(CS2.4) From Haunted High School to Art Museum: Adaptive Reuse of The Rubell Museum

The presentation will provide a summary of the existing conditions at Museum Place which were the worst the author had ever encountered, and a history of failed attempts at redevelopment over the years. The restoration of the building was part of a planned unit development in Washington DC in which the historic building was required to be restored for community use in exchange for permission to construct a large revenue-producing multi-family building on the same property. The Owner's vision for the restoration was "less is more" and they envisioned capturing the dilapidated aesthetic in the final outcome of the project while providing modern functionality for their art museum. The design build team explored many different ways to strike this balance, provide cost-effective treatment for repairs to the building, and provide a unique identity to a museum that provides a unique experience in a city full of other museums. Examples of some aspects of the project highlighting the quest to strike the right balance between a dilapidated aesthetic and modern functionality include:
1. Loss of integrity in floor framing - the roof of the building had partially collapsed years ago exposing the floor structure to the weather. We explored full removal of floor framing to create double-height spaces and ultimately arrived at a solution that maximized retention of existing structure with minimal intervention.
2. Portion of exterior built with interior grade materials - over time additions had been made to the building and once removed to establish the final size of the current building, interior materials were exposed to the weather. The team analyzed strategies of covering the materials to match the adjacent exterior materials and ultimately decided on a more modern envelope design highlighting this portion of the building as different.
3. Architectural finishes - both the wood floors and plaster of the building were heavily damaged and unstable, but appealing visually. The team explored ways to stabilize and reinforce the existing material and finally decided upon creating visual snapshots within the public circulation spaces where stabilization could be done without anticipating further deterioration, and either refinishing or replacing finish materials for a more homogeneous appearance in the art galleries.
The presentation will also highlight some unique logistical challenges of the project including risk management for potential settlement of the masonry building during site dewatering for the adjacent underground parking garage, reinforcing and saving the historic masonry boiler stack, and lead-based paint removal for the decorative sheetmetal cornice.