West Gallery Ceiling

The Frick Collection, located at 1 East 70th St in New York City, is a premier museum and research center. The building was originally designed in 1914 by Thomas Hastings of the New York Beaux Arts Architecture firm Carrère and Hastings as the residence of Henry Clay Frick, an American industrialist and patron of the arts. Upon his death, Frick donated his extensive collection to create a public art museum. The building was designated a New York City Landmark in 1973, and a National Historic Landmark in 2008.

During The Frick Collection’s renovation and enhancement project, Sciame Construction replaced the skylight above the West Gallery, the largest gallery in the Collection, renowned for its display of Old Master paintings. EverGreene’s expertise was specifically engaged for the stabilization, conservation, and restoration of the ornate coffered ceiling and laylight framing in the West Gallery.

Work on the West Gallery ceiling began with pre-construction plaster stabilization, which included the creation of record molds, temporary facing of loose plaster, and documentation of conditions and work performed. Onsite finishes investigation and cross-sectional microscopy showed that the majority of the presenting finishes were original to the West Gallery’s 1914 construction. This exciting discovery allowed the EverGreene team to move into the final phase. We created mockups for review by the Museum Director, performed stabilization and repairs of ornamental plaster, consolidated historic decorative paint and inpainted areas of loss, painted altered flat surfaces using the historic palette, and repainted the laylight moldings with metallic paint.