Submitted for 1 LU/HSW
This complimentary one-hour guided tour examines the $1.15 million rehabilitation of the Charlton Community Center, a 19th-century civic building and contributing resource in the National Register–listed Charlton Historic District. Led by the project architect and the Town's Zoning Administrator, the tour walks participants through a full-scale rehabilitation delivered under the Secretary of the Interior's Standards and the compliance requirements of state and federal preservation funding.
Participants will trace the project sequence in the completed building: hazardous materials abatement of asbestos-containing materials and lead-based paint; replacement of failed foundations and installation of a new slab and drainage system; restoration of historic wood windows and ceilings; and complete envelope and MEP modernization. Discussion will center on the recurring conflict in preservation work: bringing an assembly-occupancy building up to current life safety, accessibility, and energy code while retaining the historic fabric that made it eligible for public funding in the first place. Presenters will address both the design resolutions and the municipal review, permitting, and grant-compliance framework that shaped them.
Learning Objectives
Identify the hazardous materials protocols required when rehabilitating a pre-1900 civic building and describe how asbestos and lead-based paint abatement is sequenced ahead of restoration work to protect construction personnel and future building occupants.
Explain how foundation replacement, new slab construction, and site drainage improvements address structural instability and moisture-driven deterioration and assess the resulting effects on material durability and indoor environmental quality.
Describe strategies for achieving accessible routes and code-compliant egress, fire protection, and mechanical ventilation in a historic assembly occupancy, and evaluate how the Existing Building Code's historic building provisions were applied to reconcile life safety requirements with the Secretary of the Interior's Standards.
Evaluate building envelope interventions (roofing, insulation, siding, and historic wood window restoration) for their combined effect on thermal performance, moisture management, and the long-term preservation of historic fabric.