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St. John's Seminary
Brighton, Massachusetts
Bovard Studio restored, releaded the
seminary's existing window and fabricated and installed a new vented
protective covering system.
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Ron Bovard founded Bovard Studio in 1971, working as an independent
artist. An exhibition of his artwork at Carnegie Museum in 1972, started a
long history of shows in galleries and museums around the world, including
more than 25 one man shows in places such as New York City and Vienna,
Austria. Today the studio has expanded to over 50 artists, craftspeople and
staff who complete over 100 church projects each year, as well as projects
in courthouses, libraries, colleges and other public and private buildings.
Many of the finest artists and craftspeople from around the world work in
both traditional and contemporary styles. Bovard artists have won many
awards and honors. The studio itself has received over a dozen
national awards for their new stained glass windows as well as their
restoration of historic stained glass windows. Bovard Studio has restored
famous historic stained glass masterpieces by Louis Tiffany, Louis Sullivan,
Charles Connick, Frederick Lamb, and Xavier Zettler. In addition to
restoration, Bovard Studio has created new windows in these and other
historic styles. |
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Restoration of Stained
Glass Windows |
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Baker University Chapel
Baldwin, Kansas
A
church moved from England to Kansas, USA, and is beautifully restored, from
top to bottom
An historic English chapel was
moved stone by stone from its rural setting in England to the campus of
Baker University in Baldwin, Kansas. The Chapel windows are exquisite
examples of English Traditional stained glass design. The greatest
responsibility was to find suitable replacement glass and to recreate the
painted details of the broken and missing components damaged during handling
and transport from England to Kansas. The challenge was to
produce replacement pieces that were indistinguishable from the original.
Once Bovard’s crew had installed the restored windows back into the Chapel’s
carved stone frames, it was indeed impossible to distinguish between the
original glass and the replaced pieces of hand-painted glass.
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Wailoli Hui’ia Church
Hanalei, Kaua’i, Hawai’i
During
hurricane Iniki on the island of Kauai, Hawaii, the Waioli Hui’ia Church was
lifted off its foundation, causing extensive damage to the building and
smashing the precious stained glass windows. The church
had been designated a National Historic
Landmark, but it was much more to the proud community. After assessing the
damage and recording the remains of the windows with pictures, Bovard’s restoration team extracted what was left of the widows
and collected the bits and pieces from the site and shipped all back to the
studio in Iowa. The unique combination of color mix and density and
refractory qualities of the glass were painstakingly matched, the windows
restored, and shipped 4,000 miles back to Kauai and then meticulously
reinstalled in the rebuilt Wailoi Hui’ai Church. |
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Glass
Preparation Techniques
Bovard Studio’s creation of your stained glass windows
involves several carefully planned and executed steps. |
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DESIGN- The talented design team
creates your church’s expressions of faith or your institution’s history or
aspirations in new stained glass art. With computer aided design systems,
communications are made through pictures, exchanging ideas with you in
photographic quality renderings in which changes are no problem. |
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GLASS PAINTING- Glass painters are the pride of
Bovard Studio. The best and most talented staff of glass painters in the
industry come to Bovard Studio from places as diverse as Germany, Bulgaria,
Jamaica, Ukraine. Of course, the core of the talent is home grown right here
in the United States. |
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ASSEMBLY- Talented craftspeople assemble or
reassemble your new or historic stained glass windows using traditional
time-tested techniques and the finest materials including mouth-blown glass
collected from around the world. |
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CEMENTING- Stained glass windows are stained with
glazing cement. The cement fills the space between the glass and the flanges
of the lead came. This process gives the glass panels protection from
rainwater and increases the rigidity and strength of the window. |
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INSTALLATION– Windows are installed into your
existing frames or into Bovard Studio’s new aluminum, wood, steel, or stone
frames. |
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Protective Window Covering |
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This photo shows the location of vent portals in the protective covering to
allow condensation moisture to dry out between condensation cycles and to
relieve heat buildup. The upper 2 panels show the protective Lexan panels
installed prior to removing white paper surface film covering the Lexan.
 This window has a white "lead oxide" powder (the equivalent
of rust on steel) on the surface of the lead indicating it had a problem
with moisture build-up between the protective covering and the stained glass
window. |
As a rule, most stained glass window installations will
benefit from an exterior protective covering. An exterior covering reduces
air infiltration, improves the security of the building and reduces the
likelihood of vandal or storm damage to the window. However, it is of the utmost importance that the exterior
glazing be properly installed and ventilated or significant damage to the
stained glass window could occur. Unvented protective covering has caused
more damage to historic stained glass windows in the U.S.A. than any other
factor. Unvented protective covering causes damage to both the stained
glass window and the window’s frame in two ways.
First, we have all noticed that in certain weather
conditions condensation will collect on the interior surface of a "single
layered" installed on the exterior of a stained glass window, the
condensation will collect on the inside surface of the protective covering.
This means that the condensation is occurring in the space between the
stained glass window and the protective covering. If this area is not vented
to allow the moisture to dry out between condensation cycles, this space
stays continuously moist. The dust on the stained glass becomes
"hygroscopic" dust, meaning it stays permanently moist, like a wet sponge.
Microorganisms grow rapidly in this environment and they secrete acids that
attack the lead, the stained glass, and the window frame. This problem does
not happen when insulated glass units are used as exterior protective
covering.
From our observations while restoring stained glass
windows with this type of problem, the lesser the space between the stained
glass window and the unvented protective covering, the more severe the
damage becomes. The greater the space, the less severe the damage. A quick
inspection will give clear evidence if this moisture problem exists. From
the outside of the building, look at the surface of the lead behind the
single-glazed protective covering. If you detect a white "lead oxide" powder
(the equivalent of rust on steel); this window has a problem.
The second problem caused by unvented protective covering
is heat build up. Stained glass absorbs much more of the sun’s energy than
clear window glass. In fact, a dark piece of stained glass can absorb up to
60% of the sun’s energy when unvented protective covering is in place. One
study, conducted on a sunny January day in Chicago, recorded temperatures in
the air space as high as 150 degrees, when outside temperatures were
20 degrees. As temperatures change from cold to hot, building materials
constantly expand and contract. Severe temperature fluctuations, as
indicated in this study, produces unnecessary expansion and contraction
cycles and is a major contributor to premature metal fatigue in the lead
came that
A properly vented protective covering should be designed
and installed by a qualified stained glass professional. The Stained Glass
Association of America (SGAA) in Kansas City, Missouri, has published
standards for protective glazing installation.
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