Mayor Kathy Sheehan on Monday unveiled a revitalized statue memorializing an Albany-area philanthropist and builder.
Lewis A. Swyer built a lot over the course of his storied career. Establishing his construction firm in 1947, Swyer built many local landmarks, including a portion of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, the Schaffer Law Library at Albany Law School, Stuyvesant Plaza and Temple Beth Emeth in Albany.
So it was only fitting that in October 1992, Albany erected a statue of the famous builder, who also served on the boards of various nonprofits, including SPAC, where he was chairman from 1974 until his death at age 70 in 1988. Designed and built by Michigan sculptor Dr. Richard Kislov, the bronze Swyer Statue in Academy Park near the State Capitol featured Swyer seated on a park bench, hat in hand, with birds twittering about under the bench.
But those birds mysteriously went missing after only a few years.
On Monday, birds returned to their rightful place under the statue, albeit they are different birds than the original. Officials on hand to mark the unveiling, say the restoration was a significant undertaking. They did not provide details about the cost.
Former Executive Director for the Albany Institute of History & Art Tammis Groft says restoring the statue had been discussed for more than a decade. When the decision was made to go ahead with the project, sculptor Kislov had died.
Groft says searches for plans, descriptions and molds for the birds turned up empty. She called the foundry in New York City, which remembered the project but no longer had the molds. The foundry suggested shipping the sculpture to them for refurbishment and repair.
"We were very fortunate that the Williamstown Art Conservation Lab, which is just over the border in Williamstown, Massachusetts, on the grounds of the Clark Art Institute, we called them, and they were delighted. They said, 'sure, we would love to clean the sculpture.' Now, just to say cleaning bronze is not all that complicated, and they've done a lot of other city sculptures. They've worked at the Albany Institute, major museums across the country, the art and sculpture at the Empire State Plaza. So they had a wonderful reputation, and they came to us and they did the work on site," said
Groft, who notes that eventually photographs belonging to an archived museum collection were used to recreate the birds.
"And it took a little bit of time, but, you know, they finally worked very hard. There's a woman there who works is their head furniture conservator, and she's called on to recreate eagles that are missing from certain things, or chair legs from, you know, George Washington's chair, that kind of thing. So sculpting a couple of birds, you know, was a challenge because they're except for the models you see around you, weren't a lot of models," Groft said.
Mayor Kathy Sheehan helped mark the unveiling and says the statue was cleaned by members of the city's Department of General Services using monument-safe materials.
"We're hopeful that these mourning doves will stay longer than the original. This statue was installed in 1992 and the mourning doves were gone by 1995 unfortunately. So hopefully, they'll have a longer life here, and people will leave them be and allow them to bring joy and smiles to people who come to this park every day," said Sheehan.
