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/
The copper spire is lifted to the top of the cathedral today!
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!
At 151 feet (well, 167 including the cross) 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 remain as 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 tomorrow, actually! So as far as the copper work is concerned, we’re done, but the few other construction odds and ends still to do will be 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.
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!
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!
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.
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.
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:
