Cathedral of St. John the Baptist Restoration :: Charleston, South Carolina

The Lift

Copper Exclusive — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 01:36:28 +0000

Our hearts skipped a beat as the beautiful copper spire was lifted to its home at the top of the cathedral. What a sight it was to see and how incredible it made all of us feel!

The Cathedral of St. John the Baptist is now one of the tallest buildings in town! Regardless of how its height compares, it will certainly be one of the most iconic pieces of architecture in Charleston for hundreds and hundreds of years.

If the spire looks a bit out of proportion to the rest of the building, it is. Don’t forget that the remaining stone pieces still have to be lifted up. That’ll be next week. So as far as the copper work is concerned, we’re done. But a few other construction odds and ends remain (like the stone corner embellishments) which will be all wrapped up shortly.

We’ll be back the first week of May with our pro photographer, phenom David Daniels, for some crazy amazing shots of the work in its resplendent completed state, so you certainly haven’t heard the last from us. Plus, we’ve got some other things we’d still like to share that should be interesting, informative and beautiful. Don’t forget, videos are coming, too! We promise! Keep your eyes out for those probably first of next week!

We are overwhelmed with the kind words of appreciation from all the people we have met throughout the course of this project. We know how much this restoration means to those involved in making it, to the Church members and to the community. We know much sacrifice was made and much patience was given to see this project to reality. We promise that we have put as much love into our work here as is humanly possible, and it is our honor to share it with those whose hearts are open to receive it.

This was a truly special project and we have loved building it for you.

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Our Copper Pieces at the Cathedral

Copper Exclusive — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 02:28:57 +0000

We’re back! Our pieces have been carefully trucked in from our Goose Creek workshop to the cathedral on Broad Street in downtown Charleston.

Tomorrow is the big day! The tower lift! We still owe you all some videos from previous posts–and they’re coming, but rest assured we’re making a video of this lift, too. We’ll work hard to get all these posted ASAP.

Today we permanently affixed the copper finials to the top of the archway and refined some details on the collar of the cross.

The silver colored pieces under the finials and protruding from their tops are lightning protections. They will be grounded tomorrow after the lift. The copper cross also works as a lightning protection as its very thick inner stainless core acts as a highly effective means of diverting electricity. Beauty and brains!

The black rubber pieces in the inner corners of the archway are bumpers. The stone veneer embellishments that fit inside these corners will be lifted and installed next week. The bumpers will keep the aggressive copper from direct contact with the veneer.

Check back tomorrow for lift pics! So exciting!

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Our Finished Ornamental Copper Pieces

Copper Exclusive — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 07:28:37 +0000

Like we mentioned in the last post, we’ve got just a little bit of finishing details to wrap up upon our return in a couple of weeks. But for the most part, our pieces are complete.

Video is on its way!

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We’re coming home! (Well, we’ll be back…)

Copper Exclusive — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 21:00:50 +0000

We’re heading back to our homes and office in Utah this evening, but we’ll be back here in a couple of weeks to finalize everything before the big, exciting lift.

Before we left, we fitted the finials to the lightning protections and finished the gilding on the collar at the base of the cross. We have pictures, but as we will be traveling, it will be a few days before we can make our next post. Also, we’ve got video in tow! Stay tuned for those as well.

We apologize in advance for the quality of these images, but just wanted you to know we’ve been on task! See you all in a couple of days!

Lifting the Cross to the Top of the Spire

Copper Exclusive — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 06:44:51 +0000

Our gorgeous ornate, gilt copper cross was lifted by crane to be fastened to the top of the copper spire today. The cross is a creation of the artisans at Copper Exclusive. Just to remind our readers who might not have been following us in past posts, the spire is NOT our work. The amazing, archway, visible in many of the pictures in the gallery below, however, is our creation as are the copper finials which you will see attached in future posts.

We had some technical issues with a couple of machines which took time we weren’t expecting and prevented us from assembling and attaching the copper collar as we had planned to do, but we intend to finalize the remaining details tomorrow. We’ll also fit our finials to the top of the archway tomorrow. They won’t be a permanent addition until after the tower is transported and the brownstone veneer pieces have been installed, but we’ll temporarily add these ornaments to finesse the fitting details, so on installation day, everything will be a snap. And, hey, we just want to see it all put together!

We filmed the lift and install of the cross to the spire and need a few days to edit the footage, but you can expect to see some fun video posted in the next couple of days. Until then, please enjoy these pictures showing the lift and assembly.

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The Gilding on the Copper Cross is Complete!

Copper Exclusive — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 06:42:38 +0000

The gilding on the copper cross is finally complete! You’ll notice a few areas around the copper collar that still have bare patches. The reason for this is, the copper collar is the transition between the base of the cross and where it attaches to the spire underneath. We still need to solder the pieces together. Soldering a pre-gilded surface is not a workable practice, so we’ll gild those spots after assembly.

Tomorrow we assemble the cross and spire and solder the as of yet ungilded regions on the collar. When that is accomplished, we’ll quickly gild those untreated areas and the whole spire will be complete.

We’re videoing the assembly, so watch out for some exciting footage. In fact, as the project nears completion, you can expect to see far grander pictures than have ever been posted thus far!

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Creating the Veneer for the Tower

Jesse Rhodes — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 06:26:51 +0000

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.

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Continuing the Gilding on the Copper Cross

Copper Exclusive — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 05:22:51 +0000

Got some more gilding pictures for you. Things are progressing well. Right now, we’re working on the detailed areas which take longer, but we should be completely done with the gilding on our copper cross in a couple of days. Finished pictures to follow soon!

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More Top of the Archway Work

Copper Exclusive — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 05:52:21 +0000

Though the weather has been less than cooperative, we’ve been plugging away at the top of the copper archway. We’ve compiled some photos of a few of the recent details we crafted to show you what we’ve been up to.

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Temporarily Dismantling the Copper Tower

Copper Exclusive — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 17:31:24 +0000

Now that the measurements have been calculated for the lightning protection and the tower lights, we needed to temporarily dismantle the spire to finish our work on the top of the archway.

We’ve said this in every post involving the spire so far, but just so there is no misunderstanding, Copper Exclusive is NOT responsible for crafting the spire. We built the archways, ornaments and the cross.

The following pictures show the different stages of dismantling. We’ll show you the finished top of the archway, soon.

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