Search Cummins Station
For more than 100 years, Cummins Station has stood in the center of Nashville. The years have worn on the structure, and a comprehensive restoration to the brick and concrete facade was necessary.
At the time of its construction in 1906, Cummins Station held the record for the largest reinforced concrete warehouse in the world. It has now been repurposed and reimagined as a community of businesses and creatives.
Through the years, the expansive brick facade exhibited bowing, mortar loss in both the vertical and head joints, cracking of bricks, and total section loss of multiple sections of brick and concrete. Because of this, the building’s facade received a comprehensive restoration beginning at the end of 2020.
The problem
Scope originally included tuckpointing on the parapet, heli-fixes on the facade, and a minimal amount of concrete repair. Once work began, however, previously unforeseen scope realities came to light. When the structural repair firm first ground out a section to tuck it, an entire section would collapse. The team recognized the need for more comprehensive restoration.
The fix
Thanks to the combined expertise of this project team, the team was able to propose multiple solutions to address the crumbling parapet.
The client accepted all proposed solutions which included:
- Welding of ledge and relief angles for proper ledge bearing
- Replacing the rusted angles as required throughout the entire West facade
- Replacing the ledge and relief angles after determining the existing were not salvageable
- Performing all casting on-site of the keystones in the jack arches of the top row of windows where cast stone keystones were determined to be unusable
The SSRG crew completed the work demanded while meeting the safety requirements of the coronavirus pandemic.
Finished product looks great. SSRG would be the contractor to call for older building facade repairs.
