Projects

PROJECTS

Since our founding 30 years ago, we have completed more than 700 individual projects

— many of them for repeat customers. Some projects have been on a large scale, such as our award-winning restoration work at Eastern Market on Capitol Hill or the 86 windows we restored at the Egyptian Ambassador's residence on Massachusetts Avenue. Yet, our business is not all about "the grand scale." Some of our best and most satisfying work may involve a single, meticulously restored door, a beautiful mahogany bookshelf appropriately styled to fit a living room, or a sitting area in a quiet outdoor garden. In fact, our love of material, process, detail, and historical context often shows up better in more intimate projects.

We hope this project gallery gives you a sense of the varied scope of our expertise.

WASHINGTON D.C. LANDMARKS

Click on an image to enlarge and learn more.

CARNEGIE LIBRARY FOR APPLE, 2018

c. 1903 — Window and door restoration and reproduction, 100 doors and windows

I think after 115 years, this building has found its ideal app. Vibrant in the mid-century, automobile traffic soon isolated it from pedestrian access. In 1977, the library was moved to what is now an important landmark building as well, and since that time, various museum plans have come and gone. This Beaux-Arts structure is honestly not the best built monumental building we have helped restore in this town, but a good cleaning and good fix-up have wiped the slate clean and I think now this will be one of Apple’s best stores.

North elevation—we reproduced all of these windows that had been basically destroyed through neglect and bad insulating glass retrofit.

The front doors revealed the building’s challenged history. Somewhat ill-fitting modern design was modified and repaired over the century so that restoration was no longer sensible. We generated new details and design after a careful exploration of the existing door’s components. New doors are 2 1/2” solid oak hung on the original bronze hinges.

For its vintage, I was surprised the building contained plain sawn red oak and not the then widely available chestnut. The laminations that comprised this overly wide bottom rail had failed, replacement was the only reasonable option.

Existing doors revealed a plywood core likely from the year 2000.

The window frames on site were severely compromised in the 2001 restoration/destruction. Wrong materials and techniques had rendered the original millwork not just dysfunctional, but basically not improvable. This image displays the destructive techniques necessary to remove the reglazed sash. We replaced this jamb and 100 more with reproductions of the actual original.

Modern sealants are amazing materials and essential to the flush conditions of modern architecture. They should however be used with discretion on historic buildings. The misuse of this polysulfide sealant at Carnegie contributed heavily to the destruction of historic fabric. Sometimes too good is just that.

The center pivot sash were easy and charming to use. We had looked forward to operating our reproduction sash by remote control through your Apple iPhone. However, owners decided to leave sash fixed.

Center pivot bronze hardware at Carnegie. More on this unusual hinge in our hardware segment.

CANNON HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING, 2016-22

c. 1903 — Window and door restoration, hardware refinishing, refinishing of 1000 doors and 3000 windows

DUMBARTON HOUSE, 2016-20

c. 1800

RAYBURN HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING DOORS, 2018

c. 1962 — Historic door reproduction, hardware procurement, fabricated 110 reproduction doors

Rayburn House Office Building, built in the early 1960s had a curious and somewhat unusual tack on modernity reflected in its doors. These first two photos show the varied door faces, one with panels and bolection molding and the other completely flush. The architect of the capital had the original drawings where this type was called unbalanced, and I agree. A strange aesthetic to reinforce hierarchy. Only the door faces used by a member of Congress were elaborated and other faces flush. It seems having a relatively fancy face and a simple one makes the door only half difficult to fabricate, but indeed, it is twice as difficult.

A handsome 60s take on door panel treatments. This too, more difficult than traditional raised panels.

These stave cores were specified by AOC to be solid wood, not particle board. The quality difference is something they know. The long-term durability of real wood is for them, proven. These cores go into a small segment of the 120 doors we made for Rayburn that would be flush on both sides.

Precise machining, correct sequence, and a modern surface sander are keys to flush door production. Everyday thousands of these doors are produced by large manufacturers. Here, it was our job, because the face veneers were required to be 1/8” thick by the AOC. Veneer this thick must be sawn and not sliced, so few woodworking facilities produce doors of this quality.

Here the premium walnut thick sawn veneers are grain matched and laid out for gluing.

Premium American black walnut mostly goes to veneer mills. Just sourcing this 100% heartwood free of pin knots in board stock took a bit of looking.

This veneer, 1/1000th of an inch thicker than an 1/8 of an inch.

This door core with a coating of Titebond veneer-grade glue is ready for the press.

The foreground shows, as does the item being coated, a sawn walnut veneer 1/8” x 36” x 84”. This is the maximum thickness most wood species would still act as a veneer and not take on the characteristics of board stock itself.

Sequence and coordination drive efficiency, as does technology. This pneumatically driven vacuum press is a beautiful and simple, effective device.

The veneer press relies on the column of air above every square inch of this planet. That column of air weighs about 14 pounds. If you take the air out from under that column, you have 14 pounds per square inch pressing on your veneer.

Blue box below draws a vacuum through a compressed air driven venturi pump. Jake helps settle in the bag.

We sawed and laid up over 5,000 square feet of 1/8” thick veneer for this project. The planer in the left-rear handles 37” wide materials. It was built in the 1920s and restored here.

This run of 126 doors fills the corridor and offices on the ground floor at Rayburn. These new spaces will be the temporary offices for those congressmen displaced by the four-phase renewal at the adjacent Cannon House Office Building.

The rails and stile are our sawn veneers. In the panel field, the government specified sliced veneers. The distinction here is strong on the finished door, less so.

Without hand sanding as the last step, evidence of swirl and cross-grain sanding will always present through the finish.

Scrutiny from AOC was plentiful both during the process and upon completion.

SUlGRAVE CLUB, 2016

c. 1908 — Last of Dupont Mansions, historic sash restoration, bowed sash, hardware restoration

TUDOR PLACE, 2016

c. 1815 — Window restoration

OCTAGON MUSEUM, 2015

c. 1803 — Rare and delicate pre-Industrial Revolution sash and glass, historic window restoration, reproduction, and hardware refinishing

ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE MCDOWELL HALL, 2015

c. 1984 — Large-scale refurbishment project

McDowell Hall was a principle building at this school’s founding in the 17th century. It burned badly in the early 20th century. What we restored and what you see here is an approximate of rebuilding of the original building.

The windows were overpainted and under-repaired. There were many function and fit issues throughout, but relatively little serious decay. This project was a good candidate for our refurbishment process . By not stripping all paint and putty unnecessarily, we could save the college nearly 30% from the restoration budget.

The new McDowell Hall, though with many quotes from the original structure, forwards the influence of Georgian-style academic architecture.

OLD POST OFFICE PAVILION / TRUMP INTERNATIONAL HOTEL, 2014

c. 1890 — Sash and jamb restoration, reproduction, hardware cleaning, repair, and refinishing, 1000 Windows restored — Washington Building Congress Craftsmanship Award

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JACKSON ARTS CENTER, 2013

c. 1880 — Historic window restoration and reproduction, 70 school windows

MARET SCHOOL, 2013

c. 1806 — Pre-Industrial Revolution structure, historic sash and jamb restoration and reproduction — National Building of Congress Award of Craftsmanship