THE OPPORTUNITY

To accommodate the Essex County Department of Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Affairs, the Essex County Department of Public Works sought a firm to design renovations to the circa 1916 Essex County Parks Administration Building. Located across the street from Branch Brook Park, the renovated Essex County Parks Administration Building will provide the county parks department with much-needed updated space while preserving an important historic resource for the city.

THE CHALLENGE

Occupied by the county parks department and law enforcement since its construction, the interior and exterior of the Essex County Parks Administration Building has sustained a century’s worth of weathering and wear. Renovations to the existing building need to include repair and replacement while maintaining the building’s historic character. Important to the county parks department’s history, the Renaissance Revival-style building is individually listed in the National and State Registers of Historic Places, necessitating the completion of a New Jersey Register of Historic Places Act Application.

THE PS&S SOLUTION

Working closely throughout the process, PS&S architects, engineers, and cultural resource specialists created a design that will accommodate the county’s needs while maintaining the character-defining elements of the historic city building. In addition to the multi-disciplinary, multi-phase design of the renovations, PS&S’s planners, archaeologists and architectural historians are currently helping to guide the project through the New Jersey Historic Preservation Office’s (NJHPO) review process.