Saint Thomas Aquinas Chapel, serves as a teaching chapel for the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C.
Here young seminarians are taught how to conduct a Catholic Mass ceremony and become priests.
At the time of restoration, the chapel was about 60 years old, and in need of a fresh appearance and new sanctuary design.
Rugo Stone was commissioned to perform careful dismantle of the existing rear altar, which was fused to the chapels wall. This highly ornate altar was taken to marble restoration shop to be re-polished and as a free standing front altar. We were tasked with fabricating a new rear face of this altar to match the Bianco P marble quarried 60 years ago. The match is seamless.
Our team removed the existing marble platform, and furnished a new raised platform of the same Olympian White Danby marble. The next step was to fabricate and install the new fused rear altar of Bianco P marble with an accent color of Rosso Nembro.The final phase of the project was the restoration of various round stone statues of Catholic saints.
The statues had multiple chips and one was missing a hand. The St. Dominic statue has received a new carved hand that seamlessly connects to the core.
Additionally, we fabricated various radial Bianco P shelves and raised plinths for the sculptures.
Rugo Stone’s team finished ahead of schedule.
The project was well received by the Dominican brothers and Natural Stone Institute (former Marble Institute of America). It was awarded a 2010 Award of Merit in Renovation/Restoration category.
Location: Washington, DC
Completion: 2010
Owner: Dominican House of Studies
Architect: McCrery Architects
General Contractor: Whalen Construction
Size: 1,000 sqft
Services: Design, remove, modify, restore, furnish and install old & new marble
