777 Third Ave., New York
For a building owner like the William Kaufman Organization Ltd., the big 4-0 meant a general spruce-up – including its stone – to 777 Third Avenue, an iconic Manhattan structure that happens to hold its corporate offices.
While repairing and replacing both the black granite on the exterior and the white marble on the interior are part of the process, book-matching the original Calacatta Vagli used in the lobby is proving to be particularly challenging.
Fortunately, New York-based Miller Druck Specialty Contracting Inc. – the same firm that installed the original stone in the early 1960s – handled the renovation.
LONG RELATIONSHIPS
It’s certainly not surprising that Kaufman would call on Miller Druck to assist in the renovation of 777 Third Ave. Kaufman has a reputation for developing long relationships with firms with whom it and its real-estate-management arm (Sage Realty Corp.) works.
Founded in 1924 by its namesake, Kaufman began by building homes, but moved into the commercial office space market following World War II, when the founder’s sons, Melvyn and Robert Kaufman, returned to work for their father.
The Kaufmans are largely credited with developing the section of Third Avenue known as Turtle Bay. When the company bought the first parcel it would develop on that thoroughfare in 1952 – 711 Third Avenue – the elevated train was still traveling overhead.
For that project, and for 777 Third Avenue, as well, the Kaufmans turned to Swiss-born architect and Turtle Bay resident William Lescaze. Today, the Kaufman brothers own Lescaze’s home/studio, which is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Lescaze is known as one of the pioneers of architectural modernism in the United States, and when it came to 777 Third Avenue, he gave the Kaufmans elements that have become company trademarks: quality work spaces and attractive, open public areas (such as the marble-clad lobby and a building-to-curb plaza).
It’s likely concern for maintaining the quality of those public spaces that led Kaufman to turn to the locally-based Iu + Bibliowicz Architects LLP, to provide the design work for the renovation.
“We do ground-up buildings, institutional, commercial, hospitality and performing-arts projects, commercial interiors and a small amount of high-end residential projects,” says Carolyn Iu, one of the firm’s principals. “We’ve recently been doing a lot of re-clads, lobby renovations and building upgrades.”
She adds that she believes her firm got the job through a referral made by a friend and mentor.
“The Kaufman people had already talked about what they should do to the building, and the general consensus was that it’s such an icon it should be more of a refurbishment,” Iu says. “I agree with them. The lobby and the building are of a period – the 1960s – and mainly we needed to bring back the integrity and, if possible, improve upon it.”
However, as both Iu and the team at Miller Druck are finding, that’s a job easier said than done.
“ONLY NATURAL”
Miller Druck officials believe it’s only natural that the Kaufmans would turn to their company to refurbish the lobby at 777 Third Avenue. Not only did the company do the original stonework in 1963-64, but Kim Dumais says the firm’s relationship with Melvyn Kaufman remained cordial in the interim.
“Our company is third-generation family-owned, and we have a long history of working with the Kaufman Organization,” she says.
Iu calls Barbara Cohen, Miller Druck’s owner, one of the most-knowledgeable people she knows when it comes to anything to do with stone.
“When Mr. Kaufman asked my partner and I whether we could recommend someone to review the lobby stone work, we both blurted out Barbara’s name,” says Iu. “When she came in to meet with Mr. Kaufman, they realized that Sage had been working with Dumais on a different project.”
Still, Dumais says, money is always an issue, and Miller Druck bid the job, although its focus initially was just on the interior marble.
And that, both Iu and Dumais say, became a problem. It’s not that the existing marble isn’t in good shape; if anything, it’s the elaborate way it was installed 45 years ago.
Iu explains that there are really three separate areas of concern with the interior. A critical area is the lobby itself.
“Right behind the two reception desks there were probably building directories that were removed and big stainless-steel signs that say ‘777 Third’ were put in,” she explains. “They’re really pretty garish, and we’re getting rid of them, but what we found is there’s no stone underneath.”
Also in the lobby are two niche areas that needed to be changed. One is where the fire-control panel has been located; it’s being moved. The second is a rather utilitarian area that contains phone booths (which are being refurbished as Internet docking stations), mailboxes and the entrance to the fire stairs.
