July 2006
West Chester Public Library Receives 2006 Grand Jury Award
Keast & Hood Co. is pleased to announce the West Chester Public Library received a 2006 Grand Jury Award in the 13th Annual Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia’s Preservation Achievement Awards. The award honored The Borough of West Chester (Client); Frens and Frens, LLC (Restoration Architect); Bruce E. Brooks & Associates (MEP Engineer); and Keast & Hood Co. (Structural Engineer) for the sensitive expansion and restoration of the 1888 building. On April 26, Keast & Hood Co. Associate and Director of Historic Structures, Suzanne M. Pentz, presented the story of “Structural Failure at the Academy of Music” at a regional conference of Cigna real estate managers and corporate facility directors. The theme of the presentation was how to manage client relations under circumstances of extreme financial risk and potential human peril. In 1989 while surveying for a new elevator shaft at the Academy, Keast & Hood Co. uncovered failed timber roof trusses, resulting in an evacuation and emergency stabilization effort. The firm congratulates Keast & Hood Co. Principal, Constantine G. Doukakis, PE, who was selected to join the Drexel University Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering Advisory Board.