Once residence to the coke-and-steel magnate Henry Clay Frick (1849-1919), the Gilded Age house museum reopened on April 17, 2025 after undergoing a $220 million renovation and expansion. For the first time in 90 years, visitors will be able to ascend the Grand Staircase and experience the family’s private rooms on the second floor to once again view iconic Rembrandts, VanDykes, Vermeers, Turners, 16th to 18th century furnishings, and even dine at the Frick’s first-ever cafe.
Thomas Hastings, of the renowned Beaux-Arts architectural firm Carrère and Hastings, originally designed the monumental New York mansion which was completed in 1914, designated a New York Landmark in 1973, and declared a National Historic Landmark in 2008. Frick’s intension had always been to turn his residence into a public art museum after his death, so in 1935 The Frick Collection opened to the public. Since its temporary closing in March 2020, an A-team of craftspeople conserved old and forged new traditions at the Frick. Extraordinarily skilled textile weavers, lighting restorers, tassel makers, woodworkers, glass artisans, and painters from France to Brooklyn brought fresh glow and sparkle to the iconic Beaux-Art mansion.
“Mr. Frick had the best materials and craftsmen, so we had to match that level of quality.”
Ian Wardropper, Frick Collection Director (retired)
Since 2020, EverGreene was involved in various phases of the renovation. Initially, our conservators evaluated the condition of the historic ornamental ceiling elements in the museum’s entrance hall, west gallery, and the enamels room to support the development of temporary protection during construction and ultimate repair strategies. Later on, EverGreene led the restoration of ornamental plaster and decorative finishes, the stone conservation, and the conservation of the Garden Court fountain.
EverGreene stabilized and restored the ornate coffered plaster ceiling, laylight framing, and decorative ornamentation of the of the West Gallery, originally known as the picture gallery. Accessible from the West Gallery, the Enamels Room served originally as Frick’s study. An extensive plaster conditions assessment and historic finishes investigation guided the consequential plaster ornamentation and decorative finishes restoration that revived the gallery and former study to their original Gilded Age glory.
The museum’s Garden Court was previously an open-air carriageway which was enclosed with a glass and iron barrel skylight during the building’s conversion to a museum in the early 1930s. Based on a comprehensive evaluation, EverGreene implemented conservation treatments which brightened and revived the entire courtyard, its marble floors, limestone walls, limestone Ionic colonnades, and center fountain with its two bronze frogs—a whimsical touch to the elegant Beaux-Arts design.
Explore more details about EverGreene’s conservation expertise and restoration at the Frick Collection below.
