Winter 2004 Edition     

Restoring Radburn's Plaza Building   A few sheets of a synthetic slate material were recently tested on a portion of the Plaza Building.   Even though it will add several months and cost at least an extra $100,000, a new roof, made of real slate, will be installed.      Mike LaGrotteria, construction manager for the Plaza Building, told Fair Lawn News that the future retail tenants may include: Dunkin' Donuts, Columbia Bank, Quizno’s Subs, Radburn Deli, a take-out pizzeria, and a pharmacy.     Quizno's is hoping to open in April 2004.        The Ives Group, an architectural firm whose offices were destroyed in the Plaza Building fire, has been working this past year to restore the Plaza Building. Fair Lawn News asked the head of the firm, Joel Ives, "What's taking so long?"    Joel Ives:  "The challenge has been to replicate the original design using modern non-combustible materials, contemporary construction techniques and complying with current Building Codes. These requirements have added to the difficulty of the project.   Can you imagine if someone were to build a house in Fair Lawn and was not allowed to use wood in the construction? That's a small aspect of what we're up against. We are attempting to recreate a building whose underlying structure was mostly wood and we are using other materials. We are providing a new fire sprinkler system however the building geometry leaves very little clearance to run pipes. Our goal from the beginning was to match the brick color. The existing building incorporates four different brick types that are no longer manufactured. Therefore, it was no easy task to select a brick that will look right.   There have been many other technical challenges.  The original building was built before air conditioning was commonly used. Air conditioning equipment has been carefully incorporated into the new design without changing the appearance of the architecture.   Slate roofs are not used very often today since they greatly exceed the costs of all other roofing materials. There are a limited number of roofers who can install slate correctly. A great deal of hard work by all the parties involved will result in a slate roof that is close as possible in appearance to the original.    Now that the steel is rising the public will begin to see the outline of the building form against the sky.   When we are done, our hope is that if someone returns to Fair Lawn after being away for a few years and they pass by the Radburn Building, they will be completely unaware that a disastrous fire took place there in October 2002."   See articles from the Fair Lawn News archives about the Plaza Building.   How They Saved The Building The Architect We Will Rebuild