projects
114 North Main Street
We’re working with Bob Nowalk on the the renovation of his property at 114 North Main Street in Culver. Sometimes buildings are historic and sometimes they are just old. This building does have some history, but not much of its facade was reminiscent of that history. Stepping back through time, this building was Michelle’s Head Quarters, Zeke’s Arcade, J’s 5 & …, The Dime Store and a Ben Franklin Store. (I tried to find Jeff Kinney’s “A Walk Down Main Street” story on this building, but finally gave up)
Early photographs that Bob found showed a wood store front which has been gone for decades. He considered going back to that, but not only would it increase the upkeep costs, it also would not have been in keeping with the character of the rest of the block. In the end, he chose to go with a new brick facade, but change the entrance location to provide a more modern, accessible approach. This also gives him more continuous window space for displays. A picture from the the Culver Union Township Public Library website shows the brick facade was there in the 50’s, but not the green aluminium store front we just removed.
A former student of Bob’s did the rough design for the renovation and this is what we based our construction on. It shows the entrance relocated to the left. It remains recessed. We are keeping the same stepped parapet at the top. In lieu of the named marker on the parapet, Bob chose to go with a more simple, address marker. Bob also chose to reduce the marker, so it won’t be quite as prominent in the picture.
Bob went with a natural, sandblasted limestone sign, so it will fit with some of the other building markers downtown. Unlike the one to the south on the Marmont Lodge Building, 114’s sign has the characters cut in relief. Sometimes you have to do what you have to do, so this is the marker making its way to Culver via car trunk…
Once the brick demolition was completed, we found a couple of additional issues. 1) The structural steel beam was in reasonable condition, particularly considering it was oversized, but it was not properly supported. The fact that it was supported by the facade brick probably contributed to some of the brick deterioration. There was no lateral support for the steel beam either. It was stabilized by a 2 x 12 which had been mitered down to only a 2 x 4’s worth of bearing. 2) The parapet had been constructed using ceramic block. When the block was uncovered, we found that they were severely deteriorated and had to be removed as well.
To correct the above issues, we installed structural steel columns. We used C channel columns to minimize the footprint. These were bolted to the columns and the existing beam. We were mainly concerned about bearing, not uplift in this condition. For lateral stabilization, we tied the beam back to the existing ceiling joists using 2 x 8’s. The ceiling joist were pocketed into the existing side walls, so they were stable. we attached the 2 x 8’s at 24″ o/c across four joists anchoring them at each crossing creating a gridwork and thus, a diaphragm frame. To replace the ceramic block we used 4″ concrete block to create a backer for the brick facade and to help support the limestone caps.
As soon as the brick work is done, we’ll be able to order the glass and proceed with the store front aluminum. Bob plans to open an art gallery and small event space here. 114 North Main Street will become The Unintended Curator. This should prove a nice addition to the downtown and I’m sure people will soon forget what the building even looked like before.
Update on The Paddocks 5-20-20
Progress has continued on The Paddocks Apartments and Townhouses over the past month. The first building erected was a townhouse building. The exterior is not complete with the exception of the garage doors which are scheduled to be installed within the next week. We upgraded the initially specified faux stone facade accents to actual fieldstone. It looks great! This also follows Culver’s Charrette recommendations for continuing a fieldstone theme on new construction in Culver wherever possible. The driveway base is in place and we are working on scheduling asphalt. Paving may have to wait until the second drive is complete, but Phend & Brown is looking at ways to expedite this for us.
Inside the townhouse building, the walls have been insulated, drywall has been hung & finished and painting is underway. We are expecting delivery of cabinets in the next day or two. Things will be changing rapidly there as we move through finishes.
The three apartment buildings are all under roof and are at various stages of completion for infrastructure. We are currently waiting on siding to arrive for installation to begin on those exteriors. All interior infrastructure is in place on the west apartment building and insulation is underway this week. Drywall installation should follow shortly.
The second townhouse building at the far end of the site has footings, frostwalls and underslab infrastructure in place. All of the wall panels are on site and framing should begin as soon as the slab has been poured. We expect that to happen yet this week.
The other exciting news here is the finalization of a landscape plan. This project is going for NGBS Silver status and part of that point system requires a Sustainable Landscape. We have contracted with Cardno to provide this for us. We asked them to include a presentation to the Culver Town Council, since some elements differ from current ordinance requirements. That presentation was made on the 12th. You can find more on that, including a short video of that presentation in a previous post here. The plan will go through some additional tweaking, but we have a great start here. We hope to have plantings completed by the end of this year.
We’re pleased with how things are coming together and the kind comments we’re receiving about the project. We continue to feel that this will be a great addition to the Culver community and our proud that this is our contribution to Culver’s Stellar designation.
A Sustainable Landscape for The Paddocks
One of the things that IHCDA wanted to see in our RHTC application for The Paddocks Apartments was a Sustainable Landscape Plan. We chose to meet NGBS Silver status for this project.
