Client
American Bar Association
Project Date
2007
Category
History
Dating from 1907 and designed by the renowned Washington DC architectural firm of Wood, Donn & Deming, the American Bar Association Headquarters was originally known as the Union Trust Building. This post classical building is clad in limestone and granite and has fenestration highlighted with ornate detail in pressed metal and iron grillwork. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, along with four other buildings by Wood, Donn & Deming.
Description
WEI stripped, repaired, primed, and painted the decorative pressed metal between the fourth and eighth floors, and also stripped, primed, and recoated the monumental iron bars, windows, and doors on the ground floor. The paint was stripped mechanically by hand, with the use of wire brushes. All the loose sections of metal were tied down with pop rivets and the holes filled with an epoxy suitable for metal. The iron bars and 6-foot-tall cast iron lamps were stripped mechanically using needle guns, repaired, and then primed and painted. Behind the building, there is a 4-foot-diameter exhaust stack, and WEI stripped the paint from the steel conical-shaped cap, followed by priming and repainting. The work also included cleaning all limestone and granite masonry, replacing existing iron pins and cramps with stainless steel for the granite baluster on the tenth floor, patching limestone and granite elements with matching colored mortar, cutting out and repointing damaged mortar joints, patching exposed aggregate precast concrete, removing existing post and wire bird deterrent system, and restoring the double-hung wood-sash windows. WEI had to provide scaffolding to access the entire façade on H and 15th streets (two elevations).