BETHLEHEM, Pa. — The accolades just keep stacking up for Artefact Inc., a South Bethlehem-based, women-owned architecture firm with a passion for preserving historic properties.
This month, the group announced its sixth Pennsylvania Historic Preservation Award, this one for construction-rehabilitation at the former Laros Silk Mill, now known as Laros Lofts, along the eastern end of Broad Street.
The old building, which is listed on the National Register for Historic Places, now sports more than 110 apartments and ground-level commercial spaces. Originally put up in 1922, it was once among the first mills R.K. Laros opened for his silk manufacturing company — a leader in the American silk industry that was in business under his name for around four decades before a change of hands.
“We are humbled by the continuous recognition we are receiving in our field, which is also a reflection of how our preservation knowledge has evolved to meet the challenges of different projects."Artefact, Inc. firm principal Lucienne Di Biase Dooley
Artefact will be in Harrisburg on Oct. 24 to accept the award from the nonprofit Preservation Pennsylvania, alongside 16 other recipients.
“We are humbled by the continuous recognition we are receiving in our field, which is also a reflection of how our preservation knowledge has evolved to meet the challenges of different projects,” said firm principal Lucienne Di Biase Dooley.
And that ever-expanding skill set is a major team effort, she said, also including Christine Ussler, founding principal, architect; Cassie Rogg, preservation specialist, architect; Caitlin Laskey, preservation specialist, interior designer; Chris Neal, senior draftsman, designer; Kyle Refalvy, draftsman and 3D specialist; Clair Kaulius-Beagell, office manager; and Emily Dings, marketing and communications specialist.
The five other properties Artefact has brought home an award for include Easton Public Market, Simon Silk Mill, Governor George Wolf Building and the Northampton County Courthouse, all in Easton; and the Historic Lehigh County Courthouse in Allentown.
They don't make 'em like they used to
“These buildings are just so amazing, and so there’s a lot you don’t see from the street,” principal Christine Ussler said of the firm’s work.
For Ussler, these special elements could be internal courtyards (like in the case of the mill); special moldings; and even authentic materials like particular brick, stone and other metals that aren’t replicated as often in today’s architecture due to cost.
“The biggest change for this project, really, was the sort of return of the windows back to real windows: historic-looking, industrial sash windows,” Ussler said of the old silk mill. “The openings had been filled with glass block or completely filled in, and the transformation is, I think, pretty amazing.”
“The biggest change for this project, really, was the sort of return of the windows back to real windows: historic-looking, industrial sash windows. The openings had been filled with glass block or completely filled in, and the transformation is, I think, pretty amazing.”Artefact, Inc. firm principal Christine Ussler
The firm even designed the first-floor commercial spaces as well as apartments on the upper floors.
Though each new project involves sticking to a budget and maintaining quality work, Dooley said every development or renovation is going to pose a different challenge for the firm’s specialists.
“We need to make sure that all the regional, architectural, unique features that are identified in every building are maintained, because at the end of the day, it’s not just for the historic aspect, it’s a statement of the uniqueness of a building,” Dooley said.
Not just historic properties
The Artefact website lists nearly 40 projects the firm has had a hand in, which include adaptive reuses, mixed-uses, new constructions, restorations, private owner work and more.
Ussler said the group helped to put up Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts (a completely new construction in a South Bethlehem historic district), is collaborating with another architect for the Miller’s House project in the Colonial Industrial Quarter and is currently working to save parts of a historic hotel in Flemington, New Jersey.
Nine private-residence projects on the website span from an expansion at a Northampton County neo-Victorian estate to a barn renovation in Bucks County, to even a cottage on Grand Manan Island, New Brunswick.
Building the business
Ussler and a colleague started Artefact in 1986. Ussler took over in 1987, building business over the years until adding Dooley to the mix in 2008.
The primary function of their business has consisted of historic preservation, additions to historic buildings, new construction and even some historic consultation, as the firm assisted in developing the historic structure guidelines for Easton and Coopersburg.
Artefact can help developers of historic structures navigate the application procedures involved in the journey to get a spot in the National Register of Historic Places, Ussler said.
Developers may take advantage of tax credits for these types of projects, which would involve 20% of the invested money in restoring or renovating the building.
