To ready 101 Spring Street for construction, a team of 25 staff, professional conservators and art handlers, and dedicated volunteers de-install the building of the artwork, furniture and other objects that Judd made or collected during his long career. More than 1200 works of art, furniture, domestic objects and archival materials are inventoried, tagged and packed for safe-keeping in off-site storage.

Trained staff and conservators use specialized equipment to remove dust from shelving in Judd’s library to prepare it for packing.

Ethnographic objects and more fragile items are stored in custom crates to prevent damage during handling and storage.

Objects in the collection are labeled and prepared to ship to offsite storage.

A crew of art handlers develop new techniques for handling large objects and safely removing them from the building.

A team of conservators oversee a final cleaning of works of art to prevent contaminants from causing damage to surfaces during storage.

Some works of art that had not been moved since they were placed by Judd were studied in new ways as a result of this project. Hanging techniques are assessed to ensure that works of art are re-installed in exactly the same location following construction, and with better support where needed.

In some cases, works of art prove too large to move without posing risk to surfaces. Custom crating is developed with conservators to protect works during construction. Environmental sensors and access panels ensure that works can be monitored remotely to ensure safe conditions at all times.

Wear patterns and marks from the passage of time are documented to aid in accurate re-installation of works, and to guide future cleaning and preservation of surfaces.

Precious features of the building, such as antique doors and hardware, are carefully removed and will return to the building when it is restored.

With the collection safely removed, Judd Foundation turns its attention to the protection of the fabric of 101 Spring Street itself. Every surface to be preserved—from historic floor boards and original peeling walls in the stairwells to to Judd’s modern interventions in modern materials---is prepared so that work can begin without the risk of damage.

Loft areas that Judd constructed using unfinished wood are outfitted with bracing and several layers of protection to guard against damage.

An armature of scaffolding is designed to envelope the building to allow many types of work to take place simultaneously.

Scaffolding serves to protect the building, workmen and passersby alike for the duration of the project.

The armature is designed to facilitate removal and restoration of the deteriorated cast iron façade.

This enclosure allows work to get underway rain or shine, without putting historic interiors at risk of damage from water and pollutants.

On the interior, one wall requires repair of its plaster finish. The debris from the removal of a ceiling shows use of both wood slats used in earlier plaster work and later metal screening from modern repairs.

Wood spools and bits of fabric dating to the late 1800s and early 1900s are discovered buried in the walls of the third floor where Judd had his studio. The abundance of natural light that appealed to Judd must also have served to aid seamstresses and textile workers on the factory floor.

In the cellar, which will serve as new offices for Judd Foundation, masonry from the 1940s and 1950s is removed to expose intricate cast columns. Modern fire rated materials will be applied to bring the building up to city code for public safety.

In some areas, removals reveal handwritten notes from previous tenants dating as far back as the 1910s, which appear to be logs of factory orders and deliveries.

This stamp, buried behind a sheetrock wall in the cellar, dates to a hardware store that rented the ground floor in the 1930s and 1940s.

Under the cover of the scaffolding and sidewalk shed, restoration metal workers begin the careful process of removing original vault lights and lay light panels.

Vault light panels and frames are shipped to a metal restorer in upstate New York to be cleaned, treated, and fitted with a combination of original and replacement glass. Architectural historians work with restorers to ensure the finish and materials selected match the original look of this unique vault light system.

Vault lights and decorative grillwork at the base of the building are cleaned of layers of deteriorated paint and active corrosion.

These metal frames are treated with several coatings to improve their resistance to rust.

A fine metal coat will match the existing finish of the frames.

At street level, complex rigging is used to remove very heavy granite sidewalk slabs to make way for repairs to the vault area.

Metal framing is restored and repaired, and new concrete slabs are poured to provide support for the vault area. This work is the first step towards waterproofing the vaults to prevent groundwater and rainwater from finding their way inside the building.

