Chicago's Tiffany Dome Restoration Under Way
By Margaret Foster | Online Only | March 5, 2008
Is it real Tiffany glass or not? This winter, visitors to Chicago's first public library, a grand, two-domed structure built in 1897, saw an optical illusion when they gazed upward.
During a six-month restoration, workers replaced the 38-foot-tall dome's 241 glass panels, designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany, with plastic replicas—a "photographic representation of what was there," says Neal Vogel, principal of Chicago-based Restoric LLC, which removed the art glass in December and is overseeing the process of replacing or cleaning cracked, dirty glass. "When the glass comes back, it's going to blow everyone away."
The city of Chicago, which owns the Chicago Cultural Center, insisted that the domed hall stay open during restoration, without scaffolding. Named after a beloved radio host of the 1940s, Preston Bradley Hall is a popular party site that the city rents out for events.
"It's one of the great gathering places of the building and one of the great showcases of Chicago," says Meg Givhan, spokeswoman for the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs.
About 32,000 people pass through the building every month, according to Vogel. "It's amazing how many international tourists are in there and how they find about it," he says. "It was critical to keep it open and keep it as attractive as possible."
Tiffany used 30,000 pieces of glass in the dome, which spans 1,000 square feet.
"It really is a dome that had two personalities. When the city lights went down, that's when the [gilded] frame really came alive, and the art glass just dimmed. In the daytime, their roles reversed."
In November, after 15 sites won grants from the Partners in Preservation voting program, American Express and the National Trust for Historic Preservation announced a recognition award in the amount of $5,000 toward the restoration of the Chicago Cultural Center.
The hall will close to events in April; it is scheduled to reopen on July 4.
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