83 Brattle St, Radcliffe Institute, Cambridge MA

One of the challenges of replacing the roof on this 6-story historic 1908 building was its small footprint. The contractor had very little room to work and it was critical to maintain the roof as watertight over the occupied residential units, below. We coordinated many meetings with the Owner, contractor, and building manager to plan the work in careful stages for the fastest and most economical installation.

The key was to consider all the existing roof elements and to upgrade the design for low future maintenance. The insulation was tapered to effectively move water to the drains. All the skylights were replaced with insulating units on raised curbs. All the existing metal elements were painted with a high-tech coating system and the door to the roof was replaced with an insulated unit with a raised sill.

The brick parapets were in poor condition, so they had to be repaired/rebuilt/repointed at the same time. This led to full masonry repointing and repair of the entire exterior with the associated sealant replacement at the windows. Window replacement was recommended to complete the envelope treatment, to reduce energy costs, and to improve occupant thermal and acoustic comfort.