 Hi, I'm Renee Novak with Technical Preservation Services at the National Park Service. This conference session we will be focusing on creative reuses for white elephant buildings, the adaptive reuse of difficult and challenging historic buildings in the federal tax credit program. I will be presenting a brief overview of the Federal Historic Preservation Tax Incentives program, followed by three very interesting and unique case study examples of projects from different parts of the country that use tax credits to help bring their white elephants back to life from big city to small town. These include the Brooklyn Opera House in Brooklyn, Iowa, Lincoln Plaza Hotel and Office Complex in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Church of the Epiphany, now the Epiphany Center for the Arts in Chicago, Illinois. Collectively we hope that these presentations will give you some insight into how Federal Historic Preservation Tax Incentives can be used as a powerful community revitalization tool and provide helpful tips when undertaking an adaptive reuse as diverse resource type. Before we begin, what exactly do we mean by white elephant? While white elephants are perhaps a rare kind of elephant in the animal world, one relatable definition to our practice is that it is a possession of some kind that is troublesome, challenging, and especially expensive or difficult to maintain or dispose of. We've come across those types of properties before. A certain unusual building that no longer serves the purpose for which it was constructed, such examples may include a church with a particularly high level of architectural integrity and features including balconies and altars in the sanctuary, an armory, a gymnasium or large open volume space, a bank building complete with historic vaults intact, an industrial building with a challenging layout or even an abandoned school complex complete with cafeteria, library, and auditorium spaces that helped to define the school's evolution over time. Most importantly, the architecture of these white elephants reflects their function and importance as landmarks within their communities. The economic and social benefits of rehabbing historic buildings is numerous. These projects can benefit greatly from using historic tax credits in the process of bringing the structure back to life. Federal historic tax credits have helped rescue many of these buildings with a wide range of new reuses, often creative ranging from housing to commercial to hotel use and potentially spurring economic activity around it. Since its inception in 1976, the program has certified over 47,000 historic rehabilitation projects and leveraged over $116 billion in private investment in the rehab of historic properties. To provide some background, the Federal Historic Preservation Tax Incentives Program is administered by the National Park Service in partnership with the State Historic Preservation Offices, known as the SHIPOs, along with the Internal Revenue Service, who manages the financial side of things. The program provides a 20% federal tax credit to property owners who undertake a substantial rehab of a certified historic building for a business or income producing use while maintaining its historic character. It's a three-part application process with your first point of contact being the SHIPO when considering a tax credit application. The Part 1 application presents information about the historical significance and appearance of the building as a certified historic structure. The Part 2 application describes the existing condition of the building and the proposed rehabilitation work. The proposed work in the Part 2 is evaluated based on the 10 federal secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation. Finally, the Part 3 application or request for certification of completed work is submitted after the project is complete and documents that the work was completed as approved in the Part 2 application and meets the standards as a certified rehabilitation. You can find comprehensive information and guidance materials for the application process on our website. When undertaking a federal tax credit project, early consultation is extremely important, particularly when replacing materials, alteration of a significant primary space, or newer additions or new construction are being proposed. Through the State Historic Preservation Office, there is a preliminary review process that allows the National Park Service to provide feedback on specific challenge issues for tax credit projects. While the request for a preliminary review is through the Historic Preservation Office, this is a useful resource if early and before work is undertaken. Under the tax credit program, all rehabilitation work must meet the Secretary Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation. As you are aware, the standards are the central fallage and practice in the United States. It is important to keep in mind that the tax credit is a rehabilitation program, not a restoration program. Rehabilitation is defined as the act or process of making possible a compatible use for property through repair, alterations, and additions, while preserving those portions or features which convey its historic character. As stated in the definition, the treatment rehabilitation assumes that at least some repair or alteration of the historic building will be needed in order to provide for inefficient and contemporary use. However, these repairs must not damage or distort the materials. Features or finishes that are important in defining the building's historic character. While there are 10 rehabilitation standards, these standards can be broken down into three very basic principles. Retain and repair historic materials, features, and spaces. Retain historic character, even if the use changes, and design compatible reversible additions and alterations. The intent of the standards is to assist in the long-term preservation of a property's significance through the preservation of historic materials and features. The rehabilitation standards apply to properties of all materials, types, sizes, uses, architectural styles, and periods. They apply to the exterior and the interior as well as the property's site and environment. To help apply and interpret the secretary's standards, we publish guidelines and other materials available on our website. The illustrated guidelines to the standards pictured on your screen provide a recommended versus not recommended approach to the treatment of historic buildings, features, and finishes. In 2016, these illustrated guidelines, first published in 1995, were updated and expanded to address the treatment of buildings constructed with newer materials and systems from the mid and late 20th century. So, how should you approach a rehabilitation project? First, understand the building's significance. Decisions about the historical significance of the built environment and cultural landscapes are based on the criteria