and the

Creative M tnds
Behind Them
PLU
fhe Debate Over
How to Save Our
Prized Buildings
0 40901
S4.95 OCT2012
The-New st
Waterfront
Dining Spot
The Next
Hot Ticket
in Fashion
A restoration expert uses modern
materials to preserve old buildings.
Is it genius or sacrilege?
I Y MAYA D KMA OVA
In Lhe wodd of historic re Loration, building
material exi L in a trict hierarchy: real wood and
Lone aL Lhe Lop, vinyl and plasLic at the bottom.
Authenticity i paramount. And for mo t people.
Lhc older Lhe material, th more authentic- and
therefore better- it i .
But what if "real" is too expensive?
What if it's impractical? Impossible?
Even dangerous?
Next Lime you're in downtown Roche ter, look
up and around. Many of our hi Loric buj]djng
are hiding something, a k y Lo Lhcil' long vity, a
fow1Lrun of youth. Among Lhe ca L-iron colwnn of
Lhe Powers uilding, in the medina Lone deLai l on
buil dings in the High Fall eli tricL, amid Lhe wooden
column of Lhe Jonathan Child Hou e, you'll find
the work of sculptor and r toraLion expert Scott
Grove. Over the pa t 30 year , Grove ha perfected
fibergla s-sculpting technique LhaL have helped
repair and some of Roche ter' olde t
and most signipcant archjLecture.
... The concern is that
structures bearing
the weight of history
and our collective
experience will be
nothing more than
Disneyland replicas
of a real cityscape.
60 R CII E TE R M AGAZIN E
Yi t the very word "fib rglass" make
some people cringe. When it com to
restoring the work of architects and
artisans of the past, the rule of thumb i to
do it with the original materials to tay true
to the authentic character of a building.
The Landmark ociety of We tern
New York always advise home and
commercial building owner to invest
in original material to preserve the
character of structures, says the Society's
pre ervation peciali t Cynthia Howk.
Howk and other pre ervationi t
argue that, by inserting modern
materials into hi toric building , we
compromi e the hi tori city of our built
environment. If thi happen , the concern
i that tructures bearing the weight of
history and our collective experience will
be nothing more than Di neyland replica
of a real cityscape.
Original thinking
Grove came by hi methods over
30 year ago, when architect Richard
Hand! r of Handler & Grosso approached
him with a request to replace a cornice
on the old Piano Work Mall in Ea t
Rochester. Handler knew it would be
difficult and expensive to reproduce
and replace the cornice in the original
concrete, and he also had heard that
fiberglass wa beginning to be u ed in
New York City for uch project . He left
it to Grove, a elf-taught ulptor and
woodworker, to devi e a molding and
installation method.
Columns on the Jonathan Child House, constructed
in 1837 for Rochester's first mayor, were rotting
badly. Scott Grove's restoration saved the columns
from further deterioration.
"I did that for the first time," Grove
ay . "I didn't have a clue what I wa doing,
made a lot of mistake ."But in th end, he
wa able to produce the large cornice. It
wa the tart of hi fibergla career.
Fibergla i actuall y a generic term
for a glass-reinforced polymer. Grove
mixes it with polye ter to produce a
flexible, durable, lightweight material. To
re-create the decorativ lement of a
building, Grove ca t mold from existing
piece to cr ate the fiberglass replicas.
At time , if the building' element aren't
detachable, he has to take the molds
directly from the building.
Grove ha even created molds
completely from cratch. When portion
of the original wooden decorative
garland on the Ontario B ach bathhou e
had rotted away, Grove worked with the
ilhouette to produce a new mold for the
replacement .
But why not u e the original
materials? Why not replace the garlands
in wood or the cornice in concrete?
At time , original material no longer
exist or are no long r manufactured.
The co ts of these material and the
labor associated with their use may be
prohibitive. And orne traditional material
can become a afety hazard. For example,
turncoat-a 19u'-century attempt at the
first ru t-resistant metal-actually rusts
from the inside out. So when decorative
fac;ade elements reinforced with turncoat
age, they may crumble and fall at any
moment, even while howing no outward
cover story
sign of rust. Similarly, cast iron rusts and
eli integrate over time, posing a danger
to the public when buildings age and their
maintenanc i n't carefully sup rvi ed.
Fiberglass, on the other hand, i far
cheaper to make and simpler to in tall
than mo t traditional materials. It' al o
inert and durable: It weather well even in
our climate and is not su ceptible to rust
or fi ures. Mo t importantly, to all but
the mo t scrutinizing and specialized eye,
the fibergla s Grove has perfected doe n't
look any different from the original
material on a bui lding's be it tone,
metal, concr te, marble or wood.
Cast irony
till , pre ervation expert are
unea y about endor ing fiberglas a a
fix-all oluLi on to the city's architectural
pre ervation problems.
"Our concern, always, with newer
product i that we've een a lot of them
come and go, and over time they ju t
don't Ia t," ay Peter Siegrist, senior
pre ervaLion planner for the City of
Roche ter. The late t and greatest
building materials turn up on t he market
con tantly, but their incorporation into
a ca t-iron or tone fa<;;ade, for example,
may create more tructural and
ae thetic problems than they fix.
