Painstaking Façade Renovation of Art Deco Gem in Ardmore Leads to 2024 Historic Preservation Award

After a years-long, meticulous renovation to the Art Deco gem at 2 E. Lancaster Avenue, Core Development was recognized with Lower Merion Township’s 2024 Historic Preservation “Stewardship Award.”

Although Cricket Avenue was a quieter place in 2015 - One Ardmore and Cricket Flats had not even begun construction - the principals at Core Development immediately recognized the potential of 2 E. Lancaster Avenue, a vacant Art Deco gem on the keystone intersection of Lancaster and Cricket Avenues, just steps from the Ardmore train station. However, it would take an extensive amount of work and creative funding to properly restore the building.

When Core Development purchased the property, 2 E. Lancaster Avenue needed a complete gut renovation, including all new mechanical systems, a new roof, grading, and rework of the gutter systems. Within a year, the renovation was complete, and tenants had moved in. Less than a year later, however, portions of the beautiful, 100-year-old Art Deco precast concrete paneling and fluting details of the facade began spalling and posed an immediate danger to pedestrians.

Core struggled to find a façade contractor who would even consider working on the building.  Eventually, they found WM Proud Masonry Restoration, one of the premier façade preservations specialists in the Philadelphia region.

WM Proud’s brilliant repair plan was involved and expensive. To match the ornate panel design, WM Proud sent the concrete off for chemical analysis and proposed cutting out portions of the facade to create individual forms and molds for each piece. Then they would fabricate each concrete piece while attempting to match the nearly 100-year-old concrete color and its unique visible aggregate. The pieces would be reattached through a system of steel wires embedded into the concrete sections and epoxy.  The parapet wall atop the building was to be recapped downspouts re-routed.

There remained only one problem: the budget. The cost of the proposed renovation ran into six figures, which represented more than five years of profitability of the project-based revenues and expenses at the time.

The Core principals met with Lower Merion Township to discuss the challenge, which led to them applying for the Ardmore Initiative’s Façade Improvement Grant. This grant covered the payment of the interest expense while Core made principal payments on a five-year loan for the façade improvements. 

After weather, engineering, and technical delays extended the estimated 8 weeks of work to nearly 10 months of construction, the façade preservation project was eventually completed in 2019. In March 2024, the project reached a new milestone as Core Development made the last principal payment on the loan.

Today, 2 E. Lancaster Avenue is a testimony to both Art Deco artistry and modern restoration ingenuity. Lower Merion Township recognized Core Development’s efforts with the Historic Preservation “Stewardship Award” on September 26, 2024.