Articles

  • Repairs Almost Done, St. Patrick’s Cathedral Is Set to Shine

    July 12, 2015 by Melanie Grayce West, WSJ

    repairs almost done

    After three years and about $177 million, New York City’s most famous cathedral is nearly ready for its close-up.

    From the spires 330 feet above the sidewalk to boreholes 2,000 feet below ground, nearly every inch of the Roman Catholic St. Patrick’s Cathedral has been freshened.

    The final touches are continuing and the remaining scaffolding that surrounds the altar will be removed by the end of the month, at least in August and—even if it takes divine intervention—“certainly before September,” said Msgr. Robert Ritchie, the cathedral’s rector.

    Though the final push is in anticipation of a visit by Pope Francis in September, the restoration is decades in the making.

  • Inside $175 Million Restoration of St. Patricks Cathedral

    October 1, 2014 by Hana R. Alberta, Curbed NY

    On an average day at St. Patrick's Cathedral, anywhere from 80 to 100 workers clamber up ladders and across platforms that stretch into the heights of the Neo-Gothic vaulted ceilings. They painstakingly rub masks over marble and plaster surfaces to remove decades of dirt, restore wood detailing to its former luster, and brighten each tiny, luminous shard of the discolored stained-glass windows. It's all part of the ongoing $175 million restoration of the iconic house of worship, which opened its doors in 1879 and last underwent a major fix-up in 1970s. The project started in 2012 and is slated finish up next year. Among the major achievements thus far was to clean the 80-foot spires facing Fifth Avenue, which is why they're no longer shrouded in scaffolding.

  • For Cleopatras Needle, a Cleaning to Last 500 Years

    May 7, 2014 by Lisa W. Foderaro

    In the course of history, what’s a few years? ... This week, after three years of planning, workers mounted the scaffolding surrounding the obelisk, which is 70 feet tall and 3,500 years old. They began to clean the surface with a laser, a method that was determined to be the safest for the monument.

  • The Restoration of St. Patrick's

    March 4, 2014 by Ashley McKinlessamerica The National Catholic Review

    On March 17, 2012, Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York unveiled ambitious plans to restore St. Patrick's Cathedral, which he described as "America's parish church and the soul of the capital of the world." The restoration is projected to cost roughly $175 million and to be finished in December 2015. The folks at St. Patrick's were kind enough to give me a behind the scenes (or -- up in the ceilings) tour of some of the renovation projects inside the church.

  • Union Station undergoes renovations

    February 25, 2014 by Sam Ford

    Though the hundred thousand people who use it every day barely notice, much of Union Station is a construction zone – almost all of it up on an elaborate, enclosed scaffold.

  • Restoring the stairway to heaven

    December 1, 2013 by The Carpenter

    Rehabbing perhaps one of the most iconic and religious institutions in the world would be considered a celestial task of the highest order for some. But for the carpenters, it is just another day at the office.
    More than forty Local Union 1556 carpenters have been part ofan unprecedented refurbishing job at the Cathedral of St. Patrick better known as St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City.

  • New beauty seen in DC architectural icons

    October 22, 2013 by Rachel Maddow, msnbc

    Rachel Maddow admires the aesthetic of the Washington Monument in scaffolding and appreciates the monument to renewal seen in repairs of the Capitol Dome.

  • Supporting a National Treasure

    October 1, 2013 by Scaffold & Access Magazine

    The Washington Monument, with its obelisk silhouette, is perhaps the closest representation the United States has to an ancient-looking sight to see. Made of marble and granite, the national icon is the world's tallest free-standing stone structure and one of America's most recognized symbols.

  • St. Patricks Cathedral In Midst of Meticulous $177 Million Resoration

    September 9, 2013 by CatholicPhilly.com

    Tall metal scaffolding not only fills but surrounds New York's famed St. Patrick's Cathedral. What looks to the uninitiated like a zealous cleaning job is actually a painstaking $177 million restoration. If all goes according to plan, worshippers should appreciate how magnificent the iconic church looks when the work is finished without identifying anything that is truly different or out of place. "By and large, we're fixing things that most people won't notice," said Jeffrey Murphy, a partner in Murphy Burnham and Buttrick Architects, the firm in charge of the restoration. The trustees of St. Patrick's opted for a conservative approach, where the stone, plaster and glass are cleaned and repaired, not changed and replaced, he told Catholic News Service. The "very high level" of the work includes thorough research into original materials and drawings to ensure that the outcome reflects both the iconic stature of the building and the not-unlimited budget, Murphy said. "The trustees are sensitive to doing the essential things and not superfluous things," he said.

