CENAXO

Steeple hoisted into place atop Grace Church

Mon, 17 Oct 2016 15:57:00 GMT

Posted Oct 7, 2016 at 1:32 PM
Updated Oct 7, 2016 at 9:31 PM

NEW BEDFORD — Construction crews succeeded Friday morning in hoisting the new Grace Episcopal Church steeple framework into place at the top of the church’s bell tower.

They had managed to install metal braces connecting the top and bottom halves of the Douglas fir framework, which had proven troublesome on Thursday. A year in storage had evidently put some connecting bolt holes out of line but that was overcome mid-morning.

The project enjoyed perfect weather for the second day. Even the wind cooperated by staying light.

Bill Reed, former senior warden of the parish, said that construction crews have remarked that “this is the windiest job they’ve ever worked,” he said. “That’s what you get when you live on the ocean.”

Before the steeple was raised, it was signed by former pastor Rev. G. Kenneth Garrett and his wife Mary Lou.

The next step, now that the framework is securely in place, is to install scaffolding around it so that plywood sheathing can be installed, after which slate tiles will be applied.

The design of the steeple makes it much lighter than the 1880 original, made of stone and masonry, which was so heavy that over the years it damaged the belfry beneath it. That discovery last fall set the project back by about a year.

To help pay for it, the parish conducted a fundraising drive in which the sandstone blocks that made up the belfry were all numbered and put back into their exact locations. People were invited to adopt a block, knowing exactly where it is. The names of the donors will be displayed inside the church in a memorial plaque, said junior warden Charlie Capizano, who manages the building.

The last missing piece is the 500-pound cross that adorned the original steeple.

The preservation construction firm hired to do the steeple project, Connecticut-based Cenaxo, is refurbishing the cross, Capizano said, and giving it a new layer of gold leaf. The cross, which he estimated at five or six feet tall, is mounted on a metal pin that drops into a metal channel at the tip of the steeple.

Grace Episcopal Church in New Bedford MA

Fri, 01 Apr 2016 06:15:26 GMT

Posted Sep. 9, 2015 at 6:49 PM
Updated Sep 9, 2015 at 10:22 PM

NEW BEDFORD — Built in 1880, the venerable Grace Episcopal Church is getting a major facelift, church leaders said

By approximately Nov. 15, the church will have a new steeple consisting of slate and wood instead of brick, granite and brownstone, and the belfry and the brick work below will be repointed, according to Charles Capizano, the church’s junior warden.

The church’s cross will also be refurbished and placed back atop the new steeple, he said.

Capizano said the major repairs are necessary because over the years the brick supports have weathered and can no longer support the enormous weight of the steeple.

The new steeple will be the same shape and the same size as the old one, but will be much lighter because it will consist of different materials, he said.

But the renovation is not changing the city’s skyline in any way, he said.

“What you saw from any point in New Bedford, you will see again because the geometry is the same,” he said. “It’s just that now it will be constructed of slate.”

“It’s going to maintain the structural integrity of that whole portion of the church,” said Sharlene Begley, the church’s senior warden.

The facelift, which began around the end of July-early August, costs about $557,000 and is being funded from a variety of sources — donations from the church’s approximately 500 members; endowments; and contributions from the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, Capizano said.

The renovations to the steeple and the front of the church’s County Street side are also part of the church’s $1.9 million capital campaign, he said.

As well as the work to the tower, the projects include the reconstruction of offices, which were flooded during a storm last year and the church’s education center; the removal of mold; and the repainting of the church’s windows.

“We’re also trying to go green wherever possible,” he said, explaining they plan to install energy-efficient heating and air conditioning systems, insulation and lighting.

“Everything will be energy efficient,” he said.

Aging Boston Light gets a facelift National landmark is reinforced, renovated

Tue, 26 Aug 2014 00:02:00 GMT

Sally Snowman still wears her colonial bonnet, but now it is topped with a hard hat.

The lighthouse keeper’s routine has changed with this summer’s renovation on Little Brewster Island, a rocky outer harbor island about 8 miles from Boston. Instead of regaling visitors with tales of Boston Light, the country’s first and oldest continually staffed light station, she dodges piles of cedar shingles and bakes snickerdoodles for contractors camping out on the 3-acre island, which shrinks to just 1.5 acres at high tide.

Scaffolding has swallowed the 89-foot lighthouse tower, rebuilt in 1783 after the British blew up the 1716 rubblestone tower in the Revolutionary War. Centuries of use and exposure to the elements took their toll on Boston Light and the surrounding buildings, spurring a Coast Guard-funded facelift that will total about $2 million by the time renovations conclude next year.

All the work leads up to the lighthouse’s tricentennial celebration in 2016.

