Best of 2005 Awards

Kennedy Towers Apartments

Award of Merit: Renovation

The decision and effort to reduce the number of apartments in the John F. Kennedy Towers Senior Housing Complex in Troy, N.Y., involved a political gamble. For this reason, the Best of 2005 judges deemed it worthy of an award.

"To downsize a senior facility to make it more accommodating for the people who are there is a very tough political decision for a housing authority," one judge said. "Very few housing projects are ever reconfigured to make it a better environment. They're just renovated as they are."

The $16.5 million project completed in August on behalf of Kennedy Towers HDFC, a management corporation that runs the facility for the Troy Housing Authority, resulted in a major interior renovation to the 21-story, publicly operated apartment complex built in 1966 for low-income senior citizens.

advertisement

The project resulted in reducing the number of apartments from 266 to 135, while upping the space within the units by 50 percent by adding a second bedroom or den to each.

By working from the top floors down in four phases, the team completed the work within a 24-month timeframe while more than half of the building remained occupied. The phased completion of mechanical and electrical systems allowed tenants to occupy new apartments upon the completion of each phase.

The team installed new appliances such as dishwashers in each apartment along with new wood doors, nurse-call systems, finishes, and windows. The team also renovated each unit's bathrooms in order to meet federal Americans with Disabilities Act requirements.

The project also involved upgrades to heat pump, cooling and heating, and energy-recovery exhaust systems.

The building's round exterior shape made the design and layout of partitions and interior spaces more complex. Exterior work included the construction of retaining walls and fencing; painting and sealing of precast concrete panels; roof replacement; and asbestos removal from floors, ceilings, and windows. The team removed asbestos and debris - and loaded new materials - by crane.

Key Players

Owner-Developer: Kennedy Towers HDFC (Troy Housing Authority and Omni Housing Development)

General Contractor: Turner Construction

Architect: Lomonaco & Pitts, Architects

M-E-P Engineer: Hesnor Engineering

Structural Engineer: Zaremba-Sopko Associates

Demolition: Cambria Contracting

Structural Steel-Metals: National Welding & Fabrication

Carpentry-Drywall-Plaster: Niatrust Drywall