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General Services Administration 
Since 1993, The Louis Berger Group (Berger) has provided the U.S. General Services Administration, Regions II (New York, New Jersey and Puerto Rico) and III (Middle Atlantic States), with multidisciplinary research teams in historical archaeology, military history and architecture. In planning a proposed federal courthouse annex in Erie, Pennsylvania, Berger prepared historical and archaeological studies of the downtown city block occupied by the 1899 Erie Public Library and the 1938 post office and courthouse, both listed in the National Register. Historical research traced the ownership and residence of the block from 1795--when the city was laid out--to the present. Archaeological investigations identified building foundations, demolition debris, sheet middens from backyards, industrial features and l9th-century cisterns and stoneware sewer pipelines. One unexpected discovery was a rare, well-preserved copper and wood fuel storage tank-vapor generator from a circa-1895 gasoline illumination system. Removal of the tank required close coordination between specialists in hazardous materials and Berger archaeologists to assure safety while preserving important information concerning the tank's original construction. A similar post office and federal courthouse rehabilitation in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, required consideration of the impact to a part of the 17th-century city wall buried beneath the building. The area of Old San Juan occupied by the Federal Building was once strategic to the city's military defense and commercial development over its 500-year history, and included remains of the Bastion de San Justo del Muelle and the city's main gate. Working in close consultation with the Institute for Puerto Rican Culture, Berger designed a preservation program to collect materials adjacent to the wall and ensure that historical resources encountered during the rehabilitation would be fully documented for future generations. |
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