Let’s Celebrate the City at the Fisher Mansion!

Celebrate the City is an annual historic preservation celebration and fundraising event for City-owned historic properties. Last year's inaugural event was an afternoon of 1890’s-themed entertainment to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the City & County Building renovation.

Celebrate the City 2010 will be a two-day extravaganza featuring the Fisher Mansion. The event will be held at the property and will celebrate the history of Albert Fisher, the Fisher Brewing Company, the fine architecture of the mansion and carriage house, and the culture and history of the surrounding neighborhood. Planning is in its initial stages, but we anticipate hosting the following events:

• Gala Victorian evening (Friday 5/14/10, 6-8 pm)
• Family-friendly community activities (Saturday 5/15/10, 1-4 pm)
• Beer/root beer garden (Saturday 5/15/10, 5-9 pm)

Mark your calendars to attend!

Mechanical Report

Mechtech Engineering evaluated the existing conditions of the mechanical system of the mansion and carriage house last week. An older natural gas forced air furnace provides heat for the basement, main, and second levels of the mansion. It is an 80% efficiency twin set unit that does not provide air conditioning. The air is distributed through the original heating vents, which are located on interior walls. Modern mechanical systems are generally located near the exterior walls and/or windows. Two electric baseboard heaters on the second level supplement the system. Air conditioning on the main level is provided via two window units. The attic level is heated by a 90% efficiency natural gas furnace that also provides air conditioning. The ductwork for this area is exposed. The carriage house is not heated by a mechanical system.

The plumbing in the mansion is dated, with some pipes being original to the system. Currently, hot water is generated by an 80 gallon natural gas commercial hot water heater, which is located in the basement. Historically, a cistern in the attic space collected water that was used for the mansion’s original plumbing system. The cistern itself is still present in a mechanical room at the top of the stairs to the attic.

Recommendations
While the current systems could continue to serve a residential use of the building, any commercial use would require new mechanical and plumbing systems. Active use of the carriage house would require installation of a mechanical system. The location of the property adjacent to the Jordan River makes it a good candidate for a renewable heating and cooling approach.

Open House & Funding

Open House

Approximately 200 people attended the open house at the Fisher Mansion on October 31, 2009 to take a tour, visit information stations that provided details from the draft Historic Structure Report (HSR) findings, and have the opportunity to provide feedback. A highlight of the open house was the opportunity to see the original wood floor in the library and dining room, which was discovered to be intact during the HSR team’s investigations. In addition to revealing the wood flooring, the City’s property management crew also opened up the top half of the gypsum board walls that were added to enclose the main stairwell when the mansion served as a group home. This allowed the natural light from the skylight to flow down to the main floor and gave visitors a sense of the original character of the main staircase and skylight. Open house guests also had the chance to visit the upper levels of both the mansion and the carriage house and observe the unique structural framing design used by architect Richard Kletting for the buildings.


Funding

The City has received notice that $150,000 from the Save America’s Treasures program is available to help catalyze restoration efforts for the Fisher Mansion project. Specific uses for the funding have not been established, although immediate needs include the repair and structural upgrade of the carriage house, which has been identified as having great potential for a community-oriented use. Several small donations were also made by visitors to the open house event.

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_13685774?IADID=Search-www.sltrib.com-www.sltrib.com

Re-use Scenarios and Treatment Approaches for the Mansion & Carriage House

As part of the HSR project, the consultant team is evaluating re-use scenarios for the mansion and carriage house. It is the intent that, at a minimum, any re-use project for the property will meet the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties with Guidelines for Preserving, Rehabilitating, Restoring and Reconstructing Historic Buildings (SOTIS). Part of the HSR process will be to provide some general cost estimates for the recommended treatment approaches for the buildings and an assessment of the re-use scenarios that will align with the recommended treatments. Each treatment approach has a set of Standards and accompanying Guidelines for use throughout the course of a project. The following information from the National Park Service website, gives a brief summary of the standards for the four treatments: Preservation, Rehabilitation, Restoration, and Reconstruction.