“It existed before our country was established,” said Snowman, Boston Light’s 70th keeper and the first woman to hold the job. “We precede the US government. . . . It’s a way of life that doesn’t exist anymore, but we’re doing it in 2014.”

This summer, workers are refreshing the mortar that binds the granite blocks of the lighthouse and resealing it while the island is closed to visitors. Outlying buildings, such as the keeper’s house and the fog signal building, are getting new windows, fresh white paint, cedar shingles, and updated siding.

These long-overdue renovations, underway from May to late September with more to come, are more extensive than other updates in the last few decades.

“It’s something for the city of Boston and for this local area, it’s for the state of Massachusetts, it’s for New England, it’s for the maritime community, and it’s for the Coast Guard, so we really think of it as an investment we had to make,” Commander Marc Knowlton of the US Coast Guard said.

When it was built three hundred years ago, the lighthouse with its welcoming candlelit beacon was meant to keep ships from crashing on the outer harbor islands, as they often did.

“If you want to symbolize hope or safety or protection, people use that icon of a lighthouse, and in particular, they use Boston Light,” Knowlton said. “And to us, it symbolizes our history, our trade, in the Coast Guard.”

In 1989, Senator Edward M. Kennedy extolled Boston Light’s historic value, leading Congress to order that the lighthouse be permanently staffed and made available for public enjoyment. Already a National Historic Landmark, Boston Light became part of the National Park Service’s Boston Harbor Island Recreation Area in 1996.

On a clear night, the lighthouse’s automated crystal beacon cuts 27 miles through the darkness out to sea. Its 1859 Fresnel lens, imported from France, is at the top of 76 iron spiral stairs and holds 336 prisms.

Knowlton compares the lighthouse’s enduring importance and gesture of invitation to the Statue of Liberty. For those in the Coast Guard, he said, it is like seeing history.

“Once you go out there and you start to think about what Boston Light is and what it means to this area, you can’t help but fall in love with it,” he said.

Snowman, who got her job in 2003 when the Coast Guard opened the position to civilians, wants to preserve the lost art of lighthouse-keeping. She splits her time between Weymouth and the island, where she stays Monday through Thursday — though that often slides into continuous weeks in the flurry of the summer months.

She loves the solitude, but summons her energy for the 3,000 annual visitors who come bearing questions about the lighthouse and her life on the rocky outcropping.

Snowman felt the pull of Boston Light when she was a young girl, the harbor as her backyard, declaring she would be married on the island one day. In 1994, she was. Now, she lives in her keeper’s house, built in 1884, with white paint and green trim, in the briny harbor air. Her husband, who works as an assistant keeper, is often by her side.

She loves the caw of the gulls, the thrum of the boat engines, the squeals of the line as lobstermen reel in their pots. She is not used to all these workers on the island, or to the drone of early morning construction. But she enjoys a slower life, awestruck tourists, and quiet nights. She knows she will be back to her routine soon — with a fresh coat of paint.

Bushnell Park’s Soldiers & Sailors Arch Restoration

Wed, 09 Jul 2014 20:35:00 GMT

By Matt McFarland

By Kaitlyn Naples

HARTFORD, CT (WFSB) –

The nearly 130-year-old Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch in Bushnell Park in Hartford is getting a facelift, and restoration began Monday.

The brownstone Arch honors heroes while also serving as a gateway into Hartford, and a few years ago the Bushnell Park Foundation started a capital campaign to raise $250,000 in order to fund the restoration.

“It’s a wonderful monument, of the key features of Bushnell Park and it’s badly in need of certain repairs. One of the key things we’re going to do is clean all the masonry, the brownstone and repoint that masonry,” said Tyler Smith, board member for the Bushnell Park Foundation.

On Monday, crews from Bloomfield based Cenaxo started the work on the Arch, and the project will include cleaning, and repairing the masonry, along with restoring the wooden doors and updating the lighting to LED.

“It’s a major monument in the first public park in the United States, so it has a lot of significance and distinction as well,” Smith added.

The Foundation said its mission is to preserve and protect Bushnell Park. In addition of the arch project, there are other scheduled improvements at the park, including the city’s upcoming restoration of the carousel, the pond and the pathways.

Sergio Querioz of Hartford said he admires the Arch.

It “looks beautiful, the architecture, the sculptures on it, it’s really something beautiful,” he said. “I think it’s something we should do more often around Hartford. We have beautiful buildings like that, I think it’s wonderful, money well spent.”

The Bushnell Park Foundation said the Arch will be closed to traffic, though the regular Thursday tours will still take place some weeks depending on the construction. Work is expected to finish in mid-August.

Cenaxo is Relocating & Expanding to Include Roofing & Sheet Metal

Thu, 24 Apr 2014 00:09:00 GMT

Historic Building Restoration Firm is Relocating and Expanding to Include Roofing and Sheet Metal Services

In February of 2014 Cenaxo, LLC officially moved from their first office and operations base in South Windsor, CT expanding to their now larger space in Bloomfield, CT.

