Jeff Greene Discusses Restoration Work at the Empire State Building Lobby
Tina Reichenbach, left, Jeff Greene, Mary Kay Judy and Brigitte Cook
The latest in the Conservancy’s Professional Circle Breakfast series featured Jeff Greene, president and founder of EverGreene Architectural Arts, who presented a fascinating talk on the conservation, restoration, replication, and relocation of the interior features—murals, ornamental plaster, and decorative finishes—of some of New York’s most famous landmarks.
Greene started off his talk with a spotlight on EverGreene’s work in the restoration of the Empire State Building’s stunning Art Deco lobby, which will be receiving a Lucy G. Moses Preservation Award April 21 at the American Museum of Natural History.
EverGreene was commissioned to perform an historic investigation of the Empire State Building’s lobby ceiling murals, which had been obscured and irrevocably damaged by a drop ceiling for close to half a century. To return the lobby interior to its original aesthetic, EverGreene artisans spent 2 years recreating the 14,000 square foot aluminum and 23-karat gold leaf Art Deco mural on canvas in their New York studio.
From one often humorous and always enlightening anecdote to the next, Greene shared how throughout his career he revived artistic and decorative techniques by learning from aging masters in the U.S. and abroad, studying old publications and experimenting tirelessly.
Greene noted the particular challenges of preservation work on a Radio City Music Hall mural completely covered in polyurethane. The polyurethane on the mural would not come off with traditional methods.
“[We] tried many things to peel it off,” Greene said. “Heated up material, took tape off, chemical didn’t work, but tape did.”
EverGreene conducted extensive background research when undertaking the project, using sophisticated preservation science with computers that allow one to essentially see what was under the paint and “determine if we were opening up Pandora’s Box or what the conditions were,” Greene said. However, he said many times trial and error is the best method.
“We spent months and months researching. After which we went back to the very simple things and what we ended up using initially was an electric toothbrush that agitated the surface, flaking off the polyurethane like a snake skin,” Greene said. “But it is very interesting that you can use all this high tech to understand something but in the end it comes down to hand skills.”
Many of Greene’s restoration projects have unexpected hurdles such as one he affectionately calls “Rivera’s Revenge” about the mural created for John D. Rockefeller by artist Diego Rivera inside 30 Rockefeller Plaza. Rockefeller reportedly destroyed Rivera’s mural because the artist wouldn’t change a section honoring Lenin. Spanish painter José María Sert created a massive 16 feet high and 41 foot long mural titled “American Progress” in place of Rivera’s work.
Greene said the Sert mural was suffering from delaminating plaster and very bad patchwork repair conducted over the years. EverGreene discovered the fresco foundation plaster was kept in place and then simply resurfaced with the canvas placed on top. The soft plaster underneath kept moving and popping the gypsum plaster on the surface so “Rivera had the last laugh,” Greene said.
