The International Concrete Repair Institute (ICRI) announced the winners of its 2021 Project Awards. This year, three finalists were chosen for the Project of the Year and the winner was announced at the annual awards luncheon presentation on October 12, 2021. ICRI presented the Project of the Year Award to Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates out of Indianapolis for The Assembly: Jumpstarting the Historic Ford Assembly Building.
Originally constructed in 1915 as an automobile assembly facility, the Indianapolis Ford Assembly building was one of approximately two dozen Ford assembly buildings built at the turn of the century as part of Ford’s vision for regional automobile assembly buildings and sales floors. The original exterior of the building comprised brick masonry with terra cotta accents and a terra cotta cornice on the north facade. The Indianapolis building was listed on the national register in 1986. The redevelopment project required extensive exterior repairs including nearly 13,000 square feet of concrete repairs on the east and west facades. The north and south gables of the building were so severely deteriorated and displaced, removal and rebuilding of the brick and terra cotta gables was required and included installation of new precast concrete girders to span original window openings. The project commenced in 2017 and was completed in October of 2020 at a cost of nearly $38 million.