In June 2017, a fire enveloped several units of the four-story,40-unit Old Reading Schoolhouse condo building, which had been converted from a school to a community center, and finally to a residential complex in the 1980s. The building was up to code and had sprinklers in its hallways and stairwells, but not in the individual units, which were not required at the time of the condo conversion. That’s part of the reason the fire spread quickly through the building’s ceilings and through interconnected construction voids created during the original conversion to condominiums. The result was a 7-alarm fire that involved firefighters from Malden, Stoneham, Boston, Melrose, Wakefield, Lynnfield, Cambridge, Everett, Lynn, North Reading, Medford, Woburn, Somerville, Burlington, Winchester, and Saugus, in addition to Reading’s own fire department. To douse the flames, these firefighters collectively used 1.5 million gallons of water. But that amount of water also came with a steep cost: the water damage, in combination with significant smoke damage, resulted in damage to every condo unit in the building, including extensive mold damage. Further complicating matters, workers and contractors could not enter the structure until insurance adjusters and inspectors had released the building for remediation–a process that lasted for six months, leaving the building’s interior exposed to the elements, and adding exponentially to the damage.

At a recent builders and Remodelers Association of Greater Boston(BRAGB)site tour, Scott Wolf, Managing Partner ofBRIGS, LLC, spoke candidly about the challenges involved with the reconstruction of the building, where there were still grooves in the stairs from years of use by students when the historic building had been a school. “We had to bring the building up to code while working within a structure built many, many decades ago,” Wolf commented.BRIGS chose Hopedale-based Landmark Associates as the general contractor for this unique and challenging project. Known for its remodeling and construction maintenance work for condominiums and assisted living facilities (including restoration contracting following fire and water damage), Landmark was excited to tackle this complicated project and help the displaced residents return to home as quickly as possible. When the investigation concluded in November 2017, Landmark’s first challenge was to close up the building before the winter elements could inflict further damage. The next phase of the project was construction and renovation. The project included not only the rebuild of the fire-damaged units but also a variety of other major renovation work, including: