Article excerpt regarding 90 West Street gargoyles

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

Replacement gargoyles for 90 West Street, a 1907 building designed by lass Gilbert that was damaged oil Sept. 11, 200), depict some of the building's current owners and seine of the principals involved in its continuing reconstruction.

Faces at Least a City Can Love Gargoyles Add Whimsy to $148 Million Project Near Ground Zero Hv (.I.FaN COLLINS she u•avin_ a: ia,t. for thegarco:`t•', ::

t urr .: ,. ; ,rwy went missing wI ' . . .:m ::• t; li! r . .torld Trade Center. ; ,l~ t{~ :, ., ,•i ;, •I I ; .9001 1 hough wounded, 90 v,'.• . w.+as ' art la a miracle building. ;I .,n:,- Iri- utnph : .urvival. But after the faro's tix. ell and the ,Inoke !:hcd, an architectural inventory of the 1907 neo-Go:fns building showed that the landmark had lost its gargoyles. The 'a ith c,. Borne of :he gargoyles may have Al. ha !,r'tart' victiins of age, neglect and I .':, ',.. Or' knows for sure Rut now it can defini- I :h:u as put of the $149 million rebirth P, ,.• . In , I. ... . . t• r, ; r, .dh 0 building ri c•atc.l by the architect Voter l..evenson, one of 90 W. ,, „ „ . . .,,„I r ;r.• r, iy,• r, ,i: :~.:ra'uwIS,goat Itcads,griffins,haby t;ar.ovlc likeness orhim on the facade of tin, huildirit . innnf:rc bents. hat, and other assorted i r .:' i : re c.onnng back. V, artog completion are a new $4 million, '15-font mansard roof, a $5 million, three-story granite base, and $11 million wet th of new if era cotta tile and deco- rations. Indeed, nearly 7,000 new piece: of exterior terra cotta had to be recreated for the restoration, "since so much of the terra sego at 9d West Street wag d'• stroyed in the attack," said Gretchen F. Krouse, a vice president at Roston bailey 'terr;t (.otua in Or chard Park, N Y . south of Buffalo The clay was shaped by computerassisted de- sign, but many of the new terra cotta pieces, were pressed into molds, and then glazed, by hand, just as they had seen in the early 1900s "You can see work- ers' I . ...Ilamts inside, lust as you could on the origi- nal::. a Krousesatd. M.::,, of the more than IOU replacement gar- goylk' rte also made at the Boctnn Valley factory. And a: . a homage to the playfiII P511(51 nri' of Gtl- hort's Iola Woolworth Building at 333 Broadway. IIi' gargoyle reproductions are being augmented with seven contemporary faces The appropriately grotesque new caricatures in- clude Peter Levenson, a principal of the Kibel Com- panies and one of the building's owners; Henry Kihpi. another of the owners; Michael Y. Ahearn, president at Seaboard Weatherproofing Co., the exterior con- tractor: and Jeff Smith, Seaboard's on-site project manager "It's as it I've been living here for a year," Mr South said, "so I might as well slay here as a gar-

NYC-WTC 000110079