for listing a national register of historic places. To be eligible for a federal historic tax credit, the building must be individually listed in the national register or be contributing to a national register historic district. If you are not yet listed, you can submit a part one application for evaluation for preliminary determination of listing, either individually or as part of a potential historic district through your state historic preservation office. It is important to understand your building's significance so that the building's historic character and integrity can be preserved and protected. Next, determine what specific features and spaces are character defining of the property. Our preservation brief series, specifically Preservation Brief 17 on Architectural Character, identify identifying visual aspects of historic buildings as an aid to preserving character, is a good reference. It discusses exterior and interior historic character. It touches on individually important spaces, related spaces, hierarchy, and sequence of features, materials, and finish. Standard two requires that we preserve historic character. Historic character is the identity of a historic building and it's established by its form, size, scale, and decorative features and finishes. It's also influenced by the choice of materials for the walls, floors, and ceilings, by the dimension, detailing, color, and other surface characteristics. Every old building is unique with its own identity and its own distinctive physical character. One important component of dealing with a white elephant building is bringing a structure up to modern code and if undertaking a tax credit project that work must also meet the standards for rehabilitation. It is still critical that historic features are maintained while addressing code challenges. When character defining features are identified early in the process, we have found there are many innovative and creative solutions to code compliance. In the example here, the historic classroom doors are multi-light doors that offer no privacy to a new housing unit. They also don't meet fire code. An innovative solution utilized on many projects, including the one illustrated above, is to keep the original door and utilize it like a screen door from the corridor. A new fire rated door was installed on the interior of the unit in the former classroom. The historic doors are retained and the required fire rating achieved. Another component might be a new addition or some kind of new construction. New additions and new construction are another important consideration in any rehabilitation and early consultation with the State Historic Preservation Office is best to avoid incompatible treatments. Our website has guidance materials to address these treatments. In regards to new additions, first determine if the building needs a new addition. Consideration should first be given to incorporating changes and programmatic needs in secondary locations of the building. If that is not possible, we have several factors to consider relative to meeting the standards. When we are evaluating an addition, we look at placement or location of the new addition on the site, the size, scale, and massing of the new addition and differentiation of the new addition from the historic building. There is no strict formula or prescription for designing a new addition. Any style from traditional to contemporary or a simplified version of the historic building may be possible, but to meet the standards there must be a balance between differentiation and compatibility. Turning to interior treatments, tax credit projects do review all interior changes. Evaluating the interior of a historic building involves identifying which elements are historic, including those changes that have acquired significance over time, and evaluating the significance and physical condition of those elements. Preservation brief 18 can assist applicants in identifying and evaluating those elements of a building's interior that contribute to its historic character and plan for the preservation of those elements in the process of rehabilitation. Decisions on how to properly treat historic interior finishes and features are based on a range of factors that include historic use of the building, proposed new use of the building, hierarchy of space in which it is located, materials, qualities, craftsmanship, and condition. In almost every white elephant project, you are bound to come across a public assembly space of some kind, especially in schools, churches, or other public buildings. To determine the amount and type of changes these larger spaces can accommodate, it is useful to consider three criteria. The role of the space in defining the character of the building is it the main interior space or the only space? What's the significance? Are there other spaces of similar or greater importance? How important is the space architecturally to building and where is it located? And how does it fit into the interior circulation pattern? The physical layout and condition of the space are all the areas in the space of equal importance. Are there primary and secondary areas? And does the physical integrity affect the character of the space? And the proposed manner of subdivision? Will the space be divided with full height or lower partitioned walls? Will changes be confined to secondary areas? Will those changes avoid existing historic features and finishes? As we wrap up our introduction, here are several key components to ensure a successful project. We recommend that you contact the State Historic Preservation Office early in the planning process. Submit a complete application describing the Part 2 work before beginning any work. The tax credit program requires good, clear photos of the entire building and site before work begins. Similar photographs will be required at the completion of the project. The Part 2 must describe the full scope of work, including work on all aspects of the property under your ownership. It is also best to not begin work until the National Park Service approves the application. Identifying the character-defining elements of the building with your architect and your contractor is also a good starting point to have that conversation early in the planning process. Complete work as previously approved and submit project amendments for any changes along the way. And refer to the illustrated guidelines and other NPS materials such as preservation briefs for guidance. And for large or complicated projects, consider hiring an experienced team, an architect, preservation consultant, accountant, attorney, banker, and ensure good team communication. That concludes my presentation on the Federal Tax Credit Rehabilitation Program. Now onto our case study projects. My name is Matthew Pierce. I am the National Register Coordinator for the Oklahoma State Historic Preservation Office. And I'm here presenting today about the Lincoln Plaza Hotel and Office Complex