Pennsport Corbels

PENNSPORT PA. - Corbels_fall 2010 -

   Before

  During

    After

-----------Project-----------

 fabricating new [old style] cornices 

------------Team------------

Project Manager: Niko

Designer: Niko

Lead carpenter: Samir 

Assistant: Reed & Phil

----------Materials---------

southern yellow pine

low VOC exterior paint

Under every flipper house there is rot to be found. That is the case with this one. Rather than fixing the main problem cover it up. That was the mentality before the current homeowners decided that this house needed the true attention of craftsmen that care about preserving the history of Philadelphia while staying true to the environment. Chest high, the Greensaw fellas jump in to tackle this project. Things sure look easier from a distance of 30 feet. But we know better to judge others work without surgically inspecting up close. So I took our tallest ladder and climbed up with a hammer by my side. Once I swung up to the untreated trim, it all fell apart like a pinata. Most of the pieces never even made it to the sidewalk. From this point I knew this was not going to be easy. So the next day I drove around the neighborhood and studied the houses similar in style and their original brackets. After sketching and taking pictures I stopped at the last house on the block. Parked my car and started zooming my lens to the top of the building. Click, click on the third I heard " yo what you doing taking pictures of my wife". I look away from my camera and what the hell, a lady is changing by the window after I started taking pictures. I turn around and a guy is running towards me like a Spanish bull. He was literally a few inches away from my face yelling my ear off and sprinkling me with what ever he was eating that morning. "Yo buddy why u taking pictures of my house, man". How do I explain myself to this guy that I was taking pictures of the house before his wife showed up in front if the window. All I could say was " I'm an architect students and wanted to document corbels at the top of your facade". Then I had to explain what those meant, and he quickly cooled down and we started laughing and talking about architectural salvage and stuff. Then we shook hands and I got in my car and thought to myself next time Google it. After the clients approved the final design Samir and I started to fabricate the new brackets out of salvage beams we took out from an industrial building on Chesnut St. Southern yellow to be exact, the same wood the old timers would have used. After fixing the roof and all the damage done by the destroyed gutter, we re-framed the structure and installed our new-old style brackets, and now they look like they were there since the house was first constructed.