Women steering Cathedral project inspired by work

For the two women steering the interior renovations at Albany's Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, different paths led them to a common purpose.

Lynn Webster, the architect, and Katherine Onufer, project manager, work for Mesick Cohen Wilson Baker Architects, the Albany firm hired by the Diocese to engineer the Cathedral project.

A native of Chatham and a graduate of Syracuse University School of Architecture, Ms. Webster chose a profession, she said, that blended the practical with the poetic.

Unity
"Architecture represented to me a union of art and engineering. It encompasses so many disciplines and allows me to be involved in drawing, designing, planning, and constructing," she explained. "I couldn't think of another career that would allow me to be a part of so many diverse tasks, which means I would never be bored of my work."

She appreciates that her firm allows flexibility in her schedule while she raises two young children.

Also an upstate native, Ms. Onufer grew up in Constable, near the Quebec border. As a student at Mercyhurst College in Erie, Penn., she started as a history major but eventually changed to interior design.

However, her youthful dream of working with museums and old buildings stirred Ms. Onufer to advance to get her Masters degree, also at Syracuse Univer-sity School of Architecture.

She said that working for a firm that specializes in historic preservation realizes her childhood goals.

Sensible reuse
Both women have a special appreciation for the Albany Diocese's decision to restore the Cathedral, rather than rebuild.

Environmental responsibility is how Ms. Webster refers to it. "Structures which have been preserved and restored," she remarked, "are the 'greenest' form of buildings we have," since that saves the materials from ending up in a landfill. "Our built history is something which is important to care for and maintain so that it can be used, enjoyed and learned from by ourselves and future generations."

It would have been too costly for the Diocese to erect a new structure with the same caliber of materials, craftsmanship and detailing, she added.

Ms. Onufer agrees. "Historic preservation has artistic and environmental components," she said. "From a creative perspective, preservation protects the work of architects and craftsmen who came before us...and it restores a building's ability to do its job with the resources it already has."

In terms of the Cathedral, she believes it would have been disrespectful of the sacrifices of the people who contributed to its history if it were allowed to "wither away, footsteps from the State Capitol."

Something bigger
The Cathedral project has inspired in both Ms. Onufer and Ms. Webster a sense that they are part of a larger plan.

Ms. Onufer said there's "something very satisfying about working on a house of worship" and "having a positive influence on the worship experience of fellow Catholics."

She voiced her hope that "the work we do here reintroduces some of the wonder and awe that had faded under layers of dirt, paint, and crumbling plaster for a century and a half."

Ms. Webster told The Evangelist that "it's hard not to walk into a building such as the Cathedral and not be reminded of our size and place. The architecture of the Cathedral has been successful in giving both its devoted parishioners and its more temporary visitors a sanctuary, a place to stop, to remove themselves from the noisy world outside, and to contemplate life and that which is greater than ourselves."

The Cathedral is expected to reopen its doors to the public in the spring of 2010.

Funding for the renovations is as follows:

• $12 million for phase one - removal of deteriorated brownstone and replacement with new Red St. Bees sandstone to the north tower and east, west and north clerestories, plus installation of a new lead roof - from the Capital Campaign 2000, Clean Water Bond Act Grant, Cathedral parish, private donations and Landmarks Conservancy Robert Wilson Sacred Sites Grant Program.

• $6 million estimated cost for phase two (pared back from $10 million; $2.5 million has been raised) - interior restoration and renewal - from major gifts, private donations and foundations.

• $1.2 million estimated cost for east facade - replacing the front steps, repairing and replacing stone portals around the doorways, tooling back deteriorated brownstone on the wall surfaces - from 2006, 2007 and 2008 Environmental Protection Grant funds, Empire State Development Corporation and New York State Dormitory Authority.

(12-24-09) [[In-content Ad]]