There's a hint of historical irony in
the reluctance to embrace fibergla s over
traditional ca t iron, terra cotta or tile. At
one point, tho e materials were them elves
the late t and greatest (and unproven) new
thing to make construction cheaper, easier
and more beautiful.
"Fiberglas is replacing cast iron,
but ca t iron wa originally a material
that wa made to look like stone,"
explain Robin Lynn, an architectural
hi torian in New York Cit-y with a trong
intere t in it cast-iron building . "The
rea on cast iron wa o popular was that
you could duplicate, many times over,
architectural detail."
In New York City, Roche ter and
more generally in the state, historic
re toration with fibergla s are
approached and approved on a case-by-
ca e ba is.
"When we draw a black-and-white
line and ay it has to be the original
material, w mi an opportunity to
C.S. LEWIS
MEETS
FREUD

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cover story
revitalize histori c tructure ," ay
James Dur fee, pr incipal architect and
vice pre ident of Bergmann A ociates,
the engin ring and archi tectural
d ign firm headquartered in downtown
Roche t r. "Any re toration proj ct i
a balancing of authenticity again t the
way that we build now."
At time , at the expense of in er ting
a new material, "you can maintain the
integri ty of the whole and do that in a
practical way," Durfee add
Landmark work
When it come to the appearance of
our city, fi berglass ha already withstood
the te t of Lime a a viable and effective
ae thetic alternative.
On t he aging fa<;ade of t he H.H.
Warner Building on L. Paul Stre t,
fo r exampl e, Grove's decor ative
replacements-completed more than
15 year ago-still look brand new.
Meanwhile, many of the original piece
are ru ted and worn.
For tho e inve ted in pre rving t he
ae theli c integrity of a building, Grov 's
work ha proved to be a fi nancially
viable and ae thetically fitt ing olution.
The mo t prominent exampl e i the
landmark Powers Building, at the very
heart of downtown Roche ter, on the
corner of State and Main treet .
Grove fir t b gan repl acing orne
of t he original ca t-iron d tailing in
t he 1980s. Every few year , t he own r
of the building olicit his help again to
repl ace aging por t ion of t he fa<;ade
and maintain t he overall appearance
of the structure. Grove was at it again
t hi s summer, doing repairs on t he
tower and on the t hresholds facing
Main Str et.
"W kind of tumbl d upon
Scott' work almo t a id ntally,
and we're very happy w did," ay
Rober t Magee, proper ty manager for
t he Power Building, which is owned
by the As hl ey Group. "He did om
fantastic work for u . It's very hard to
find som one likeS ot t."
A a culptor, Grove is intrigued
62 ROCI-IFSTER M AGAZINE
(Clockwise, from top) The Warner Building on St. Paul Street shows Grove's restored decorative details
looking new amid rusting original pieces. A detail of the Cutler Building on East Avenue. after Grove's
restoration. Grove's corner repair (bottom) at Hochstein School of Music brought back the original gilded look.
cover story
"Rochester has beauty- a lot of people aren't aware of that. But at least I'm hel ping to preserve that beauty."
by the chall enge and originality of
each proj ect. And he ha had many
opportunities to try new thing .
"Ju t about any hi stori c building in
Roche ter that has been renovated in the
Ia t 30 years, I've touched-any major
building that had ornamental detailing
in ide or out," he say . That includes
the Eastman Theatre, George Ea tman
House, Hoch tein School of Mu ic, City
Hall and many others.
Beyond the chall enge of the culpt ing
work involved in historic restoration,
Grove appreciates and respects the
connection he feels to past arti ans and
their work.
"I ee the craft man hip behind
thi detailing," he ay . "I'm honored to
maintain that detail. As an arti t, it's ni c
to contribute to society, to leave a marie
That' one of the arti t's dream ."
And so is bringing that art to any
project. "My personal work i about a
discovery of inner beauty-that's really
what I'm about-and to a certain extent,
this architectural work kind of addresses
that," he says. "Rochester has beauty-a
lot of people aren't aware of that. But at
lea t I'm helping to pre erve that beauty."
As people debate the be t way
to preserve that beauty, one thing is
apparent: Grove's work, as well as the
activities of groups such as the Landmark
Society, has contributed to the flourishing
of architectural restoration and creative
reu e of hi to ri c buildings here.
"Rochester, New York, has a national
reputation for its intere t in hi storic
bui ldings," says Howl< of the Landmark
Society. "Rochester is a national
preservation success story."
And it' notju t about ae thetics. "It's
Welcome to the
done because it's good business, it helps
the tax ba e and it's great for economic
redevelopment," Howl< explains. "Hi toric
pre ervation is a busines t rategy that
looks upon the e buildings as an asset."
For anyone looking for common
ground between the practical and the
pure, con ider a dental metaphor. When
a white filling i done right, no one but
t he denti t can tell it from the real tooth.
If you maintain good hygiene, your mile
tay radiant and you're the picture
of health. Our city, of cour e, i more
complicated. Yet, though we may be
taking a bite out of the authenticity of
buildings, the filling have probably left
you none the wiser. R
Maya Dukmasova, a recent University of
Rochester graduate, is a freelance journalist
doing graduate work in Cambridge, England.
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ROCHESTER M AGAZINE 63