Project Profile

Habitat for Humanity of Greater Newburgh, New York

Office space and ReStore

When Habitat for Humanity of Greater Newburgh needed new office space, they could have built from scratch, or just added a bit of paint and spackle to an existing space. The organization decided instead to preserve a 150-year legacy.

The Kimball Building in downtown Newburgh, N.Y., was a 13,000 square foot industrial-grade building. Erected in 1852, the facility originally housed a foundry that made metal castings, steam pipes and manhole covers. In the 1930's the building was converted to an auto mechanic machine shop and recently, it served as an electrical contractor's business and roofing company. The facility was anything but office and retail space, but it was part of downtown Newburgh.

Just as Habitat has restored dozens of homes to help rebuild Newburgh, they decided to restore the Kimball Building. In 2008, Habitat called in Wightman Specialty Woods to create the wood flooring for 5,000 square feet of the historic building.

It was a complex task, but as well worth the effort as any Habitat home restoration.

Wightman Specialty Woods manufactured Custom Joined #1 Soft Maple flooring to accommodate the office spaces, conference facility and ReStore for the building (The ReStore is a building materials recycling and resale facility open to the public). Using the architect's floor plan, we created a specific layout for each space and implemented a color coding system in which all custom-joined flooring packs were marked and designated a specific area for installation.

The color coding system allowed Habitat's volunteers and employees to quickly and easily install the flooring themselves, saving a great deal of time and expense. Habitat has occupied the space since October 2008.

What a great example of good, efficient work! Recycle and re-purpose an old building to function as not only a work space for an organization whose mission is to rebuild communities, but also to serve as a local source for recycled building materials. We hope they continue to serve the greater Newburgh community for many decades to come. For more information, visit Habitat for Humanity of Greater Newburgh.