and the

Creative M tnds Behind Them

PLU fhe Debate Over How to Save Our Prized Buildings

0 40901

S4.95 OCT2012

The-New st Waterfront Dining Spot

The Next Hot Ticket in Fashion

A restoration expert uses modern

materials to preserve old buildings.

Is it genius or sacrilege?

I Y MAYA D KMA OVA

In Lhe wodd of historic re Loration, building

material · exi L in a trict hierarchy: real wood and

Lone aL Lhe Lop, vinyl and plasLic at the bottom.

Authenticity i paramount. And for mo t people.

Lhc older Lhe material, th more authentic- and

therefore better- it i .

But what if "real" is too expensive?

What if it's impractical? Impossible?

Even dangerous?

Next Lime you're in downtown Roche ter, look

up and around. Many of our hi Loric buj]djng

are hiding something, a k y Lo Lhcil' long vity, a

fow1Lrun of youth. Among Lhe ca L-iron colwnn of

Lhe Powers uilding, in the medina Lone deLail on

bu ildings in the High Fall eli tricL, amid Lhe wooden

column of Lhe Jonathan Child Hou e, you 'll find

the work of sculptor and r toraLion expert Scott

Grove. Over the pa t 30 year , Grove ha perfected

fibergla s-sculpting technique LhaL have helped

repair and r~juvenate some of Roche ter' olde t

and most signipcant archjLecture.

... The concern is that

structures bearing

the weight of history

and our collective

experience will be

nothing more than

Disneyland replicas

of a real cityscape.

60 R CII E TE R M AGAZ IN E

Yi t the very word "fib rglass" make some people cringe. When it com to restoring the work of architects and artisans of the past, the rule of thumb i to do it with the original materials to tay true to the authentic character of a building.

The Landmark ociety of We tern New York always advise home and commercial building owner to invest in original material to preserve the character of structures, says the Society's pre ervation peciali t Cynthia Howk.

Howk and other pre ervationi t argue that, by inserting modern materials into hi toric building , we compromi e the hi tori city of our built environment. If thi happen , the concern i that tructures bearing the weight of history and our collective experience will be nothing more than Di neyland replica of a real cityscape.

Original thinking Grove came by hi methods over

30 year ago, when architect Richard Hand! r of Handler & Grosso approached him with a request to replace a cornice on the old Piano Work Mall in Ea t Rochester. Handler knew it would be difficult and expensive to reproduce and replace the cornice in the original concrete, and he also had heard that fiberglass wa beginning to be u ed in New York City for uch project . He left it to Grove, a elf-taught ulptor and woodworker, to devi e a molding and installation method.

Columns on the Jonathan Child House, constructed in 1837 for Rochester's first mayor, were rotting badly. Scott Grove's restoration saved the columns from further deterioration.

"I did that for the first time," Grove ay . "I didn't have a clue what I wa doing,

made a lot of mistake ."But in th end, he wa able to produce the large cornice. It wa the tart of hi fibergla career.

Fibergla i actually a generic term for a glass-reinforced polymer. Grove mixes it with polye ter to produce a flexible, durable, lightweight material. To re-create the decorativ lement of a building, Grove ca t mold from existing piece to cr ate the fiberglass replicas. At time , if the building' element aren't detachable, he has to take the molds directly from the building.

Grove ha even created molds completely from cratch. When portion of the original wooden decorative garland on the Ontario B ach bathhou e had rotted away, Grove worked with the ilhouette to produce a new mold for the

replacement . But why not u e the original

materials? Why not replace the garlands in wood or the cornice in concrete?

At time , original material no longer exist or are no long r manufactured. The co ts of these material and the labor associated with their use may be prohibitive. And orne traditional material can become a afety hazard. For example, turncoat-a 19u'-century attempt at the first ru t-resistant metal-actually rusts from the inside out. So when decorative fac;ade elements reinforced with turncoat age, they may crumble and fall at any moment, even while howing no outward

cover story

sign of rust. Similarly, cast iron rusts and eli integrate over time, posing a danger to the public when buildings age and their maintenanc i n't carefully sup rvi ed.

Fiberglass, on the other hand, i far cheaper to make and simpler to in tall than mo t traditional materials. It' al o inert and durable: It weather well even in our climate and is not su ceptible to rust or fi ures. Mo t importantly, to all but the mo t scrutinizing and specialized eye, the fibergla s Grove has perfected doe n't look any different from the original material on a building's fa~ade, be it tone, metal, concr te, marble or wood.

Cast irony till , pre ervation expert are

unea y about endor ing fiberglas a a fix-all oluLion to the city's architectural pre ervation problems.

"Our concern, always, with newer product i that we've een a lot of them come and go, and over time they ju t don't Ia t," ay Peter Siegrist, senior pre ervaLion planner for the City of Roche ter. The late t and greatest building materials turn up on the market con tantly, but their incorporation into a ca t-iron or tone fa<;;ade, for example, may create more tructural and ae thetic problems than they fix.

