The Chase Building in Waterbury was completed in 1919 as the headquarters for the Chase Brass Company and designed by famed architect Cass Gilbert. The building was designed in the Renaissance-Revival style, that complemented, but also distinguished it from, the Georgian Revival City Hall. Gilbert’s early designs for the office building utilized the same style as the municipal building, which was directly across Grand Street, to create a unified complex. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and a contributing resource to the Cass Gilbert Historical District in downtown Waterbury. Easton Architects was awarded the project to perform an Existing Conditions Assessment and to create a Preservation Master Plan following a competitive bid process that included a second proposal for exploratory probes and non-destructive materials testing, stone petrography, concrete strength and chloride tests, and mortar analysis.

Easton Architects is overseeing the on-site evaluations and finalizing the assessment for the second phase of work, a $53 million exterior and interior restoration. We are overseeing a multi-discipline consultant team that provided structural assessments, laboratory conservation testing, civil site surveys, and drone surveys of inaccessible areas. Easton Architects oversaw all aspects of the project and coordinated directly with the client and municipal agencies with jurisdiction over the site, including the Waterbury Development Corporation, the Waterbury Board of Education, and Connecticut State Historic Preservation Office.

The final report provided the restoration plan for the City’s future project to restore, upgrade, and modernize the facility. Easton Architects created and kept to a tight schedule of five months to produce the report, including coordinating two weeks of site analysis, and preliminary and final cost estimates for the City’s development department.