Remember the pictures of our bright and shiny, newly made arch bows? We had visions of lifting a gleaming, unblemished copper tower into place, just to show the “new-ness” of the piece. Well, what we’ve built here is essentially a really big copper ornament. So big, in fact, that we don’t have a facility large enough to keep it 100% out of the elements while we work on it. And it’s been raining down here. A lot.
As we all know, one of the most remarkable features of copper is how it reacts with the elements. These reactions are what build the glorious and sought-after patina that only copper can produce. So even though the copper arch bows will be a bit on the brown side when the tower is placed, they will be every bit as beautiful. Like fine wine, copper becomes more valuable as it ages. 
If you’ve read about our company, you’ll know that we’ve spent most of our lives restoring some of the most beautiful castles, cathedrals and other important historic buildings in the world. Since the methods of installation in Europe are so stringent and have been for hundreds of years, the majority of our restoration work on copper has been almost exclusively due to “acts of God” like fallen trees or nasty hail storms but also, sad to say, damage from the world wars.
When we examine the copper on these centuries-old structures, the copper can be over double its original thickness! It is an honor to work among these buildings and see the depth of character they have taken on after so many years.
So all the details on this cathedral spire won’t be perfectly shiny on reveal day, but the copper is on its way to developing its own unique character people centuries from now will appreciate and love. We are proud to be part of this legacy!
We are so excited about the work advancement on our beautiful bell tower! Check out these stunning pictures of the base of the tower being lowered into place. What could make the gorgeous skyline of Charleston even more amazing? You’re about to see it! More progress pictures coming soon!
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:
Another sheet metal company was responsible for the spire construction on the Cathedral tower. The spire will rise directly from the copper arch bows built by Copper Exclusive and will be crested with the gilt copper cross also by Copper Exclusive. Here are a couple pictures showing details of the spire:
This spire was NOT created by the artisans at Copper Exclusive.
We’ve got the copper inserts for the spire about done at this point. Some interior details still to do, but almost all there!
Take a look at what we’ve got set up for our clean room so far. We’ll have gilding pictures to show you soon!
This is an anachronistic post, but our only entry thus far highlighting the ornate copper finials shows them as finished pieces. As the purpose of this blog is to be a case study of how our pieces were made, it makes sense to include these photos, late in the posts though they may be.
We’ve called the area between the arch bow and the leg columns a “window sill” and it is by far the most technically complex part of this entire steeple build. Though it certainly finishes off the piece, details like this are the unheralded heroes of the project. Fellow sheet metal workers will understand what we’re talking about.
We’ve got plenty more work to still do on this part of the project as we need to spin several more copper discs and have plenty more behind-the-scenes work before we’ll be able to advance this to completion, so we’d better hurry because the truck is coming soon to transport this structure to the cathedral site. It will be sent on a flat bed. Should be a head turner going down the freeway, that’s for sure!
No detail on any of our work on this structure has been missed. Few people will have the opportunity to see inside this copper spire as it will eventually live hundreds of feet in the air, so here’s your exclusive chance to peek inside the structure. What we’ve done here is install the four copper insets at the top of the arch bow. If you were to look up through these when the spire is completed, you’d see up inside the steeple extension (which we didn’t make) all the way up to our lovely gilded cross (which you’ve seen in previous posts).
We’ve compiled a few photographs detailing the progress of the build:
