Harris Pargework Ceiling

Harris county Courthouse Pargework Ceiling

Old Historic ceiling

Last year I told you about this ceiling at the Harris County courthouse.

( See blog) Hard to believe it was over a year ago. We have now made molds of the elements, cast all the items needed to recreate the ceiling and installed the pieces. The ceiling was framed in and plastered, and finished in a slick white coat finish by Golden West Plastering of Houston Texas. They did an exceptional job. We typically like to control all the plastering as it is hard to find plasterers that understand how to plaster a ceiling that is flat and true to plane, any imperfections will make it tough to install the pieces but in this case the work was perfect.

In this photo we have laid out control lines to install all the pieces to. It is extremely important to flow the lines as any deviation will show up as you look down the ceiling.

After checking the layout and making sure all the electrical devices as well as the fire sprinklers will fit into the pattern correctly we start installing the pieces. After installing all the pieces we will “tool up” the joints and make the joint lines disappear. Tedious and slow work for sure. blue lines are the centers of the elements the red lines are the edges of the corners in the quadrennial. We then labeled the elements to insure we alternated the elements.

The crown mold and frieze that runs along the wall both have a pattern in them that requires us to start from one direction and make all the cuts correctly to keep the pattern flowing all around the ceiling. Tougher than it looks but it  makes a big difference. We started out from the only original piece left in the room and kept the pattern flowing. The trick is to find the most inconspicuous place to hide this. The old way was to find a door the opens against a corner of the room and hide the joint there. That way as you enter the room you would have to turn all the way around to see the miss pattered joint.  However we had to start from the historic piece and continue around the room and end up on the other side of the historic piece. I challenge you to find the bad joint. (I know where it is but as of yet no one else has been able to find it)

Our decorative painters have also started painting the ceiling. It also is a very labor intensive painting project. It has two colors on the ceiling a yellow ceiling paint and a glazed painted surface on the ornamentation. Glazes tend to show all the imperfections in the plaster but luckily none showed up.

So here is the completed mockup area . Now that we have complete acceptance of the paint procedure we can finish the paint. We will be doing so in the next two weeks.

Finished ceiling

It is wonderful to be associated with people who are committed to excellence!

      On Wednesday I had an owners meeting in Ft. Worth concerning the restoration work on the T&P Train Station Lobby Ceiling. Long drive up and back, it makes for a lot of time to reflect. I left at 4:30a.m., because I wanted to get there well before the meeting started so that I could look for problems and get them corrected or, God forbid, covered up. This is a very intricate ceiling and I have become somewhat attached to this beauty ever since I was involved with it’s original restoration 10 years ago.
      The ceiling was subject to some damage due to remodeling the upper floors into condo units. They contracted Professio to come in and repair the damage and inspect the ceiling for any additional damage.

     I was heavily involved in the Harris County Courthouse restoration, so my time on this project would have to be merely overseeing it and doing paperwork. It was very nerve-racking to me that I would not be physically on the project. Luckily, I was able to put two of my most trusted people on the project Kevin Castleberry and Jessie Kitchens. I have worked with them in the past and, though we might not always see eye to eye as to the proper procedures, I know that both of them can be trusted to think through the restoration thoroughly and do what is best for the building. I really had no reason to think that they would not do a great job, but I could not help but worry about it. I know that Jessie was a little annoyed at all the calling and my constant fretting over protection of the marble and the chandeliers.

     We are also doing the painting on the ceiling. This is not in my area of expertise, but I have been around it enough to understand at least some of the issues with decorative painting. (I know just enough to be dangerous.) Thankfully the company was fortunate enough to lure away from our competition, a very talented artist, Machelle Wood, to run our decorative paint division. I have worked with Machelle and have a deep respect for her abilities so I had a huge degree of confidence in her ability to do the painting on this very complicated project. However, she was now heavily involved in the protection of a very important fresco mural on the Garcia Federal Building that we had under contract and it would require that she stay in San Antonio during this restoration. She assured me that she knew a man in Utah that could paint this ceiling with no problem. She contacted Todd Stubbs and he agreed to come to Ft. Worth and do the project.

     So now I have a man, whom I never met, coming to paint a very complicated intricate ceiling. Machelle could feel my uneasiness and offered to drive up on weekends to work on matching all the colors and glazes and I met with her the first time, even though I really was not any help. I think I was there only to squelch my own personal fears. She worked all weekend and turned around and drove 4 hrs back to San Antonio so she could be back onsite on Monday on the mural. She truly is a dedicated professional and we at Professio are proud to have her.

So back to my trip…

      I was driving up to have a meeting with the owner’s reps, the architect Donna Carter of Carter Design Associates and the general contractor Wood Partners. I know we have done some painting and Machelle and Jessie have reassured me that it is looking good, but, well, I couldn’t help but be a little on edge. This architect has a very discerning eye. We don’t have any extra time to redo work, and I have not seen any of it so my stomach is in knots.

     I arrived an hour before the meeting, which was exactly my plan. As I walked toward the building, I told myself not to get caught up in admiring the work, but to look for potential problems. I entered the room and started my inspections. It all looked wonderful, but again I asked myself, “Where is the problem that the architect or owner might bring up?” Is the floor clean? Yes, in fact it is spotless. Are the paints and materials stored professionally? Are all the precautions that the owner and architect requested in place? Do all the colors match? Can I tell the difference between where we repaired to where we did not work?

     Todd came down from the scaffold and asked me what I thought. I respond, “I think it is perfect!” I can’t seem to find anything wrong. The only thing I want to change before our customers arrive is to remove the plastic tarp protection we had placed around the scaffold, just so that they could get an even better look at our work.

     The owner’s rep and the architect arrived, and I couldn’t wait to hear what she had to say. She walked around and really didn’t say much. The owner’s rep, however, couldn’t stop praising our work. After a bit the architect turned and said, “Perfect, I can’t find a thing wrong! It all looks wonderful. I see one shiny spot on the dark medallion, which I know is where we repaired. But as I look at the other dark medallions they have shiny spots also, so I really can’t say it needs to be fixed. You have really done a stunning job of matching the finishes.”

     As I drove back to Houston, I reflected on just how wonderful it is to have good quality people who are committed to excellence. Thank you team!  Kevin, Jessie, Machelle, and Todd, You guys are truly great artisans and I’m proud to be associated with you!

Man that is one Huge Capital

Above is a photo of one of the existing capitals on the Harris County Courthouse.The are at the top of the center rotunda  There are four of them and all of the centers of the capitals have been removed in the past. We were contracted to recreate the center element.

We first created a rubber mold of the largest remaining parts. We then cast parts those parts in our shop and installed them into a frame to start building the complete capital.

We measured the distances between the decorative elements so that we built it holding the same size as what was on site. We built it laying down to so that carving would be easer.

Here is the where we started the building of the mockup. you can see on each side is plaster castings that came out of the molds we made so that the replicate the sides. the top ledge is the top run shelf on the existing captals. We installe wood framing and lathed over the wood so we could plaster in as have the starting shape.

Here I"m plastering over the lath and framing creating the trunk shape of the capital.

We installed leaves that were also cast from molds made on site to start the shaft of the capital. We then installed framing and then lathed it and plastered as we did the vertical trunk of the capital. After all of this we now has the basic shape started and could start building the elements.

Here I have started the large center element. I started this first so that I had a feel for the scale.
After thisIi started filling in the leaves.

The completed capital can be viewed here.

Hundreds of hours have been put into this project. once approval is received we will make a rubber mold of the capital and start casting the four capitals. ship them to the sight and install. I will have post additional photos on the installation in the future.