The Lady Chapel

Hundreds of thousands of eyes view the Lady Chapel at the Cathedral of St. Patrick every year.

The restoration of the chapel could not just be good - it had to pass the scrutiny of parishioners and guests of one of the biggest tourist destinations in New York City.

The $1.1 million restoration project consisted of three major components: repair to the stained glass windows, repair to the walls and ceilings, and replacement of the polychrome marble mosaic floor.

The English-made stained-glass windows, which depicted the 15 Mysteries of the Rosary, were sound but in need of a thorough cleaning, spot repair and repainting of the frames. In order to access the glass, the project team erected scaffolding to ring the interior of the chapel and provide access at multiple levels.

A plywood dance floor was also constructed at ceiling level, spanning the full width of the chapel, and baker scaffolding was built on top of that so the team could reach the gothic arches of the windows.

The team determined that the cracked stone of the walls and vaulted ceiling needed to be repaired, in addition to removing the accumulated grime on the gothic stone work. The baker scaffolding used to access the tops of the stained glass windows also helped reach the vaults and ribs of the ceiling.

The biggest element - and the biggest challenge - of the restoration was the replacement of the marble mosaic floor, which had been seriously damaged from the high volume of foot traffic and regular relocation of pews and kneelers.

The original drawings of the chapel could not be located, so the project team had to reconstruct the design of the replacement mosaic floor based on the field measurements of the existing floor. Before any restoration could begin, the team removed the exiting floor and discovered rusted gas pipes and partially unused electrical conduit set in concrete slab, which it had to remove in order to protect the new floor.

For the new floor, four major marble types were chosen to replicate the existing mosaic exactly, with stone from the original quarries in Italy imported when possible. Pieces of the floor were preassembled at the fabricator's shop in Italy, and then laid in at the site like a puzzle.

The jury called this restoration a jewel of a project and praised its attention to detail and finesse.

The project team used a 60-ft.-high painted plywood barrier separating the chapel from the rest of St. Patrick's and adhered to a flexible construction schedule to finish the project on time and not disrupt the regular mass schedule.