in Oklahoma City, now known today as the Presley Apartments. So, to provide a little bit of background, this project took place in what's known as the Lincoln Plaza Historic District. It's located at 4345 to 4545 North Lincoln Boulevard and 416 Northeast 46th Street. It was listed in the National Register in 2016 at the local level of significance under criterion A for community planning and development. At the time the nomination was prepared, the property was less than 50 years old, so criteria consideration G was applied for and we had to of course show the property had exceptional significance in order to be listed under the 50-year mark. The period of significance for the property was 1966 to 1974. Overall, Lincoln Plaza was an approximately 20-acre suburban office, facility, hotel, and convention center. It's located about one and a half miles north of the Oklahoma State Capitol Complex and it historically attained a reputation of being the center for political meetings and deal-making among state leaders and it attained its name from being located along Lincoln Boulevard. It's literally a straight shot from the state Capitol and it represents an important trend in civic design and urban planning on the local and regional levels, specifically the construction of large multi-use office and convention centers in suburban locations and the application of bold modern architecture. A photograph that you see here shows the complex as it appeared in 1970. The two buildings at the center of the photograph are the focus of today's presentation. The crescent-shaped multi-story hotel tower known as Lincoln Plaza Inn and the attached large rectangular-shaped two-story office building with a below-ground parking garage that was historically capable of accommodating 600 vehicles. So the project team, like with any good project, you have to have a good team put together and there were several different individuals who all had a part in the success of this project, starting at the top with the owner, Gardner Tannenbaum Holdings, and their respective individuals who kept everybody on task and kept everybody in the loop. In terms of architects, Gardner Studio did much of the preliminary design work and then as the project reached its final stages, a second architectural team, FSB Architects and Engineers came onto the scene to finish up with some additional design work. Capstone Construction Services was the general contractor and then Preservation and Remind Studio was the Historic Preservation Consultant and that's where I came in prior to my current position at the SHPO in Oklahoma. I was the Principal Historian for Preservation and Design Studio and spent quite a bit of time on this project, especially I was involved directly with it between 2020 and 2021 when construction on the project was well underway. So here's an overview of the historic district. It includes four buildings from north to south. You have first a relatively small one-story office building and then the neighboring two-story office building with underground parking, the seven-story crescent shaped hotel tower, and then there's one non-contributing building which was the trademark building. It was originally the convention center and theater for the entire complex but at the time of the district's listing in 2016, it had already undergone a fairly significant renovation which included the addition of an entirely new facade and so it was therefore deemed non-contributing due to alterations. There were several other objects and structures on the property at the time including a kidney-shaped pool and tennis courts. In all, the district comprises about 30 acres so it's a very large mid-century modern suburban office hotel complex. So of course you're struggling with trying to figure out what to do with these types of properties. Just for some additional background as I show you some photographs of how it looked at the time the property was listed, it was designed by the local firm Hallie Reich and Hester. Bob Reich was the principal designer. The design of the district was dictated in part by the site's unusual topography, particularly the fact that a creek drained through the center of the property. The large office building in the parking garage were essentially built atop the creek and the creek's natural drainage can still be seen on either side of the property to the west and to the east. The crescent shape of the hotel meanwhile reflected a popular trend in hotel design at the time and also reflected the need to have the hotel connect from the office building's parking garage to Lincoln Boulevard. In all, Lincoln Plaza Historic District marriage recognition as an excellent local example of an important trend in Oklahoma City's development, specifically the relocation of leisure, retail, and office uses from downtown to a suburban setting, excuse me, by the mid 20th century. And it is a profound local significance to Oklahoma City because it's really the only extent example in Oklahoma City of a large-scale integrated planned development built outside of the downtown core during the mid 20th century. The district, as you can kind of see from these photographs and from previous photographs, it's also a very good local example of large-scale, multi-story, new formal-style architecture. So the project timeline, the challenge should be obvious by this point. How to repurpose this large-scale suburban hotel and office complex into a new use, specifically residential. The project at its core involved rehabilitating the tower and the large office building into market rate apartments. They added challenge on top of this that of course no one foresaw prior to 2020 was the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The initial plan was to have the office building continue to be used as office space for tenants. When COVID hit, and of course we all went into our homes and home office set-ups, the project team had to make a design change essentially on the fly to convert that part of the project to apartment use as well. And so overall, it was a very challenging project that it evolved over time. At first, as I have here on this slide, the part one initially concerned just the tower. It was initially just focused on converting that hotel into 114 market rate apartment units. But of course, things change over time. At the time of the nomination of the part one application, the end was vacant but in fair condition. Office buildings one and two were occupied by various state agencies. And the trademark building as I mentioned earlier had recently been renovated. Between 2016 and 2018 however, the office buildings one and two were vacated. Those buildings were under separate ownership prior to this tax credit project. And so as a result, the property fell into receivership before the current owner could acquire the property. There was widespread vandalism and damage to historic materials throughout Lincoln Plaza. As a photograph here of the hotel corridor, you