When we were working on this project, I didn’t know it would be Russ & Daughters. I just knew it would be a new cafe in the museum basement.
The Jewish Museum is housed in an interesting building. Most of it is a 1908 mansion, with a 1960s expansion that was modified in the early 1990s to match the original architectural style. Like most of the big early 1900s mansions in New York, the original building had masonry bearing walls, steel floor beams, and “fireproof” floors – in this case, terra-cotta vaults. Our project focussed on the condition of the terra cotta in the first floor above the new cafe, including investigation, evaluation, and repair.
In other words, this is yet another project where our work was successful because no one but us knows where it was or what was needed.
