You might notice that we often include images of brick matching in our project profile videos. Why? Because we strive for seamless repairs, whether they're prominent on the ground floor or high on a facade.

Congratulations to the New York Landmarks Conservancy (NYLC) on another year of preserving the city we love. The Conservancy’s 2024 Annual Report highlights the organization’s extensive work in championing preservation, supporting the designation of landmarks and historic districts, and providing preservation services and restoration grants.

Our 2025 series of “Lunch & Learn” seminars continued last week with "The Ins and Outs of Reroofing" presented by Michael Popeck of GAF/Siplast. 60 SUPERSTRUCTURES team members expanded their knowledge of reroofing, earned CEUs, and enjoyed a free lunch in our presentation space.

Your facade doesn’t care about local laws or initiatives like “Get Sheds Down.” Building owners must comply with such regulations, but building envelopes are subject to more universal factors: weather, climate, gravity, and time. Municipal ordinances may come and go. But unless we repeal the laws of physics, the envelope always will require remediation of deteriorated conditions—or better yet proactive attention.

The term "landmark" has a formal meaning that’s significant in the restoration universe, because a variety of government agencies regulate restoration efforts on designated landmarks. Buildings can be officially landmarked at the local, state, or federal level, and SUPERSTRUCTURES has worked on many landmarked structures and non-landmarks alike.

Closed-source versus open-source systems can be traced back to the Roman Empire (at least). In ill-fated Pompeii, well-preserved chariot tracks demonstrate a closed-source approach. Today, we favor open-source systems for the sake of our contractors and clients.

When public agencies bid out construction work for exterior restoration projects, they are generally obligated to award the job to the bidder with the lowest lump-sum price. The entire universe of contractors is eligible to bid, and sometimes 50 bids are received. Such “open calls” are one reason that these clients value SUPERSTRUCTURES’ change order-resistant drawings and specifications.

As Boston's John Hancock building was nearing completion in 1976, its glass curtain wall panels began failing. The vacant openings were filled temporarily with plywood, earning it the nickname “Plywood Palace.” This "celebrated" facade failure provided a formative experience for our founding principal, Paul Millman, PE, RA.

SUPERSTRUCTURES specializes in restoring “skin” and “skeleton”—the building envelope and underlying structure. Parking structures are quintessential skeleton. They’re of interest because of the condition assessments required by New York City’s Local Law 126, and, unfortunately, some recent failures.

When public agencies and institutions solicit E/A proposals for professional services on restoration projects, they typically want two separate envelopes: one that describes our experience, capabilities, and project approach (the technical proposal), and a second envelope containing our fee (the fee proposal). The technical proposals are opened and reviewed first to identify the firm best qualified for the project (which, fortunately, is often SUPERSTRUCTURES).