W Hotel Manhattan

The keystone on the right was made by me and my crew, including Jack and Dave Oliver. We reproduced in granite the original keystone that had been chopped off the building to make way for the new owners’ sign sometime long ago, before respect for a granite keystone in New York had been protected.

Jack spent many weeks with these two keystones. We had a mold taken from one of the extent originals, made a plaster cast, and used the Renaissance measuring device, the maccianetti di punto, to accurately reproduce the original design, exactly the right size.

The dots on the unfinished side indicate where the high points have been located. After the main shape has been found, the detail work can begin.

The use of the maccianetti di punto requires a permanent frame that the carver has to work around, which can be inconvenient. Great thought has to be put into the frame on a long-term project, because if there is a mistake made in the planning, it will be re-experience countless times.

Almost finished. I am sure that Jack was happy to be outdoors again. That was a long, cold winter.

I traveled to Manhattan to oversee the installation, and had the crew build this frame for me. The keystone were suspended by the bolts that clamped into the scrolls. The bottom is a tray of ball bearings. I had the crew build a very stable scaffold, and we rolled the keystones onto the pre-mounted pins and epoxied them into place. The entire frame was suspended over the bearing pad on bolts, so we could have extremely accurate control of the placement.