Slippery Rock Gazette

RENOVATION/RESTORATION

RUGO STONE

_____________________

Trinity Church Wall Street 

Chancel & Altar Restoration 

New York, NY

________________

Rugo Stone  

Lorton, VA

Rugo Stone in Lorton, Virginia has been named the recipient of the 2020 Grande Pinnacle Award for their work on the Trinity Church Wall Street Altar & Chancel Restoration project in New York City.

Located at the crossing of Wall Street and Broadway, Trinity Church is an historical structure that for 174 years has served New Yorkers as a place of worship. During 9/11 the church served as a shelter from the debris caused by the collapse of the first World Trade Center tower. 

Trinity Church needed a variety of upgrades, including complete conservation and restoration of the Gothic Revival chancel and the historic Astor memorial altar. 

Rugo Stone was selected to dismantle and conserve the Astor memorial altar based on extensive experience in stone and mosaic conservation and restoration. Their task was to carefully dismantle the marble and the mosaic which formed the altar. The mosaic panels, believed to have been created in the 1870s by acclaimed Italian mosaic artist Antonio Salviati, are considered priceless, as is the Vermont statuary marble altar. 

Rugo Stone carefully cataloged the altar by 3D scanning it in place, and then dismantled and transported it to their carving studio. Over the next 6 months, artisans carefully cleaned and restored the damaged pieces, as well as produced new columns, hand-carved capitals, performed dutchman patches, and new gilding, all to create a new configuration for an ADA accessible altar mounted to a new steel frame. 

The team also sourced new Caen French limestone to recreate rear wall missing pilasters and base, which was particularly challenging as the original Caen limestone was quarried in the 1860s.