Abstract
The apartment buildings erected in New York City between 1902 and 1915 form a specific typology characterized by similarities in structural, architectural, and fire protection solutions. Except for a few municipal buildings and “skyscrapers” of the same period, the facades of this typology contain the highest percentage of ornamentation of New York City’s building stock. Several recent facade incidents have fueled new concerns about the condition of architectural ornaments. In Manhattan alone, about 3,500 buildings belong to this typology. The ornaments include materials such as stone, terra cotta, wrought iron, and pressed metal. Using findings from the examination of a sample of 171 facades of five- to seven-story masonry buildings, the author presents the performance of facade components and identifies their most common modes of failure. The findings are based on observed present deficiencies, comparisons with 1908 illustrations, and evidence of past distress mitigation. The inspections produced numerical results for the facades with deteriorating terra cotta, stone, brick masonry, and metals. This paper represents the first half of a study intended to evaluate the remaining life of the facades of this typology. In the follow-up paper, condition ratings and the history of recent repair activities are used to predict the remaining life of the facades.
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Data Availability Statement
Data on building incidents will not be made available. All other data used to develop tables and figures will be are available on request. Actual building addresses will have been removed.
Acknowledgments
The author thanks Ramona Loftis and Salvatore Vicari, who helped organize the data. Many thanks to Daniel Allen, Joseph LePique, Timothy Lynch, Yegal Shamash, and, especially, Donald Friedman, who provided advice on some questions of material identification.
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Published In
Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 35 • Issue 3 • June 2021
Copyright
© 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 16, 2020
Accepted: Oct 28, 2020
Published online: Apr 8, 2021
Published in print: Jun 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Sep 8, 2021
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