can see that. And all of the entire complex or several of those buildings were at risk of being demolished. So as a result, the project expanded to include the in and office buildings one and two. Office building two was ultimately excluded from the project due to lack of a tenant. Overall, prior to the project commencing, the property was widely seen as a blight on Oklahoma City. Everyone knew of its significance. But there was skepticism that a rehabilitation project could successfully be achieved. So here's just some photographs of some of the vandalism and damage that was typical at the time the part two application was prepared. And so while you have graffiti and broken glass in the interior courtyards of the office building, one of the other unique challenges as the project started was all of the historic aluminum railings that surrounded the office building were vandalized and removed prior to the current owner taking ownership of the property. And so there was going to be an interesting challenge to figure out how to redesign railings that would be compatible to the property. So overall, as the part two was filed, of course, Renee mentioned at the onset of this presentation the importance of the standards versus of my presentation today, I chose to focus mainly on standard six, that deteriorated historic features shall be repaired rather than replaced, where the severity of deterioration requires replacement of a distinctive feature. The new feature shall match the old and design color texture and other visual qualities and where possible materials replacement of missing features shall be substantiated by documentary physical or pictorial evidence. Many of the challenges with this project came from meeting standard six in large part because a lot of our historic materials were damaged, deteriorated, or some cases that are already been already been removed prior to us being able to start the project. So how are we going to meet these these challenges? And there's of course plenty that I could go into the most visible challenge pertain to the tower exterior or there was the exterior of Lincoln Plaza in. As you can see in these photographs, concrete columns subdivide the tower into distinct bays. Each bay features two full height windows containing bronze tinted glass. The center and end sections of each bay contained a porcelain finished asbestos panel. And then a PTAC unit or a packaged terminal air conditioner was set in the center panel. And the panels and the windows were all set within an integrated and anodized aluminum framing system. So you can kind of get a sense here of just what the conditions were like the time the part two was submitted. So our primary challenge at first was to document the extent of the deterioration that happened in order to make a case see was replacement of materials. Were we looking at just preparing a handful of of historic materials? Were we looking at or are we looking at a widespread replacement? Overall, there were 770 porcelain finished as best as panels. Roughly 20% were damaged. And that could mean any number of things, including that they were not extant, they were broken and cracked, or they were pitted. There were also approximately 530 bronze tinted windows. Roughly 75% of those were damaged, either non-extant, broken, cracked, pitted, etc. And all the PTAC units had been stripped of their valuable metals. They were inoperable and those type those models were obsolete by this time. So we knew at least we knew we'd have to at least go with completely new PTAC units. And the picture that I have here is just an example from the the window and panel inventory that we did in order to just document just what how much damage were we dealing with. Here's just some more kind of general photographs from the exterior and from the interior. Essentially you can kind of tell the photo on the right how you had your panels and then on the interior, you know, you had a thin layer of drywall that finished out the interior space. So given the extent of the damage and the client's need for an exterior to have a uniform and clean appearance, the project team had to consider the technical and economic feasibility of replacing these materials in features in kind. And so essentially we decided upon several strategies to, you know, A, bring the building up to code, and B, still have the building be able to convey its historic significance. So one thing we did from the start, the team integrated the historic presence of PTAC units into their design of the apartment units. So essentially the apartment units today, they are still they're still heated and cooled by new PTAC units. So those PTAC units were installed in their historic locations. The louvers that you can see from the exterior were placed in their historic locations. The new units that were installed were slightly smaller than their historic counterparts. Technology has gotten better over time. Those types of units have gotten smaller and smaller, but the exterior frames for the louvers were modified in order to best resemble the historic appearance of the original louvers as close as technically possible. The bigger challenge came to making the necessary repairs to panels, windows, and the associated aluminum framing system. Identifying a match for replacement bronze to the glass was fairly straightforward. The porcelain finished asbestos panels were a different story. However, for one thing, they were no longer manufactured. The widespread damage that was that they had experienced risked widespread exposure to asbestos. Simply put, they could not be they could not be replaced in kind. And overall, given the overall age and exposure of the system and the extent to the damage, use of replacement materials only in certain areas would clearly be obvious. And so the overall absence of the condition and the condition of those historic materials combined with the presence of a hazardous material asbestos and the need to maintain a uniform exterior appearance prompted the need to use new compatible materials. So the photo that I have here shows the sample of the replacement material that we used for the panels. Specifically, it was a foam insulated panel manufactured by Nudo. And then they were factory painted and textured to match the existing panels as closely as possible. And so the results I think speak for themselves. So here's a photo of part two photo on the left. And then part three photo on the right when the project was completed. And here's a view from of the tower base from a top a non historic restaurant addition that served the hotel in the mid 1990s. So again, the part two photo is on the left. The part three photo is on the right. And here's a view of from the interior. So you can see, you know, here's a good example that shows how, you know, the PTAC units were integrated into the new design for the apartments. So new units, new windows, new drywall on the interior. LVT floor flooring was installed. A few other places