Woolworth Building

Designed by Cass Gilbert between 1911 and 1913 and appointed as a landmark in 1966, the Woolworth Building is modeled after the Westminster Palace's Victoria Towers of, echoing "an imperial grandeur" 1. A project of great magnitude for the City of New York with "over two and one-half million square feet of surface (...) to be covered, involving six million pounds of gypsum plaster" 2.

Motivated by the ongoing transformation of converting the building into private condominiums, Alchemy Properties retained Historic Plaster Conservation Services [HPCS Canada] to salvage the beautiful fibrous plaster coffered ceiling in the 40th-floor, once the private Frank Woolworth.

In 2015 HPCS Canada developed a plan to dismantle, stabilize, and relocate the 3x3 coffers (17 in total), cornices, friezes, and other small inserts. The dismantling procedure was done by removing the plaster and animal glue used to bind the plaster ceiling in its original location; stabilization consisted of cleaning and reinforcing the structure: mechanically with a metal armature and chemically with the kevlar reinforced RE-Aramid gel. Relocating posed the task of reinstalling, adjusting, and carving in order to place the unique plaster pieces in the new lobby seamlessly. HPCS USA executed the tasks as described.

1 - p. 144 Gail Fenske - The Image of the City: The Woolworth Building and the Creation fo the New York Skyline in Cass Gilbert, Life and Work: Architect of the Public Domain (2001)

2 - p. 31 in Master Builders: A record of the construction of the World's highest commercial structure. H. McAtamney (1913)

Client: Alchemy Properties

Contractor: John Tiedemann Inc. + HPCS

Partnerships: Above Plaster Inc.

Project Manager: Johnny Filipe

Assistant Project Manager: Luis Madeira

PRODUCTS: Re-Aramid Gel