Graffiti removal at Starved Rock State Park was a success! The president and vice director of CSOS personally saw to the removal of graffiti from the natural stone at Starved Rock State park on 6/7/16. We would like to thank superintendent Kerry Novak and the Starved Rock State Park staff for being so welcoming and supportive of our work. We are very moved and grateful for all the kind messages and emails we have received from the public. We would also like to thank the media for capturing this moment and increasing awareness for the park: Chicago Tribune - The Times - NewsTribune
It is interesting how connected the world is, as we first learned about the graffiti problem from Christopher Ciaston, one of our laser technicians, who saw the story Kendall Cramer set in motion online while traveling in Europe and immediately reached out to us in Chicago.
CSOS Volunteers to Help Clean Up Starved Rock National Park CSOS is responding to the vandalism that took place in the beautiful Starved Rock National Park in Illinois over Memorial Day Weekend (story here). CSOS will use the environmentally friendly GC-1 laser cleaning system to vaporize graffiti off of the natural stone. We feel it is important to remove graffiti quickly before it may encourage additional vandalism. In light of the parks current budgetary constraints, we will be donating our services to help preserve this unique natural wonder. We will be working onsite on June 7th, 2016.
Alexander Hamilton Monument Laser Cleaning The Chicago Tribune featured a story on our treatment of the Alexander Hamilton Monument on April 6, 2016. You can see the story here.
Lighting up the Obelisk in Central Park DNAinfo.com wrote an article on April 6, 2016 about CSOS laser cleaning the obelisk in Central Park and our recommendations for strategically projecting missing hieroglyphs with laser projectors. You can see the article here.
Returning the Charitas sculpture to Lincoln Park After being treated and then stored for over 10 years in our studio, the bronze Charitas sculpture finally came back to Lincoln Park where it was installed on March 22, 2016 very near its original location and on its original base. We had grown very used to admiring the sculpture at our studio every day for the past decade, but we are happy that it now is on view for the public to enjoy.
APT WGLC CSOS was very pleased to host the 2016 Association for Preservation Technology Western Great Lakes Chapter winter annual meeting on February 16th. The event featured a presentation on laser cleaning art and architecture as well as live demonstrations of the GC-1 laser cleaning system.
Art Institute of Chicago Bronzes. The treatment of the three historic bronze sculptures from the facade of one of the buildings of the Art Institute of Chicago, at 112 S. Michigan, was completed on schedule and the sculptures were reinstalled on the building.
Buckingham Fountain. The conservation treatment of the Buckingham Fountain in Chicago's Grant Park is well underway. You can see our team hard at work from the moment the fountain was shut down for the winter season. This treatment will be complete in November of 2015.
Alexander Hamilton Monument The gilded Alexander Hamilton Monument from Chicago's Lincoln Park has been safely moved to our studio for conservation treatment.
U.S. Supreme Court. CSOS is laser cleaning marble facade elements of the U.S. Supreme court as a subcontractor to Kiewit Building Group. The first phase of the project was completed ahead of schedule.
Laser cleaning trials on the Oklahoma Capitol building. CSOS traveled to Oklahoma City to test how the GC-1 lasers can help in the extensive Oklahoma Capitol Restoration project. Check out the video from OklahomaOMES below to see the results.
More news on Eternal Indian (Blackhawk). Watch video of our conservators working in Oregon, IL from our feature on WIFR 23 News on August 7, 2015. CSOS conservation efforts continue to save and restore this iconic landmark sculpture.
Have you seen us in Oregon, IL recently? The conservation of Loredo Taft's Eternal Indian ("Black Hawk") was featured by the Chicago Tribune on July 20th, 2015. See the article and video about the project here. Thanks to the community's support and the incredible fund raising efforts of Frank and Charron Rausa of Sterling, IL, the heavily weathered 104 year old statue is getting the conservation attention that it deserves.
CSOS receives the Thirty-Third Annual Award for Excellence in Design from the Public Design Commission of New York. Find out more about the Design Commission and the award here. We are the third project featured. Mayor Bill de Blasio and Design Commission President Signe Nielsen presented CSOS with an award recognizing their work for the Central Park Conservatory. CSOS staff laser cleaned New York City's oldest public, Cleopatra's Needle in Central Park, removing decades of dark pollution deposits and surface grime. The hieroglyphs have been given new life and visibility thanks to the joint conservation efforts recognized in this award.
Conservation of General Anthony Wayne Monument in Fort Wayne, Indiana, has begun on July 24th, 2014. Click Here and Here to see the story in the news. CSOS performed tests on July 24th and will soon be laser cleaning this historic monument to remove corrosion products as well as the old coating from the surface of the bronze. We will be using environmentally friendly custom built lasers to safely clean the surface without the need to use chemicals or air abrasive. Missing elements from the monument, such as spurs from the general's boots, will be accurately recreated based on historic records. The sculpture will be brought back to its original historic bronze patina and will receive a new protective wax coating.
Preparations have begun to conserve Loredo Taft's Blackhawk monument in Oregon, Illinois on July 16th, 2014. Click here to see the story in the news. We have put up a fence around the site, taken concrete samples, and are preparing the base area for our scaffold so we can begin work on conserving this unique and large cast concrete monument.
Laser cleaning of the obelisk in Central Park is complete. See our story in the New York Times. The laser cleaning treatment of the 3,500 year old obelisk in New York's Central Park, also known as Cleopatra's Needle, is complete. We laser cleaned the entire surface of the 70 ft tall 220 ton monument. We used several custom designed and modified 1064nm laser systems to target and carefully remove the pollution and grime from the obelisk without damaging the stone surface. Our vice director, Bartosz Dajnowski, designed and built a new 1064nm laser cleaning system specifically for this project. Laser cleaning is an environmentally friendly technique which offers unmatched precision, is nonabrasive, and does not involve the use of any chemicals. We are honored to have done this work and find it rather fitting that this ancient obelisk with hieroglyphs that reference the Egyptian sun god Ra was cleaned by light.
Kupcinet Statue removed for conservation treatment on April 12th, 2014. See the story in the news: Click Here CSOS temporarily removed the bronze sculpture of Irv Kupcinet for conservation treatment. The sculpture was removed because the base of the sculpture was damaged. We appreciate how important the sculpture is to the Chicago community and look forward to reinstalling it after the conservation work is complete.
Alma Mater Monument Installation Completed on April 9th, 2014. See the story in the News. The conservation work is complete and the monument was safely transported and re-installed at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The welcoming reception for this university icon was truly inspiring and moving. We are very proud to have brought the Alma Mater back to its original glory in time for graduation photo sessions. You can see the monument live through this webcam: ALMA MATER CAM