Adaptive Reuse Analysis of Fort Tompkins, Fort Wadsworth, Staten Island, New York

Louis Berger & Associates, Inc.

Fort Tompkins, located within the Fort Wadsworth installation, is a casemated masonry fortification built by the U.S. Army in the latter part of the 19th century. Fort Tompkins, along with several other cultural resources listed in or determined eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, was included in a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) among the Navy, Advisory Council on Historic Preservation and New York State Historic Preservations Office. The MOA, prepared and signed in 1986, formalized provisions for avoidance or mitigation of impacts to cultural resources arising from the Navy's Surface Acron (sic) Group (SAG) Homeport development on Staten Island. The Navy is considering the retention and utilization of Fort Tompkins in support of the SAG Homeport facility. To this end, and pursuant to provisions of the MOA, the Navy has requested a study analyzing potential use alternatives, taking into account the historic architectural character for which Fort Tompkins has been listed in the National Register. The objective of this study is to provide sufficient data to permit the Navy to select the most feasible and economically efficient mission-related use of Fort Tompkins that is at the same time compatible with historic preservation goals and objectives. A series of investigations was conducted at Fort Tompkins in order to ascertain current conditions of structural, mechanical and electrical systems, architectural features, and overall site and landscape elements. At the same time, documentary research was conducted to compile a history of Fort Tompkins' design, original construction and subsequent uses, in order to identify physical characteristics of historical importance and to assess the nature and extent of past alterations. A series of nine alternatives were developed, taking into account not only identified engineering, economic and functional constraints, but also those potentially posed by the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation. Each alternative was then analyzed in terms of cost, operational/functional limitations, use capacity/capability, effects on historic architectural characteristics, and anticipated social acceptability.