That's a good point.  I would indeed have noticed - not because you pointed it out to me,  but because I am Mr. Sensitive in the matter of so-called brownstone repairs and replacement.  It's a tough job, but some of us have to do it.   I guess I have come to the position that any "repairs" to real brownstone are the work of the devil. Your position is correct.  My God is a harsh God, and is coming after Gatti & Lopez.   Well, Gotti's already gone to your harsh God, and let's just hope He's not going to be out of town for the next 10,000 years.

 

Now, what's a fanatical purist to do?  Only one thing to do: bitch about it.  Just because nobody can do any better doesn't mean this shit looks good. Well, I guess one possibility is to photograph the offending material in humiliating positions - but that is the old 42nd Street.  (Indeed, inspecting the interior of the old Victory in 1979 with a group of attorneys trying to avoid Landmark designation, I was treated to the image of an erection displayed diagonally across the movie screen - I would guess about 60 feet long - remember that, Py?)  No, Py's the one with the big ball.

 

To refabricate the theater's original missing elements (some of which are 15 or more feet in one dimension) out of newly quarried brownstone is commonly described as "unrealistic".  Thus, we commonly describe using pretty good tinted concrete as being acceptable.  But, for some reason, we don't accept a "pretty good" Permastone imitation of Flemish bond just because it's difficult to match some 1920's brick. Good pernt.  But there are some things that are less impossible to do than others, and I would say that laying brick is not in the same category as obtaining and installing large pieces of stone on an otherwise small scale job.  On the other hand, I happened to walk past the new marble pilaster bases at the ground floor of Stannie's Tiffany building yesterday, and they looked pretty damn good.  Couldn't see the whole pilaster, but it seems to me that we gotta give the Moonies (or whoever is the current owner) credit for doing what appears will be a pretty good job.  The marble is a much cooler (bluer) white than the original warm (cream colored) white marble, and I bet it's Georgia.  But not too bad.

 

So I am interested in why we engage in, architecturally-theatrically, the "suspension of disbelief" when it comes to brownstone.   A peculiar phenomenon.