Before We Honor History,
a Few Details
Our projects include everything from buildings on the National Register of Historic Places to buildings not formally registered but still recognized by their owners as having community significance. This experience allows us to provide the right level of preservation for each project.
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Standards for Historic Preservation: Reid Middleton’s experience with the U.S. Secretary of the Interior Standards for Historic Preservation is extensive. Many of Reid Middleton’s historic renovation and seismic upgrade projects are designed to these Department of the Interior Preservation Standards. Projects such as the Grays Harbor County Courthouse Seismic Upgrades and Rehabilitation, the Chemical/Metallurgical Laboratory Building, and the St. Edwards Seminary Building Earthquake Restoration were designed explicitly to these federal historic preservation standards to ensure that state and/or federal funding could be sought to help offset project costs.
Seismic/Structural Evaluations: Our engineers can perform structural evaluations and seismic evaluations of your historic facility to identify areas for improvement. Reid Middleton’s experience with historic buildings allows us to quickly recognize many building systems and materials that have not been widely used for many decades. Our ability to understand and assess these buildings provides a more efficient and accurate assessment than would be possible without this kind of experience.
Seismic/Structural Strengthening: Seismic strengthening often requires that the existing foundations in these buildings be expanded and that new new shear walls or braced frames are hidden inside the structure. The installation of these elements often requires that the designer work closely with the building owner, design team, and historic reviewers to design a strategy that allows these improvements to be installed without compromising or damaging the existing building. Reid Middleton has extensive experience in with the design of these systems for a variety of historic building types.
Clear Communication: Reid Middleton understands the difficulty of explaining technical information to the decision-makers who are not engineers, so we work with the owner to explain and demonstrate engineering and building concepts so the general public can easily understand. Our engineers and graphic designers enjoy the challenge of translating complex engineering into simple terms, often using common analogies, visual 3-D cross-sections, and physical building models. We are prepared to assist our clients with renderings, public involvement materials, and presentations to allow them to explain the proposed improvements to their stakeholders and members of the general public, when needed. Through this process, many of our engineers have become skilled presenters, as well as skilled designers.
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