Happy "Cinco de Mayo" from WEI

The restoration of the Benito Juarez monument in Washington DC. 

Budd Train Car Restoration

So. How are you spending your Saturday morning? Here are WEI we are putting the finishing touches on another unique restoration project. And if there is a unique restoration project in our shop, you know that Exhibit Hues has their fingers in it. Their latest project is one of their most ambitious. Partnering with the knowledgeable and talented people at the B & O Museum here in Baltimore, they are restoring an original Budd Rail Car for a new exhibit at the Rolling Rock Park in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Much of the work is being done in the B & O's remarkable facilities that are completely set up for such projects. But the seats are being restored here in our shop. In a space that generally sees wood windows and doors, these mid-century metal and upholstery have been getting some quizzical looks.


The seats were made by famous furniture manufacturer Heywood Wakefield. The company was a leading supplier of passanger car seats in the mid twentieth century. The car is being restored to a 1960's appearance and the interior will be silver and blue. The original seat cushions were cleaned and the frames repainted. They came out great. The aesthetically minded staff and visitors to our shop have already put in their requests for a set for their homes!

The Budd Car is scheduled to make its way from the B & O shop to Gaithersburg next week. It will be open to the public later this year. So if you see a Budd Train Car cruising down 95 South, it's probably us!

I will be attending the Bmore Historic Unconference, sponsored by Baltimore Heritage on December 2, 2011. Here is my idea for a discussion topic:

http://bit.ly/u7jWx8 #bmorehistoric

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