York Restoration Corporation

Scouting New York, another fine building appreciation website, was invited to explore one of New York’s most beautiful, yet not abandoned exactly… but somehow empty buildings.

You look at these pictures and wonder: what’s going on here? How can a building so beautiful and fun, a building just like this, in square-foot-starved NYC (no less), go unused and decrepit? Scouting New York is responsible for these amazing photos, and all the pictures are theirs. I feel compelled to share two of their shots, for the sheer beauty of it all.

Plus: it looks like these buildings could use a good restoration corporation.

This place stands empty this very moment. It’s insane. With all the demand for places to live, work, and just “be,” that a place like this could stand for so long stripped and gutted? Insane.

Amazing pictures, gentlemen. To see more pictures of forgotten New York relics, go to scoutingnewyork.com

This post brought to you by York Restoration Corporation

Really an interesting discussion about the importance of “fact” in establishing the importance of historic structures.

Spoiler: it’s more important to embrace the myth than toss out a legend simply because it doesn’t jibe with reality.

Worth a read. Sorry for the quick post – things are crackin’ at York!

Check out York’s ever-expanding Flickr account, if you’d like a look at what we’ve been up to lately.

Some of the apartments near York Restoration Corporation’s home base in Queens are, apparently, amongst the rarest sights to behold in New York City: rent-controlled apartments.

In the building restoration world, the price of an apartment matters little to contractors like York Restoration Corporation. It’s still the same floor, whether it costs the equivalent of a week’s worth of paycheck or a year’s worth. But it is interesting in a socio-economic sense – as the city becomes more and more gentrified, as more and more neighborhoods are dispersed by the relentless reduction of space to the inevitable increase in population, it’s a bit sad to see the last savior of a neighborhood’s local “flavor” slowly losing out to demands for more profit.

Or, reprehensibly, a slumlord’s willful negligence. From the New York Times:

As new owners bought his building and pressed tenants to leave, Mr. Burke held his ground. He was careful to pay his rent by check or money order, not cash, to have a paper trail. But an accident in the Catskills in 1995 left Mr. Burke unable to work and with little spare cash. He currently lives on an $1,100 monthly disability check. He finds solace reading historical romance novels about lords and earls by authors like Julia London.

Mr. Burke has reached a stalemate with his latest landlord, the Shalom family, which bought the building last year for $3.3 million. He is working with State Senator Liz Krueger, the nonprofit Eviction Intervention Services and the tenant rights group Shalom Tenants Alliance, which is fighting the landlord over its management of more than 100 buildings. Calls and e-mail messages to the Shalom family at their firm Sky Management, to the past landlord and to brokers renting out apartments were not returned.

Catie Marshall, a spokeswoman for the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development, said the agency was “aware of the conditions of his apartment” and wanted it “to be brought up to all of the standards of the housing code.” The building currently has 190 violations, including 76 in that specific unit. The Department of Buildings is also monitoring the property and has issued 18 environmental control board violations.

Mr. Shalom, let us be the first to offer our services for the renovation and upkeep of this fine gentleman’s apartment. In a world where 99.5% of your apartments generate an obscene amount of money, is it so much to ask that you follow the rule of the law and make that apartment safe and livable?

You’ve already won so much. Why not chalk this one up to karma? Smile, realize you’re doing pretty darn well, all things considered, and obey the law.

York’s Yep reviews shows we’re doing something right with out customers; follow our advice, we know a little bit about being good to our clients, after all.

It happened a few years ago. This was before York Restoration moved to its new home in Queens. Some Nor’Easter blew through Queens, 9 inches of rain in a few hours, streets filled with broken tree limbs and overwhelmed drains whose runoff more resembled ponds than puddles. The 10-story brick-and-mortar was riding out the storm, battered but stolid in the way that brick buildings always appear, when – noise from outside.

A seemingly ageless Oak’s bushy top looked almost parallel to the ground. A limb snapped, a window broke, and in came the weather.

Poor family was suddenly ankle-deep in a nasty storm. Landlord’s on his horse moments after the call, hammer and plywood in place, but really – once that window’s done for, there’s not much that’ll keep that weather outside if it wants to come in. The family and the landlord do their best to move furniture around, try to minimize the damage. Buckets, mops, towels, and silent prayers.

