Where Refinement Meets Historical Restoration

One of the reasons Wayne Baruch’s clients call him is to restore historical buildings to their original luster. A historical restoration specialist, his Hillsborough-based Artisian Group restoration firm has certainly done history proud by restoring the past.

Baruch, however, is also sought after for his technical skill and knowledge about the protocol of building and, most importantly, his dedication detail in the creation of building excellence.

“I am good with attention to detail and I know construction,” Baruch said as calmly as one might provide their address.

That capability and “an innate ability” to understand good construction, has allowed Baruch to also offer services as an Expert Witness, or a construction expert who can provide prosecutors, attorneys, architects, home & business owners with an audit or statement of professional standards of practice, or lack thereof, for construction matters.

By all accounts, Baruch has been doing the job right since he started the Artisan Group in 2006, after short stint at U.S. Home earlier that year. The career followed by more than 20 years in the IT industry.

“My first love is architecture,” Baruch said. "Out of high school, a friend’s Dad warned me early on that unless I was the principal in a company or a masterfully prominent architect like I.M. Pei, that I would be starving.”

So after his corporate job went south in 2001, construction was the answer,Baruch said.

“I love design," he said. "I love out-of-the-box thinking, the problem solving, I love seeing the light go on above the client’s head.”

One of Baruch’s favorite projects remains one of his first—four bathrooms in a 140 year old home across the street from Albert Einstein’s home in Princeton, which he worked on in 2006.

“I was the second or third general contractor,” Baruch said. “The prior fellow has gotten impatient and cut the ground wires in the electrical system!”

To ensure that he would not get tagged with construction that was not up to code, Baruch reached out to the construction official in Princeton and asked him to send his building sub-code officials, he said.

Another of his favorites projects is the Hillsborough's own Ditmars-Polhemus Wagon House, which was dedicated on Oct. 1. With both the Princeton project and the wagon house, Baruch said he involved local officals who he said can play a big role in the success of a project.

In an industry where construction officials are often at odds with construction professionals and related service personnels who can at times cut corners, Baruch makes it a point to reach out and involve local building officials.

“The construction official and I are a team,” Baruch said. "They are not my enemies. When I work in a new community, especially if something weird comes up, I’ll call up the construction official introduce myself.”  

Baruch said that on a restoration project, the architect is the design consultant and engineering professional.

“It’s my job to execute that architects design to code,” he said.

When Baruch is not on a restoration project, he can be found teaching at local colleges on topics that range from building principles to “green” buildings.

He has found himself in recent years an advocate of truly eco-centric projects—those that are not he calls “greenwashing.”

When considering items that can be considered green, i.e., eco-friendly or reusable, Baruch questions items rigorously, looking at durability, composition and ease to repair.

"Is that item recyclable," he said. "Is it durable? Was it shipped from around the world? Does it contain toxic or hazardous materials, is it easy repair and maintain?"

"A marketer of greenwashing would say we are green," he added. "Yeah, maybe. Plowing over a field and building 100 new homes is not green. Repairing and existing building—constructive reuse—that‘s green.”