Best Historic Restoration: Meridian City Hall, Meridian, Miss.
Historic Meridian City Hall suffered from neglect; its aging façade was in need of repairs. A four-phase restoration project brought the 100-year-old building back to life.
A design team, which included an architectural consulting firm, a historical consultant, a historicalfinishes consultant, and a structural engineer, developed a set of plans and specifications.
Masons removed paint and cementitious coating from the terra cotta façade and repointed the entire building. They removed more than 1600 terra cotta units and replaced them with new units, which were cast and firedusing more than 100 individual models and molds. They repaired 2000 more units in place, and glazed them using historically approved materials. At the cornice level, masons completed structural repairs to provide adequate support for the decorative terra cotta.
The craftsmen replaced 32 350-pound decorative column capitals by using a custom-designed stainless steel anchoring system. They also designed a new parapet cap and flashing system to provide a watertight barrier at the roof level, satisfying Mississippi Department of Archives requirements.