“You can see it from the lobby and it has a black stone with white veins on it now, but we want to replace that with more of the white stone,” says Iu.
The last area of concern is what had been an entrance into a retail space that had been replaced with stainless-steel panels; marble again went in as a replacement.
“Because it’s so book-matched, we had to move some pieces around,” says Iu. “Miller Druck felt it can get similar Calacatta stone from Italy. We needed to match what’s there, and match it really well because it’s so matched right now.”
However, it took until mid-summer last year for everyone to be happy with the new stone, which Dumais says required more than a little “tweaking.”
“We originally did this building in the early 1960s, so those blocks are no longer available,” she says. “We worked closely with our Italian office and the Calacatta quarries to secure a stone that would closely match the existing stone.”
And, there are some definite positives to the story, Dumais says. One is that there are several quarries producing the Calacatta Vagli. And, the scope of the project didn’t require a large number of blocks to supply what Miller Druck needed.
Fortunately, gaining approval of the marble for the rest of the interior work – which didn’t have to be book-matched – wasn’t nearly as difficult. And, Jim Clifford, the Miller Druck project manager says once the stone was obtained, finishing the job went fairly quickly.
“We had already completed the cleaning and polishing of the existing lobby walls,” Clifford says. “That gave us the ability to match the walls exactly as to color.”
STAYING TRUE
By comparison, work on the exterior of the building has been fairly easy. Initially, work on the street-level black granite wasn’t even in the scope of the project.
“I happened to be walking by one day when they were working on the exterior plaza and wondered, ‘Why not clean up the granite?’” says Clifford. “I cleaned up a panel and also pointed out that a lot of the panels had cracks due to age, wear-and-tear and stressing from being at the sidewalk level. Once they saw samples of what we’d done, they said, ‘Let’s include this in the whole project.’”
The columns on the exterior are about 20’ tall, Clifford explains. The same stone was also used for planters and capstones. And, fortunately, it’s a much-easier stone to match.
“It’s a Canadian Black granite,” says Dumais. “In one place an Absolute Black was used as a replacement, but Mr. Kaufman – true to the original – is replacing it with the original stone. Luckily, there’s much less variation on the black granite, so we’ve been able to get a very close match on that.”
Richard Jacobsen, project manager for general contractor Quadrant Construction Ltd., estimates that about 25 percent of the exterior granite was replaced.
Jacobsen’s firm, too, has had a long-term relationship with the Kaufman Organization. He’s the second generation of his family in the firm, which he says has been working for Melvyn Kaufman for some 30 years doing general contracting work.
It’s Quadrant that oversaw an important bit of stone-related work that ties the interior and exterior stones together. In the summer of 2008, some 9,500 ft² of terrazzo in black, gray and white was installed in the building’s plaza area.
“It took us five months to do the whole thing,” says Jacobsen. “We had to do it in sections. Most of it is black or gray, but underneath the building we did a white terrazzo.”
Architect Iu assisted in the final selection of the samples they had prepared when she got involved with the project. She explains that the interior floor is a white terrazzo which has been cleaned and polished as part of the interior renovation.
As a final touch, the elevators were brought back to their original design intent with new paneling, lighting and ceilings complementing the newly installed artwork.
After the delay caused by the need to match the Calacatta Vagli, the work finished up last fall.
“The tenants all love it and are thrilled with it,” says Quadrant’s Jacobsen. “It’s a nice neighborhood, but this just gives a high-class look to it.”
“It’s such a special lobby; they don’t do stone like that today,” says Iu. “It’s beautifully matched. We’re redoing the lights, and when the stone gets lit it will really sparkle.”
And Clifford says that simply working on a building Miller Druck did years ago makes the project special for his company.
“To go back 45 years later to be part of the renovation definitely adds to our excitement,” he says. “But, it’s good for the city and good for the neighborhood. People appreciate it when they see a commercial owner putting money in a building and bringing it back to look like it originally did.”
Client: William Kaufman Organization Ltd., New York
Designer: Iu + Bibliowicz Architects LLP, New York
Contractor: Quadrant Construction Ltd., New York
Stone Contractor: Miller Druck Specialty Contracting Inc., New York
©2010 Western Business Media Inc.