New York, New York (1912)
The Building:
The historic landmark Woolworth Building in New York City is undergoing a major renovation to convert the top 20 floors into high-end condominiums. Project manager, Alchemy Properties, came up with the highly commendable idea to not only preserve the extraordinarily beautiful fibrous plaster coffered ceiling in the 40th floor office of business icon, Frank Woolworth, but to relocate the ceiling to the condominium’s new lobby in order to give everyone who enters the building an inspiring first impression.
Project Synopsis:
HPCS (Canada) was selected to plan and design the dismantling, stabilization and relocation of 30 fragile 3′ by 3′ coffers, each with ornate light fixtures and four corner plates. HPCS (USA) was contracted to execute the plan. This was no simple task.
Given our experience at removing delicate fresco paintings from walls, we were able to develop a workable method to meticulously take apart and remove the ceiling without damaging the coffers. Once removed, each coffer was equipped with a metal armature and then strengthened and reinforced with a treatment of RE Aramid Gel.
Each coffered panel was removed, numbered, stabilized with HPCS RE Aramid Gel, outfitted with a metal armature (replete with four turnbuckles), and re-installed in the new main floor lobby of the Woolworth Building.
