Situated on the Illinois Institute of Technology's near south side campus, the seven-story building was originally constructed in 1893 as part of the Armour Institute—a predecessor to IIT. Designed by architects Patten & Fisher, the building is considered a notable example of the Richardsonian Romanesque style and was designated a Chicago Landmark in 2004. The building, under new ownership, is undergoing a $27M renovation to convert the historic landmark into 82 apartments and 20 affordable units.

K&H was tasked with providing façade rehabilitation consultation and structural engineering services for the adaptive reuse of this historic structure. The building had been vacant for many years, resulting is significant deterioration to the building façade and structural systems due to lack of maintenance and continual water infiltration. The roof of the 2-story annex south of the main building and all of the exterior walls required temporary stabilization and shoring.

Large trusses supporting the steep-sloped roofs have deflected and settled over the years, imposing substantial lateral thrust to the top of the exterior walls and resulting in significant damage and displacement to the unreinforced masonry.  In addition to specifying repairs to large portions of the walls, K&H was challenged with developing a solution to re-support the trusses in order to remove much of the lateral load from the exterior walls.  New interior columns and footings were carefully designed within the constraints of the existing building and the new planned layout. Finally, the substantially deteriorated 2-story Annex required entirely new floor and roof structures supported off the existing historic masonry walls.

K&H performed interior inspections of existing structural system, and exterior facade inspections from the vantage of boom-lift and UAV (drone) technology. K&H developed several façade rehabilitation and structural engineering alternatives, then worked closely with the Prime Architect and Owner to evaluate, and ultimately tailor the program that met the Owner’s needs and budget requirements. K&H continues to provide design services for the project.

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