St. Bart’s Iconic Dome Restoration Wins 2018 Lucy G. Moses Preservation Award
MAY 8, 2018
In 2018, St. Bartholomew’s Church on Park Avenue received the prestigious Lucy G. Moses Preservation Award for the restoration of its Great Byzantine Dome, erected in 1930. The Great Dome reflects a refined version of church architect Bertram G. Goodhue’s original vision for the dome. Nearly a century later, ADP Architects orchestrated the dome’s painstaking restoration, involving the recreation and installation of 6,300 artisan-crafted, terracotta tiles to replace the dome’s original marble tiles.
Project Facts:
Sector: Sacred, Cultural
Location: New York, NY
Scope: Architectural Design and Planning; Historic Preservation
Project Type: Historic Restoration
Status: Completed
ADP Architects first established a partnership with St. Bart’s in 2008, during which our office documented significant deterioration of the dome’s original marble stone cladding and the underlying tile arch, steel and masonry structure. Water was infiltrating the structure, necessitating an ambitious restoration effort, and it was determined that using terracotta during the restoration would augment the life of the dome and prioritize long-term durability while faithfully fulfilling the dome’s original aesthetic. Each resulting replacement terracotta tile was traced and documented by the ADP design team and carefully recreated by artisans down to its original color, shape and mortar setting.
Remarkably, each piece of the dome was individually manufactured by Boston Valley Terra Cotta and laid out over a simulated dome in their factory to ensure the roof’s curvature was accurately and consistently taken into consideration.
The 28th Lucy G. Moses Awards Ceremony itself was held at St. Bart’s Episcopal Church—known in its heyday as the “Jewel of Park Avenue.” St. Bart’s Episcopal Church was declared a New York City Landmark by the New York Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1967 and has been listed as part of the National Register of Historic Places since 2016.