To help us with this, we contacted Chris Kline, Sustainability Manager, at Cardno. I have personally worked with Chris and Cardno in the past on various projects through my association with the Lake Maxinkuckee Environmental Fund. Chris brought in Christine Dittmar as the project manager. We had several conversations regarding our goals and preferences including a couple of site visits and several plan reiterations. The current version is what you see below.
The key is a bit hard to read at this scale, so briefly: Green is standard lawn turf. Dark green is a low-mow fescue similar to what you would find in the rough of a golf course. The orange area is a prairie buffer between The Paddocks and the adjacent property. The pink is a detention pond planted as a pollinator garden with native wild flower plants that will have rotating blooms. The dark purple at the top is another detention pond which will have a variety of native plantings that can tolerate the fluctuation of water associated with the pond.
The goal was to have the best of both worlds here. Because this complex is geared towards families, we wanted adequate areas of turf where children would have the opportunity to play. These areas of turf are also used to border the native, naturalized areas, thus giving them definition. In some of the transition areas, we have included fruit trees for interest. Signage will be included to explain to residents and passersby what they are seeing.
Along with the turf recreation areas, Cardno has included a natural playground area, a fire pit and a community garden. An area for a second community garden has been set aside if a second is warranted; otherwise it will remain another area of turf.
We asked Chris to include a presentation to the Culver Town Council which was made at the May 12th meeting via Microsoft Teams. Since this was an online presentation, We also requested that it be recorded to be shared. The presentation to the Council was abbreviated in order to be cognizant of their time, but the long version was recorded here:
It will be interesting to see this come to fruition. We expect the majority of this landscape to be in place yet this year as the site work wraps up. The first units should be available for rent sometime late this summer.
The Paddocks Apartments Progress Article
Jamie Fleury did a nice article on The Paddocks that appeared in the Pilot News and Culver Citizen this past week. As always, we appreciate the press. We continue to get emails from people interested in these apartments so it would appear the need is there. The last I check, there are 15 on the list for when things open up. It’s always good to have that confirmed beyond the market study and the Stellar Committee’s (and before that the Entry Level Housing Committee’s) gut feeling.
The Paddocks, though not known by that name at that time, was the signature project in Culver’s Stellar Communities application in 2016 & 2017. Seeing it come to fruition should be a great boon to Culver and the Town’s efforts to boost our population by providing housing for Culver Community School teachers, Culver Academies staff and ACPI employees.
All the siding is on the first townhome building. As you can see in the above picture, we’re preparing to install the stone veneer accents. Those will be field stone following Culver’s Design Charrette recommendations.
The first building passed it’s NGBS inspection from Energy Diagnostics last week. That’s the outside consulting firm we are using to verify compliance. That allows the first building to move forward with drywall installation next week.
We’ve also been having meetings with Cardno regarding the landscaping. The project will have a sustainable landscape. There will be some limited turf, but there will be other areas with prairie plantings, low-mow fescue and pollinator plantings. We are planning a presentation to the Town since this will fall outside their normal ordinance requirements.
Keep checking here and at the Sand Hill Farm site for updates.
The Paddocks Apartments Update April 3rd, 2020
A lot has gone on at The Paddocks apartments in Culver since our last post here. Things have been busy in the field so that’s cut into writing time. The latest thing to get underway is some of the masonry. All of the buildings have masonry accents. For the apartments, those accents are split face block on the sides between the balconies/patios. The picture above shows progress on the masonry accents on the first (west – Apt bld 100) apartment building.
The first townhome building on the south side of Cavalier Drive is up and weathered in with shingles on the roof and windows & doors in place. It had inspections on plumbing, electrical and HVAC ductwork rough-ins completed yesterday by the Marshall County Building Inspector. These buildings will be well inspected since we not only have the local inspector looking at them, but they are being visited by an inspector from IHCDA (Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority) and from an engineering firm working for the lender. We are also going for NGBS (National Green Building Standard) Silver status which means there will be another inspector coming out to inspect the HVAC system and the building envelope to meet those standards.
The first two apartment buildings (100 & 200) are up and weathered in with shingles on the roof and windows & doors in place. Most of the HVAC system rough-in is done in both of these buildings. Plumbing rough-in is nearly complete in the building 100 and underway in building 200. Electrical rough-in is underway in building 100. The balcony decks are in place on both buildings. We have ordered the stairs and railings. They will be aluminum in a similar style to what was used at Sand Hill Farm apartments. The masonry accents are now in place on building 100 and are underway on building 200.
Apt Bld 300 has second floor framing underway
The last apartment building (300) has the foundation and slab in place and framing is currently underway. Roof trusses were delivered today. It should be weathered in within a few weeks, weather permitting
Along with the building construction a lot of the site work is in place. The drive for the first townhome building has the base stone in place. The pad for the next townhome building is prep’d and ready for footing excavation. The sites for the last two buildings, another townhome and a community building, are close to grade now. The site water, sewer and storm infrastructure are complete in some areas. We’ll be preparing the main parking lot for its stone base soon.
