Old Tiffany Building

The Old Tiffany Building on Fifth Avenue and 37th Street, NYC was designed by McKim, Mead & White for the Tiffany firm in 1905. Built of Tuckahoe marble, like the earlier Washington Square Arch by the same firm, the building featured an elegant showroom, workshop, and secure storage spaces for the jewelry and decorative arts company. The elegant arched and columned façade holds large copper-clad Kalamein windows on both of the street fronts of the corner site.

As part of the development of plans to restore the building, we were contracted to perform historic research, study the condition of the windows, prepare mock-ups and provide recommendations for their treatment. Each was documented photographically and surface and structural deterioration was noted. Several sites of remaining un-refinished metal were found and documented. Tests were performed of cleaning, patination and coating methods. Means of restoring the conditions were proposed and a series of possible treatments were mocked up on-site. A report detailing the findings and proposed treatments was prepared and submitted to the client for inclusion in the building-wide restoration.