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Project Team
Client: Resurrection Oakland Church
Pastor, Brent Webster
Nzilani Glass Conservation
Project Lead & Principal Conservator
Ariana Makau
Studio Head
Armelle Le Roux
Operations Manager
Lydia Henkel-Moellmann
Videographer
Dylan Nolfi
Glaziers
Tim Eyes
Jenna Kurtz
Jesse Medina
Stephen Steinbrink
Stained Glass Conservator
Greer Ashman
Master Carpenter
Albert Wengerd
Support Team:
Architectural Metalsmiths
Frank Trousil & Doug Whaley
Rbhu Engineering
Co-Founder
Alireza (Ali) Lahijanian
Rigger
Sean Cotton
Unique Scaffolding
John Soto
Jamey Knight
118-year-old Inverted Stained Glass Dome Conservation, Resurrection Oakland
The Stained Glass Dome Conservation of Resurrection Oakland is the winner of a 2020 Preservation Design Award for Craftsmanship/Preservation Technology. Award recipients are selected by a jury of top professionals in the fields of architecture, engineering, planning, and history, as well as renowned architecture critics and journalists. The Award will be presented on Wednesday, October 21, 2020 at an online awards ceremony. Tickets and sponsorship options are available at californiapreservation.org/awards.
About this project
In early 2019, the company was contacted by Resurrection Church in downtown Oakland to conserve the 12 panel, inverted stained-glass dome in their sanctuary. The building had originally been owned by the First Church of Christ, Scientist (1902-2015), then been purchased to be converted to a retail space (2015-2019), then bought in 2019 by ResOak, Oakland to used again as a church. At 118-years-old, the dome was in a critical state of disrepair, requiring multi-approached conservation involving engineers, metal-smiths, stained-glass, scaffolding and documentation. This included glass stabilization, re-leading and the re-engineering of its structural support system. The uncommon inverted orientation of the dome required the team to come up with innovative new methods to return the dome to its original state, while also improving its structural integrity, allowing a new generation of congregants and the public at large to enjoy its beauty.