Keith Berger's First Project

Keith Berger began working at Teitsch-Kent-Fay Architects, P.C. as a junior drafter on June 6, 2008. Keith began his work assisting us with various projects that the firm was involved with. His first major project was the EXCEL project for the Sharon Springs School District.

This project began when the New York State Education Department created the EXCEL program which provided “grant” money for Districts to improve their facilities. The Sharon Springs School District was a recipient of this program and decided they wanted to upgrade their original school building.

The Sharon Springs K-12 school building was originally built in 1931. This building had amazing classroom windows and a monumental central main entrance off of Route 20. Sadly in the 1960s the building had new windows put in that replaced the old wooden millwork ones with square tube aluminum frames. This installation was both not very historically sensitive to the structure and negatively affected the building's otherwise elegant appearance. The money from the EXCEL program gave the Sharon Springs School district the means to be able to remedy this design dilemma.

Keith worked with the rest of the Teitsch-Kent-Fay Architects, P.C. team to find a window manufacturer who could provide thermally efficient units that would meet contemporary energy codes, while being of a more appropriate profile for this significant building. To accomplish this difficult feat Keith researched the District’s archive of blueprints and located the 1930’s building drawings which included the original profiles for the windows. The units that he was able to find, detail, and ultimately have installed were a very close match to these original units. These windows were so similar that the New York State Historic Preservation Office not only approved them, but complemented our team on restoring the look of the original building.

In addition to the window reconstruction, this project also included a significant amount of re-roofing. At the time the roof on the District’s Elementary School wing was badly deteriorated and actively leaking. To remedy this, Keith was able to use his AutoCad skills to prepare drawings so that a new roof could be installed.

Throughout the completion of this project Keith was able to become familiar with the facility at the Sharon Springs School District as well as the District’s Administrative team. This project proved to be good practice for many skills that Keith continues to use to this day. He recently completed drawings for Sharon Springs’ current capital project which is to re-roof the remainder of the District’s K-12 building and Auditorium wing. We have been extremely grateful to have Keith as a member of the Teitsch-Kent-Fay Architects, P.C. team for over 15 years. We look forward to working with him for many more years.