VISUAL STRUCTURAL ASSESSMENT

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3 Urgent Needs II City of Baltimore No NORTH HOWARD ST. 407 North Howard Street (circa 1910) is a multi-story building set second in row from Mulberry Street to the south between a vacant property at 409 North Howard Street and the Liberty Federal Savings and Loan building at 405 North Howard Street. A load-bearing brick structure, the west elevation fronting North Howard Street was three stories tall. The vertical arrangement of this elevation is a straightforward base-body-capital stacked arrangement common to 19 th and early-20 th century urban commercial buildings of three or more stories. VISUAL STRUCTURAL ASSESSMENT This building has moderate water damage due to a portion of the front of the roof that is open to the elements. The roof structure is basically intact from a member framing standpoint and only has missing sheathing/roofing materials. The structure inside the building is in good condition, as the framing members do not appear to have been compromised. There are some minor beams and columns that have water damage but they are not significant enough in number to affect the building s overall system for lateral bracing. Subflooring and planking on the floors, however, are warped and degraded from ponding water through the leaking roof area. Some of the building materials have fallen to the lower floors but not to an extent that they have jeopardized the lateral bracing aspects of the building. The JMT team was able to access the levels of this unit and view the walls and floors. Some masonry at walls and doorways have deteriorated in the areas of greatest water infiltration. This building requires only limited repairs to joists, beams and roof purlins. Debris removal will be required to properly stage repairs for items interior to the building. A new roof will need to be installed on the entire building once the lateral and gravity repairs have been completed. The floors generally have reusable primary members but cross bracings will need to be replaced in order for them to function fully as structural diaphragms again. It is also anticipated that some masonry work will be required in order to place new members and structural elements throughout the various levels. All doors and windows will need to be covered so that water intrusion does not continue after encapsulation repairs. In order to secure this building we suggest using the structural bracing schemes shown in SH-4 and SH-7, in part or in combination, in the Appendix. JMT estimates that the cost to stabilize this structure is approximately $89,526.00, as detailed in our conceptual cost estimate attached to this report. 1

4 Urgent Needs II City of Baltimore No ARCHITECTURAL ASSESSMENT Defining the base in this vertical arrangement is a decorative sheet metal entablature spanning the width of the elevation. The gray-painted sheet metal storefront entablature appeared to be an off-site assembly, perhaps an arrangement of components selected from a catalog, featured a projected cornice with a band of dentil molding beneath, and a fluted frieze beneath that. The horizontal spacing of the frieze fluting aligned with the horizontal spacing of the dentils. Fluted modillions at either end of the frieze support fauxcapitals projected from the cornice. Beneath the storefront entablature we observed a tri-bay storefront arrangement with the three storefront bays featuring a transom window in a rectangular horizontal frame divided left to right into three roughly equal lights. Cast iron decorative column covers with capitals accent either end of the storefront, concealing the masonry ends of the party walls. Protective plywood covering beneath the transom windows hides the remaining elevation. We presume this hides a large piece of glass set between the transom band and a spandrel panel in the north end of the south bay as well as an entrance passage door. A pair of narrower cast iron decorative column covers and capitals conceal posts that frame the three bays into roughly equal widths. Relatively intact one-over-one doublehung wood windows open the whitepainted second and third floor brick masonry. The capital of this vertical arrangement is a gray-painted sheet metal roof cornice, featuring bracketed cornice supporting crown molding projected shelflike from the parapet, with a band of dentil 2

5 Urgent Needs II City of Baltimore No molding and a simple sheet-metal frieze spanning between end brackets. The roof cornice is also possibly an off-site assembly, and like the storefront entablature perhaps an arrangement of components selected from a catalog. An exercise in understatement, the entablature delivers an efficient degree of finery upon an otherwise rather plain elevation, complimenting the decorative gestures of the storefront. The second and third floor featured one-over-one double-hung wood windows, a single window placed in each bay for a total of six windows. A window sash was missing from the leftmost window of the second floor; however, the remaining windows remained mostly intact. The wood window frames and wood sash members were painted gray. The masonry window openings featured cut stone lentils painted green and brick jack arches SIGNIFICANT FEATURES 1. Storefront entablature atop the west elevation ground level 2. Three-bay storefront with transom windows and decorative cast iron column covers. 3. Sheet metal roof cornice with dentil molding band, frieze, and end brackets. 4. One-over-one double-hung windows with cast stone sill blocks. 5. Pressed-metal ceiling systems. 6. Numerous skylights on the third floor. 3

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