Walter B. Melvin Architects

Walter B. Melvin Architects has worked on architectural restoration and building envelope repair in New York City since 1975. The Chelsea practice covers masonry repair and restoration, cast iron, window and door restoration, roofing and terrace work, interior finish restoration, building surveys and existing-conditions reports, Facade Inspection Safety Program filings, leak investigation and Landmarks Preservation Commission presentations. Clients run from institutions and government agencies to commercial owners and co-op boards, and the firm has worked on several hundred structures in the New York area. Projects include The Met Cloisters, The Frick Collection, Casa Italiana, the Green-House at Green-Wood Cemetery, and facade restorations at 1010 Fifth Avenue and 1000 Park Avenue. The firm served as historic preservation consultant on the Lord & Taylor Building restoration at 424 Fifth Avenue.

Restoration work lives or dies on how the existing conditions are documented, and that is where Walter B. Melvin Architects begins. The typical sequence is a field survey of the building, a set of repair drawings and details developed from what the survey found, whatever agency approvals the work requires, and then construction administration while the contractor executes. Leak investigation is offered as a standalone engagement, not only as part of a larger job — useful for an owner with water coming in and no idea where from.

The firm is about 35 people and unusually layered for its size. Three principals lead — Robert C. Bates, Martin Lee Griggs and Sergio De Orbeta, all registered architects — over five associates, then eight senior project managers and eight project managers, two senior restoration staff, eight restoration staff and three administrative staff. The separate restoration staff tier is the part worth noticing: it is a group of people whose full-time job is the technical detail of repair rather than general project work. Credentials across the roster include registered architects, AIA and Associate AIA members, NCARB and ARB registration, LEED AP BD+C and LEED Green Associate accreditation, and staff hold memberships in the Association for Preservation Technology, the main professional body for building conservation practice.

The building types run wider than the co-op and museum work the firm is known for. Portfolio categories include armories, arts and culture, civic, education, gymnasiums, institutions, mausoleums, museums, private clubs, religious, residential and transit. Representative projects beyond the obvious landmarks include Riverside Church, St. Paul’s Chapel, Our Lady of Lebanon Church, the Donald Judd Home and Studio, Public Bath No. 7, the Smallpox Hospital known as the Renwick Ruin, and residential addresses at 90 West Broadway, 34 Gramercy Park East and 998 Fifth Avenue. The client base is described in four buckets — institutions, government agencies, businesses and residents — which is a broader public-sector exposure than a purely co-op-focused practice would have.

Geographically the practice is concentrated in New York City and the surrounding area, and 2025 marked its fiftieth year. The office is at 118 West 22nd Street, reachable by phone, by fax, or through a single general firm email address.

One practical implication for a board or owner: because the same office handles surveys, FISP filings, repair documentation and construction-phase oversight, a facade cycle can be run end to end without handing off between consultants — which tends to matter most when a condition found during inspection turns into scoped repair work.