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River House, Schuylkill Valley Environmental Education
Center
Philadelphia, PA
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RESTORATION AND REUSE The River House was originally constructed in 1839-40 as a home outside the city, used to minimize the risks of yellow fever and to escape the heat, humidity, and odors of the summer. It has been used primarily as a single family residence although it was converted to six apartments thirty years ago. It has been vacant for the past ten years, and the owner now asks how and if the building can be integrated into the mission of the Environmental Center.
The house is very nearly cubic in form with 5,200 net square feet on three floors. The basement is useable, but the attic is marginally accessible. The building underwent a major renovation in the 1930's at which time the ground level windows on the main facade which faces the Schuylkill River were cut down to form a series of French doors opening onto a raised terrace. An exterior fire escape was added when the building was converted to apartments along with kitchens and lavatories on the upper levels. The project was to assess the condition of the building, to advise the client as to potential reuses, to estimate the costs of conversions, and to advise the Board of Directors as to appropriate and financially feasible options available for continued use of the Building. This study was facilitated by integrating the site into one of the courses taught by Professor Harris, namely Building Diagnostics and Intervention. This is a new offering in the Historic Preservation Program at the University of Pennsylvania where Professor Harris has been teaching technical and professional practice courses for almost twenty years. The students were presented with two rather narrowly defined problems associated with River House. The specificity of the problems allowed the students go into much greater detail than is ordinarily the case with student projects. The added detail, in turn, allowed the students to go beyond platitudinous generalities and to test the mechanics of applied notions of preservation and conservation. The first half of the semester the students concentrated on the analysis and design of the basic window. This problem tested the ability of the students’ notions of conservation and preservation of fabric versus the technical and programmatic changes in window design over the past 160 years. The second problem dealt with egress and the accommodation of notions of historic preservation versus the demands for public safety as manifest in the building code. Both types of problems, technical innovation and public safety, are intrinsic to most if all alternative use and preservation projects. At the end of the semester the students projects were exhibited at the Center. The study resulted in a report to the Center incorporating much of the student analyses as well as a physic assessment of the fabric and systems, cost estimates, and code analyses. The project will continue through the summer of 2000 with a presentation to the Board and strategic planning sessions with committees at the Center.
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