we can go just again, it's difficult to talk about this project in such a large project in 15 minutes. But a couple of other challenges where we I think we succeeded fairly well. The former hotel corridors, now the apartment corridors, they were fairly unique. That means the crescent shaped, the crescent shape of the hotel was fairly unique. And it was important to still convey that that sense in the central corridor. And so one of the more unique challenges here was the fact that the ceiling height from slab to slab was about eight feet. And there were several existing ceiling treatments, popcorn ceiling, there were some soffits. But overall, there was since this was being converted to apartments, there was the need to insert utilities, electrical lines, all those types of things. So what we ultimately did was we did use a gypsum board with painted textured finished, and we slightly lowered the ceiling to a height of about seven feet, six inches to allow for the extension of utilities. So for example, for the light fixtures you see here. But overall, the dimensions of the corridor were fairly well maintained. And then of course, for instance, the drywall was replaced in kind, new carpet, all those things to still convey that appearance. The notches along the corridor that indicated the locations for the originally the hotel entrances, hotel remensions, those were all maintained as well. The railings on the exterior of the office building were, we essentially went back with new aluminum railings. The railing height and picket width was adjusted to meet code requirements. The rose colored glass that you see in the office building windows in the background, that was preserved. And if any of those windows had been broken or damaged, the rose colored glass was replaced in kind. The aluminum framing system was maintained. The transom panels were maintained. The non-historic planner box is that you see in the part two photograph, they were removed. And then lastly, the project also provided an opportunity to reopen the historic hotel lobby to its original volume. So I have here photographs from the part two application. Historically, the hotel lobby was a two-story space. In the mid-1990s, a non-historic restaurant addition was added on to the hotel. It was a Jimmie Johnson's restaurant for all you Cowboys fans. And the construction of the restaurant included subdividing the hotel lobby, excuse me, and that included dividing the balcony overlook that you can see in the upper left of the first photo there on the left. So here are the photos of after. Essentially, we just reopened the lobby. We removed the non-historic dividing wall to re-establish the historic volume of the space. A plenum cloud was installed on the ceiling to hide utilities. And that cloud was set back by about two feet from the exterior windows. We reopened the historic balcony access and in filled it with glass. So it's still conveying the appearance that the opening is there, but it is not publicly accessible. The restaurant addition that you can see in the background, it was repurposed for the complex's leasing office. It also provides shared office space and fitness space for the tenants. So overall, the property was placed in service on October 1, 2021. It's now known as the Presley Apartments. The part three was approved in December of 2021. The construction project overall took two and a half years, 11 amendments. And the number of amendments in part was a large part dictated by the amount of work that needed to be done in terms of documenting either the damage to historic materials and proposing alternatives. As Renee mentioned in her presentation, the importance of consulting with SHIPOs, the importance of consulting with Park Service, the project team was very involved with that process from the start. And it made, even though there were 11 amendments, the project proceeded at a fairly solid, consistent pace. Qualified rehabilitation expenditures were ultimately over $57 million. The total project cost was over $68 million. The result were 318 units, a combination of studio, one bedroom, and two bedroom apartments spread across both the hotel tower and the adjacent two-story office building. And so the project really has, excuse me, has gone from a blight to what one of the local newspapers called a mid-century celebration. It, you know, the Presley Apartments, that name comes from the story of a, there was a story that Elvis Presley stayed there and one night Elvis Presley and a former governor or future governor accidentally ran into each other in one of the stairwells. And so the owners of the property, they took that, they took that encounter and ran with it and they used that for their marketing. And so it's gone from Lincoln Plaza to the Presley Apartments. The owners have widely promoted the Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit Program. They repeated time and time again how the project could not have been achieved without those tax credits. And so they've been a big promoter of the Tax Credit Program, which I think is good for the SHPO. It's good for the Park Service. The tenants themselves are, they're drawn to what they call the retro feel of the building, which I think reflects this interest in, this kind of renewed interest in mid-century modern properties. They're also drawn to certain amenities, including the covered parking garage that is provided by the former office building. Oklahoma City is very much vehicle-centric. You do need an automobile to get around in a lot of cases. And Oklahoma also is known for extreme weather, hail, tornadoes, that sort of stuff. So covered parking is kind of an essential. So a lot of folks were drawn to it for that reason. And they're also drawn to its historic location. As I mentioned earlier, it's located just up the road from the state capitol. It's not very far away from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. So it's become really a draw for young professionals, government officials, and folks who are interested in or working in other nearby businesses or industry complexes. And as I say there at the end, the property is over 95% occupancy, which I think exceeded all of our expectations when the project, especially from when the project initially started. So it's been a widely seen in Oklahoma City as a successful project, and one that took a lot of hard work, took a lot of teamwork, but one I think Oklahoma City is very proud of. And so with that, say thank you. Again, my contact information is there. If you have any questions about the project, feel free to reach out to me. And thank you for your time. Hi, everybody. I'm Jen Escher with Technical Preservation Services and the National Park Service. You might have been imagining this Brooklyn when you heard Brooklyn Opera House, but today this building will be found in mighty Brooklyn, Iowa. Brooklyn, Iowa is a rural town of about 1400 with the Main Street making up the Commercial Center. It's surrounded by