Grace Gold Memorial Scholarship Fund Breakfast and Panel on Façade Safety Raises $200,000 for Scholarships for Students in Building-Related Study Fields
Daniel J. Allen, AIA, a partner at CTA Architects, led the panel discussion on façade safety during a fundraising event for the Grace Gold Memorial Scholarship Fund (GGMSF). Left to right: CTA Architects principal Daniel J. Allen, AIA; New York City Council Member Ben Kallos; Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates principal Michael Petermann, RA; and Indus Architects president Sharon Lobo, AIA.
CTA Architects’ Principal and Historic Preservation Expert Daniel J. Allen Led the Panel
New York, NY – Daniel J. Allen, AIA, a partner at CTA Architects, P.C. (CTA) and the firm’s historic preservation specialist, led the panel discussion on façade safety during a fundraising event for the Grace Gold Memorial Scholarship Fund (GGMSF), held at Barnard College’s Barnard Hall.
Attending the breakfast event were more than 100 participants, including members of the New York building community and Grace Gold’s friends and supporters. Over $100,000 was raised for GGMSF, which was then matched by Barnard College and donors Roy and Diana Vagelos. The total proceeds of $200,000 will augment GGMSF’s mission: providing financial aid to Barnard College students whose field of study may lead to careers as architects, engineers, union leaders, contractors, urban planners, historic preservationists, or others in the building fields. To date, GGMSF has raised approximately $350,000 and has awarded six scholarships.
Grace Gold’s older sister, Lori E. Gold, began the GGMSF in 2011. Grace Gold’s life was cut short in 1979, after she completed her freshman year at Barnard; she was fatally struck by a piece of dislodged masonry that fell from the eighth-floor of a Columbia University-owned building. Grace Gold’s death led to passage of Local Law 10, enacted in 1980, which required owners of New York City buildings over six stories to perform regular inspections – and repairs – of their buildings’ façades. This gave rise in 1998 to the expanded Local Law 11 and, more recently, to the even more comprehensive Façade Inspection and Safety Program (FISP).
The success of New York City’s forward-looking building laws against a backdrop of aging US building stock has resulted in similar façade-inspection laws enacted in 11 other American cities. Grace Gold is further commemorated through the co-naming of Broadway, between West 115th and 116th Streets, as Grace Gold Way.
Thanks to the efforts of Lori Gold and her supporters, similar façade-inspection laws have been enacted in 11 other American cities. GGMSF initially awarded scholarships to students in the creative fields, such as journalism, which reflected Grace Gold’s interests, and later expanded its focus to include students pursuing careers in building-related professions. In memory of Grace Gold, in March of 2015, New York City named the block of Broadway between West 115th and West 116th Streets the “Gold Way.”
“Our scholarships are informing and educating the next generation of professionals, who will be keeping the residents of New York City, and other cities around the globe, safe while on the streets of their urban centers. This is how Grace Gold’s legacy will continue to make a positive impact on the world,” said Lori E. Gold.
Allen moderated the panel, titled “Local Law 11 and FISP: Designing the Future,” wherein panelists discussed the state of building maintenance in the city, new technological and legislative developments in the field, and inspection laws in other municipalities across the United States. Panelists included New York City Council Member Ben Kallos and architects Sharon Lobo, AIA, president of Indus Architects PLLC, and Michael Petermann, RA, principal in the New York City office of Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates.
During the discussion, Allen noted that Grace’s tragic death set in motion a focus on maintaining the city’s building stock in new ways and with new fervor. He also stated that FISP had something of a ripple effect among the city’s architects, builders, and historic preservationists, even reviving the terracotta and ornamental sheet metal industries. Commenting on the scholarship’s goal of supporting students in building-related professions, Lobo discussed opportunities for female professionals in architecture-related careers.
In addition to New York City, local façade ordinances are currently in force in Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Detroit, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, and St. Louis.
CTA Architects
Established in 1987, CTA Architects is a prominent architectural design firm based in New York City. Three principals lead the 50-person firm: Craig Tooman, AIA, LEED AP; Daniel J. Allen, AIA; and Christa E. Waring, AIA, LEED AP.
CTA’s design focus and experience span new design, historic preservation, and restoration work in the civic, multi-family residential, commercial, institutional, educational, and public markets. The firm holds term contracts with the New York City School Construction Authority (SCA), the New York State Office of General Services (OGS), the New York City Department of Design and Construction (DDC), and the City University of New York (CUNY).
CTA’s recent projects in New York City include nine Universal Pre-Kindergartens and one 3K school for the NYC SCA; design work the Coney Island Prep, Harlem Village Academy, and Growing Up Green School; the historic landmark restorations of the 36 Gramercy Park East façade and the City Cinemas Village East Theater; exterior renovations to the Fifth Avenue Armory; the rehabilitations of the Grand Street Guild, Haven Plaza, and George Hardy and St. Francis apartment complexes totaling 1,175 units for the Archdiocese of New York; and the exterior renovation of the six-building Morningside Gardens co-op campus. The studio’s new design work also includes SARA NY Design Award winner 17 Pitt Street and the Lower Eastside Girls Club.
The firm’s projects also include the exterior renovations to the New York State Legislature Building in Albany, New York as well as an adaptive re-use of the historic Arcade Hotel in Bridgeport, CT’s Downtown South Historic District.
CTA’s work has been widely recognized through regional and national awards, including the Exterior Preservation Award from Landmark West!, Residential Architect Design Award of Merit, The Society of American Registered Architects National and New York Chapters’ Design Awards, several Lucy G. Moses preservation awards from the New York Landmarks Conservancy, and the Victorian Society of America Metropolitan Chapter Preservation Awards.
