Stephen Raciti — Adaptive Reuse: An Architect’s Portfolio

As an architect, Stephen Raciti likes to make a difference. “I enjoy the opportunity to enhance something, to make it better, to make it work for the client or the end user,” he explains, “and certainly in Red Bank, to visually enhance some of the buildings that have been here for a long time but haven’t been touched, and are in need of renovation or alteration, and adaptive reuse.” His modest office, Stephen Raciti Architects, sits above La Pasteria Restaurant at 30 Linden Place, where he also has left his mark.

He doesn’t just ply his trade in the town he loves and first came to in the mid-1980s; he’s actively involved, volunteering his time and expertise. He serves on the Executive Committee of Red Bank River-Center, established in 1991 to manage and redevelop the borough’s downtown district, and chairs the organ-ization’s Visual Improvement Committee (VIC). The job with VIC, he admits, is something of a double-edged sword because he has to bring his own projects before it. “But I enjoy the work because we get to see we what’s happening in town, and make suggestions — basically help people who are hoping to do things in Red Bank.”

Stephen never intended to specialize in renovation, or adaptive reuse, the process of adapting old structures for new purposes in which many of the existing architectural details that make the structure unique are retained. The Brick Township native received his bachelor’s degree in architecture from Kansas State University, and an associate’s degree in engineering from Ocean County College. Before coming to Red Bank, he worked for the Grad Partnership, a big architectural firm in Newark, and was involved with large projects such as the Meadowlands Arena.

By chance, he met some “Red Bank people” at a meeting of the New Jersey chapter of the American Institute of Architects. He had several thoughts at the time: What a nice place. It would be great to work down this way. Shortly thereafter, in 1984, he was hired by a Red Bank-based firm. Three years later, he became a partner; five years later, he went out on his own.

“It was an interesting time with the economy and everything, and Red Bank was still ‘Dead Bank,’” he says of the period before Red Bank’s “rebirth” starting in the early 1990s. “I thought I would do more housing, but have ended up doing a lot of projects here in town.” Though his portfolio contains work he has done for residential homes and commercial buildings (projects at places such as Pier Village in Long Branch, Crazees ice cream store in Rumson, Pasta Fresca in The Grove at Shrewsbury), “you could say that I specialize in the adaptive reuse of the older buildings.”

The oldest building he has worked on in Red Bank is the Globe Hotel at 20 East Front Street, portions of which date back to 1865. His current project at 20 White Street is an example of a renovation/alteration, with Investor Savings Bank located on the first floor and office space expanded and refurbished on the second floor. The job required that the entire building be reconfigured and brought to code for fire safety, structural capacity and accessibility.

Hanging on a wall in Stephen’s office, along with scores of blueprints, is an architectural rendering for a project that, upon closer examination, is actually a penciled doodle on a paper restaurant placemat. “I think some of the best stuff you can show people is this type of work,” he explains. It’s a creative precursor to computer schematics that hits him while enjoying lunch, sharing ideas, and listening carefully to his clients and their dreams.