BERNARD HOUSE
CLIENT
Montgomery County

LOCATION
Norristown, Pennsylvania

STRUCTURES
The Bernard House consists of an original late 18th Century two-story house and a 19th Century three-story addition with a wrap-around porch and summer kitchen.  The structure itself consists of thick stucco-covered, stone masonry walls, with timber framing.  The 1920s two-story Main Barn, adjacent to the house, is a characteristic banked barn with a stone masonry foundation, timber framework, and beadboard siding on all sides. Both structures are part of the Upper Schuylkill Valley Farm Park complex.

CHALLENGE
Our team was retained by Montgomery County to conduct a conditions assessment and feasibility study, providing adaptive reuse options for the main house, adjacent barn, and the surrounding site. A key aspect of the study was a cost analysis of renovations for each potential use.

SCOPE OF SERVICE
  • Conduct inspections and assessments of each structure on the property… specifically, the façades, roofs, above ground drainage, doors and windows, and structural systems.
  • Identify potential issues related to rehabilitating the structures to meet code.
  • Prioritize and provide options for future use of the structures with respective cost implications.
SOLUTION
  • We created individual reports for each building describing the existing conditions of the various elements.
  • We identified the deficiencies related to each element, recommended repairs, and assigned a degree of priority to each problem.
  • Potential future uses for the building were studied and organized into varying degrees of intervention. Linking the necessary repairs to each level of intervention, we quantified the recommendations and developed cost estimates which allowed the County to make educated decisions regarding the future of the structures.