I am back at it again. With the restoration of the Union Trust building underway I have been asked to lend my expertise. This time we are tackling the damage that has occurred over the decades to the mosaic at the Grant St. entrance.
My office, with plastic surrounding the scaffolding and a shower.The first section of the ceiling to come down. It was a bit nerve wracking. Don from Bristoll was in charge of dismantling the ceiling. Spring jacks are in place surrounding each section to prevent the weight of the mosaic from pulling the ceiling down.
Spring jacks holding up the mosaic on the ceiling.A closer look at the ceiling: The way the mosaic ceiling is attached and hung is a puzzle, and a bit hard to explain. The mosaic itself is hung on a gridwork of metal bars that are suspended off of yet another gridwork of metal bars via suspension rods. At different places the two gridworks vary from 2 feet to 4 inches away from each other.Decades of coal dust: The large bucket on the right contains the large chunks, these are moved from bin to bin, cleaned and the glass is removed from the backing. The middle bin is almost completely black! Years of soot from Pittsburgh’s industry of the past.Sparkling clean glass. We have been able to save a large quantity of glass. Here it is drying out before it is sorted.
