St. Peter the Apostle

Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ

St. Peter the Apostle Parish serves as Rutgers University’s Catholic Student Center in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The church was designed by the renowned ecclesiastical architect, Patrick Keeley, and completed in 1865. By its 150th anniversary, the building still had very good bones, but had suffered an insensitive post-historic painting campaign which concealed historic decoration and implemented simplistic, out-of-scale stencils which did not serve the architecture. Post-historic materials incompatible with the church’s historic distemper paint caused pathologies throughout. Water infiltration also caused plaster to fall and murals to deteriorate.

EverGreene stabilized and conserved the historic murals, consolidated the damaged substrate, secured flat and ornamental plaster, and developed a liturgical artistry campaign in harmony with St. Peter the Apostle’s historic art and architecture.

EverGreene worked closely with St. Peter’s team to develop and implement a phased renewal program to address life safety concerns and systemic pathologies, create a decorative scheme guided by the architecture and historic precedent, and maximize the visual impact within the budget.