New York City Landmarks Conservancy, Lucy G. Moses Preservation Award and AIA CT Design Award

Originally constructed in 1889, the Broadway headquarters of children’s media giant Scholastic, Inc. is part of the SoHo Cast Iron Historic District, listed as a National Historic Landmark. Storefronts rise in the granite base to the second floor, above which cast iron columns and sheet metal ornamentation extend from the third through tenth floors. Two gabled penthouses comprise the top two floors, below a slate tile roof.

The program was to rehabilitate and preserve, with minimal impact on building usage, the historically significant building exterior. To this end, Hoffmann Architects oversaw the stabilization, removal, restoration, and reattachment of deteriorated brick, cast iron, and sheet metal facade elements, along with a full roof replacement. Because the fragile ornaments were composed of 120-year-old materials, their condition necessitated, in many cases, painstaking hand-restoration offsite. Extensive masonry and window rehabilitation, along with a new design scheme for the cast-iron structural system, lay the groundwork for an aesthetic overhaul that returned the building to its turn-of-the-century appearance. Twelve layers of paint were removed from intricate cast iron and tin columns, cornices, and entablatures, and a final color scheme, selected with the owner, recreated the original design.

Renovation necessitated technical proficiency with historic materials and coatings, which were closely monitored by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, as well as sensitivity to the concerns of tenants and shoppers in the highly trafficked metropolitan area.