Phase 1 Windows Are Out!

As of noon on Tuesday, February 26, all the windows of Phase I have been removed and are either in transit or at the restoration studios. Work has gone amazingly well – very quickly, very professionally, with a minimum of problems. Everyone working on the project deserves credit for this.

One window did not have to be cut out by cutting the fillet glass. This is the youngest window in the building, installed in 1974. Removed by Guarducci Studio of Great Barrington, MA, it came out with its fillets intact, which will mean much less time in the studio during restoration. The trade-off, however, is that it took at least four times as long to get it out. This is no reflection on the studio – it’s simply the nature of the work.

Using one Fein knife, the other studios had only to slice through the glass, moving at a rate of about five to six feet per minute. The team from Guarducci used two knives, one on each side of the window, to free the glass from the stone, moving at less than one foot in five or even ten minutes. The caulking that the window was set in melted, rather than cut, making it necessary to stop every 6 inches or so and clean the knife blade, then go back with a linoleum knife and try to pull out the sticky caulk. In many places, the window had been wedged tightly into the stone. Here, the work slowly to a snail’s pace as the studio tried not to break any glass.

But it was worth the time, because unlike the rest of the window, in C15, the fillets are painted with a variety of tiny patterns. Not only would it be time-consuming to replace them, but they represent the artistry of the original maker of the window, Willet Studios of Philadelphia, and in conservation, we try to preserve as much of that artistry as we possibly can.