There's a hint of historical irony in the reluctance to embrace fibergla s over traditional ca t iron, terra cotta or tile. At one point, tho e materials were them elves the late t and greatest (and unproven) new thing to make construction cheaper, easier and more beautiful.

"Fiberglas is replacing cast iron, but ca t iron wa originally a material that wa made to look like stone," explain Robin Lynn, an architectural hi torian in New York Cit-y with a trong intere t in it cast-iron building . "The rea on cast iron wa o popular was that you could duplicate, many times over, architectural detail."

In New York City, Roche ter and more generally in the state, historic re toration with fibergla s are approached and approved on a case-by­ca e ba is.

"When we draw a black-and-white line and ay it has to be the original material, w mi an opportunity to

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cover story

revitalize historic tructure ," ay James Durfee, pr incipal architect and vice pre ident of Bergmann A ociates, the engin ring and archi tectural d ign firm headquartered in downtown Roche t r. "Any re toration proj ct i a balancing of authenticity again t the way that we build now."

At time , at the expense of in er ting a new material, "you can main tain the integri ty of the whole and do that in a practical way," Durfee add

Landmark work When it come to the appearance of

our city, fiberglass ha already withstood the te t of Lime a a viable and effective ae thetic alternative.

On the aging fa<;ade of the H.H. Warner Building on L. Paul Stre t, fo r example, Grove's decorative replacements-completed more than 15 year ago-still look brand new. Meanwhile, many of the original piece are ru ted and worn.

For tho e inve ted in pre rving the ae thelic integrity of a building, Grov 's work ha proved to be a fi nancially viable and ae thetically fitt ing olution. The mo t prominent example i the landmark Powers Building, at the very heart of downtown Roche ter, on the corner of State and Main treet .

Grove fir t b gan replacing orne of the original ca t-iron d ta iling in the 1980s. Every few year , the own r of the building olicit his help aga in to replace aging por t ion of the fa<;ade and main tain the overall appearance of the structure. Grove was at it again this summer, doing repa irs on the tower and on the thresholds facing Main Str et.

"W kind of tumbl d upon Scott' work almo t a id ntally, and we're very happy w did ," ay Rober t Magee, proper ty manager for the Power Building, which is owned by the As hley Group. "He did om fantastic work fo r u . It's ve ry hard to find som one likeS ott."

A a culptor, Grove is intrigued

62 R OC I-IF STER M AGAZINE

(Clockwise, from top) The Warner Building on St. Paul Street shows Grove's restored decorative details looking new amid rusting original pieces. A detail of the Cutler Building on East Avenue. after Grove's restoration. Grove's corner repair (bottom) at Hochstein School of Music brought back the original gilded look.

cover story

"Rochester has beauty- a lot of people aren't aware of that. But at least I'm helping to preserve that beauty."

by the challenge and originality of each project. And he ha had many opportunities to try new th ing .

"Ju t about any histo ric building in Roche ter that has been renovated in the Ia t 30 years, I've touched-any major building that had ornamental detailing in ide or out," he say . That includes the Eastman Theatre, George Ea tman House, Hoch tein School of Mu ic, City Hall and many others.

Beyond the challenge of the culpting work involved in historic restoration, Grove appreciates and respects the connection he feels to past arti ans and their work.

"I ee the craft man hip behind thi detailing," he ay . "I'm honored to main tain that detail. As an arti t, it's ni c to contribute to society, to leave a marie That' one of the arti t's dream ."

And so is bringing that art to any project. "My personal work i about a discovery of inner beauty-that's really what I'm about-and to a certain extent, this architectural work kind of addresses that," he says. "Rochester has beauty-a lot of people aren't aware of that. But at lea t I'm helping to pre erve that beauty."

As people debate the be t way to preserve that beauty, one thing is apparent: Grove's work, as well as the activities of groups such as the Landmark Society, has contributed to the flourishing of architectural restoration and creative reu e of hi to ric buildings here.

"Rochester, New York, has a national reputation for its intere t in historic bui ldings," says Howl< of the Landmark Society. "Rochester is a nationa l preservation success story."

And it' notju t about ae thetics. "It's

Welcome to the

done because it's good business, it helps the tax ba e and it's great for economic redevelopment," Howl< explains. "Hi tor ic pre ervation is a busines trategy that looks upon the e buildings as an asset."

For anyone looking for common ground between the practical and the pure, con ider a dental metaphor. When a white filling i done right, no one but the denti t can te ll it from the real tooth. If you main tain good hygiene, your mile tay radiant a nd you're the picture

of health. Our city, of cour e, i more complicated. Yet, though we may be taking a bite out of the authenticity of buildings, the filling have probably left you none the wiser. R

Maya Dukmasova, a recent University of Rochester graduate, is a freelance journalist doing graduate work in Cambridge, England.

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