Could it be that this is the same Grand Rapids, Michigan church window
that Ilene was working on?  If so, the recommendation was to remove the
outer "glazing" entirely.

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Lawrence Kestenbaum, [log in to unmask]
The Political Graveyard, http://politicalgraveyard.com


On Mon, 19 Apr 1999 [log in to unmask] wrote (on Preservation-L):

> Hi all, we had an interesting dillema come up at my church this weekend.  The
> church I attend is a gothic style church built before the turn of the century
> in Grand Rapids MI.  The church has beautiful 35 foot tall stained glass
> windows that are truely one of a kind and irreplaceable.  The church has
> decided that the windows are too dirty and need to be cleaned.  They hired a
> firm out of Grand Rapids to do the restoration of the frames and the cleaning
> of the glass (Which was quite a chore due to the road film that comes off of
> US-131 directly in front of the church.) The dillema is this, currently the
> windows are being protected from the outside by what the priest says is
> plexi-glass which I don't doubt due to the age of the stuff and the yellowing.
> The plexi-glass is causing a greenhouse effect on the window and causing it
> to bow and could ultimately ruin it.  I've heard of people using Lexan on the
> outside and putting strengthing bars on the inside.  This probably isn't the
> best idea from an aesthetics standpoint.  So what do we do?  Do we leave the
> window unprotected from the road film and rock throwing vandels?  Or do we
> protect the outside and take away some of the beauty from the inside?
>
> What have you guys done in this situation?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Nate from Detroit
>