The Landmark Columbus Foundation has shared photos of Louis Joyner Architect's completed tower restoration of the landmark First Christian Church in Columbus, Indiana, designed by Eero Saarinen and his father, Eliel, in 1942.
The project took eight months to complete, wrapping up this past December.
The church’s 166-foot-high freestanding clock tower served as the main focus of the restoration work, which took place in four main parts, with repairs also needed to account for significant masonry cracking, rust, and water damage to its interior.
Contractors stabilized the 50 uppermost feet of the tower by first removing its east and west walls and then taking the brick veneer off its north and south edifices, removing parapets, and then installing a new concrete block support onto the 166-foot-tall structure.
The brick veneer was later re-installed in addition to locally quarried new limestone panels that replaced the plastic ones carved into its original exterior grille pattern. Beyond the most extensive component, the project also repaired the 20 “Zipper” openings designed for the tower’s western wall that had been the subject of a shoddy early-60s patch-over job to prevent water from leaking into its interior.
Brand new lintels and further limestone paneling were added to the area, with new ladders and other steel and brick elements replacing the extant items that had been damaged by moisture. New ventilation systems were finally included to prevent a repeat of the first source of the structure's problems, which included closing a yet-unsealed cistern.
“We are so thrilled to have this tower restored for future generations,” Richard McCoy, the Executive Director of Landmark Columbus Foundation, remarked upon completion. “Simply put, without this tower, Columbus would not be the same place.”
Fans of the Saarinens will recognize this as the predecessor of Eero's later North Christian Church.
The project was completed with a budget of roughly $3.2 million.
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