COLONIAL REVIVAL GONE TO SEA
After a three-year restoration and addition project, Cobb’s Island Coast Guard
Station opened as The Nature Conservancy’s barrier island educational center. The Oyster, VA, structure was
moved 10 miles from its original home on Cobb’s Island, but retains the same configuration and aesthetic. Now
it faces the Atlantic Ocean with Cobb’s Island visible in the distance. Photo: Steven Small
What was once the Cobb’s Island Coast Guard Station is now the eastern shore of Virgina’s center for
conservation programs and community functions. This adaptive re-use included not only the construction of a new
foundation, the restoration of the dilapidated main building and connected boathouse and the addition of a
caretaker’s cottage but also a relocation across 10 miles of open water. The Colonial Revival building retains
its original configuration and exterior detailing, with eased accessibility and entirely new mechanical and
fire-safety systems.
Cobb’s Island Station was designed by the U.S. Coast Guard’s Civil Engineer’s Office and built on a remote
barrier island in 1936 under Franklin Roosevelt’s Civil Works Administration program. It served the Coast Guard
for 28 years before it was decommissioned and left vacant in 1964. The Station is one of the few surviving
examples of the 1930s-era pattern stations – described by some as “Colonial Revivalism gone to sea” –
constructed simultaneously on four of the Virginia islands. In 1973, the island and the Station were acquired
by The Nature Conservancy. The building’s remote and exposed location subjected it to harsh weather conditions
and while the elements took their toll on the structure, much of the hardware, guttering and roof flashing was
removed by vandals.
With the hope of opening the building to the community and the acknowledgement that the building would need to
be accessible for continual service and maintenance, The Conservancy decided to relocate the Station to the
mainland. In May 1998, the building was moved 10 miles in two pieces by barge. The new site in the harbor town
of Oyster was composed of mostly unstable dredge fill, so “we constructed reinforced-concrete pile caps at
grade, over which we placed more than 100 wood pilings,” says architect Jeff Dreyfus, Principal in Charge at
Bushman Dreyfus Architects PLC in Charlottesville, VA. “Visually, this mimicked the building’s original wood
piling foundation.”
Once the new foundation was completed in September 1998, the building renovation began. “First we had to
stabilize the building to prevent further deterioration,” says Dreyfus. Referencing some of the original
construction drawings of a similar station built nearby, Bushman Dreyfus Architects put on a new wood shingle
roof, replacing the long-deteriorated asphalt shingle roof of an earlier renovation, and made structural
repairs. “We next took the building down to its studs,” he continues, because all of the interior finishes had
to be removed to abate asbestos and lead paint.
In rebuilding, it was most important to keep the exterior true to the original. “We worked with the existing
window configurations as we re-thought the interior layout,” says Dreyfus. Much of the wood shingle siding was
salvaged, and small areas were repaired or replaced with similar shingles. The detailing over the windows, the
corner pilasters and the trim profiles that defined the building as Colonial Revival were rebuilt to the
original plans. Also, the porches that were so particular to the spirit of this structure were restored and
removable screens were replicated for them.
Once the exterior restoration was underway, Bushman Dreyfus tackled the building’s interior spaces. “We wanted
to be as sensitive to the interior as we were to the exterior,” says Dreyfus, “but we needed to adapt it for
new proposes. Though we wanted to remind people of the building’s past, it was no longer going to function as a
Coast Guard station.” The main structure that once housed the crew’s lodging, kitchen and living facilities was
turned into a library, dining room, kitchen and seven guest bedrooms, the latter of which are located on the
second and third floors. The fourth-floor crow’s nest lookout remains intact, but the original ship’s ladder
was replaced with a new circular stair that makes the room more easily accessible.
Three porches provide sweeping views of the surrounding marshland and ocean.
All of the porches’ surfaces were repaired or replicated to match the original wood detailing and though no
original removable screen panels were found at Cobb’s Island, reproductions were built according to the
original construction documents. Photo: Scott Smith
The 11,325-sq.ft. Cobb’s Island Station project was completed in December 2001. Since then, Bushman Dreyfus
Architects and The Nature Conservancy have paired themselves for a number of other projects. The firm has
worked with the Conservancy for more than seven years to date and has completed a number of projects for the
nonprofit organization, including a new office on the Eastern shore.
Bushman Dreyfus Architects PLC was founded in 1972 with the design philosophy of harmonizing each project
with the historical, ecological and architectural context of its particular site. The Charlottesville, VA-based
firm, which consists of five architects, seven intern architects and two administrative staff, designs both
residences and commercial buildings for homeowners, developers and environmental, religious and educational
institutions. In addition to this year’s Palladio Award, Bushman Dreyfus has been the recipient of the Inform
Magazine award, the Metropolitan Home Magazine “2002 Home of the Year” grand-prize award, the Charlottesville
Historic Preservation Commendation and Sports Facility of the Year award.
See details about the winning entry in the May/June 2004 issue of Traditional Building Magazine.
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