The Challenge Of Rebuilding The Past

"The scores of old Boston Wharf Co. industrial buildings in the Fort Point Channel area were great for storing woolens, making leather, and later, for selling furniture. Now developers are starting to transform the vast floors of high-ceilinged brick-and-beam construction into cozy, quiet luxury residences.

But new plumbing, wiring, and interior walls won't be enough.

Taking the first complex of buildings to luxury levels involves complicated adaptation that includes new support columns from basement to roof, constructing concrete walls just inside the handsome brick facades, and creating an interior "cage" of structural steel to stiffen walls and floors crafted over 100 years ago.

In April, Berkeley Investments Inc. started turning two five-story buildings and an adjacent vacant lot on Congress Street into FP3, a $60 million luxury-living complex scheduled to open next spring.

'It's cheaper to just knock this down and build a new building,' said Scott Thomson, lead architect on the project and a senior associate with Hacin & Associates Inc., pointing to 348-354 Congress, the gutted former Boston Wharf Co. warehouses. 'Our culture has realized what's of value, so now we have this strange challenge.'"