“The Standards for the first treatment, Preservation, require retention of the greatest amount of historic fabric, along with the building's historic form, features, and detailing as they have evolved over time. The Rehabilitation Standards acknowledge the need to alter or add to a historic building to meet continuing or new uses while retaining the building's historic character. The Restoration Standards allow for the depiction of a building at a particular time in its history by preserving materials from the period of significance and removing materials from other periods. The Reconstruction Standards establish a limited framework for re-creating a vanished or non-surviving building with new materials, primarily for interpretive purposes.” (http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/tps/standguide/overview/using_standguide.htm; accessed Oct. 15, 2009)

It is anticipated that different treatment approaches may be recommended for the mansion vs. the carriage house. The overall goal is to retain the historical integrity of the buildings while providing the opportunity for a new, economically-feasible use to locate on the property.

Watch the video ad for the Halloween Open House: mms://slcstream.slcgov.com/videos/MYR_2009_1031_OpenHouse.wmv

HSR 50% Draft

The CRSA team has compiled a draft report at the 50% stage of the HSR project. The report builds upon the HSR done by students from the College of Architecture and Planning at the U of U in 2008. Included in this draft are updates to the evaluations of the carriage house and the second and attic levels of the mansion. New to the report are evaluations of the basement level, a detailed life safety/code analysis, and a LEED Checklist. The LEED checklist is a comprehensive evaluation of the potential LEED points that could be achieved during the restoration of the property. Possible points have been assigned a confidence % on achieving the point during the certification process. Notes are provided for each possible point to discuss details regarding achieving the LEED point. If the city remains involved in the project, LEED Certification at the Silver Level or above is required.

A significant amount of the effort to date on the HSR project has been the evaluation and documentation of the framing and floor structure of the building. The end result is a set of structural drawings for the mansion and carriage house. These structural framing drawings will inform the evaluations and recommendations made by the SEAU regarding approaches for updating the structural integrity of the buildings. The Advisory Committee and full Fisher Mansion Partners Team have the opportunity to review and comment on the draft report. Comments will be incorporated as the team moves forward with preparing for the upcoming public open house and completing the HSR.

HSR Update

The CRSA team, with the SLC TV film crew on hand to document any discoveries, conducted an additional investigative site visit last week. The main items on the agenda:

1. Determine the framing layout of the second floor
2. Finish measurements of the basement for floor plan drawings
3. Investigate flooring layers beneath the tile in the kitchen
4. Pull back floor coverings in the library (southeast parlor) to investigate for evidence of a fireplace hearth on the east wall
5. Determine likely original appearance of the rear of the mansion
6. Finish measurements and observe framing layout of the carriage house

FYI: An undated floor plan sketch of the main level is part of the information on file at the State Historic Preservation Office. This drawing refers to the southeast room as the Library, and the west room as the Parlor, so we will use those terms from this point on in our discussions.

Findings:

Library
Removal of the carpet, linoleum, and masonite backing along the east wall in the library revealed the same hardwood flooring found in other areas of the library and main rooms. As there is no evidence of a hearth along this wall, the current conclusion is that there was a not a fireplace located in this room.

Kitchen Flooring
Removal of a tile in the kitchen revealed several layers of flooring material. Underneath the tile were wire mesh and the mortar bed, which was applied atop thick plywood. Underneath the plywood were two layers of linoleum on top of the wood floor. The wood floor is presumed to be the top 1x4 layer of subflooring, indicating that the first layer of linoleum was the original finish for the kitchen.

Next Steps:

A 50% draft report is underway and will be reviewed at the advisory committee meeting next week.
The SEAU group has received the updated framing plans of the mansion and carriage house from CRSA. They are working on their evaluation of the buildings so they can recommend approaches for structural upgrades.

Additional Details and Findings

CRSA has drawn up draft floor and framing plans of the mansion and carriage house. The framing of the second floor appears to have two layers of subfloor underneath the finished hardwood in the same manner as the main floor.

