Frank Furness, one of the highest- paid architects of the time, designed the station so the trains run through the second floor of the building. The concourse and ticketing area (shown here) are tucked away under the tracks at street level.


year or two to ensure their integrity. After many discussions, Holloway’s team was able to work out a compromise with the state his- toric preservation office in which windows exposed to weather would be replaced with custom-made historic-quality aluminum windows that feature 1-inch double-pane in- sulated glass with a low-E coating. Although this was not the preferred


Retrofit Materials ✖


TRACK WATERPROOFING MEMBRANE// B-Tuff Waterproofing System from The Garland Co. Inc., www.garlandco.com


TERRAZZO FLOOR//General Polymers, a Sherwin-Williams company, generalpolymers.com


MARBLE FLOOR RESTORATION// Patch//Akepox 2010 epoxy resin from Akemi, www.akemina.com


Strip//Crowbar Ultra-Strength Stripper from The Butcher Co., (800) 225-9475


Clean//Stonecare PRO Signature pH Neutral Cleaner from M3 Technologies Inc., (800) 342-4533


MASONRY COATING AT STAIR//Soldalit System from KEIM Mineral Coatings of America, www.keim.com


ALUMINUM REPLACEMENT WINDOWS// Traco, a division of Kawneer, www.kawneer.com


CHANDELIER RESTORATION//Crenshaw Lighting, www.crenshawlighting.com


LAMINATE WALL PANELS//Trespa, www.trespa.com/us


SOLID-SURFACE COUNTERS//DuPont Corian Solid Surfaces, www2.dupont.com/ corian/en-us/bi/corian-solid-surfaces.html


ESCALATORS//ECO3000 Escalator from KONE, www.kone.com


ELEVATORS//KONE 34 RETROFIT // May-June 2013


went through our state historic preservation office to confirm we were following the re- quirements very closely.” A lot of attention was spent restoring the


building’s façade. It is composed of red bricks, red terracotta and red mortar. Unfortunately, in the 1970s and ’80s it was popular to clean masonry with a diluted muriatic acid, which had eaten away the clay glazing on the exte- rior of the terracotta. “The terracotta became porous and salts would leach through it, creat- ing white chalk-like deposits,” Holloway says. “Working with Frens and Frens, we identified an oil-based masonry stain that could treat all the exterior terracotta without replacing it. The stain should protect the terracotta for 20 or 30 more years. It also was picked carefully so the stain’s color replicated the color, depth and consistency of the red façade.” One of the major restoration challenges


related to the building’s windows. “Original windows are often the most revered part of a historic building because they don’t make windows the way they used to—with the sight lines, the thicknesses of frames and the muntins,” Holloway notes. Since the building’s last major renovation


in the early 1980s, the original wood windows had withstood many years of weather, not to mention the techniques that had been used to restore them in the ’80s are today consid- ered obsolete. Holloway says the windows were in terrible shape, and Amtrak was not in a position to maintain wood windows every


method of the local preservation office, Hol- loway says Amtrak was happy with the deci- sion. “Amtrak just did not have the resources to properly maintain the windows,” he says. “If we restored them, they’d fall into disrepair again before another major renovation is scheduled at the station.” The wood windows protected by a plat-


form or canopy were retained and restored. They also were retrofitted with interior storm windows to create a dead air space that would increase their thermal efficiency. “Because we wanted to maintain the look from the outside, the storm windows were placed on the inside of the building,” Hollo- way notes. For the interior restoration, Holloway’s


team was able to rely somewhat on Amtrak’s archives, which contain original drawings for many of its stations, including Wilming- ton. However, Holloway says architectural drawings from 1905-06 leave a lot of leeway to craftsmen of the day, giving men like his great-grandfather the opportunity to show- case their skill. “Frank Furness’ company didn’t document a lot of the details we see today,” Holloway adds. “They indicated plas- ter coffers this deep by this wide on this kind of centers, but the look was basically dictated by things that were commonly done by plas- ter workers.” Consequently, the team relied on historic


details still remaining in parts of the station to restore areas that had undergone modern upgrades. For example, the original plaster ceiling in the Ladies’ Waiting Room had been torn out to install an industrial HVAC system


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