Brooklyn Tabernacle

EverGreene restored the plasterwork and decorative painting at the former Loew’s Metropolitan Theater (1917, Thomas Lamb), a derelict theater in downtown Brooklyn.  Its adaptive reuse as a house of worship was undertaken by a non-denominational Christian congregation of 8,000 that needed a large space in a location convenient to public transportation.

Decades of decay and water leaks had resulted in a sagging ceiling and damaged walls with numerous missing pieces.  EverGreene’s plaster artisans consolidated and reattached delaminated plaster, repaired wire lath, made plaster patches, replicated damaged and missing ornament made new plaster profiles, manufactured and installed new GFRG columns at the mezzanine level, and reconstructed fractured fluted columns flanking the proscenium.  A historically compatible decorative scheme of polychromy and glazes was developed by EverGreene in consultation with architects Kapell & Kastow and Li/Saltzman to create an uplifting environment for church services.

EverGreene’s scope also included designing and painting a large faux-stained glass backdrop for the stage, two pastoral landscape murals in the style of the Hudson River School for the lobby, and several smaller murals representing spiritual events in the history of the congregation.