Happy New Year!

While I was absent from the church during the holidays, the scaffolding erection continued and is now reaching its conclusion – it will be finished in two weeks, in time for the start of removals on January 21.
My assistant, Bill, says it is the best scaffolding he’s ever worked on, after more than 10 years in the stained glass field. Eagle Scaffolding, the company responsible for building this wonderful structure, is rueful that no one will be able to actually see it once it is complete, because it will be fully enclosed. To clarify, here is a cross-section of the scaffolds.



Left is a photo of the exterior sheds, looking east from the chancel. Right is a shot of the scaffolders building the sheds, looking west from the Fifth Avenue end of the walkway.



On the inside, the interior scaffolds are just about finished and lighted. Currently they're visible down the length of the nave, but they will soon be covered by scrims.

Each scrim is a photograph of a window, printed on vinyl and hung in front of the scaffolding, so that it won’t be so obvious that the windows are missing. The first scrim was hung on the window closest to the reredos. It is presently lit only by the lights on the scaffolding, but when the stained glass is removed, natural light will come through the windows in the scaffolding sheds.

Bill has been putting in many days removing the protective glazing, the old and dirty plastic covering the windows. Here is a photo of the tracery pieces. We will not be replacing this material, since the windows won’t need to be protected from the weather once they are restored.