[log in to unmask] wrote:

>     Thomas Hastings, in recommending against the cleaning the Vermont
>     marble of his grand New York Public Library:
>
> *   ***
> *As for blotches in the stone*

I still weigh in in favor of less cleaning than more. BBH, of Tuckahoe 
Marble mixed w/ Georgie Marble replacements  was blasted the entire 
exterior w/ glass beads in order to even out the coloration, a year 
after Polonia had cleaned it w/ chemicals & water blast. Of course it 
looked like crap before this. I simply favor the, "Let us not clean too 
harshly," technique. That Hastings would have even thought anything of 
this is what I find intriguing.

I kinda doubt that the NY PL was built w/ Tuckahoe Marble. Boss Tweed 
owned the quarry. The stone was crap to begin with. At some point after 
he was gone the quarry, in Westchester shut down never to open again. 
That is why inserting Georgia Marble here & there becomes a problem. 
Georgia Marble is a much more cohesive stone with fewer occlusions, less 
embedded iron, and higher durability to acid rain weathering. You put 
Georgia Marble in a Tuckahoe Marble facade it is going to stick out.

A building built w/ Tuckahoe Marble, such as Tweed Courthouse or Grace 
Church, has a particular appearance if left alone that will distinguish 
the stone from all other... though one aesthetic may think it looks like 
crap a more liberal, and green aesthetic will take it as for what it is 
and not try to make it look like what it is not. If we go w/ form 
follows function then why not appearance follows nature? I presume the 
legendary ego of some architects would not be able to abide the 
intervention of nature in their creations.

There are lesser known TM facades in the city. Some of them get cleaned, 
and some of them do not.

][<

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