Architects:
Swanke Hayden & Connell, New York, NY
Contractor:
New York Stone, Long Island City, NY
A small monument to a young Ben Franklin, one of the
United States great inventors and statesmen stood outside
a public school for years. It was recently defaced by
vandals who shattered the head and right arm. Rather
than replacing the entire statue, it was decided that
it would be more cost efficient and historically accurate
to reproduce only the missing pieces.
The statue was shipped to Old World Stone's production
plant in Burlington, Ontario where, using photographs
of a similar metal statue, the head and arm were re-created
in clay and cast in plaster to form dimensionally stable
masters. Once the models were approved, the head and
arm were carved in select Indiana buff limestone.
The elements were lightly sandblasted to match the rest
of the slightly weathered statue. The entire statue
was cleaned of dirt and paint stains which had accumulated
over the years. Stainless steel pins over six inches
long anchor the newly carved pieces to the statue, creating
a virtually seamless look. The statue has now been returned
to its original podium in Brooklyn.
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