How To Repair A Broken Gargoyle

It will be remembered that in a small feature accompanying “The Tallest Building in the World” by Spencer Klaw in our February, 1977, issue, we noted that much of the intricate stone facing on New York’s Woolworth Building had been dangerously weakened by a combination of weather and urban pollution. Some of it, in fact, was in danger of falling off, and to prevent the pedestrians below from becoming even more tense and irritable than usual, the building’s owners had hung steel nets around its towers and turrets and gargoyles while they figured out what to do about the problem.

A solution has since been found. Practicing what might be called architectural dermatology, workmen will be repairing and, where necessary, replacing broken facing with a durable, synthetic mixture of materials. The job is expected to take nearly two years to complete, and the cost, according to J. R. Van Leuwen, executive director of construction, will run to “several million dollars.”