Wharton Borough Department of Public Works maintenance building

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The focus of this project was to renovate the exterior of the existing one-story maintenance garage building. As part of a large campaign to update borough facilities, it was decided that although the existing building currently met the needs of the Department of Public Works, the public appearance of the facility required updating.

The first step was to analyze the building to determine what could be done to improve the aesthetics of the exterior. Considering the condition of the exterior, it was clear that everything on the exterior required repair, renovation, or replacement. Some of these items included a new modern flat roof system, new facade stucco and trim, new overhead doors, new man doors, and new windows.

Besides just freshening up the existing exterior, the borough wanted to improve the appearance of the building in a budget conscientious manner. Besides making different color selections, all-new design elements that were not previously on the building were added. A new stone base was added to the bottom of the wall to give it a better visual anchor to the ground. A new substantial cornice was added to the top of the building to visually end the wall and cap the building.

On the side, several windows were made smaller in areas that needed to be more secure. The new windows are mounted up high in their existing openings and the bottom area was infilled. To give the window the correct proportion in the wall, the area below was made a different color to give the appearance of a larger window. A similar treatment was included in the front where windows were removed years ago. To break up these walls visually, more of these blind-windows were incorporated into the facade.

During construction, once the exterior walls were opened up it was found that some were in much worse condition than anticipated. The older section of the building was built of old terracotta blocks that crumbled when you touched them. The redesign and rebuilding of these walls was included in the final project to make a safer and more secure facility to be used for years to come.