Over the course of the winter, hundreds of pieces of cast iron are removed from both façades. Each piece is tagged to correspond with detailed drawings of the building so that they can be returned to their proper place after they are cleaned and treated. Altogether more than 1300 pieces of cast iron make up the façades of 101 Spring Street.

All pieces of the façade that could be removed from the site for treatment were sent to Robinson Iron Foundry in Alexander City, Alabama. Donald Judd hired Robinson Iron in the 1980s to perform minor painting and restoration of 101 Spring Street's façade. The foundry crew has master workers that use both time-tested sand-mold techniques to cast replacement pieces, and state-of-the-art spraying equipment to apply the latest in anti-rust coatings to each piece of cast iron.

Workers remove deteriorating paint and rust. Large pieces are coated with a zinc alloy to prevent rust, and a primer to prepare each piece for a safe journey back to New York.

The crew preserves as much original cast iron as possible, grafting new cast iron to old cast iron as needed.

Three-dimensional laser survey techniques use hundreds of electronic sensors to map the surface of the façade.

Readings are translated into virtual renderings that guide the restoration as well as the reapplication of pieces onsite.

Here, a portion of the restored corner column is ready for transport back to the site.

At the foundry, the crew assembles the entire top portion from the fifth floor of 101 Spring Street to assess bonding techniques. A portion of the deteriorated original corner molding from 101 Spring Street serves as a reference for the accuracy of the replacement molding.

Narrow concrete pits eight feet deep are dug out by a machine and by hand two levels below the sidewalk along Mercer Street. Concrete is poured into these pits to allow for building systems to be hidden in the sub-cellar instead of taking up space in Judd’s installed spaces.

Cast Iron specialists and engineers review on-site test assembly of the third floor façade with a team from Robinson Iron to review finishes and joinery solutions.

Interrelationships of restored cast iron pieces and recast elements are studied in detail to resolve nature of joinery.

Structural elements that must remain on-site, such as columns, are treated in place. Elements are carefully stripped of existing paint, cleaned, and repainted with a zinc-rich primer, followed by a grey epoxy-based intermediate coat.

In the sub-cellar, an area of the dirt foundation excavated by Judd is used to create a meeting area for the Foundation’s future offices. The area is leveled out at the elevation set by Judd, and receives gravel, waterproofing and a final layer of concrete.

Surrounding areas are layered with gravel, waterproofing material, and concrete, concealing new plumbing and ductwork. Spaces between and behind foundation columns will be used to stow away mechanical equipment and utilities for the floors above. This allows the rest of the building to remain as it was designed and installed by Judd while the building itself receives important environmental upgrades.

Over 40 windows and doors are constructed at Artistic Doors & Windows in Edison, NJ. Each window frame is made of mahogany and measures between 11 and 12 feet in height.

Window sashes are custom cut to match the five unique contours that appear on the five floors of 101 Spring Street. Several pieces of molding are used to match the profile of the deteriorated originals.

Concrete is used to create a secure building envelope in the vault areas under the sidewalk. Forms are used to set the concrete into place over several days.

Students visit 101 Spring Street as part of their coursework for a design studio at Princeton University's School of Architecture Masters program.

Cast-Iron elements return to 101 Spring Street by truck from the foundry. The façade is carefully reassembled piece by piece.

Joinery and overlap of elements are studied in detail to confirm that restored elements and recreated elements meet properly together. Placement is compared against documentation of the original façade.

The cornice-- the crown of the façade-- is placed at the roof, five stories above street level.

Cast-iron elements are placed on the fifth and fourth floors, each with a distinct decorative motif. Joins and overlaps are carefully studied to ensure the façade is watertight.

New boilers and water pumps in the subcellar make up part of what will be a more energy efficient heating system for the building.

A code-compliant staircase is added to provide access to office areas and public restrooms on the lower level.

Wiring for mechanical systems will be hidden from view within newly-insulated walls and ceilings.

Restored vault light frames are fitted with restoration glass.