While the majority of SUPERSTRUCTURES’ work is on building exteriors, we’re not exclusively “outdoor types.” We’ve undertaken challenging interior investigation and restoration projects as well. Two notable examples are McKim, Mead, and White buildings on the Columbia University campus: Low Library and John Jay Hall. Both involved a familiar material of Beaux-Arts architecture: plaster.

Lately, it’s been impossible to avoid the phrase “flatten the curve.” But for building owners, the Covid-19 pandemic isn’t the only curve that should be controlled; the cost of deferred building envelope maintenance can also spiral out of control if not nipped in the bud.

It probably won’t come as a surprise that there’s a general correlation between contractor quality and price. All contractors pay about the same price for the products and materials to be used on a project. So what contributes to variance in price among bidders?

The New York City Department of Design and Construction (DDC) chose SUPERSTRUCTURES to conduct a building-wide facade investigation and produce a temporary stabilization program for the Bellevue Men’s Shelter, the former Psychopathic Hospital building. SUPERSTRUCTURES’ work on the Men’s Shelter earned our team an outstanding evaluation from the DDC with a perfect score of 100.

On this day in 1916, New York City passed a zoning resolution which established the maximum mass of buildings allowed on any give site, based on a prescribed vertical height above the street. The multiple setbacks that resulted to maximize floorspace within this restriction created complexity in building envelopes with profound implications for New York’s skyline and SUPERSTRUCTURES’ future work.

As a firm of engineers and architects specializing in exterior restoration, SUPERSTRUCTURES has become the go-to choice of innumerable “professional” clients—but we also work with many private, residential clients represented by co-op or condo boards. Based on our extensive experience, we offer this primer to help residential clients raise the bar when securing contractors.

SUPERSTRUCTURES applauds the City’s decision to dedicate funds for the restoration of 70 Mulberry Street, site of a devastating fire this January which threatened total demolition of the Chinatown landmark.

Ever since aerospace engineers and test pilots introduced the phrase “to push the envelope,” it’s come to stand for the cutting edge of advancement in many fields. For SUPERSTRUCTURES, the term is particularly appropriate because we’re focused on restoring building envelopes—and constantly innovating how we do it.

Love it or loathe it, Brutalism is here to stay. Brutalist buildings have been derided for their “soulless” aesthetics (think gray Soviet-era edifices), but that doesn’t mean they have to be relegated to a dark chapter in architectural history that’s best forgotten. A leader in concrete and masonry restoration, SUPERSTRUCTURES has worked on a number of Brutalist-influenced buildings and these projects highlight the expertise necessary to preserve these “ugly ducklings” of Modernism.

Hospitals and healthcare facilities in the New York region provide essential services for the welfare of all—especially during a widespread public health crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic. These facilities have been on the front lines of this fight, and SUPERSTRUCTURES is proud to count many of them among our major clients for individual projects and term contracts. Our experience working on SUNY Downstate Medical Center’s Health Science Education Center and scores of other New York healthcare facilities gives us the credentials to provide the full range of building envelope care.