We’re always on the lookout for innovative technologies that advance the art and science of restoration. One intriguing material we’ve been following: concrete that can repair itself. Briefly, this self-healing concrete uses an enzyme found in human red blood cells which reacts with carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to form calcium carbonate crystals, effectively “healing” cracks before they grow and lead to more widespread failure.

From the sweeping travertine and glass skin of 9 W 57th Street to the bold geometry of SUNY Buffalo’s Ellicott Campus, SUPERSTRUCTURES has helped restore exemplars of 70s architecture in New York City and beyond.

This is our maxim related to New York’s Facade Inspection & Safety Program (FISP). In other words, if you attend to the condition of your building’s envelope regularly, then periodic filing of a FISP report becomes a formality. FISP filing should be part of a strategy rather than a commodity that’s only sought once during each five-year cycle - like income taxes.

The SCA, NYCHA, DCAS, DDC, HHC, PANY&NJ, OGS, DASNY, and US GSA. What do all these acronyms have in common? They all represent large agencies with multiple facilities, millions of square feet, and billions of dollars of value under their watch and SUPERSTRUCTURES has active projects for nearly all of these owners.

One of our mantras related to New York’s Facade Inspection & Safety Program (FISP) is “Fix, then file.” In other words: attend to the condition of your building’s envelope regularly and periodic filing of a FISP report becomes a formality.

A building’s landmark status isn’t synonymous with its preservation worthiness. Both pre-modern (“historic”) and modern buildings are the same to SUPERSTRUCTURES in the sense that we don’t discriminate between ornate, 19th century terra cotta facades and glass-and-steel curtain walls.

Spanning four blocks along the West Side Highway, the Borough of Manhattan Community College is a campus in a single, expansive building. Completed in 1983, it incorporates 79 classrooms and seminar rooms, numerous laboratories, three lecture halls, a library, a gymnasium, an auditorium, and a theater. This comprehensive academic facility has a complex envelope, incorporating multiple roof and plaza levels. In other words: not your typical roof restoration project.

NYU's 3-5 Washington Place is home to the University's Department of Philosophy. SUPERSTRUCTURES conducted a condition survey, produced construction documents, and provided construction administration to restore the brick, cast iron, brownstone, and terra cotta-clad exterior of this 1890 building designed by Alfred Zucker.

While we can’t claim to have X-ray vision like Superman, we do have tools in our Non-Destructive Testing and Evaluation (NDT&E) arsenal that give us the equivalent of superpowers. Infrared Thermography (IR) and Electrical Impedance (EI) scanning are powerful technologies that supplement visual observation.

One of the highlights of Charles Laughton’s moving performance in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939) comes at the end of the film. Lovelorn for Esmerelda, Quasimodo asks one of Notre Dame’s famed gargoyles, “Why was I not made of stone like thee?” Broken hearts aside, we can relate: our restoration practice requires—and fosters—a similar architectural empathy.