Once one of the most popular attractions in New York City, today Grant’s Tomb is off the beaten track tread by most visitors to Manhattan. Constructed with the assistance of donations from 90,000 people totaling $600,000, the most money raised for a public monument at the time, the structure later suffered from neglect and fell…
Congratulations to Kevin Dalton on becoming our newest SPRAT Level 3 technician! In just a short couple of years, Kevin has logged over 1,000 hours on rope and learned the complex skills required of Level 3 technicians. Last week, Keith Luscinski and Kevin traveled to Vertical Rescue Solutions in Denver for four days of rope…
Ideally planned for and designed into a building, access systems for ease of continued maintenance are often value-engineered out of important projects, leading to interesting access challenges. Engineers must work with clients to engineer a range of potential solutions that are then evaluated for cost, ease of use and other parameters so that in-house and…
Check out our November 2013 Quarterly
During the recent Association for Preservation Technology (APT) conference — APT NYC 2013 Preserving the Metropolis — Kent Diebolt, Kevin Dalton and Berta de Miguel, from Vertical Access, organized a Hands-on Construction of “Guastavino” Thin Tile Vaults workshop. Other faculty fellows worked in conjunction with VA members: Benjamín Ibarra, Assistant Professor of Architecure UT Austin,…
A structure planned to “stand with practically no visible sign of change for 5,000 years.” That assessment, by Perry Borchers, was published in the Ohio State Engineer journal in 1940, soon after west façade of The Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine was completed and just before the entire length of the Cathedral was…
The Capitol Dome Will Get A $60 Million Face-Lift, by Eyder Peralta, National Public Radio, October 22, 2013 The U.S. Capitol Dome is about to undergo a $60 million restoration. Construction is scheduled to begin in November and last for two years. “From a distance the dome looks magnificent, thanks to the hard-work of our…
Great two-day workshop at APT NYC 2013 sponsored in part by A. Ottavino Corporation, Vertical Access LLC, Boston Valley Terra Cotta and a grant from NCPTT Workshop. See photos on the Association for Preservation Technology Facebook page.
Dam Safety 2013 – September 8-12, 2013 Rhode Island Convention Center, Providence, RI Dam Safety 2013 is one of the leading conferences in the United States dedicated to dam safety engineering and technology transfer. Kelly Streeter, PE will be representing Vertical Access at Booth #413 and attending sessions. About ASDSO The failure of dams and…
Listen to Nan Graham’s commentary on WHQR.org about the life of architect Rafael Guastavino in North Carolina, and how he became an “accidental southerner” after constructing arches for the famous Bilmore Mansion. He would spend the rest of his life living in the Smokey Mountains, during which time he designed the Basilica of St. Lawrence…
