Monday, July 26, 2004

U-boat spotting tower saved

By AUDREY PARENTE - NEWS-JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Board by board, Ralph “Chip” Schwarz Jr. recently disassembled, numbered and cataloged each piece of a weather-beaten World War II watchtower in Ormond-by-the-Sea.

Schwarz, 50, owner of Sun Country Builders of Daytona Beach, meticulously managed each step of the watchtower´s restoration. He aims to build his business reputation in the same painstaking way as he has approached the restoration -- step by step.

Volusia County officials want to place the historic watchtower on the National Register. The 30-foot structure, nestled in the dunes, is one of a few remaining outposts from more than 480 built as part of the Coast Guard´s Coastal Picket Patrol. Guard members and volunteer observers used the perches to spot U-boats and aircraft.

A Gainesville developer, Emmer Development Corp., which owns the tower -- as part of a former 7-acre camper resort now slated for a new housing project -- has put more than $35,000 into saving the structure.

In January, the hut, braced to tons of steel, was removed by crane from its pilings and placed across the street at 2160 Ocean Shore Blvd., the site of the planned new housing development. Then the structural base in the dunes was restored, while across the street the hut was disassembled.

In mid-July, the hut´s fragile frame was returned by forklift to its 30-foot perch above the ocean. The original exterior of heart-pine boards is being replaced one board at a time. Since heart pine has a special density, being rich with sap from the heart of a pine tree, Schwarz says every old nail hole, in each salvaged two-by-four, is being filled with heart-pine sawdust and a special epoxy.

Any board that cannot be salvaged will be replaced with a special-ordered replica, Schwarz says, because wood sizes are different now than in the 1940s when the watchtower was constructed. A two-by-four -- once actually two inches-by-four inches -- milled today is about one-and-a-half inches thick by three-and-a-half inches wide, according to a spokesman at Southeastern Woods lumber company in Ormond Beach.

Schwarz says building is his career, but restoration is a work of love.

“It just seems like my calling,” says Schwarz, a Daytona Beach native and graduate of Father Lopez High School. He has been a local builder since 1979, but his interest began earlier.

He worked part time through high school as a sort of intern, in the drafting department of Florida Production Engineering, which manufactured auto parts for General Motors, Chrysler and Ford. He learned about making and reading blue prints, design and engineering.

In 1976, he earned an associate of science degree in construction from Santa Fe Community College in Gainesville. His degree and hours of work were enough for him to test as a certified residential contractor, meaning he could build new homes or complete interior renovations, but he could not do structural remodeling. Later, as he became more experienced, he re-tested, and in 1979, qualified as a general contractor. That allowed him to do structural remodeling.

“I built one house and sold one, then built two and sold two, then three -- mostly in Ormond Beach and Daytona Beach,” he says. He estimates he´s built more than 250 houses and more than 100 condominium units during his 25 years in business.

“And a lot of renovations,” he adds.

He earned an award for design from Florida Power and Light for using reflective materials and creating a 7,300-square-foot home three-times more efficient than other homes that size.

Schwarz won the Aurora Award, given by the National Home Builders Association to builders, architects, interior designers, landscape architects and other home building professionals competing in a 12-state region: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.

He did house and condominium renovations, moved and relocated houses and garages, and when Daytona Beach officials wanted to restore the downtown Beach Street area during the 1980s, Schwarz´s name surfaced.

“I did everything from inside renovation to total restoration,” explains Schwarz, who has three employees but has completed projects that required up to 50 people, such as renovations at Volusia Mall.

“You don´t have to have a lot of employees, because the Florida law allows you to use subcontractors,” he says. “Basically, I am an orchestrator. I assemble and organize, schedule and keep subcontractors on track and on cost. So if, all of a sudden, you need to expand, you hire framing contractors or people who specialize in woodcutting techniques or people who do strictly demolition.”

When it comes to details, Schwarz says subcontracting the right people is important, especially with a project like the watchtower.

“A good master carpenter is one who has the ability to work within 32nds of an inch, when you can put materials together and can´t shove a piece of paper between the cuts,” he says. “Everything we do is tons slower than normal, because we´re working backwards, trying to reassemble this thing.”

Tom Harl, spokesman for Emmer Development Corp., which owns the watchtower, says Schwarz was chosen upon recommendation by the project´s structural engineer, Robert Bullard.

Bullard worked with Schwarz on several Beach Street renovation projects.

“He does tremendous quality, first-class work and leaves no detail unturned, and this is a detailed landmark structure,” Bullard says. “This is strictly historical.”

Schwarz says: “In this business, your best advertising is your sign on the street at the project you are doing. People say, ‘I didn´t know you could do that. You are just the guy I want.’ ”

Special Project: THE FLORIDA QUEST Laptop Lauren and the Trackers are the main characters in the Florida Quest, a 4-week, multi-media project involving thousands of students in Volusia and Flagler counties. In this quest they discover Homefront and Heritage!