CPG assisted the project team with the historic rehabilitation tax credit application as part of the developer’s vision to rehabilitate the building for residential use.
Commonwealth
Lydia Roper Home
Historic Building Renovation
Historic Research
Historic Tax Credit Consulting
Lydia Roper Home
Partners
The Monument Companies
Catalyst Design Studio
Kimley-Horn and Associates
Virginia Department of Historic Resources
National Park Service
Project Goals
The Lydia Roper Home was constructed in c1921 as a nursing home. In 2021, the Colonial Revival style building underwent a renovation for continued use as an apartment complex.
Project Design
At the start of the project, the building retained a majority of its historic plan and features, including two-story wood porches, wood doors and trim, wood sash windows, wood floors, and the primary staircase. However, systems and finishes throughout the building were outdated.
CPG provided building treatment recommendations to maintain remaining historic materials and upgrade outdated systems throughout the building.
Challenges & Accomplishments
Due to the previous use as a nursing home, the building had an extensive network of historic corridors providing access to the single rooms; bathrooms were shared and meals were provided in a common dining room on the first floor. While this plan worked well for the previous use, there was a need within the rehabilitation plan to capture limited circulation space to accommodate the insertion of kitchens and living spaces within the expanded residential areas.
Limited corridor truncations were proposed in order to make the residential layout function efficiently. In order to ensure that the proposed modifications to the historic plan met the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation, a full-glass storefront was utilized for the truncations to maintain the visual connectivity of the historic corridors.