Tweed Courthouse : a model restoration

Author / Creator

Waite, John G

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Summary

"The Old New York County Courthouse, better known today as Tweed Courthouse, is one of New York City's great civic monuments. Designed by architects John Kellum and Leopold Eidlitz and built betwee...

"The Old New York County Courthouse, better known today as Tweed Courthouse, is one of New York City's great civic monuments. Designed by architects John Kellum and Leopold Eidlitz and built between 1861 and 1881, it is the legacy of the notorious Tammany Hall "Boss" William M. Tweed. Threatened with destruction in the 1970s, its significance was recognized at the local, state, and national levels: it was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1974, named a National Historic Landmark in 1976, and designated by the New York City Landmark Commission for its interiors and exterior in 1984. Despite changes in use over the course of a century, the building retained its original spatial arrangement, with its thirty grand courtrooms and a five-story century rotunda. However, other aspects were severely deteriorated - the monumental entrance stair amputated, the interior a shambles of partitions, the walls and floors covered with layers of institutional paint, and the mechanical systems barely functioning." "The restoration of the courthouse was a model project in several respects: the streamlining of the municipal procurement processes was innovative, allowing an accelerated design and construction schedule without sacrificing quality and cost controls; the management techniques, as well as the state-of-the-art building conservation practices, can be utilized in other public building projects. Focusing on the methodology of preservation technology, Tweed Courthouse recounts the history of the original construction, a story of corruption and grand municipal design at its best, and presents the restoration and adaptive use of the building as an exemplar of preservation practice, keeping the original spaces and building fabric while providing all the amenities of a modern structure in a way that allows for further adaptive use in the future. The project is unique, but the approach and techniques utilized in the work provide a model for saving and reusing other public buildings." --Book Jacket.

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