When the Modern Theatre residence hall/theater/gallery opens in fall 2010, it will be a completely new building, but with a fully restored face.

The historic theater’s ornate facade is cracking and will require significant restoration work, according to Adrian LeBuffe of CBT, the architectural firm designing the new building.

Painstaking disassembly

Workers have begun brick-by-brick disassembly of the facade, and several thousand pieces of marble, sandstone and brownstone will be removed and sent off site to a masonry restoration expert.

NER Construction, which is handling the masonry restoration, marks each individual stone so that the facade can be reassembled.

The first three floors are constructed of Vermont marble, and the four upper floors of sandstone and brownstone.

“Deconstruction” of the rest of the building will follow.

The facade will be rebuilt in its original location, and, after restoration, can be expected to last another 100 years.

"Dramatic" restoration project

“There are a lot of fascinating things about this project,” said Judith Selwyn of Preservation Technology Associates, who is monitoring the masonry restoration process for the University. “This is essentially two buildings, the post-Civil War era upper section, which is in good condition, and the later Modern Theatre marble front, which is an entirely different type and style of building.”

“Those of us involved in this reconstruction feel that it’s a really dramatic and interesting thing to do – to take down, restore and reassemble a facade,” said Selwyn. “And there will be theater again on Washington Street. Without the efforts of Suffolk University and Emerson College, what would that part of Washington Street be like?”