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March 21, 2002
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The Renaissance Pittsburgh Hotel
stands at the foot of the Roberto
Clemente Bridge facing the Allegheny
River in downtown Pittsburgh. It is
located across the river from the new
ballpark where the Pittsburgh Pirates
play.
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The interior stonework at the
hotel, which is comprised of
marble from Vermont,
Alabama and Italy, required
extensive restoration.
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Located just across the river from the new ballpark that is home to the Pittsburgh Pirates, the
Renaissance Pittsburgh Hotel stands at the foot of the Roberto Clemente Bridge in the heart of
downtown Pittsburgh?s revitalized cultural district, facing the Allegheny River.
The building?s location was the prime factor in instituting a fast- track schedule for the restoration,
as the owners wanted the building complete and open to the public prior to opening day of the 2001
baseball season. But before the hotel could open its doors, its interior and exterior stonework had to
undergo an extensive restoration effort.
Built in 1906 during the heyday of the steel industry, the historic Fulton Building was constructed by
Henry Phipps, a partner of industrialist Andrew Carnegie, and was named after engineer Robert
Fulton, who built the steamboat New Orleans in Pittsburgh in 1811. The building was originally
designed as a hotel by architect Grosvenor Atterbury, but was occupied as office space instead,
explained Jim Johnson, AIA, principal of JG Johnson Architects in Denver, the architectural firm for
the restoration. Now after almost a century, the Fulton Building has been restored to take on its
originally intended role, and it was reopened as the Renaissance Pittsburgh Hotel. "Our intention
was to protect and enhance the stone materials used in this building, especially the granite and
marble," said Johnson.
But despite the broad scope of the work that needed to be done on the project, the work had to
progress quickly. Only a few months after Sage Hospitality, the developer, purchased the property,
the City of Pittsburgh announced that it was going to build two new stadiums for its professional
baseball and football teams, with the baseball stadium opening in April of 2001. When Marriott
Corp. bought the property from Sage Hospitality, they set opening day of the 2001 baseball season
as the deadline for completing the restoration and renovation. This gave the stone contractors less
than a year to carry out the work, an objective that was successfully achieved.
Interior restoration
The project included extensive
restoration of the mosaic ceiling in the
building?s main rotunda.
Extensive restoration of the existing interior stone - - which included marble walls and floors as well
as a mosaic ceiling - - was one of the first priorities in revitalizing the building. In addition to
functioning as an office building, the structure had also been utilized as the Fulton Theatre, and it
also served two stints as a nightclub. "People went into the grand lobby [during the nightclub
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also served two stints as a nightclub. "People went into the grand lobby [during the nightclub
renovation], and they used power actuated charges to attach their wooden partitions to the marble,"
said Terry O ?Neill of Columbia Marble, which completed the interior restoration work. "They also
had a stage, and electricians punched holes in this gorgeous mosaic ceiling so they could have light
stanchions."
In addition to damage from previous renovations, the design of the original building contributed to
the interior decay over time. "The architect wanted to ventilate the lobby space, so they had a 30foot- diameter dome with pneumatically operated windows, which created a draw, like a damper on
a chimney," O ?Neill said. "It cooled the lobby in the 1920s, but later on, when they started to shut
the place down, it drew in whatever pollutants were in the atmosphere."
Additionally, the rain conductors around the dome windows had shattered as the building fell into
disrepair, and water poured into the lobby and down the marble walls. "We have a big problem with
acid rain here in Pennsylvania, and when the rain came in, it etched the walls and really stained
them."
The first step in the process was to assess the damage and determine an appropriate restoration
plan. "When we first got there, they asked what we could do," O ?Neill said. "We had a tremendous
amount of cleaning. There was Alabama marble and Vermont marble as well as some Italian marble.
The etching from the acid rain required re- honing of the marble panels, and we also did a
tremendous amount of poulticing to repair the damage from grime that had been sucked into the
building." SureKleen marble cleaner from ProSoCo was used to clean the marble throughout the
interior.
In addition to cleaning and re- honing the marble, the workers had to repair the areas that had been
poorly renovated in the past. "We had to fix what the people did with the partitions, and we had to
stabilize a lot of things," he said. "Wherever the partitions were located, the wires that supported
the headers had been cut, so that had to all be re- done."
Some of the most extensive reconstruction was necessary for the ceilings. "The mosaic celings are
all old stones, such as Botticino, Hauteville and Dolcetto Perlato," O ?Neill said. "We had a hand
press to make new mosaic pieces, and we split 5,000 pieces of mosaic to re- do these ceilings. Like
Michelangelo, my setters laid on their backs for a couple of weeks to fill what the electricians had
destroyed years ago."
In addition to the walls and ceilings, the stone floor in the lobby had been eroded by decades of foot
traffic. "The whole floor was re- honed, and some of it was replaced," O ?Neill said. "Most of the
flooring was 1 1⁄4 inch thick, but in some places, the flooring was down to 1⁄8 inch thick. This stone
was replaced with some marble from Alabama that had been in our yard for some time. We don?t
like to throw old stones away."
One of the more interesting aspects of the project was the restoration of the building?s signature
medallion. The medallion, which is comprised of marble and brass, features an image of the
steamboat New Orleans, surrounded by the words "Robert Fulton Building." It was originally located
at the bottom of the grand staircase as part of the original marble floor.
