Historic Restoration

Owner:

HRI Properties

Design:

HCI Architecture, Inc.

Size:

34,000 square feet

Budget:

$7,000,000

Completion:

December 2007

River Garden Historic Apartments

The River Garden Historic Project involved the renovation of five historic buildings that were saved from the demolished St. Thomas public housing development. The buildings were converted into 37 affordable housing apartments in the River Garden development. The interior of the buildings were completely gutted and built back according to new floor plan layouts. Some of the challenges of the incorporating all required life safety systems to be in compliance with today’s codes and installing central air conditioning in the historic structures that were not originally designed for these systems.
The historic restoration of this project was carefully monitored by the National Park Service. The exterior restoration consisted of window replacement, restoration of the brick facades, re-creation of the historic ironwork and landscaping. New sidewalks and parking lots were installed to accomodate the tenants.