Rome Meets the 21st Century
By Susan Godshall
In addition to providing education about preservation and advocating for buildings at risk, the Trust also directly helps maintain the character and physical integrity of historic properties. For over 50 years, the Preservation Trust has administered a Historic Structures Fund, offering matching grants up to $5,000 for rehabilitation or replacement of distinctive architectural features. The program is open to all New Haven property owners, with preference for buildings in local, state or national historic districts.
The Trust recently supported a restoration project using 3-D printing, an exciting contemporary tool, to replace part of the portico of 500 Prospect Street, a house in the Prospect Hill National Historic District. Designed by the prominent local firm of Brown and VonBeren to evoke the grandeur of ancient Rome, the building now is home to 26 condominium units.
The 500 Prospect Condominium Association applied for an Historic Structures Fund grant to replace this broken column capital.
Once the grant was approved, the owners hired a specialized concrete contractor, Architectural Restoration, LLC, owned by Chris DeGraaf. Mr. DeGraaf recommended a construction technique unique in New Haven, as far as we know. He contacted Works In Stone, Inc., located in Upper Black Eddy, Pennsylvania, which specializes in molding and casting restoration projects for sculpture and decorative stonework.
At the Works In Stone plant, laser scan files were used to create a mold which looked like this.
The next step was creating a foam mold exactly matching the column capital, but with no broken pieces.
Works In Stone technicians used a large 3-D printer to replicate the column capital in a proprietary cast stone product called CastCotta™.
Sections of the finished capital looked like this.
Once the segments were shipped to New Haven, Architectural Restoration, LLC erected scaffolding and installed the cast stone replica where the broken capital had been.
Here is a view of the completed work.
Neither the ancient Romans nor the sculptors who shaped the masonry features on 500 Prospect Street in 1905 could have imagined the wizardry of today’s construction tools. The Preservation Trust is proud to have helped preserve the integrity of this house with the aid of 21st century technology.
Susan Godshall serves on the Board of Directors of the New Haven Preservation Trust.
Photos: 1, 3 – 5, 7 courtesy of Works In Stone, Inc.; 2 and 6 Glenn Trunkfield.