"When they opened the ?Heaven? nightclub, they decided that a medallion with ?Robert Fulton
Building? wasn?t appropriate, so they pulled it out of the ground with picks and shovels," O ?Neill
said. "For some reason, though, they didn?t throw it out. They took it up to 13th floor, and it sat in
an old cupboard. My son Todd was in his senior year of college at the time, so I gave him the
commission to re- do the medallion. It was in many pieces. Not only did he have to epoxy all of the
pieces together and re- polish the marble, but he also to restore the brass. Then we had a 60- inch
diameter metal plate made, and the medallion was epoxied to it, and then it was hung on the wall
with a pin. The hotel owners had put plate glass mirrors on the wall, and then they told us they
wanted us to hang this 800- pound medallion on it. We took a forklift and hung it like a picture on a
wall."
Although the stone restoration was extensive, O ?Neill explained that it was not done to make the
building look new. "The owner was good about it," he said. "With a job like this, a lot of people want
it to look like the day it was first opened, but he understood that this wasn?t going to happen. They
wanted the lobby to be clean and functional, but also to be like an antique or a relic. The space was
originally polished [in 1906], but we only brought it to a hone."
In addition to restoring the existing stone, the interior work called for new stone in several areas of
the hotel. At the new registration area, approximately 1,000 square feet of honed Murgiano marble
flooring, highlighted with inlaid mosaic patterns, was supplied by Walker Zanger. Additionally,
Columbia fabricated new counters in Absolute Black granite for the registration desk, concierge and
wine bar and counters in Ubatuba granite for the public restrooms and the mini- bars in 30 guest
suites.
Going beyond the stonework, the 30- foot- diameter dome was re- opened. "We took off the
protective coatings to bring more natural light into the lobby to highlight the marble," Johnson said.
"The 30- foot- diameter dome was closed over during World War II in the midst of a blackout in
Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh was the number two target for German bombings after Washington DC,
because of the prominence of the steel industry there. The steel industry was targeted because it
could be used to produce weapons and other military necessities during wartime."
Exterior restoration
The stone flooring in the lobby
had been eroded by decades of
foot traffic. All of the marble
was re- honed, and some of
the severely damaged pieces
were replaced.
The exterior restoration focused on the Stony Creek granite at the bottom two stories as well as the
brick cladding of the upper floors. The U- shaped building - - with a courtyard in the middle - - is
reminiscent of the Renaissance Revival architectural style. "There was a companion building across
the street, which was built in the 1890s by the same developer, but it did not have a courtyard,"
said Johnson. "The courtyard was added to this building?s design for ventilation and to allow
natural light to penetrate into the building. It was a significant historic evolution of this type of
building at the time."
According to Don McDevitt, vice president of Graciano Corp., which completed the exterior
restoration, the building needed all new thresholds, sills and surrounds for the storefronts. "Some
replacement stone was found in the basement of the building," he said, adding that the salvaged
stone was re- faced and reinstalled at the northwest corner of the building, which serves as the focal
point. In addition to taking some stone from the sidewalks that were dug up, new blocks of stone
were purchased from Granicor, which owns the Stony Creek quarry in Connecticut. These blocks
were fabricated by Columbia Marble, and installed by Graciano Corp.
Once the broken and damaged stone was replaced, a thorough cleaning of the exterior was
completed. "We used a mild, low- pressure rinse [SureKleen restoration cleaner from ProSoCo]
which was hand- applied and left for a maximum of 10 minutes," said McDevitt. "Our intentions were
not to clean the stone to its original condition. We just wanted to remove the stains from
atmospheric pollution. To return the stone to its new state, we would have risked burning it with the
chemical cleaners. The exterior was cleaned to 90% of its original state, and the little blemishes
were to remain."
There was also some spot cleaning done to the mortar between the stones. "We hand- tested and
visually inspected all of the joints and prepared the cavity for new joints by backpacking them with
mortar," said McDevitt.
Patching techniques were avoided where possible. "We used more Dutchman type repairs," said
McDevitt. "Since the mezzanine area is a focal point, it was a wiser decision to go with a Dutchman
than a patch. Granite is a hard stone, and we couldn?t hide a patch as well as an actual piece of
new stone."
There was also an effort made to restore the copper cladding on the uppermost levels of the
building. According to the architects, the copper restoration, which utilized 40,000 pounds of baking
soda, was the largest of its kind on the East Coast since the restoration of the Statue of Liberty.
The 14- story Renaissance Pittsburgh Hotel has 286 rooms and 14 suites to serve the growing
population of travelers expected to visit Pittsburgh?s reinvigorated downtown area. The building,
which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, joins neighboring Byham Theater as the
only two of Phipps? five buildings that remain standing today. "The building was certainly in
disrepair, but we could see what a gem it was underneath," said Johnson. "It is so important to our
cities that we undertake these projects. Buildings like this aren?t built anymore."
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The building?s signature
medallion had been discarded
in previous restorations and
was severely damaged. As part
of the restoration effort,
Columbia Marble completely
rebuilt the medallion and
brought it to its former glory.
Renaissance Pittsburgh Hotel
Pittsburgh, PA
Owner: Marriott International, Inc.
Developer: Sage Hospitality Resources, Denver, CO
Architect: JG Johnson Architects, Denver, CO
General Contractor: Hensel Phelps Construction Co., Greely, CO
Stone Contractors: Graciano Corp., Pittsburgh, PA (exterior); Columbia Marble, Pittsburgh, PA
(interior)
Stone Suppliers: Walker Zanger, Mt. Vernon, NY (registration area marble flooring and mosaics);
Granicor, St. Augustin, Quebec, Canada (exterior Stony Creek granite)
Granicor, St. Augustin, Quebec, Canada (exterior Stony Creek granite)
Stone Cleaning Products: ProSoCo, Lawrence, KS
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