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Abstract
The Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine is the third largest church structure in the world. It is located on the upper west side of Manhattan in New York City. A fire in December of 2001 badly damaged the stonework of the unfinished north transept and spread thick black smoke through the entire building. After the fire, a comprehensive investigation was undertaken to identify the unique characteristics of the fire soil and then to use that information to determine the extent to which these materials had deposited on surfaces in the building. A direct correlation was made between the materials of construction that burned during the fire and the particles present in samples of soiling removed from throughout the Cathedral. It was therefore possible to establish that the fire soil had penetrated to all areas of the Cathedral and that all surfaces required cleaning. This paper describes the techniques used to carry out the investigation.
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Notes on contributors
Claudia Kavenagh
Claudia Kavenagh
Claudia Kavenagh received her MS in historic preservation from Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Preservation, and Planning. She is director of the New York offices of Building Conservation Associates Inc (BCA), where her work combines the disciplines of historic preservation and materials conservation for the restoration of buildings and monuments.
Christopher John Gembinski
Christopher John Gembinski
Christopher Gembinski has been with Building Conservation Associates Inc since 1998. Through his work on numerous large-scale projects, he is versed in restoration repairs for a wide range of historic building materials. As an experienced conservator, he has performed laboratory analyses using analytical techniques including visual microscopy, x-ray diffraction, ultrasonic testing and Fourier transfer infrared spectroscopy to characterize historic architectural materials. He has also worked for the contracting firm Archa Technology, Ltd. as the superintendent and project manager. He is a graduate of the University of New Hampshire and received an MS in preservation from the University of Pennsylvania.