St. Patrick's Cathedral renovation begins

St. Patrick's Cathedral, the Manhattan landmark and seat of the Archdiocese of New York, is about to undergo a huge restoration -- the kind of face-lift that only three years and $177 million can provide.

Its marble and granite facade is pitted, cracked and dirty. The plaster ceiling has cracks. The cathedral's stained-glass windows need re-leading. And more.

The first phase is under way. The magnificent facade of the Fifth Avenue neo-Gothic Roman Catholic cathedral is shrouded in scaffolding all the way to its transept entrances. Soon, the 330-foot-tall twin spires also will be covered in scaffolding.

Inside, the choir loft and rose window also are obscured by scaffolding and netting rising from the west end of the nave near the cathedral's entrance all the way up to the ceiling.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan announced the project on March 17, St. Patrick's Day.

During the restoration -- the most extensive since the 1940s -- the church will remain open with work pausing only during Mass and other major events. One of the three organs will be functional at all times.

"The idea is to bring the building back to what it was in the 1880s," said Jeffrey Murphy of Murphy Burnham & Buttrick Architects, which is leading the design team overseeing the restoration work. "When it's all done, it will be cleaner and lighter. . . . It will be like when the building was when it was built."

Examples of a lighter and brighter edifice can already be glimpsed on the inside and outside of the cathedral. The contrast between the cleaned surfaces and those covered with years of contaminants is striking.

Over the course of the restoration, each of the 3,000 panels on the 73 stained-glass windows will be inspected, cleaned and re-leaded where needed. About 15 percent will be removed for repair. All exterior protective glazing -- clear storm window-type glass -- will be replaced.

The first phase of the work, which will take 22 months, also will include work on the roof to address "any water infiltration" and cleaning and repair of the bronze doors leading into the cathedral, said project manager Andy Bast.

Msgr. Robert Ritchie, the rector of St. Patrick's, said $50 million has been raised for the first phase of the restoration from donors, cathedral trustees and the archdiocese.

Phase 2, slated to begin in early 2013, will include the rest of the interior up to the altar and remaining stained-glass windows, and new heating and air-conditioning systems. Phase 3 will begin in the fall of 2013 and include the altar and the Lady Chapel behind the altar.