Preservation Merit Award!

Brook Hill Village Apartments

Posted: November 24, 2020

The FIFTH of 10 feature projects to celebrate our 10 Year Anniversary!

On the opposite end of the spectrum to our existing and historic building work, we have also served as the Structural Engineer of Record on a number of new housing development projects. Many of these are constructed to provide affordable housing stock, while others contribute to the green building movement using “Passive House” technology. All provide an opportunity for us to keep current with contemporary building products, design elements and general trends.

The Brook Hill Village Apartments in Suffield, CT is an affordable living community with multi-unit light construction apartment buildings.

Governor Jonathan Trumbull House

Posted: November 24, 2020

The FOURTH of 10 feature projects to celebrate our 10 Year Anniversary! Eighteenth century Georgian timber frame structures have become one of our in-house specialties and favorites.

We are honored to have been working alongside the Connecticut Daughters of the American Revolution on the Governor Jonathan Trumbull House in Lebanon, CT for the last 7 years.  Since then we have discovered, through building analysis and architectural archaeology, that the building was constructed in 1725/26 as a “square house” and then expanded to be a center hall Georgian around 1746.  The two separate chimney masses were rebuilt and combined in a wishbone shape to emerge from the roof as a center chimney structure when the house was moved circa 1823.

We have served as historic structural consultant and planner on the project since 2014 as part of an ongoing comprehensive restoration campaign.

Suffolk County Supreme Courthouse

Posted: November 22, 2020

The THIRD of 10 feature projects to celebrate our 10 Year Anniversary!  Architectural Terra Cotta was a staple product for the architectural cladding of masonry buildings in the early 20th century. Over the years, Cirrus has developed a niche in the design of anchors and hardware to support the replacement of architectural terra cotta, stone, and other contemporary composite replica materials for exterior restoration and repair projects. The Suffolk County Supreme Courthouse, dating from 1929, is a Greek Revival replica of older structures destroyed by fire. The restoration project was an exciting opportunity for Cirrus to detail the support for stunning architectural terra cotta pieces, including those for the pediment and column capitols.

Indian Hill Cemetery Chapel

Posted: November 21, 2020

The SECOND of 10 feature projects to celebrate our 10 Year Anniversary!  Portland (Connecticut River Valley) Brownstone is one of Connecticut’s well known historic building stone resources. The stone was quarried and exported widely in the 19th and early 20th centuries. In a neighboring community to the quarries, the lovely Chapel at Indian Hill was constructed of bush-hammered brownstone in 1867. Cirrus’ role as the Structural Engineer of Record began with a structural Conditions Assessment of the masonry and interior framing, followed by design and construction administration for the Exterior Restoration.