Archive: Around Town

The 2014 Pride of Ownership Awards Committee announced Wednesday this year's winning projects. The annual awards, recognizing owners of properties within the city of Ithaca who have developed projects or taken care of their properties in ways that enhance the physical appearance of city neighborhoods and commercial areas, is a joint project of the Ithaca Rotary Club and the City of Ithaca.

The 2014 committee consists of former alderperson Susan Blumenthal (the awards founder), Scott Whitham, Whitham Planning and Design LLC and current chair, Realtor and local historian Margaret Hobbie, Architect John Barradas, Frost Travis of Travis Hyde Properties, and Brett Bossard, director of Cinemapolis.

The 2014 Awards:

310 First Street Carl Feuer and Carol Cedarholm
310 First Street is an exemplary project for the Pride of Ownership Awards. Carl Feuer and Carol Cedarholm had owned their home for over 30 years, when they decided it was time to upgrade. With their sensitive remodel of this very typical Ithaca home, they have restored many of the original design elements. With the addition of the beautiful new wrap around porch including photovoltaic and thermal solar panels, they have reinvested in their Northside neighborhood. This is a mixed-income neighborhood with homes in a variety of conditions. 310 First Street demonstrates how one committed home owner can make their property a bulwark against decline and in favor of neighborhood stability. The addition of solar panels models a sustainable approach to energy utilization that one hopes others in the downtown area will follow, further enhancing the neighborhood and the community.

Neighbors and passersby who are familiar with the before and after of the home uniformly agree on the beauty of the final product.

224 Cliff Street Owner and contractor: Albert Kelly
224 Cliff Street has seen many changes over the decades. Originally built around 1850 in the Greek Revival style with plank walls, it was transformed a few decades later when the owners raised the roof and added a second story in the Victorian style. It was home for generations of the Bennett family, then later in the twentieth century it was acquired by out-of-town owners as a rental property and fell into disrepair.

A new owner in 1996 hoped to restore the unique building, but his efforts were thwarted by the steep terrain and difficulty getting workmen and equipment onto the site. The building's condition grew even worse.

Fortunately, Albert Kelly lives in an adjacent house on Hector Street, at the same altitude as 224 Cliff Street. Best known as the owner of Kelly's Dockside Café, Mr. Kelly is also an experienced builder and has a love for the West Side and its rich history. He acquired 224 Cliff Street in 2012 and set to work to create a two-unit rental property. Access was not a problem as he could bring equipment to the site across his Hector Street property.

Mr. Kelly and his subcontractors gutted the house down to the studs, jacked it up and set it on a new foundation. They excavated three feet of shale in order to bring the first floor ceiling height up to code. They removed ancient green asphalt siding, discovering the original wooden clapboards which needed very little repair. They shingled the roof, added insulation and installed new electrical, plumbing, and heating systems. A dramatic wooden staircase descends to the parking area on Cliff Street.

Argos Inn (408 East State Street) Avi Smith, Owner
The Argos Inn at 408 East State Street is the stately white historic mansion that greets visitors to the city at the foot of East Hill. Known for many years as the Cowdry Mansion, it was actually built in 1831 for Ithaca Village President Jacob McCormick and was later the home of the Cowdry family. For most of the second half of the twentieth century it was owned by Roy Park and housed as many as 25 offices.

Avi Smith, a Tompkins County native who had recently restored Brookton's Market in Brooktondale, purchased the building in 2009 with the vision of turning it into a small hotel. The exterior renovation involved restoration of the existing facades, including the transformation of open porches on the east side into a public sun room on the first floor and guest room above.

Large slabs of local bluestone are used throughout the building and grounds: in the bathroom and shower floors, the 2500 square foot patio that doubles as an accessible entry, and the front steps. The front lawn was raised to create a circular platform for the inn to rest upon, and a bank of shrubs and trees was planted in the resulting slope to buffer the Inn from the busy roadway. A set of stone steps was designed and placed into the new slope to relate to the stone front steps to the inn. The landscape design employs familiar garden plants that were popular in the 19th century in a new and surprising way.

Similarly, the interior restoration is a contemporary take on Victorian materials. The stylish Bar Argos and other public spaces feature original wide plank floors, fireplaces, and original plaster crown moldings. Among the team were project manager Matt Yarrow, general contractors Alpern & Milton, landscape designer Scott Whitham, architectural consultants John Snyder and Ray Lefebvre, and master carpenter John Kingsley.

