The New Brunswick Branch Library

Exhibit Hues recently completed a project for the new Brunswick Branch of the Frederick County Public Library. The fantastic entrance to the children's reading area, the "Discovery Zone", was fabricated in WEI's shops and installed for the April opening. The entrance consists of oversized cattails, upon which are perched giant insects, including a butterfly, a lady bug, a bee, a praying mantis, a dragonfly and a fuzzy caterpillar.

Hugh Bennett, working with designer Bart McGarry and sculpters Alicia Gravois and Leah Cooperson, built the giant-sized landscape out of foam and fiberglass. The foam is wrapped around welded armatures to provide the necessary structure. Expertly painted, the entryway draws the young reader into a world of literary fantasy. By all accounts, the bugs are a hit!!

APS Website

The new APS website is up and running!

http://www.aps-wei.com/

Stone Carving

The sawdust is mixed with marble dust lately in the WEI Shop. As part of the restoration of the historic Hotel Monaco in Washington, DC, new marble moldings are being created to match the originals in the building's cornice. WEI has pulled from its stockpile of Beaver Dam Marble and drawn on the talents of local stone carver Patrick Plunkett. http://stonecarversguild.com/m_plunkett.htm Together with WEI's Jason Wright, Plunkett has created new dentils and rosettes that will blend seamlessly with the existing cornice.

The marble from the Beaver Dam quarry in Timonium, Maryland was used for many buildings in the Baltimore/Washington area, including the U.S. Capitol. The quarry has long been out of production and the material is only available as salvage. WEI had the dentils roughed out with a stone saw, but the remainder of the work was left to pneumatic and hand chisels. The rosettes were also cut by the saw and the deeper recesses drilled out before Plunkett's chisels went to work.

This weeks cold weather has driven the work inside and it is progressing steps from my office. While I could do without the constant drone of the pneumatic chisels (like a slow-motion motorcross, never getting out of first gear), being able to watch the progress is fascinating. Nothing attracts craftsmen like other craftsmen. Plunkett and Wright have had a constant stream of visitors watching the sharp corners and gentle curves emerge from the ancient stone. It's not something that most of us get to witness every day. So I thought I would share it with you.

Monument Conservation with APS

Here is a link to an article about some monument work that has kept APS busy the past few months:

http://heritagepreservation.org/Update/2010/10suVA.html

Historic Carpentry Merit Badge

I guess I'm a little late to the party as I just happened upon this:

http://www.usscouts.org/mb/mb139.asp

Teaching the old techniques to 21st century boys.

50 years of Baltimore Heritage

Congratulations to Baltimore Heritage on 50 years of preserving Baltimore's architectural treasures!!!

See you at the Gala!

http://www.baltimoreheritage.org/programs/50th-anniversary/

Tool of the Week: Lasers!!

Here is a link to a week old article about using 3D imaging for documenting historic sites:

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/05/25/4356809-monuments-immortalized-virtually

I can see a lot of uses for this technology in our field. Documentation is obvious, but the technology is also being used for part replication. Using 3D CNC routers any part can be duplicated from a 3D model. This would certainly help cut down costs for manufacturing by hand. Perhaps that is somewhat blasphemous, but the reality of budgets makes this type of process relevant. The number of hours to replicate several hand-carved Corinthian capitals maybe out of the reach of many property owners. Not to mention the ethics involved in reproducing something so exactly that the difference can't be told between old and new. A new plastic part replicated by a CNC machine would certainly be recognizable as non-original. The original wooden pieces could be preserved and stored safely for future generations.

The other possible use is virtual tourism. How about accessing a space that normally would be off limits like garret or attic spaces. Or perhaps recreating a site that is long vanished and would be impossible to replicate in the real world. Imagine walking the streets of ancient Rome or Dutch New Amsterdam.

I am a big fan of embracing the technology. The craft and the history have to be preserved, but progress and technological advancement should be embraced.