Fall 2011

Feature

Moving Around the Quad at Howard

Wagner is making its way around the quad at Howard University. On the roofs, of course.

After replacing the roofs on Truth and Crandall Halls six years ago, Wagner replaced the roof on Wheatley Hall last year and finished work on Frazier Hall, about one month ahead of schedule. Those four dormitories, plus Baldwin Hall, make up the Harriet Tubman Quadrangle, otherwise known by coeds as the quad. The quad houses about 640 female freshmen.

Howard University, Truth and Crandall Hall Location: 2455 4th St., NW Washington, DC Roofing: New Vermont slate roof, copper built-in-gutter and standing seam arch copper roof on cupola

Frazier, which was built in 1930, was the first residence hall for women at Howard University.

On Wheatley Hall, Wagner removed the old slate, replaced copper trim and gutters, installed new Vermont slate and 20-ounce Freedom Gray copper on 27 dormer roofs. The finished product looks like it did in 1931—beautiful multi-colored Vermont slate: 40 percent Semi-Weathering Gray/Green, 40 percent Unfading Purple and 20 percent Non-Fading Green. Even the commercial type steel snowguard with pipe rails was replicated. The built-in shop-fabricated copper gutter is covered with custom gutter screening.

The challenging part of Wagner’s work at Howard was scaffolding the five cupolas at Wheatley, Baldwin, Truth and Crandall, and Frazier. The cupolas required major structural repairs and extensive carpentry. The wood louvers on the cupolas, siding and windows and trim on the 104 dormers required three coats of paint. Also, Wagner repointed the brick work below the wood cupolas, matching the existing grout.

Previous work at Howard included a new built up roof on the hospital in 1985, new slate and rubber roofs on the Cooke Hall addition in 1990, and a new rubber roof on the bookstore in 1999.

The dormitories were designed by Maryland native Albert Irvin Cassell, who was born in 1895. He began his education in the segregated Baltimore public school system, but moved to New York in 1909, where he attended Douglas High School and studied drafting. Cassell was admitted to the Cornell University architecture program in 1915. He joined Howard University in 1920, became head of the school’s architecture department and spent nearly two decades at the university. He designed the Founders Library, which would become an architectural and educations symbol for the university.”

Famous Howard alumni include David Dinkins, first black mayor of New York City; former DC Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly; Nobel and Pulitzer prize-winning novelist Toni Morrison; Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall; and former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young.