Ithaca Neighborhood Housing Services, Breckenridge Place, 100 W. Seneca Street
Something of value was lost to the community, but something also of great value was gained when the beloved Women's Community Building (WCB) was replaced with the construction of Breckenridge Place at the corner of Seneca and Cayuga Streets. After a lengthy deliberative period about the future of the WCB, the City Federation of Women's Organizations decided to ask Ithaca Neighborhood Housing Services to construct an accessible and affordable housing project on the site. INHS partnered with PathStone, another not-for-profit organization based in Rochester, to construct the six-story building with fifty 1- and 2-bedroom apartments on the upper five floors, and offices and common space on the ground floor. It is the first new affordable housing project in or near downtown Ithaca in 40 years.

The DeWitt Building, the Clinton House and the Masonic Temple are on facing corners, and the site is very near the city-designated DeWitt Park Historic District. Designing the building to contribute to the historic aesthetic of the location was one of the predominant goals at the outset. As a result, the scale and massing of the building are compatible with its surroundings, yet the building is modern in character and construction. A second major goal was to construct a building that would be long lasting and sustainable.

Details incorporated into the design enhance the building and ensure it fits into its surroundings. The brick facade, along with granite and stone elements, provides an enduring material and timeless design. The protruding segments of the façade, echoing the DeWitt Building, minimize the length of the W. Seneca St. wall. Window styles were also selected with reference to the DeWitt and to be highly energy- efficient. Breckenridge Place is an LEED platinum certified structure with many
energy saving components, including sunshades over the windows on the south- facing Seneca St. façade.

HOLT Architects, with Steve Hugo as project leader and lead designer, designed Breckenridge Place. The apartment building was named for Juanita Breckenridge, a founding member of the City Federation, to honor the 100-year history of the group. Honoring her was another historic touch for a thoroughly modern building.

Chis Bordoni Fitness Trailhead
The product of a wide-reaching community fundraising effort, the Chris Bordoni Fitness Trailhead is the latest addition to the successful Cayuga Waterfront Trail project. The trailhead consists of a simple curvilinear concrete plaza and attractive native landscaping, and features eight outdoor exercise stations focused on upper body strength. According to those who knew him, the site is a fitting memorial for Corporal Chris Bordoni, the U.S. Marine for whom it's named. An Ithaca High School graduate and fitness enthusiast, Bordoni succumbed to injuries sustained in Afghanistan in 2012.

While Chris received treatment in the San Antonio Military Medical Center, friends, family, and community members here in Tompkins County lent support--both moral and financial--to his parents, Tim Bordoni and Carol Sprague. After his passing, Tim and Carol looked for the most appropriate way to give some of that support back to the community in his honor. Working with family friends Terry and Barb Ciaschi of Island Health and Waterfront Trail designer Rick Manning, plans grew from a simple bench dedication to the more elaborate fitness zone that now inhabits an area of the trail along the inlet on Park Drive. Events like the Bordoni 5K Extreme Fitness Challenge helped quickly raise the additional funds necessary to make the site a reality, with the ribbon cutting ceremony taking place on Veteran's Day 2013.

An engraved stone at the trailhead honors both the site's namesake and those who spearheaded the efforts to complete it, reading, simply: 'honor, courage, and commitment.'

Cornell University, Bill and Melinda Gates Hall
The Bill and Melinda Gates Hall, the new building located at the corner of Hoy and Campus roads on the site of the former Hoy Field parking lot, provides a striking example of contemporary architecture for the Cornell campus and Ithaca community. The 100,000 square foot building is now home to the Department of Computer Science and the Department of Information Science which were previously housed in various locations on and off campus. A generous gift of $25 million by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation initiated the $60 million project. Thom Mayne, of the highly regarded U.S. architecture firm Morphosis and winner of
the renowned Pritzker Prize in architecture in 2005, was the lead architect on the project.

This is no ordinary glass box with bland floor-to-ceiling glass windows. The perforated flat and angular metal panel system on the façade provides a level of depth to the surface and a three dimensional ornamental screen that produces a more complex building wall. The panel system also limits solar gain and provides shading on Ithaca's sunniest days to minimize cooling costs. Inside the building's glass curtain wall are open workspaces and abundant natural light, intended to inspire collaboration and creativity for faculty, staff and student researchers in the two growing fields.

The building also provides added non-academic benefits to the building's occupants: on the south side, a birds-eye view of athletic events at Hoy Field and on the other side, a sweeping view across campus to Cayuga Lake. All in all, this new project provides an exceptional contribution to modern architecture at the university.

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