Blowtorches, Steam and a Giant Lift: UWS Monument Gets First Major Conservation in 22 Years

By Tracy Zwick

If you’ve tried to enter Riverside Park using the stairs at West 106th Street this week, you’ve probably noticed Parks Department workers bustling around the Franz Sigel monument, some with paint brushes, others in a boom lift, at times with blowtorches.

The 119-year-old bronze Civil War statue featuring the German general born in 1824 was showing its age. Like many New Yorkers, it’s having some work done during these quieter summer months. The sculpture was created by Karl Bitter, who also designed the Pulitzer Fountain at Grand Army Plaza.

The conservation project, undertaken by the Parks Department’s Monument Conservation Program and paid for with a combination of private and public funds, got underway on July 13 and is expected to continue through next week.

The stairs have been periodically closed to pedestrians during the process.

Jonathan Kuhn, NYC Parks Director of Art & Antiquities, was on site Thursday, and explained the project to the Rag. It’s the most extensive conservation they’ve undertaken at the site since the head-to-hoof treatment Sigel and his steed received in 2004.

Statues like Franz Sigel are on “annual cycles of care,” according to Kuhn and his colleague John Saunders, who was also on site Thursday. But this conservation isn’t part of routine annual maintenance. “We’re switching over,” Kuhn explained, “from previous lacquer treatments to wax coating, and that requires us to take off the lacquer,” which is what the crew’s been doing this week.

“Lacquer had some benefits,” according to Kuhn, insofar as it lasted a long time and “in those days [around 2004] we got back to things less frequently.” But “some of the materials have been outlawed for health and environmental reasons.” Saunders added that the wax treatment is “much more environmentally sound and easier to maintain.” The lacquers all contained “some amount of solvent, so it wasn’t great for the people who had to apply them.”

In addition to removing the 2004 lacquer coating, Kuhn’s team is also removing “active corrosion” and doing “spot patination” where pollutants have embedded themselves. “Think of all the sulfur and bad things we breathe, especially on days like today with the wild fires,” Kuhn explained.

When asked if Upper West Side neighbors had been stopping to inquire about the project, Saunders assured the Rag that yes, indeed they had. As to whether they’d mostly thanked the team or complained about the stairs being closed, he said: “it’s always a little bit of both. Quite a few said thanks, and others saw the yellow tape and asked if they could cut through anyway,” despite the power-washing and active fire.

The work’s been starting as early as 6:30 a.m. “Because of the heat, we try to avoid the middle of the day,” Saunders explained. “They’re working with torches, so it gets pretty hot.” The team tries to finish up by 2 p.m.

One of the park’s most recognizable landmarks, the 1907 monument depicts Sigel (1824-1902), the German immigrant who fled political persecution in Europe before becoming a Union general in the Civil War, seated on his horse in full military regalia. Designed to be seen from the park, Riverside Drive and the Hudson River, the bronze sculpture, by Austrian artist Karl Bitter, is mounted on a granite pedestal. It’s been a neighborhood fixture for generations of Upper West Siders.

The project’s being carried out in partnership with Riverside Park Conservancy, and funded in part from an endowment administered by the Conservancy in memory of longtime neighborhood residents Thelma and Alex Schwartz. Alongside the seasoned conservation pros from Parks, a team of interns is getting hands-on experience with the project; each is either enrolled in a graduate conservation program, preparing to begin one, or recently graduated from one.

When asked whether neighbors would notice a difference at the project’s conclusion, Kuhn said the goal is like most cosmetic upgrades: subtlety. UWSers will see “a slight difference in tonality – a little more green. And it’ll be uniform; no flaking.” They want it to “show its age,” but look “well cared for.” Don’t we all.

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