farmland and located between Des Moines and Iowa City. The Brooklyn Opera House is located on that one Main Street. The street runs north south and the Opera House faces the west. Built in 1911, it is a Romanesque revival two-story masonry building on a slightly sloped site. As built, it included a small lobby with flanking storefronts and separate doors, main auditorium with a raked balcony and projection room, the stage, an unfinished back of house, and an unfinished basement. This is how it appeared in 1911 when it was built, and by the 1980s the building had undergone at least one post-period of significance, renovation, and had been officially closed. The main doors and storefront doors had been through several iterations by this time and the storefronts and windows were boarded but extant. All the windows on the side and rear elevations had been removed and bricked in during the post period of significance remodeling, along with styrofoam insulation added on the interior. It was still used by the community on occasion until 1989 when the house floor fell through during the live performance. The collapsing floor could have been the death knell for the theater, but when the house next door burned and was replaced by a community center in 2008, interest in rehabilitating the theater was renewed. In 2015, rehabilitation began for its continued use as a community performing arts auditorium. The applicant envisioned a connector addition in the south alley between the opera house and the community center. This required expanding the property on both sides. The north, which is the left side in this photo, was given an easement by the adjacent property owner and the south side alley was owned by the city. The projected cost of the rehabilitation was four million dollars and roughly half of that was qualified rehabilitation expenses. At the start of the project, the interior was in a fragile and deteriorated state. The floor collapse was attributed to termite damage and exacerbated by a leaking roof, and the two storefronts and three staircases were deteriorated from the same. After the collapse, the floor, flights of stairs, and seating had been removed, so the new focus became preserving the historic finishes that remained. The main auditorium sloped to a proceeding opening with its rounded projection projecting apron stage. The historic finish was plaster over clay tile with the added masonite panels over styrofoam insulation. The decorative pressed metal ceiling was extant almost in full in the main auditorium space as well as the balcony in a smaller size tile. The remaining escutcheons showed where pendant lamps had hung historically. Little historic material remained in the lobby area. The floor and subfloor in the columns were left. Notice that the floor ramps up from the front doors at the left in this photo. The two storefront areas at either side had plaster and lath perimeter walls as did the balcony stairwell. One of the character defining features of this space was this curved wooden beam that supported the balcony. Columns supporting the beam served to divide the lobby from the auditorium space. It was critical to retain and restore this feature. The beam had been boxed with wood paneling. The proposed rehabilitation plan entailed the following. Entrance is on the left in this drawing for your reference. Masonry repair on the exterior including mortar matching through analysis and the reuse of salvage face brick, installing a slab foundation for the auditorium floor to prevent termites, installing a new level wood floor in the lobby, reopening the original fly and catwalk configuration at the stage which had been capped using the existing storefront spaces as new bathrooms while repairing and fixing the historic doors in place. Creating a women's and men's dressing room under the stage in the former unfinished spaces and that required a new stair. Adding the fire exits at the north side and at the rear. The interior proposed finishes included retaining and repairing the curved beam, wood windows and trim, the stage apron and balcony bead board, the press metal ceiling, the plastered balcony stairwell and proscenium wall and preserving the back of stage unfinished wood plank walls containing vintage theater ads and graffiti. The most salient element of the rehab was bringing the theater up to code for life safety and universal access. The building had seven pedestrian doorways all of which were reached by steps or located well above grade. The lack of accessible entrances had been one of the barriers to the rehabilitation of this building. The crux of the access plan was the connector structure to allow universal entrances at both the lobby and stage levels with stairs and lifts. Within the connector space two operable partition openings from the community center itself would allow access to the opera house and also provide assembly space for patrons during events. This solution allowed code compliant access without long switchback ramps and preserved the primary elevation of the building. In addition, the brick windows along the side wall provide openings for egress doors and lifts. So here's how the connector worked out. Black framing and clear glass were used to help it read like a void which is successful here in the front and somewhat less so in the rear but that was deemed acceptable since it's a secondary elevation. On the opposite side of the opera house before and after photos show the new fire escape on the north side with stairs that actually extend all the way to the ground and a cut in grade to allow for access to further concrete steps to the street. This is the finished facade where the historic character of the opera house has been preserved with its monumental steps in the front. The southeast corner or rear elevation of the building has another set of code-compliant stairs. The mechanicals are located on a concrete pad behind the fly tower and screened with galvanized metal fence. The same treatment boxes the returned duct mounted on the exterior of the building to preserve the historic interior space in the back of the house. A backlit sign advertises the theater. The theater historically had a variety of signage on the front elevation but the applicant elected to keep the front simple and original with only the opera house sign in the parapet. Here's the interior of the opera house at the start of the project. This is the fun part and here's the completed rehabilitation. The new concrete floor is covered with carpet, the stages restored and the clay tile of the back wall preserved. The sound system is mounted on the proscenium in a reversible manner and new vents were added also to the side of the proscenium for HVAC. The former windows are still bricked in but their openings were revealed when the post period of significant masonite and styrofoam insulation was removed. The walls are gypsum and careful attention was paid to the selection of historically appropriate pendant lights. Here's