"Superman" Building

The Industrial Trust Building, popularly known as the "Superman" Building, located in Providence, Rhode Island, is a 1928-built historic Art Deco skyscraper standing 428 feet tall with 26 stories.

The building has been significantly deteriorating over time, with visible signs of decay including missing limestone pieces, cracked exterior, and overall neglect, particularly due to long periods of vacancy and disputes over maintenance responsibility between previous owners and tenants. A building assessment was needed to review the existing conditions and quantify façade and maintenance issues that needed to be addressed.

A $223 million renovation is being planned to transform the vacant office space into 285 residential apartments, along with 8,000 square feet of commercial space and 26,000 square feet of retail, event, and community space.

Michael Liu and The Architectural Team, Inc. has entrusted Existing Conditions to employ state-of-the-art 3D laser scanning reality capture tools, including the Leica RTC360, Leica P50, NavVis VLX, and the DJI Mavic Drone, to conduct a comprehensive laser scan and drone survey for over 450,000 square feet of space. Due to the building's deterioration, urgent 3D laser scanning was necessary to accurately capture its existing conditions.

The team received a comprehensive set of deliverables, including a detailed 3D Revit model, 2D as-built drawings, and drone imagery which provided a digital representation of the building’s existing conditions, layout, structural elements, and systems to make informed decisions as they adapt the space to its new purpose as residential and mixed-use development.

Accurate as-built data, drawings, and models will allow Michael Liu and The Architectural Team, Inc to conduct a thorough analysis of the building's structural integrity and maintenance concerns and develop a successful adaptive reuse plan.