Event Summary

Join AIA Baltimore's Historic Resources Committee to learn how structural engineering firm 1200AE developed a retrofit strengthening system for renovations to the George Peabody Library.

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Event Details

The George Peabody Library of Johns Hopkins University opened in 1878 and has continuously served the public as a premier research library for the University and City of Baltimore. The main stack room’s five tiers of ornamental cast iron balconies are fed light from the atrium lay light, above which a parallel history of building technology is embodied in the spectacular Phoenix Iron trusses that span the atrium. Join AIA Baltimore's Historic Resources Committee to learn how structural engineering firm 1200AE developed a retrofit strengthening system that minimized damage to the historic truss members while accommodating the very challenging requirements of construction above the library space. The reinforcement employs an innovative approach of “reversible” detailing, where connections between new and old are implemented without drilled holes for bolts or welding between steel and iron.

Founding Principal at 1200 Architectural Engineers, presenter John Matteo has a Masters in Civil Engineering from Princeton University and studied as Fulbright Scholar in Lausanne, Switzerland. Mr. Matteo served in the adjunct faculty at Columbia University, the University of Virginia, and currently serves as Lecturer in Civil & Systems Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. He was awarded the 2007 Kress Mid-Career Grant by the James Marston Fitch Foundation and the 2011 Rome Prize in Historic Preservation and Conservation at the American Academy in Rome. Mr. Matteo’s career has focused on preservation engineering, with a diverse range of projects that include preservation work at multiple Frank Lloyd Wright sites, including Fallingwater, Taliesin, and Taliesin West. Additional work includes the renovation of the University of Virginia Rotunda, Baltimore’s Peabody Library, DAR Constitution Hall, and numerous historic projects regional to his office in Old Town Alexandria, VA.

Continuing Education: AIA 1.0 LU|HSW approved

Renovation, Retrofit and Reversibility: Structural Reinforcement at Peabody Library