Next day brings a little more rain, emergency calls to contractors all over Queens, and a parade of neighbors there to help with the cleanup. Luckily, nothing of real sentimental value was destroyed; that being said, there’s always at least a little feeling of loss when your comfy couch has been turned into a giant sponge.

While the worst of the storm was over and gone, it wasn’t exactly tanning weather outside. Constant rain, and the occasional gust of wind made it a difficult day for all involved.

York was deluged that day, metaphorically and literally. The weather’d turned the equipment lot into a muddy swimming pool, and calls were flooding in from all over New York, pleading for last-minute fixes.

This particular building’s owner had tried other a number of other contractors, with no luck. He stumbled on York through the recommendation of a friend, and called us up. It was late in the afternoon, all hands on deck – out at job sites both scheduled and “emergency.”

Nevertheless. The owner picked up the cell, heard the plight, knew it just couldn’t get done with all the other jobs stacking up.

Unless, of course, he drove cross-town at a quarter to nine, surveyed the damage, ran out to a big box store, and installed the new window himself. Which he did.

My old man was the landlord. I got to help with the power tools. Now that I’m out of college, I got my first job working for York, working this blog. And here we are.

All because of a tree, a window, and a storm. And York Restoration Corporation. Thanks.

York Restoration Corporation’s New Digs – 8 months.

The Brooklyn Bridge – 13 years.

The Empire State Building – 1 year, 45 days (wow!)

The Sears Tower – about 4 years.

The Giza Pyramids – 20-30 years.

Sagrada Familia – 122 years and counting!

The next time you (or your boss, for that matter) get frown-faced about how long a job’s taking to wrap up, take a quick peek at the Sagrada Familia and breathe easier. Seriously! Over a century, and the thing’s not done yet!

A long, long time ago, an architect named Antoni Gaudí was called to the scene of the beginnings of a new church. He saw his predecessor’s work and scoffed. What we need, he probably said, is something the likes of which no one has ever seen. Something so grand and imposing that, with our rudimentary tools, will take 200 years to complete!

Well, Snr. Gaudi, you forgot to factor in the slow march of technology’s progress! Nuts to your 200 years, let’s go for 140 or so!

Gaudi’d designed the church to hold 13,000, reach for the heavens with 18 towers, and depict the birth, life, and death of Christ with three facades. This wasn’t exactly your neighborhood parish. The Spaniard worked tirelessly on Sagrada Familia from the ripe old age of 33 to the day he died, 43 years later. Yet, for all his efforts, he lived to see the erection of only one tower and one facade.

But even without the mad genius-style leadership from Gaudi, the “warped Gothic” building continues its slow but seemingly unwavering advance towards completion. Its supporters have expressed concern with declining tourist revenue, especially in the face of the recent EU bailout, as the building relies completely on tourist money for its completion.

Consider, however, the fact that La Sagrada Familia has survived two world wars, a civil war, and all the economic panic and strife that came along with those conflicts.

La Sagrada Familia’s survived this long. It’s got too much history to stop now.

Brought to you by York Restoration Corporation!

As I’ve mentioned before, one of York Restoration Corporation’s favorite things in this world is the preservation and upkeep of old buildings. Which is why we’re reprinting and linking this Queens Courier story about a beautiful local Queens theater looking for a new manager.

This beautiful theater combines a deep sense of history with classic ambiance. Up until 2008, it was one of the longest-running theaters continuously showing movies. The owners are looking for new management who’re willing to respect the theater’s history and help continue this (hopefully, soon to be) landmark unique contribution to Queens.

So! On the off-chance that someone out there reading this blog is also looking for a classic theater in which to show films… this should be your new home! The number’s listed at the bottom of the article, and there’s also an online petition here to make the theater an official landmark.

The owners are looking to restore the theater, eventually, to its original grandiosity (we’re ready to help, guys!) at some point in the near future. Even if you’re not looking for a theater, consider signing the petition to help guarantee this lovely piece of history will stay around for our kids to enjoy for years to come.

Area preservationists are pitching in to help find a buyer for the landmark-pending Ridgewood Theatre after its owners recently put restoration plans on hold.

