Divine Intervention – Access and Renovation of Biblical Proportions!
This is a giant job with many phases. Just scroll through the pictures and you’ll see its size and scope. I’ll do my best to condense all of the parts into a cohesive post. So here goes! Superior Scaffold was brought in, by General Contractor – Domus, Inc., to provide the scaffolding and shoring support to give crews complete access to the exterior of this 10-story structure for a massive renovation.
This is part of the $44 Million redevelopment of the Divine Lorraine Hotel. In a nut shell, this beautiful hotel is coming back to life. And what a life its had.
This old building has some absolutely fantastic architecture. Built back in 1892, the Divine Lorraine is going back to its original function; apartments. Back in the day, it housed some of Philadelphia’s wealthiest residents and soon will again. Here’s a link to an article that shows what she looked like in her glory.
I would love to do an entire article devoted strictly to the Lorraine and how it became Philadelphia’s first racially-integrated hotel under cult leader, Father Divine, who declared himself God Almighty here on earth (oh my). But we will stick to our cool scaffolding job in and around this building.
The plan is to create over 100 luxury apartments and 20,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space. (see what they will look like here)
The renovation of the Divine Lorraine can be seen as an indicator that North Broad Street itself is on its way back to economic vibrancy.
There are several cool parts to this and tons of great photos so we will have to break this down into areas. Let’s start with the massive amount of scaffolding all over the building and then talk about shoring and then move into the courtyard.
The West side went up first and then the North elevation. Eventually, we will work our way all the way around.
There is approximately 120 lineal feet of system scaffold. It was roughly 128’ high by 120’ long and runs the entire length of the building on Broad St. It has a work deck for crews every 6’6” and a Beta Max Maxial Track hoist to lift equipment.
Our Scaffold is providing restoration crews access all over the exterior of the building for renovations, repointing, surface cleaning, parapet and soffit work, brick replacement, balcony repair, window painting and replacement. This entire façade should look incredible once crews are finished.
Check out these decorative gargoyles/figures!
And what you can’t see is the shoring underneath the sidewalk on 3 sides. These post shores and aluminum beams are from under the East wing. They are all part of the over-all plan to support the weight of our scaffold, crews, and equipment that sit above.
The scope is essentially the same on each of the sides. I’ll show you in pictures just how that looks. This is a very cool job! (The following pics are of the North elevation going up)
It’s always nice to catch some action shots of our guys rockin’ the house! (Chris Ricketts, Mike Esposito) Here you can see them removing equipment from the Beta Max Maxial Track Scaffold Hoist.
Here’s the North side with debris netting for containment.
Let’s talk about our work in the courtyard!
It’s roughly 90’ long by 80’ high.
But the cool thing is that we couldn’t rest our scaffold on what appears to be the second story roof area because it’s really a false skylight.
So our guys had to bridge the gap with 21’ aluminum beams that rested on the window sills and then erect the scaffold on top of that! Those large aluminum beams had to come out of windows every 3rd floor to support the weight of the scaffold.
This is really very cool and amazingly stable. Superior Scaffold’s own engineer “Iron” Mike provided the drawings.
And this is the view from the top after it was completed. It allowed renovation crews incredible access.
There is so much to this job it’s very hard to put it all into one post but I wanted you all to see just how complex this it really was.
Some of the challenges included loading materials into the courtyard area (see below) and also building the scaffold and stepping back into the balconies.
This is how most of the scaffold material had to be loaded in for the crews to erect the West elevation and courtyard area… (up and over) Ouch…
We also have stair tower to access to two sides. Another one will be added when we move to the East elevation of the building.
This has been one amazing project and Superior Scaffold is proud to be a part of this renovation. If you need access, scaffolding, scaffold or shoring for any of your projects call us today at (215) 743-2200 and ask for Tommy – he’ll give you the Divine treatment.
And for our musical selection for the day – well, look at that! Sweet!
Yes, Divine Intervention can happen when you least expect it. Trust me, I know. Never give up hope!
ABC did a story on the renovation of the Divine Lorraine Hotel – click the hyperlink to check it out.
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