Most Precious Blood Roman Catholic Church
32-23 36th Street - Astoria, Queens
Most Precious Blood is an Art Deco masterwork, completed in 1932. It is well-known in its Astoria community for the solid granite façade with decorative limestone carving, and the octagonal granite belfry tower, reminiscent of an Irish farm silo. The tower is crowned with a perforated aluminum screen in a delightful pattern of peacocks and flowers.
This comprehensive, 15-year restoration project has addressed substantial leaks at the entire building envelope. The facades’ granite stones were numbered, and their positions recorded. They were removed so the walls could be waterproofed and then rebuilt. Monumental original steel framed stained-glass windows were carefully removed, rebuilt off-site, and returned. The peacock screens (fabricated by Alcoa in 1932 when cast aluminum was a new material) were disassembled, air blasted, and repaired with molten aluminum, then re-installed with the support of new buttresses constructed of identical aluminum. The parapet walls, roofs, and copper drainage systems were repaired or replaced. Once the envelope was secure and watertight, the interior plaster was repaired.
PROJECT LIST
Most Precious Blood Catholic Church
Diocese of Brooklyn
Alberski PE, PHD
Jablonski Building Conservation, Inc.
Rocklyn Asset Corp.
RSE Associates
Vestacast
Victoria Consulting & Development, LLC
Zaskorski & Associates Architects, AIA, PC
Video: Gil Gilbert
The Lucy G. Moses Preservation Awards are the New York Landmarks Conservancy’s highest honors for outstanding preservation. We are grateful for the generous support of the Henry and Lucy Moses Fund, which makes the Awards possible.
Lucy Goldschmidt Moses was a dedicated New Yorker whose generosity benefited the City for over five decades. Mrs. Moses and her husband, attorney Henry L. Moses, shared a wide range of philanthropic interests. “I don’t think we’re worth anything unless we do for others,” said Mrs. Moses in a 1983 interview with The New York Times.
#mosesawards
6 сен 2024
