Lipps & Son is experienced in historic preservation, winning a preservation award from the Cincinnati Historical Society for the rehabilitation of the former Sears, Roebuck and Company store in Covington, Kentucky.

Preserving historic buildings is essential to understanding our nation's heritage. In addition, it is an environmentally responsible practice. By reusing existing buildings, historic preservation is essentially a recycling program of 'historic' proportions. Existing buildings can often be energy efficient through their use of good ventilation, durable materials, and spatial relationships. An immediate advantage of older buildings is that a building already exists; therefore energy is not necessary to create new building materials and the infrastructure is already in place. Minor modifications can be made to adapt existing buildings to compatible new uses. Systems can be upgraded to meet modern building requirements and codes. This not only makes good economic sense, but preserves our legacy and is an inherently sustainable practice.

The “Four Treatment Approaches” to historic properties are: preservation, rehabilitation, restoration, and reconstruction.

Preservation focuses on the maintenance stabilization, and repair of existing historic materials and retention of a property's form as it has evolved over time.

Rehabilitation acknowledges the need to alter or add to a historic property to meet continuing or changing uses while retaining the property's historic character.
Restoration depicts a property at a particular period of time in its history, while removing evidence of other periods.

Reconstruction re-creates vanished or non-surviving portions of a property for interpretive purposes.

Of concern to preservation and design professionals is the cumulative effect of seemingly minor changes over time, which can greatly diminish the integrity of a historic building. Major preservation design goals include:

Update Building Systems Appropriately—Updating building systems in historic structures requires striking a balance between retaining original building features and accommodating new technologies and equipment. Building system updates require creativity to respect the original design and materials while meeting applicable codes and tenant needs.

Accommodate Life Safety and Security Needs—The accommodation of new functions, changes in technology, and improved standards of protection provide challenges to the reuse of historic buildings and sites. Designers must address life safety, seismic, and security issues in innovative ways that preserve historic sites, spaces and features.

Comply with Accessibility Requirements—Accessibility and historic preservation strategies sometimes conflict with each other. Designers must provide access for persons with disabilities while meeting preservation goals.

IS YOUR BUSINESS A.D.A. COMPLIANT?

In 1992, Congress passed the Americans with Disabilities Act (A.D.A.). The law requires that all businesses must provide equal access and accommodations for those with disabilities. Recognized disabilities include impaired mobility, sight and hearing.

The federal government allowed a ten year period for businesses to comply. During this ten year grace period, many businesses conducted ADA site surveys and corrected their deficiencies. Others did not. During this same period, there were no enforcement agencies at the federal, state or local levels.

After the ten year grace period (ending in 2002), numerous lawsuits ensued. Most were legitimate complaints while many others were targeted at select businesses that were known to be non-compliant. Attorneys would then file suit and the vast majority of these cases were settled out of court. Typical ADA out of court, lawsuit settlements average $4,000 for non-compliant door knobs, $6,000 for sales counters that are not at the appropriate height and up to $15,000 for incorrect parking lot signs or stalls.

Common ADA Misconceptions

Many businesses have made the following mistakes when considering their mandated ADA compliance;
• "Our (non-compliant) restrooms are not open to the public". They have to be compliant in order to offer employment to a disabled person. If your restroom is non-compliant, you are in violation.
• "The landlord is responsible. I’m just a tenant". The Courts have ruled that the landlord and tenant are responsible for ensuring ADA compliance.
• "We're grandfathered because…". There is no “grandfather” clause in the law or pertaining to ADA compliance.

Not every client has an in-house construction department. For those who don’t, it is beneficial to enlist the services of a person or firm who has the vast knowledge and experience required to ensure your project remains on schedule and within your budget.

Lipps & Son has been providing construction management services continually during our twenty-eight year history. We determine the size and complexity of your project and then appoint the appropriate project manager. Senior management provides the additional oversight to ensure your projects success.

According to the Construction Management Association of America, "Construction management is a professional service that applies effective management techniques to the planning, design and construction of a project from inception to completion for the purpose of controlling time, cost and quality".

Including Lipps & Son very early in your project can help save you money. We can do more to impact project costs and satisfy expectations by working with the owner, architect and designer in a collaborative approach.

Our involvement starts during the pre-construction phase where we provide valuable input on the time and cost consequences of design and construction decisions, scheduling, cost control, purchasing of critical materials and long-lead-time items and coordination of construction activities.