Parks & Recreation Kicks off $3 Million Conservation of the 108-year-old Monument
Parks & Recreation Commissioner Adrian Benepe joined Council Member Alan J. Gerson, Samuel G. White (great-grandson of the Arch’s architect Stanford White), Alexander Stirling Calder Rower (great-grandson of the sculptor of the Arch’s Washington as Statesman sculpture), Municipal Art Society President Kent Barwick, New York University Vice President for University Relations Lynn Brown, Washington Square Association President Anne Marie Sumner, and others today to break ground on the exterior restoration of the Washington Square Arch. Commissioner Benepe led a special tour of the Arch’s spiral Guastavino tile staircase, concealed raw brick attic space, and roof. The $3 million project will restore the Arch to its original condition and includes securing loose pieces, reattaching detached pieces salvaged by Parks & Recreation, recarving select sculptural and decorative features, repairing both statues of Washington, and filling fissures with a mortar compound. Additionally, forty-five of the ninety-five rosettes on the coffered soffit of the Arch that sustained losses will be repaired or replaced. The restoration also includes extensive architectural illumination.
“Today, on the 214th anniversary of George Washington’s inauguration, our founding father is getting a well-deserved facelift,” said Commissioner Benepe. “The Washington Square Arch is one of the finest monuments and icons in the city, and we’ve put together the best restoration team possible to restore and preserve it.”
Conservation work is being supervised by Parks & Recreation’s Design and Construction team. The contractor for the project is Mughal Waterproofing and Masonry, and the subcontractor for the delicate masonry work is Archa Technology, Ltd. The design consultant conservation team includes Koutsomitis Architects, P.C., conservators Mark Rabinowitz and Robin Gerstad, and engineers Robert Silman Associates. Lighting is designed by Domingo Gonzalez Associates. Over this past winter, Parks & Recreation completed electrical modifications, remedial site work, and site mobilization. The Arch’s restoration is expected to be completed in time for New York University’s 2004 commencement.
In order to ensure that the work is preserved, Parks & Recreation is working to establish a $600,000 endowment for the continued maintenance of the monument. New York University has pledged to support this effort, and $135,000 has already been raised from private donations, including a recent pledge of $50,000 from a supporter, David Netto. Additional funding from The Samuel H. Kress Foundation allowed Parks & Recreation to consult experts in the fields of historic preservation and monument restoration.
The Arch, designed by architect Stanford White, was dedicated in 1895 as an expression of the City Beautiful movement, which sought to create structures and public spaces in America whose beauty and stature would rival those of the European capitals. It was preceded in 1889 by a temporary triumphal arch of wood and papier mache, also designed by Stanford White, which honored the centennial anniversary of Washington’s inauguration. The temporary arch was so well received that plans were immediately made to erect a permanent structure, and funds were quickly raised by private subscription.
David H. King, who constructed the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, was hired as a builder. Most of the ornamentation on the Arch, including the spandrel panels was designed by William MacMonnies, and crafted by the Piccirilli studio, a shop of Italian master carvers based in the South Bronx. Construction began on May 30, 1890 and was completed by February 1895. Washington as Commander-in-Chief, Accompanied by Fame and Valor was designed by Hermon Atkins MacNeil and was installed in 1916. Washington as President, Accompanied by Wisdom and Justice, was designed Alexander Stirling Calder and was installed in 1918.
The Arch has appeared frequently in the works of artists and photographers, including Edward Hopper, Ernest Lawson, William Glackens, and Berenice Abbott. In 1917, as Greenwich Village emerged as a center of bohemian and intellectual life, a group of artists and actors led by Marcel Duchamp, John Sloan, and Gertrude Drick illicitly camped atop the Arch and declared Greenwich Village an independent nation. Over the last century, however, the exterior of this world-famous monument has deteriorated.
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