These days, you may spot scaffolding in and around Yin Yu Tang: A Chinese Home. That’s because after more than 20 years on PEM’s campus, the house is getting some TLC. John G. Waite Associates, a leading consultant in historic preservation architecture for nearly 30 years and the firm that helped raise Yin Yu Tang in 2003, is leading repairs to the tile roof, replacing bricks and renewing the house’s white lime render coating. Preservation work may be underway during your visit, making this a rare opportunity to see this work in action. When it’s finished, the house will be prepared for at least the next 20 years.

We sat down with Bill Brandow, a principal architect with Waite Associates, who recalls what being on the project was like more than two decades ago when the house was being re-erected brick by brick. He talks about the firm’s preservation guidelines for the current project and what work visitors might be able to see in action this spring. Visit PEM’s website for more information about the process.

Q: Can you talk a bit about historic preservation and the goals that guide a project like this one?

A: Ever since I was a small child, I've been interested in architecture and existing buildings more than the notion of building something from scratch. Just understanding their stories and what they tell us about people who lived there and the broader arc of history. There are preservation standards that we apply to existing buildings and judgment calls you have to make, but this Yin Yu Tang project is very different from the work we typically do. When we were first installing Yin Yu Tang more than 20 years ago, the decision was made early on to bring the building back to as close to the condition it was in when it left China. We had to come up with written standards to guide the process and then figure it out as we went. We have the general preservation standards that we apply to every project, but we've never had another project where we had to devise them fresh. There were hundreds of instances of "Do we go this way? Do we do this?" We would argue back and forth about the best way forward, but going back to those preservation standards did help answer questions that would naturally arise. The goal was to put the building back as much as possible as it was in China. But that's easier said than done!

Q: What is your favorite memory from the process of re-erecting Yin Yu Tang back in 2003?

A: I was involved when the house first arrived from China, going through the crates and trying to figure out how to put it back together — because there wasn't really an instruction manual with it. That was starting in late 1999. Then we finished it in June of '03, and we've been involved here and there on maintenance throughout. My favorite memory is essentially the first encounter. It was within the first couple of days when I was working on the project in the warehouse. I needed to figure out the main door hoods, how they went together, on the North side and the West side of the building. We built, basically, a large sandbox to keep everything in line, so that the bricks could be laid out, because they're all different depths. Basically, I got to play with blocks in a sandbox. It was just “figure out which brick goes where.” It had to be the exact location. You could tell if you look at the hoods now, there's damage to them that predates that, some of which was done during the Cultural Revolution, some of which was done by erosion and deterioration. I got to spend several days on the two door hoods trying to figure out how they went together and playing with blocks in sand.

Q: What was your first impression of Yin Yu Tang?

A: Well, it was interesting seeing it come to life, very, very slowly, but once it was finished, standing in the courtyard, just every angle of it, the sum of the rooms, the smaller spaces, you had a pretty good idea. The main courtyard was definitely the most interesting to see once it was finished. That was one where it did reveal itself fairly dramatically because you didn't get a full sense of it until the scaffolding came down. And that's when you got the appreciation of its totality. Early on, one of the ideas was to put it inside of a building to protect it. But there was a strong desire to have you experience the house as you would have in China. The best days to visit, in my opinion, are when it's raining, because it rains inside the courtyard.

Q: How does Yin Yu Tang fit in with historic architecture in Salem and on PEM’s campus?

A: In one sense, it doesn't. It's quite different. But in the narrative of why the Peabody Essex Museum exists and the China trade, you can see this circa 1790, 1800 merchants' house from China, and then walk around the corner and see the Gardner–Pingree House, which is from almost the exact same date and similar in size, but very different architecturally. I think that's really interesting, and there's nowhere else you can see that.

Q: What are the preservation goals of the current Yin Yu Tang project?

A: We’re correcting issues to specifically address Salem’s climate impact on Yin Yu Tang. The tile roof and the rendered brick are being renewed. The tile is all coming off and going back on with a tile made in the U.K. that looks the same as the Chinese tile, but that will weather better. It's from a tile company that has been in business for over 200 years. They started in business around 1806, right around the time Yin Yu Tang was built. Working through the nuance of what we wanted and needed and what they could provide that would be more hardy in a northern environment was a painstaking process, but fun. On the exterior, we're renewing the rendering. That’s the white coated surface that’s like plaster. We’re replacing the bricks below that that have failed. Then we’re recoating with a silicate coating that we used 20 years ago.