With this move, Cenaxo will now include roofing and sheet metal services. This completes Cenaxo’s unique service offerings of holistic building envelope restoration complementing their well-established masonry, painting and carpentry services. The company prides itself in many specialty areas, which include stone carving, wood carpentry/restoration, high performance coatings as well as historic painting.

Check out the new Cenaxo website for more information on all their building restoration services as well as previous and current project profiles.

Cenaxo, LLC is now located at 78 Granby Street, Bloomfield, MA, 06002.
Office: (860) 757-3290 Fax: (860) 757-3297
Email: office(at)cenaxo(dot)com
Web: https://cenaxo.com
Cenaxo, LLC. taking restoration to a new level.

Scaffolding Shrouds Travelers Tower For $30M Face-Lift

Thu, 08 Aug 2013 01:24:00 GMT

Workers Replacing Windows And Drainpipes, Repairing Masonry, Removing Rust

A crew with Cenaxo of South Windsor, Conn., is repointing the mortar at Portland City Hall.
According to city staff, the job to repair the building’s exterior was budgeted in Portland’s capital improvement project list for 2013. Cost is $650,000, the city reported.4-19-city-hall-mortar-free
A Portland Recreation and Facilities summary about the job, contained in the 2013-2018 CIP document, states that mortar is missing in many areas, contributing to infiltration of water into City Hall. Evidence of seepage includes mold where water came through walls, damaging paint and plaster, the summary states.

The post Scaffolding Shrouds Travelers Tower For $30M Face-Lift appeared first on CENAXO .

Crew tackles $650,000 mortar repairs at City Hall

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 00:58:00 GMT

Published Date Friday, 19 April 2013 00:44 Written by David Carkhuff
A crew with Cenaxo of South Windsor, Conn., is repointing the mortar at Portland City Hall.
According to city staff, the job to repair the building’s exterior was budgeted in Portland’s capital improvement project list for 2013. Cost is $650,000, the city reported.4-19-city-hall-mortar-free
A Portland Recreation and Facilities summary about the job, contained in the 2013-2018 CIP document, states that mortar is missing in many areas, contributing to infiltration of water into City Hall. Evidence of seepage includes mold where water came through walls, damaging paint and plaster, the summary states.

The post Crew tackles $650,000 mortar repairs at City Hall appeared first on CENAXO .

Work begins on Sheffield Island Lighthouse

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 03:04:04 GMT

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NORWALK – A 74-foot landing craft pulled into the city dock recently as work began on the restoration of the historic Sheffield Island Lighthouse and keeper’s cottage.

The project, funded through a $250,000 grant from the state Department of Economic and Community Development, includes repointing the masonry on both houses, and repairing cast iron, chimneys and the lighthouse tower, which will be repainted in its original gray color.

“We’re going to have a spiffed up lighthouse,” said Peter Bondi, chairman of the Norwalk Historical Commission. “It’s going to look great.”

Darin Meny, co-owner of the architectural restoration company Cenaxo, said the project will take about three months to complete.

Members of the Norwalk Seaport Association, which owns and maintains the Sheffield Island Lighthouse, watched from the South Norwalk docks as the enormous vessel pulled out of the harbor.

The landing craft made two trips to the 53-acre Sheffield Island to transport heavy tools and equipment, including a 60-foot boom lift, a cement mixer, scaffolding, and 5,000 pounds of sand and cement.

“It’s very efficient,” said Irene Dixon, president of the Seaport Association’s Board of Trustees. “You could just imagine transporting all this equipment one small boat at a time.”

The restoration follows last year’s development when the historic lighthouse was set aglow for the first time in more than 100 years. A solar-powered light was put in service on October 17, 2011. The light is not considered an aid to navigation. Activated in 1868, the Sheffield Island Lighthouse was in service for 34 years until its retirement in 1902.

The lighthouse served as a navigational tool before it was replaced by the Greens Ledge Lighthouse, which remains a beacon for wayward boaters and commercial shipping vessels.

Today, Sheffield Island Lighthouse is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is maintained, along with the island, as a museum and nature preserve by Norwalk Seaport Association volunteers. Dixon said the Seaport Association has put a renewed focus on improving the lighthouse to make it more attractive to visitors.
“We have a lot of new people on the board, a lot of new volunteers,” she said. “We want to make Sheffield Island a destination. It really is our crown jewel for Norwalk. It’s one of our best kept secrets, and we need to improve it, restore it and make it a better place to visit.”

According to Dixon, the restoration project will not interrupt the Seaport Association’s summer tours of Sheffield Island.

Ferry service to Sheffield Island runs through Labor Day. To purchase tickets, visit seaport.org, or call (800) 838-3006.