Original electrical wiring for the house has been found embedded in the flooring on the second level.

In the southeast parlor and dining room the textured wall paper that is underneath a couple of layers of paint was applied directly to the plaster, indicating that it was the original finish for those two rooms. The east wall of the southeast parlor continues to be a puzzle. The pattern of the paneling is different and consists of three sections, rather than one continuous panel like the rest of the walls in these two rooms. The picture rail on this wall is patched with a different piece of trim. This wall also doesn’t have visible evidence of the textured wallpaper that is present in the rooms. However, there aren’t obvious signs that a fireplace was located there either. The CRSA team will continue to investigate. Pulling up the flooring on the next investigative site visit may provide more insight.

The first door off the entry hallway into the west room originally swung into that room. The door is stained dark on one side to match the wood trim in this room. At some point the door was switched to swing out into the hall instead, and now the dark stained side faces the entry hallway instead of the west room. The switch was likely done to provide better egress and more circulation in this room when it was used for large groups after it switched from being a single family home.

A portion of the ceiling in the upstairs bathroom was dropped originally for the upstairs family bathroom. Original plaster and lath ceiling can be viewed through holes in the floor boards of the mechanical closet that contains the water cistern on the attic level. The back half of the current bathroom is presumed to have been joined to the north bedroom as a suite, perhaps for a live-in housekeeper or governess.

Historic Structure Report project is underway!

The architecture and planning firm of CRSA is working with the Salt Lake Solutions partners team to evaluate the Fisher Mansion property. Additionally, the Existing Building Committee of the Structural Engineers Association of Utah (SEAU) is providing a pro bono evaluation of the property and recommended approaches for structural and seismic upgrades. CRSA and SEAU have held meetings with the core advisory group as well as with the SLC building officials. Discussion items have included code requirements for new uses of the building as well as approaches for balancing preservation objectives and life-safety issues.

The advisory group held an afternoon meeting on Wednesday September 9th, out at the Fisher Mansion site. Earlier that day, the CRSA team conducted a site visit and did some hands-on investigation in the main house to determine flooring materials and their condition, as well as the framing of the building. The advisory committee toured the home to see what was discovered during the investigations that day.

Findings

Flooring:
The flooring on the main level has been found to consist of three layers. The bottom layer is a subfloor of 1 x 6 boards laid on diagonal across the joists. On top of this rests a 1 x 4 tongue and groove subfloor of fir, which is commonly found in homes from this time period. The top layer is a hardwood floor, but is a 3/8 x 2 tongue and groove veneer, rather than a thicker ¾ x 2 that would typically be used for hardwood flooring. This indicates that some level of economy was taken in the final construction of the home.

The hardwood flooring in the southeast parlor and dining room appear to be in fairly good condition underneath the layers of carpet, padding, and linoleum tile. The linoleum tile has a masonite backing that was nailed into the floor, rather than being glued down with an adhesive, leaving the original floor in better shape. The ceramic tile floor in the west room was put down on top of a mortar bed with wire mesh, which appears to be on top of masonite board.

Framing:
The framing of the main and second levels consists of 2 x 12 joists that are spaced 16 inches on center. The upper attic level appears to consist of 2 x 8 joists, with the same spacing as the lower levels. CRSA is creating framing drawings of the building, which will inform the structural evaluation by the SEAU group.


Next Steps

CRSA will conduct another investigative site visit to gather more information on original details of the house. Specific items include:

* Checking for a date on the back of the wallpaper that currently lines the upstairs linen closet and sitting room closet.
* Estimating the height of the railing that used to enclose the balcony above the front porch.
* Conducting a paint analysis to determine the exterior color scheme.
* Cataloguing the different species of wood used in the house.
* Removing floor coverings on the east wall of the southeast parlor to look for additional evidence of a fireplace at this location. The location of the chimney on the exterior, the pattern of the wood wainscot paneling, and the patching of the picture rail in this area suggest a fireplace was once located on this wall.
* Verifying if masonite was used underneath the ceramic tile in the west room.