Apr 26, 2013

Construction Watch: Hotel Graystone on Track for New Residents this Summer

Rehabilitation of the Hotel Graystone at 24 Johnson Park is well underway and should be wrapped up and ready for residents this summer. The inside of the Graystone is buzzing with activity as workers create the 42 market-rate apartments, restoring original features, including over 320 original windows. In addition to the apartments, commercial space will be available in the basement.
HG-9858

The Graystone was built between 1894 and 1897 and was originally planned to extend all the way to Delaware Avenue. Unfortunately, the plans never materialized because the owner ran into financial problems leaving the building only partially completed. A new owner took over in 1896 and quickly completed the building. The western two thirds of the building are reinforced concrete, while the eastern one-third is steel and brick construction, done to expedite construction when the new owner took over.

HG-9784
The opening in the ceiling is the future location of a spiral staircase to the bedrooms above
Ellicott Development Company purchased the property in 2002 and work has been on and off since due to a number of complications, like the partial roof collapse several years ago. The Graystone was vacated over 20 years ago; at its height it served visitors of the Pan-American Exposition in 1901 and once housed 63 apartment units.

HG-9783

The rehabilitation proved challenging because all the walls in the reinforced concrete portion of the building are load bearing and could not be significantly altered. The brick and steel section of the building offered more leeway as walls could be more easily moved and modified.

HG-9778

A centered classic entrance provides access to the building and the interior corridor has terrazzo floors and remnants of scaglioa on the walls in a similar fashion to the Hotel Lafayette. Two light alleys do a great job at bringing natural down to the darkest parts of the building. Units that have walls abutting the light alley feature the original windows that will continue to provide natural light into new bedrooms. The apartments will be a mix of one and two bedroom units with unique design features in each.

HG-9767

Terrazzo floors continue from the corridor into some of the units and will be restored. Additionally, many units feature original hardwood flooring that will also be refinished and exposed. As previously mentioned, there was a need to get creative with the unit layout due to the load bearing construction. Six of the units are two floors with the living space and kitchen on the first floor and bedrooms on the floor above, accessed via a new spiral staircase. Other features being retained and restored include the detailed metal staircases, ceiling windows in the first floor corridor, and the mosaic tile floor in what is believed to be a former lounge area.

HG-9770

The Graystone is on the National Register of Historic Places and the rehabilitation is utilizing historic tax credits. Recently, the ECIDA also granted Ellicott Development $212,900 in sales and mortgage tax abatements. For additional photos of the rehabilitation work in progress, check out my Flickr page by clicking here.


_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Views of Buffalo Flickr     -     fixBuffalo     -     The Atlantic Cities     -     The Urbanophile

3 comments:

  1. one of my favorite buildings in Buffalo

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wonderful work; congratulations DLH

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for sharing this informative post with us. It's just going tho be great when everything is up and running in this building. Have a great rest of your day and keep up the posts.
    Lawyer Philadelphia

    ReplyDelete