Art Restoration At Kingsborough Houses

Brooklyn, NY

Kingsborough Houses is a 16-acre public housing complex that was built in 1941 in Brooklyn, New York. Over 1,100 apartments quickly housed a predominately African-American community. Artwork that adorns the complex includes Barthé’s frieze, Exodus and Dance. It was originally called Green Pastures: The Walls of Jericho and created for the Harlem River Houses but then moved to the Kingsborough Houses around the time of their completion. Barthé is recognized as one of the most important 20th-century African-American sculptors, known for his realistic sculptures of religious subjects and figures in African-American history.

A collaboration between the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), the Public Housing Community Fund, and the Mellon Foundation has instituted several place-based initiatives to enhance physical and social connections between residents and their community. As part of this program, EverGreene was engaged to restore the Richmond Barthé 8-foot by 80-foot frieze at the Kingsborough Houses. For this preservation initiative, the frieze was removed from its location and transported into our conservation studio. There, is was cleaned, repaired, and prepared for its re-installation at the improved original site. The scope of this project involved:

Uninstallation of the 16 frieze panels

Initial cleaning and preparation of the panels prior to removal
Applying temporary protective measures & stabilizing fragile elements
Removing surrounding materials and gradually extracting the artwork

In-studio conservation

A treatment plan was developed by our team in collaboration with Jablonski Building Conservation, Inc.
Cleaning of atmospheric and biological soiling, paint splatter, and carbonite deposits
Material testing & mockups
Removal of previous incompatible repairs & replication of missing elements

Reinstallation after wall improvement