The Completed Cathedral Tower and Spire

The copper spire along with the brownstone veneer columns and finials have been up for a couple of weeks now.  Jeni Rone of Sea Star Arts has photographed the completed cathedral and steeple for us.

A trip to the top of the steeple is not for the faint of heart, but those who have the opportunity to do so are rewarded with an extraordinary view of the gorgeous Charleston skyline and an up-close-and-personal look at the artistry of this magnificent spire.  To see Jeni’s photo log of her trip to the top of the spire, visit this link:  http://seastararts.smugmug.com/Events/St-John-The-Baptist-Steeple/11457538_t7U9P#824078003_zUhpt

All the pictures posted in this entry are copyrighted and displayed here by gracious permission from the photographer.    Please contact Sea Star Arts for photo use information.

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.

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 tomorrow.  The bumpers will keep the aggressive copper from direct contact with the veneer.

Check back tomorrow for lift pics!  So exciting!

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!

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.

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.

We had some fun today!  As you can see, we added the copper spire to the archway.

We temporarily lifted the tower so the specialists could attach the lights.  Yes!  The tower will be lit!  And Jesse Rhodes from Hightower Construction (pictured on the left) added a makeshift cross (about the height of the real cross) made out of 2 x 4s just so we could better visualize the end result.  Ok…and because it was fun!

Wondering about the stainless steel poles extending from the top of the arch bows?  That’s where the finials go.  Though they are all finished, we won’t add them until the last minute.

While the workers were up there installing the lights, they set up a lightning prevention system as well.

The spire comes back down, maybe not tomorrow as it is scheduled to rain all day again, but soon.  We still have some details to finish on the top of the archway and can’t do that with the spire up there.  But there’s not much more to do as far as that is concerned.  In the meantime, we’ll be working on the cross.  See you next entry!

(Disclaimer…Remember Copper Exclusive did NOT make the spire.  We want to give credit where credit is due.)

We should shortly have the top of the archway completely clad in copper.  The gallery of pictures below shows the start of our work on the base, but we’ll be adding copper to the back side of the arch bows as well so the entire structure is covered.

You’ll be able to see in some of the photos that we have soldered the copper at the base.  In 99.9% of cases, we will never use this technique.  This is one of those 0.1% times.  Since the spire sits flush with the base, this is the only appropriate option here.  You can see the bolts protruding from the base where the spire will be secured.

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!

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.