Modeled by Spanish immigrant, Fernando Miranda in 1895, the angels adorning the four corners of 150 Nassau were created to grace the penthouse of architect Robert H. Robertson’s American Tract Society Building, one of the first steel framed skyscrapers in the city. Collectively nick-named “Dorothy”, years of neglect and abrasive cleaning had left them in poor condition.

Boston Valley Terra Cotta was retained to completely restore the original figures with new bodies, heads and wings.

Using 3D CAD/CAM technology, the Boston Valley ARCH Design Lab built a complete digital stand-in created from some 500 photos taken before she was demount-ed from the building. Each sculpture was gently dismantled into 54 separate pieces and shipped to Buffalo in wooden crates.

Once at Boston Valley, These parts were re-scanned and matched against the original digital site model. The finished digital model was used to prepare laser cut wooden profiles and armature pieces, so she could be rebuilt as a single assembly, instead of individual pieces on individual sculptors tables. Once the master model was complete, molds were made to account for each of the different four corner mounting conditions.

Watch the movie.

Categorized as: Hand Press, Northeast, Residential, Restoration, Terra Cotta Masonry,