Holier skyline: St. John’s now 167 feet high to top of its gilded cross
By Robert Behre
Charleston’s skyline was blessed with a new landmark Monday afternoon, as a crane hoisted a new copper-clad spire onto the top of the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist.
Shortly after Bishop of Charleston Robert Guglielmone shook holy water on the 16-foot-tall cross, he recalled a recent visit to James Island…
To read the whole story, please visit: http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2010/mar/09/holier-skyline/
120 Years later, church gets steeple
Posted: Mar 08, 2010 4:38 PM MST Updated: Mar 08, 2010 4:39 PM MST
CHARLESTON, SC (WCSC) – The mother Church for the Diocese of Charleston finally has its steeple. On Monday, the new steeple was raised at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist on Broad Street, more than 120 years after the cornerstone was laid… For the accompanying news article, please visit: http://www.live5news.com/Global/story.asp?S=12105396
*Followers of our blog will know that there is no fiberglass in the cross. The ornate archway or “lantern” directly below, however, consists of a fiberglass form covered in copper. Otherwise, a fun and accurate news story.
Click here for a quick review of how the cross was constructed: http://www.stjohnthebaptistcathedralrestoration.com/general/966/the-cross-a-masterpiece-of-disguise/
Click here to review how the fiberglass cold molds for the lantern were built: http://www.stjohnthebaptistcathedralrestoration.com/general/336/hightower-boatworks-and-the-steeple/
Take a moment to review some of our past entries. It’s fun to see how everything finally came together!
Crane operator Mike Black waves before lifting the copper spire to the top of the cathedral
ALL Carolina Crane Rental lifts the spire of the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist
The crane was the star of the show on lift day. No doubt about it! The leading man was crane operator, Michael Black, of ALL Carolina Crane Rental.
ALL lifted and placed our precious ornaments with surgical precision. Every ALL crew member whether stationed above or below or somewhere in the middle ensured perfect synchronicity. We were profoundly impressed.
ALL’s German-made cranes are state-of-the-art, and their highly skilled and experienced operators who, throughout their careers, have driven what they contend to be a spectrum of cranes, emphatically assert they will never operate anything but an ALL crane ever again. We can see why. We’ve come across the best machines and operators in action all over the world and we know great when we see it. ALL’s expertise was abundantly evident. We are fans.
Though the glamorous and dramatic spire lift was what got the big applause, ALL has been helping us out for months now. You’ve seen most of these pictures before, but here is a flashback from some of our favorite ALL crane moments:
The veneer columns are lifted up into the corners of the copper archway on the Cathedral tower.
Today, we lifted the ornamental stone veneer columns and finials up into the corners of the copper archway on the church tower. The church steeple will now look finished and proportional. To see the completed look with all four columns installed, be sure to check for future posts!
Artisans from Hightower Construction create the veneer ornaments for the tower.
If you recall, we have mentioned in previous posts that we elected to use a veneer on the tower to keep the structure as light as possible. The gallery in this post shows pictures of Hightower Construction craftsmen and engineers creating some of these pieces.
The molds are for the decorative elements. The large, fiberglass pieces, created by Hightower Boatworks, will be fit into the corners of the copper arch bow. We have included a draft of the finished piece as the last photo in this gallery to better illustrate how these items relate to the rest of the tower.
This phase of the project has been quite messy, but all our hours creating this veneer and these fiberglass pieces will culminate into a well-designed and beautiful result.
The progress for the upper tower is moving right along. To keep the tower light, we decided to use dovetail anchored, precast veneer. To keep the structure strong, the precast veneer will be secured by a steel frame. An elegant solution!
A dramatic picture of the Gothic copper louvred (vented) windows set into the brownstone veneer facade being lifted into place. This part will be at the base of the tower. Up until now, all the copper work featured on this site has been made by Copper Exclusive. Another well-known sheet metal company crafted all the copper vented windows for the Cathedral.
Detail pictures follow:
It occurred to us that we never really showed you the cathedral building itself. These pictures were taken just as the brownstone restoration was taking place. You’ll also see in the gallery an artist’s rendition of the finished product and an architectural sketch of the tower.
One of the more difficult aspects of the project included installation of the rigid frame into the existing tower. The frame had to be designed to hold the weight of the new steeple and had to be mounted inside the existing tower. This included taking accurate dimensions of the tower and installing concrete foundations to support the structure. Hightower Construction crews spent several weeks inside the tower cutting and removing over 12 cubic yards of existing brownstone for the foundation pockets. Then reinforcing and formwork was added before the concrete could be pumped up into the tower. It was a very satisfying day when the rigid frame was lifted up and put into its final resting place. This 15,000 lb. part of the steeple structure will never be seen again by admirers of the new steeple atop the Cathedral of St John the Baptist.
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One of the major components of the steeple is the precast concrete. The bell section contains most of the precast and was very challenging to create. First, a sample wall panel and tower was made to recreate the color and finish required to match the existing brownstone. The form liners were cut on a CNC router and then epoxy coated and sanded to make the relief work. The reinforcing was installed and the forms were ready to pour. The individual pieces of precast which make up the bell section include wall panels, towers, buttresses, pinnacles, and finials.