the balcony before. Note the ceiling, the walls and the projection booth and after. Restoration of the pressed metal ceiling was successful with replacements in kind were necessary. Here's the before shot of the stage with the fly tower capped and a makeshift fly system installed. When they opened the fly tower the original wooden catwalk and fly system were revealed and could be used. Here's the former lobby with the raked entry from the doors on the left and the finished lobby space with replaced stairs to the balcony the curved balcony support beam at the right and the lobby doors at the left. The curved beam was restored and restained. The lobby floor was leveled and the two storefront spaces became ADA compliant bathrooms. Here's the southwest storefront space with the street facing door and the after photo with the same door. These doors were fixed inoperable so that they could not be accessed from the street. Here's the former basement space that was unfinished and the rehab allowed for additional this additional space with dressing rooms and storage. Here's a before photo of the south side of the theater with the bricked in window openings and the same view from within the glass connector. The connectors addition is level with grade at both the front and the back of the building which avoided the need for ramps there. The Brooklyn Opera House reopened in 2020. This is a recent Google Maps view of the successful rehabilitation showing the opera house, the connector and the community center. So if you happen to be in the area you can stop by and see what's going on. Hi this is Anthony Robano. I am a deputy State Historic Preservation Officer with the Illinois State Historic Preservation Office in Springfield, Illinois and I am one of the project reviewers here at the Illinois Shibbo for the Federal Tax Credit Program. And today I'll be talking to you about the Epiphany Center for the Arts, a wonderful tax credit project in Chicago, Illinois. The building started life as the church of the Epiphany in just in the near west side of the city of Chicago. It was designed in 1886 by Francis Whitehouse that has been described as one of Chicago's earliest and best examples of the Richardsonian Romanesque style. Here it is sitting on the corner. The corner is defined by a large bell tower with the sanctuary behind. To the right or to the south in this photograph you'll see a two-story chapel house. Behind the chapel house is a parish house and then there are two additions farther south that we'll talk about in a little bit. So the the church had been vacant for quite a number of years but it remains remarkably intact before the project started. This is the interior of the sanctuary space. It retains its original decorative paint on the upper walls. As you can see, beautiful expressed truss work below the springings of the arches. The walls are covered in this very distinctive unglazed terracotta tiling you can see on the top right. And the beautiful altar has five mosaic panels by Tiffany and Company and Charles Holloway that are intact and just absolutely lovely. The two-story chapel is has a chapel on the first floor and then a beautiful guild hall on the second floor as you can see here. The parish house somewhat more utilitarian. The gentleman on the staircase is the owner of the building. We'll talk about him in a second. And so here it is in an old sandborn map sitting on the southeast corner of its intersection. You can see the worship space at the top to the south the chapel with the parish house to the east and this was in a residential neighborhood. It is within an old national registered district and it is also individually listed to the national register in 1998. There was no part one needed for the tax credit because of that individual listing. It is also within a local historic district. So the city of Chicago undertook a permit review for the rehabilitation of the building. In 1953, the congregation bought land to the south, removed the houses that were there and constructed two utilitarian bar buildings. One was the cathedral shelter, a homeless shelter and the other is chase house which was a daycare. Neither of those buildings are contributing to any of the designations and they were interconnected to the interiors of the chapel and the parish house so it functioned as one large complex. And here it is in an aerial view. You can see the alley to the right to the east and then a large courtyard in between the two bar buildings which was also part of the project. So here it is on the street bell tower worship space chapel and cathedral shelter straight ahead of us with chase house and the courtyard to the right. So the plan was to turn the entire complex into an event center. David Chase, the gentleman who was on the staircase, bought the building and he is a property developer not an event planner. So he approached this project as a developer would, maximizing the usage of each space, maximizing the simultaneous use of each space and then ensuring that there was programming that was rich enough to fund the entire endeavor. The rehab architect was Fitzgerald associates who did an excellent job. The historic consultant across the historic advisors John Kramer and Chris Ussler worked on this. The part two was certified by the park service in April of 2018. I attached 14 conditions and the park service attached two. In Illinois we feel that attaching conditions is part of the natural part of the review process. You can condition future work because we want to have a look at the drawings early to understand the general direction and get approvals for those general directions and then suss out the details later waiting for details to be developed so that we can submit an entire fleshed out part two. Sometimes it's too late to do some course corrections in the development of the program. So 14 conditions were mostly dealing with details and not program and so there were four subsequent amendments that were submitted and certified that dealt with and satisfied all of the conditions and then of course naturally deviating some from the originally submitted scope of work where it had to. The part three was certified in January of 2021 with a 7.25 million dollar QRE total. So the general program was to restore the sanctuary and the chapel building for event space to deal with egress in the Norfex so that the basement could become another event space. The chapel excuse me the parish house would be rehabilitated and have a lot of the core functions for the complex and then Cathedral Shelter and Chase House would be reconfigured for additional event and support space. So I'll have before photos generally on the left after on the right with some sort of eye candy photos of each space after and you'll have a key plan on the top right to see where you are. So we're standing in the Norfex looking north the main entrance of the church on the right you can see is a round headed door with a centrally disposed door into