Friends of The Ridgewood Theatre, an advocacy group that spent years fighting to protect the building, is looking for historically minded managers to help revitalize the nearly century old structure.

“Friends of The Ridgewood Theatre is trying to help the owners by finding an individual or group with a creative vision— who value its architectural and cultural history and will make it an economically viable venture for the up and coming neighborhood of Ridgewood,” Queens historian Michael Perlman said.

The building’s owners, Mario Saggese and Anthony Montalbano, had planned to convert the site into a retail-theater hybrid — offering assurances to preservationists that historic details would remain intact. But those initial promises may not materialize, according to Perlman. He said the owners are now looking to lease or sell the structure to interested cultural groups.

Members of the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to designate the building’s facade as a historic landmark during a hearing in January.

Modeled after the Mark Strand Theatre, one of the nation’s first large-scale movie houses, the 1916 Ridgewood masterpiece on Myrtle Avenue was created by architect Thomas Lamb, a prominent designer at the time. The three-story Indiana limestone facade features ornate classical revival designs, including unusual geometric patterns, medallions, a frieze and pilasters.

“Theaters are the ultimate public institutions which bridge the generations, as they foster community growth and pride, harbor countless memories and often exhibit the work of our country’s most skillful architects,” Perlman said.

Before its closure in 2008, the Ridgewood Theatre was among the nation’s longest continuously operating movie houses. Those interested in acquiring space at the theater can contact Perlman at (917) 446-7775.

Pictures are from the Rego-Forest Preservation Council’s Flickr page.

An article in the Daily News the other day wrote about the downturn of a once-beautiful landmark building from the mid-19th century in Queens. It’s fallen into such an advanced state of disrepair that the preservation commission went to the unusual steps of suing the building’s owner to get the fixes done. The gentleman had already been fined for both the unsafe condition of the building, as well as construction without a permit. Ouch!

There’s been the usual amount of he-said she-said played out in the Post’s efforts to get both sides of the story coverage; one side says the owner was given almost ten years to repair the building, the other says the commission’s bureaucracy and misguided attempts to keep the building “preserved” as close to its original state as possible kept him from completing the needed repairs.

Whatever the case, this building is one of the reasons York Restoration Corporation was created, why building preservation exists as a viable industry. We’re not just repairing the occasional broken brick or slapping double-paned windows into Truman-era walk-ups. (Not that these jobs are in the least bit undesirable!) No, we’re also charged with keeping these relics alive and well in a country that loves to tear down its history and build anew.

I think many of us in the preservation game are also history buffs at heart; at least, hidden away in our heart of hearts, we like to see these tangible pieces of our nation’s history restored and revitalized so as to be able to point to a house or a building somewhere in Queens and say, “this is what life was like, two centuries ago, and it was just as beautiful, just as important, as all the McMansions and skyscrapers we’re tossing up.”

It’s a treat to work on these types of buildings, but they also present a unique set of challenges that helps shed light on the nature of building restorations: how can we keep the home looking the same, using materials and technologies that may or may not have existed in the time the building was originally erected? Part of the answer is in “hiding” the work we do; sometimes the best improvements we put in are the ones that never get noticed.

And really, that’s a strangely gratifying thing about building restoration. We’d like someone who was at the opening ceremony for this building to walk up to it today and never know anything was done to change it. Until, that is, she walks in and can’t hear the street, or notices the heat and humidity from the afternoon has slipped off her shoulders.

Which brings me back to the poor, dilapidated home in question. It’s a shame to see an example of negligence slip so far down the path of disrepair that holes in the roof are visible from the street, that walls are bowing out like distended bellies, that the building is actually considered a safety hazard for neighborhood passersby.

When something goes wrong in your home, ignoring it can only make things worse. These problems compound on each other! If it’s gone past your ability to handle, get help. In this case, what may’ve been a couple days’ work, 10 years ago, is today looking like a 4-week-minimum complete restoration project. It’s possible the gentleman had originally figured such a small problem wouldn’t require the services of a restoration expert, or that an expert wouldn’t be interested in addressing the initial small problem.

But it’s not true! York, for one, handles all kinds of fixes, big and small. And we’ve already mentioned how much of a treat it is to work on these landmark homes. We’re ready to help.