  • $15M repairs on damaged Washington Monument begin

    June 11, 2013 by By Eun Kyung Kim, TODAY

    Work to repair the earthquake-damaged Washington Monument, the towering tribute to America's first president, has begun.

  • Washington Monument scaffolding topped off for next stage of earthquake repairs

    May 14, 2013 by By Michael E. Ruane, Washington Post

    After months of work and thousands of cross braces, screw jacks, frames, girts and super girts, the repair scaffolding around the exterior of the Washington Monument was topped off just before noon Monday.
    The event was a major achievement in the mammoth $15 million project to repair the 555-foot-tall structure, which was damaged in the region’s 2011 earthquake.

  • Universal Builders Supply, Inc.: A Successful Third-generation Family Business

    March 21, 2012 by Danziger & Markhoff LLP's Newsletter

    Far too often, a family business starts out with the best of intentions, relations, and idealism and ends in acrimony, disputes, and even litigation. How is it, then, that the family members of Universal Builders Supply, Inc. ("UBS"), a third-generation family-owned business, are not only speaking to each other, but are on very good terms? And how, in this slow economy, does the company manage to be enjoying its most successful five years in over eighty years of doing business?

  • Cathedral needs $25 million to repair earthquake damage, pay expenses

    October 5, 2011 by Michael E. Ruane, Washington Post

    Washington National Cathedral needs to raise at least $15 million for initial repairs to the earthquake-damaged edifice, officials said Tuesday, and the chief stone mason there thinks overall repairs could take a decade to complete.

  • Ensuring Safety

    March 1, 2011

    More than just supplying construction materials, Universal Builders Supply Inc, (UBS) invents systems that become industry standards. The now ubiquitous sidewalk bridges used in all big cities to protect pedestrians from falling debris during high-rise construction originally were developed by UBS.

  • Past Winners of Westchester Hall of Fame

    January 1, 2011

    Past winners of the Westchester County Business Hall of Fame gather at the PepsiCo hangar in honor of the award program's 10th anniversary.

  • The O'Callaghan Family Builds on History

    April 6, 2010 by Kelly Liyakasa, Westchester County Business Journal

    When Kevin O’Callaghan describes a Universal Builders Supply Inc. project, he glances upward and draws the structure in midair.
    He can visualize the 500,000 commuters that passed under his scaffolding each day for the Grand Central Terminal restoration project.

  • Cocooning New York

    June 1, 2009 by Staci Davidson, construction-today.com

    Universal Builders Supply (UBS) Inc. considers itself to be "involved in ensuring the safety of construction in New York City", explains President Kevin O'Callahan.

  • Taking tubular aluminum scaffolding to new heights

    December 11, 2003 by Kate Bachman, STAMPING Journal Editor

    For the company that broke the world record for building the tallest freestanding structure with a 320-foot scaffolding (the Statue of Liberty restoration project in 1984, see Sidebar at bottom of page)designing and constructing the scaffolding for the Washington Monument restoration project was just a natural next step.

  • Hoisting Ingenuity In the 21st Century

    November 30, 1999

    The Time Warner World Headquarters at Columbus Circle in N.Y.C. provided Universal Builders Supply Inc. (UBS) the unique challenge of providing the largest single building hoisting project in the history of Manhattan at over $12 million with l2 operational hoists.

  • All the arena is a stage

    August 12, 1991 by Nadine M. Post

    The requirement that "events" must go on - for almost three years - drove the $200-million renovation of the New York City's Madison Square Garden and gave the project team unlimited food for thought.

  • Trinity Church braces itself against the winds of change

    September 28, 1989 by McGraw-Hill, lnc.

    Although the scaffolding currently visible on the steeple of New York City's 143-year-old Trinity Church looks like any other scaffolding from the outside, the success ol the system depends on a second, scaffold-like tower hidden behind the steeple's masonry walls.

  • Keeping Crews On The Level

    November 10, 1988 by Nadine M. Post

    It's not every day that almost half of the cost of a new roof is in the scaffold used to apply it. But the many slopes and angles of an expensive Princeton University gymnasium called for a one-of-a-kind scaffold that needed great pains to keep it on the level.

  • Restoring the Statue ot Liberty: a monumental job

    July 1, 1986 by Katrina R. Mason

    The fireworks may be over, but Frederic Auguste Bartholdi’s 100-year-old Statue of Liberty continues to stand proud, thanks to the restoration of 500 workers and many donations of materials and expertise by manufacturers.