the sanctuary space. Towards the bell tower we inserted a staircase going down so that the basement could be used simultaneously as the sanctuary space so there were two different egress streams that had to be accommodated and it was done rather nicely. The non-historic tile floor was pulled back a staircase inserted and a glass railing very minimal glass railing installed as you can see in the right to divide the egress from the sanctuary from that of the basement and I thought this was a rather brilliant way of ensuring the simultaneous use of both spaces. The basement which was more or less a crawl space that had its floor lowered its ceiling finished lighting added as you could see rather dramatically so the lower level now called the catacombs is another event space with a lot of opportunity for art shows and so forth its own bar service added and then in the rubble faced foundation walls as you can see so it really is a self-contained entertainment venue in the basement. The nave which is now called Epiphany Hall is relatively unchanged before and after but you can see that there was an addition of a door and a blind window that connected the worship space to the parish house and this was rather micromanaged I have to say the before condition on the left here's a working sketch as we were working through the details and the completed door on the right we felt that doing it in a in a very sort of finished manner was more compatible with the character of the space than than doing it in some other more minimal way and this door is ADA compliant so this is a major route to the bathrooms the accessible bathrooms that are in the support spaces the lighting and rigging were installed towards the apps of the building and you could see very subtle speakers and lighting installed and rigging behind the organ pipes there was also a drape a sort of modesty drape installed in front of the altar so that if a particular event didn't want to see the religious iconography of the altar that drape could simply be closed it is not an acoustical drape so it does not have to be there during musical performances and frankly the drape winds up being open for most events this is so now we have some pictures of Epiphany Hall in use set up for a wedding for a concert during a concert you can see wedding reception on the right and finally candlelight concerts that they do very regularly just a lovely space to be in the chapel is on the first floor the two-story building immediately to the south it was a warren of offices with a drop ceiling the rehabilitation cleared those non-historic partitions out restored the floor brought it back to a single volume with the uh with the the uh leaded glass windows now in full view so this is another event space that is perfect for smaller smaller gatherings and recitals and smaller art exhibitions the second floor of this building was originally the gill hall now called the sanctuary and this was this is now available for uh small functions and then a lot of smaller recitals a lot of egress solutions uh went into this and it really was very very cleverly solved the stage had lighting and speakers installed in the beautiful exposed trusses you you could hardly see the additions that were necessary to make this a modern performance space ducts and HVAC were hidden in the walls you could see a little slit in front of the stage wooden louvers where the air supply is hidden distanced for covid on the left a dance recital on the right stand-up comedy so it's a more intimate performance space just outside this room in a former bathroom they installed a bar so that it really is a self-contained space and those are not exposed bricks that actually is a finish that was applied to the wall so this was just simply a decorative finish and not an exposed not the exposed uh inner wide the brick of the wall in the basement of the chapel uh the floor was dug out and that's where the bathrooms are for the entire complex in the parish house to the rear uh this was reconfigured rehabilitated you can see the historic staircase restored but rehabilitated so that there is vertical circulation uh utility areas and elevators to easily access the restrooms in the basement the south half of the site is dominated by that exterior courtyard that i mentioned it's in between the two bar buildings from the 1950s in the middle where you see the two bar buildings meeting that's the uh a parish house peeking over the brick wall there and then the sanctuary with its uh gables uh behind the courtyard is uh fully functioned uh with electrical hookups landscaping terraces in front of the two bar buildings and is available for a variety of different functions it really is another lovely space that the project created ethereal shelter which is the east west bar building originally had very small sleeping cells with double loaded corridor reflective of its original function uh because the building was not historic it was able to have the interior partitions removed the first floor now houses a full service restaurant so that even when there are no events happening there is still it's still a destination second floor has artists studios available the basement of the shelter building had a kitchen it now again has a kitchen much larger and a full service kitchen and again available for all functions simultaneously happening in the complex chase house which was originally the daycare built in 1953 was mostly open on both floors anyway the first floor is a that openness was retained and large fenestration installed facing the courtyard so that there is an integration between the interior and the courtyard for events you can see one here where the doors are open the second floor of chase house retained as an art gallery with modular movable gallery partitions as you can see and also sight lighting was a part of the project making it quite a dramatic statement on the street in the evening and this project had a lot of details as you can imagine but they were all sequentially dealt with and handled in a in an excellent manner the code requirements which were rather extensive as you can imagine all of these now are assembly spaces also handled rather deftly so the architect really was responsive to our comments the owner david wanted this to be a beautiful place that people would feel comfortable coming to and using and he recognized it as an important part of the community he wanted this new function to retain that importance even though this is a private venue or privately owned venue he wanted it to remain that sort of landmark in terms of access and use and experience in the community as it always has been and so much the rehab was of such quality that rightly I think the statewide preservation advocacy organization landmarks Illinois gave it one of its top honors the richardry house foundation award for adaptive reuse last year it was a pleasure to get to work on this project and it was a pleasure to present it to you today thank you very much