We add our names to the list of millions heartbroken over the fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. It is an enormous loss on many levels and we are deeply saddened along with the rest of the world.
As restorers of works of architectural art of historical significance, we have a unique understanding of these particular buildings. We’ve seen 800 year old copper, lovingly and skillfully placed on roofs centuries ago, to waterproof the buildings they cover, now grown to many times its original thickness. All of a sudden, a non-living entity seems alive with history. You envision the workers, scaling the heights with no scaffolding and no power tools carefully plying their trade and making their work beautiful and maintenance-free till the time, hundreds of years later, a tree fell on it, or they got around to replacing from bullet holes made in WWII.
These buildings are not supposed to fail, so when they do (almost always due to human misconduct or random “Acts of God” in nature, it is even more painful.
We wish for a speedy resolution and that the community can heal from this devastating loss.
