Article excerpt regarding 90 West Street gargoyles

NYC-WTC_000110080 Adding Whimsy to a Restoration: Faces a City Can Love buildings, like the 1895 Minnesota Continued From Page B1 State Capitol in St. Paul, "are in need of extensive repairs." goyle." He noted that 90 West Street was a prelude to Gilbert's Woolworth Building, where the lobby seulptures famously depict F. W. Woolworth adding up nickels and Gilbert him- self grasping a rendering of the building, and even celebrate the sky- scraper's structural engineer, Gun- vald Aus. "Our hope," said Mr. Levenson, who is spearheading the construction for the owners, "is that Cass Gilbert would understand." Helen Curry, one of Mr. Gilbert's great-grandchildren, who speaks for the architect's legacy before preser- vation groups, said "what fun." when apprised of the new gargoyles, add- ing: "Ilove it." To Ms. Curry, the 90 West Street restoration is important nationally, because many of the classic Gilbert For more than two years, 90 West Street was shrouded in a 23-story construction veil and braced in scaf- folding, a grim reminder to both passers-by and construction workers of the flaming steel debris that rained on its north facade, made great gaps in its exterior, and turned its interior into a hell of fire. A year ago, 90 West Street's devel- opers were granted $106.5 million in tax-exempt Liberty Bonds and other financing from the city's Housing Development Corporation for the project. The rest will come from the reconstruction partners, which in- elude Brack Capital Real Estate, the Kibel Companies and the hoteliers Richard Born and Ira Drukier. Stone by stone and tile by tile, the sky- scraper is approaching its future as a rental building with 410 apart- ments. A turning point in the recon- struction was reached on a recent morning, as a rigging crew toiled to install a 10-ton capstone assembly atop the arch that, 35 feet above Ce- dar Street, guards the north entrance of 90 West Street. "This is a landmark day for us," said Mr. Levenson as he stood at the muddy spot where a tower once fell, carefully observing the assembly. One wrong move could have shat- tered $500,000 worth of crafted stone and steel. Standing next to him was Mr. Ahearn. He watched as the capstone was fastidiously dangled into its ex- act spot, to a tolerance that amount- ed to an eighth of an inch. "It's as if the heart has started beating again." Mr. Ahearn said, suddenly smiling. The arch is an emblem of the en- tire effort. As much as possible of the original heavy "cubic stone" was used to recreate the arch, but it, and many of the original buildine's dam- aged granite blocks, have been re- placed by new, lightweight stone fa- cades. In these stone "sandwiches." thick granite veneers that have been cut with compurer guidance are at- tached to hand-welded steel arma- tures that precisely reproduce the shape of the original facade. From the outside, Mr. Levenson said, the panels are indistinguishable from the originals. The depleted quarries that sup- plied the original granite could not furnish enough stone of the right col- or to permit complete replacements of the originals, said Christopher J. MeConnell, president of Continental Marble Inc. who is the project's stone wrangler. There was, however. enough quarry granite to carve stone veneers. Initially, the New York City Land- marks Preservation Commission, which declared the building's exteri- or a landmark in 1998 and has closely monitored the construction. had questions about the appropriateness of panelization. "But you have to be realistic, and do the best you can," said Robert B. Tierey, the preserva- tion commission's president, "and this is more tan that. It's an excel- lent restoration." ihe reconstructors have constant- ly melded the old with the technologi- cally forward. While the blasted cop- per sheets of the skyscraper's slop- ing mansard roof have been replaced with new copper, the old decorative metal balustrade ar the top, which melted and twisted,is being replaced with 400 linear feet of fiberglass pieces approved by the landmarks rommission The work at 90 West Street has been not only a task of restoration. but also of memorialization. Some of the blasted carved stone window beads are being left as they are, to bear witness to the building's griev- ous wounds, Even a memento from the earliest disaster davs is still visj- ble, on the west side of the north fo- cade: the ghostly, grayish remnant of the "90 WEST" iag that had beon spray-painted in orange on the build- ing facade by the rescue workers during the early chaos at ground zero. Now, incongruously, a suite of model apartments has taken root on the sixth floor. It is an oasis in the construction hurly-barlv. with its nine-foot-high loft-style ceilings and trendy bamboo-plank floors. The builders' rental office will open in March, and, as early as May, tenants could occupy apartments that range from $1,550 a month for small studios to $5,500 for three-bedroom apart- ments. But to Ms. Curry, Mr. Gilbert's de. scendant, "the most important thing about all of this is that 90 West Street is stillstanding." "Thai's because," she added, he designed this to endure." NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document