Munyer Apartments Restoration Work
Last November, I was contracted, by friend Cassandra West, to do some restoration work in her incredible 2 bedroom apartment. We initially were going to restore some woodwork, paint the bedrooms and hall, and remove paint from the fireplace. However, it turned out to be a much larger project than we all anticipated!
Here's what happened. The first morning, about ten minutes before I walked in on the job, an old hot water pipe, in the ceiling above the bathroom, had just burst and water was coming down all over.
So our first job was removing and replacing the bathroom ceiling and having some electrical work redone. Cassandra decided to take advantage of the situation and had us repaint and install wall coverings and a new medicine cabinet in the bathroom as well.
As if one disaster was not enough! During our restoration work, there was a fire in the front portion of the unit upstairs, above us - probably caused by an unextinquished cigarette in a trash can, . The fire caused serious damage to that upstairsunit and water damage to our unit below where we were remodeling. Both bedroom ceilings in the unit we were working on had just gotten new plaster and we were working on removing paint from the fireplace and doing the painting work. Fortunately, the new ceiling plaster in the bedrooms was undamaged.
On the Roman brick fireplace, we had just finished the bulk paint removal with a sodium hydroxide, paste type remover. The debris was still all over our drop clothes. When the fire started we, of course, had to leave the building - and when we returned (with the power out), the place looked like a war zone! Not only was there water all over, but the firemen coming through had tracked our just-removed paint and paste all over the place. What a mess!
Gallons of water had come down through living room ceiling and needless to say, the ceiling had to be re-plastered and the floors had to be re-done.
We did finally finish the fireplace to our great satisfaction. In the end, the restoration work we completed included having the all the red oak floors sanded. This was necessary because someone in the past had applied a very dark brown stain, which was very ugly and made the whole place look very dingy. After the sanding, we then shellacked all the floors, reproducing their original finish.
Right: The fireplace after restoration.
Below: Here I am, trying not to spill coffee on the new floors, just after finishing and waxing.
Also for this project, I designed and built some bookcases and art glass panels to go between the living room and front porch (below). The art glass repeats the motif that Van Bergen used throughout the building's original art glass.
(Marty Hackl photos)
When the building was built, Van Bergen designed these units with French doors between the living rooms and porches. Over the years, all the French doors had been removed and the porches glazed in. Without the doors, the rooms had no separation of the spaces as was the architect's original intent. I tried to design the new work to recreate the effect of separation as was the original intention.
Other work we did was to repaint the textured brick and mortar on the front porch with a faux finish (left). This was done to resemble the original brick, which had many coats of paint and which would have been too difficult and expensive to strip. I also installed a ceramic tile on the concrete porch floor. A contemporary tile was chosen to be sensitive to the colors and texture of the original architecture. Due to damage from the fire, I also had to restore the porch ceiling light fixture which was art glass and copper. The paint was removed while retaining the patina of the copper. The glass was cleaned and repaired.
To complete the entire project for me was to recreate the two missing living room ceiling light fixtures with reproductions . Those wood "chandeliers" are Van Bergen's unique designs. The 12 new wall sconces (right) are my own design.
(Marty Hackl photo)
3rd Floor Apartment Restoration work
Above: right after the fire
In the second unit, above, that had the fire, I was contracted to restore all the smoke damaged woodwork, doors and trim that could be saved and replace what could not be saved with Sweet Gum wood to match the original. Heidler Hardwood Lumber of Chicago was able to supply with the nicely figured Sweet Gum.
All the ceiling trim is new as well as the trim around the front of the living room and the fireplace. After sanding, to seal the old wood against any possible smoke fumes escaping, we used a colored polyurethane finish to simulate the color and texture of the original colored-wax finish. I have no pictures available at this time.
Copyright © 2002 Martin Hackl