After almost two years of extensive restoration, the Memorial Arch of Soaring Soldiers and Sailors in Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn, New York, has been reopened to the public. The completion Of the nearly $ 8.9 million project, last week was celebrated in a ribbon cutting ceremony organized by the New York City Department of Parks and the Prospect Park Alliance (PPA), which supervised the renovation of the 80-foot Lange Beaux-Arts Landmark.
Built between 1889 and 1892, John H. Duncan was designed by Soldiers ‘And Sailors’ Memorial Arch as a commemoration of the forces of the Union who fell in the civil war. It is one of the three Triumphal bows in the city, including the Washington Square Arch and the entrance of the Manhattan bridge.
After the Civil War of Prospect Park, is located north of Prospect Park in the center of one of the busiest traffic circles in Brooklyn, where it currently serves as a gathering place for countless community events, public protests and the weekly farmers market throughout the year. But since the last major restoration in the mid -1990s, the bow had been in serious decline, overtaken by invasive plants and crumbling infrastructure.
The recent make -over, funded by the administration of former mayor Bill de Blasio, consisted mainly of repairs that replaced the roof and the inner steel beams, fixed brickwork and his inner spiral staircases reconstructed. It also added a new internal drainage system and redesigned the evening lighting of the monument to emphasize its bronze sculpture groups, designed by the sculptor Frederick MacMonnies, born in Brooklyn. These works on his roof and pedestal on the north show the goddess Columbia, a female personification of the United States, and army of the Union Army Soldiers and Sailors; The group on the right side of the bow includes the only public statue of the city of a black sailor of the civil war.
“This is where people say:” Okay, meet you under the bow … it’s a kind of heart and the way of the municipality, “said Morgan Monaco, president of the PPA, said Hyperallergic At the ribbon cutting ceremony.
Earlier delayed due to the pandemic delay, the restoration was expected in the fall of 2023 in Wrapping. HyperallergicThe restoration team that worked on renewing the arch that encountered dozens of unforeseen challenges, one of the most difficult to tackle moisture and water damage on the roof of five layers for decades.
“After decades of water it was almost impossible to get all the moisture out, so that took us months and months [to figure out,]”Yum said.” It is one thing if it is one or two materials, but if they are five materials, it is really a challenge. “
The entire project required extensive research into the material and the structural framework of the monument. Because the original blueprints for the Memorial Arch were lost through time, the internal team of architects of the PPA had to rely on physical surveys from earlier restorations and detailed scans of the interior of the bow developed with radar and magnetic technology. They used laboratory tests to trace the existing stone mortar to a quarry in Rosendale, New York, and replaced broken brickwork with matching stone from a Maine stone quarry. In addition, the bronze and cast iron spiral stairs and entrance gates were carefully cleaned in a process where they had to be dismantled and put together again.
During last week’s ceremony, those present were given a look of the monument at the restoration of the monument, including a tour on the stairs of the arch and the trophy room overhead. Although no longer open to the public, these interior spaces were used as A public exhibition space in the 1980s and a storage for one Puppet library collection in the early 2000s (who is currently in Roosevelt Hall on Brooklyn College).
In addition to the work at De Boog, the restoration of Grand Army Plaza has also repaired on the Bailey Fountain and landscape architecture improvements on the surrounding verges. The completion of the bow will soon follow the opening of the installation of the bronze sculpture Monuments (2024) By the artist Molly Gochman, established in New York City, who could be seen directly opposite the triumphal structure at the end of April.
