Best School Cowinner - Gasson Hall, Chestnut Hill, Mass.

Best School Cowinner - Gasson Hall, Chestnut Hill, Mass.

This historic school building originally built in 1913 has been the unfortunate victim of severe weathering after close to 100 years of exposure to the harsh New England climate. The damage was so severe that portions of the original cast stone began to fail. A decision had to be made on what to do about the buildings failing exterior. The school chose to break new ground and replace all of the original cast stone with new matching precast concrete stone. This would ultimately become the largest cast-stone-restoration project ever undertaken in North America. The process began with surveying specialists rapelling down the structure with handheld computers. Next came 11 months of mold and pattern creation followed by 14 months of careful installation. It is difficult to overstate the complexity involved in faithfully replicating the appearance of the original cast stone details on this building. To compensate for the loss of detail due to weathering, each original cast unit had to be refinished by hand to simulate its original appearance for mold making. A concerted effort was made to engineer a durable mixture that would not weather in the same manner as the original units. Because of the restrictive jobsite and the delicate nature of each stone, each piece was delivered in a careful, just-in-time fashion, which involved careful tracking of each of the 3300 pieces. Through this intricate and innovative use of precast concrete, the school was able to restore this landmark …

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