Here’s to hoping all the headaches with suing and bureaucracy get resolved quickly, and this building gets the restoration and attention it so truly deserves.

Fact of the matter is the stuff that catches the eye is the stuff that’ll add the most perceived value to a home. It’s silly, but easy stuff like a fresh coat of paint or refinishing your home’s decks can provide some of your biggest bang-to-buck ratios.

That’s why I’d like to talk about kitchen cabinets, today. You put a lot of wear and tear on your kitchen with everyday living. Between splatters and bangs, heat and humidity, your kitchen’s cabinets take an undue amount of your house’s might be coming loose or looking dingy.

Refacing – the affordable kitchen “remodel”

Replacement is an option, but really – unless you’re going for a completely new look for your kitchen, refacing might be the best option.

As always, you can choose to do the work yourself, or hire someone else to do it for you. Because refacing is pretty labor-intensive, you’re likely best off doing it yourself! Since this is a DIY blog, you can guess what I’d recommend.

Get your hands dirty – Prep

So! First off, the obvious: you’ll need to get your cabinet doors off their hinges and on level ground. Use your drill’s screwdriver bit to speed things along.

Next, get all the metal bits off the cabinetry. Both the doors, and the cabinets themselves. Save yourself all kinds of headaches and set aside all the attachments, screws, hinges, nuts, and bolts you find, and then lock them away in a safe somewhere. Preferably guarded by an in-law or a trusted friend.

Incredibly frustrating, losing the metal bits.

After everything’s removed, you’ll start by preping the wood. Loosen and remove anything that’s not bonded. It’s like paint prep for the outside of your house. If it’s loose, knock it off.

Go with a sand block next and work on some of the scratches. As always, move around on your surface as much as possible to avoid putting obvious “dents” in your cabinet. You’ll also avoid going down to the cabinet’s bare wood with the “mild” technique. We don’t want to go down to the original wood because the self-adhesive veneers we’ll be using were designed to go over pre-existing finishes, not wood.

Cutting veneer can be frustrating

Before cutting the new veneer, make sure you’ve completely cleaned the surface of whichever cabinet part you’ll soon be refacing. Any grit or shavings left over from earlier can cause imperfections in the surface, forcing you to do it all over again or be forever reminded of the day you forgot to clean the surface, every time you go for a bowl for your cereal.

Start with refacing your frames. Go through and measure out carefully, note your dimensions, and begin cutting with a razor knife. Measure thrice, cut once. Or something like that.

Recruit some friends

It’d help to have an extra pair of hands (and eyes) on this next part. Pull back the paper backing and set your first edge of the veneer. Keep the rest of the veneer from sticking to any other surface, and move down in both directions from your beginning point. Remember: you don’t have to pull the entire backing off, all at the same time. Take care to keep the edges lined up until you’re done.

Basically, the rest is rinse and repeat until your kitchen looks brand spanking new again.

Wipe everything down again, reattach your hinges and other metal bits, and screw them back into their kitchen homes! Congratulations, you’ve just saved thousands of dollars vs. paying for brand new cabinets!

Enjoy them with a fresh cup of coffee, but try to keep from splashing them down in excitement.

Just a quick update – I wrote an expanded version of last month’s blog post, and it was accepted and published!

Check it out right here.

Love your garden, accept your garden, organic-ify your garden!

Brought to you by York Restoration Corporation!

Well, it’s been a nice run so far, so I thought I’d do a quick post about who we are and what we do, just so everyone’s on the same page here!

York Restoration Corporation is a building restoration company in Long Island City, Queens, New York. They specialize in restoring the outer envelope of larger buildings – brickwork, window replacement, fiberglass molds, stone and concrete coatings, that sort of thing. They’re the fellows you call when your building needs a facelift, when a project is beyond your management capabilities (or if you’d simply prefer someone else deals with the headaches of upkeeping the building), or if the roof’s caving in and the whole thing’s falling in on itself.

They also appreciate well-done architecture & structure design, so I’m trying to branch out from the primarily DIY-related posts I’ve been focusing on for a while, now.

Just wanted to be clear about the relationship, here.

Thanks! Now, back to your regularly-scheduled blog.
-Bill

Brought to you by York Restoration Corporation!