Scaffolding at St. Patrick's Cathedral coming down

Slowly, the scaffolding and the black netting that has covered St. Patrick's Cathedral is being removed to reveal refurbished white stone towering spires overlooking Fifth Avenue.

"There are sixteen levels coming down and by next week they should all be gone," Rolando Kraehner, on-site architect for Murphy Burnham & Buttrick, said Wednesday.

Eighty feet of the north and south spires, which stand 338 feet above street level at the front of the Catholic cathedral, will be exposed.

Renovation work crews are in the first and second phases of the $175 million project that includes a total face-lift of the cathedral's interior from its stone walls, stained-glass windows to its pews and organ pipes.

The cathedral's complete exterior is also being washed and loose stone replaced.

Both phases of the job, which began in 2012, are expected to be completed by June 2014, Kraehner said.

The 300 "baby" spires that decorate the outside perimeter of the entire cathedral -- all with different tops ranging from figurine owls, flowers and various designs -- have also been cleaned and refurbished, said Peter Sales, 49, of Greenlawn, who is the foreman of the scaffolding project.

"It's gorgeous up there," Sales said.

From his perch atop the cathedral's north spire, Sales has had a daily bird's-eye view of the church's gothic architecture, which is shaped into a cross.

"It's amazing how it was built and designed. It's beautiful. I doubt anyone could build something as beautiful today," he said.

As scaffolding is being removed workers will continue to wash and repair the cathedral's stone exterior. This is the cathedral's first restoration project since the 1940s.

The project also includes the refurbishing of its 300 wooden pews and a portion of the cathedral organ's 9,000 pipes, which has already been removed for cleaning and restoration.

The main bronze doors are expected to be reinstalled this summer after they were removed to be cleaned.