Building on history

At the New Frick, magicians come out of the woodwork

- PATRICIA LEIGH BROWN

Welcome to the latest instalment of This Old House, the Henry Clay Frick mansion edition.

The sumptuous 1914 Beaux-Arts residence is reopening to the public on Thursday after a US$220 million (7.5 billion baht), four-year renovation, and with a series of member events this week.

For the first time in 90 years, visitors will be able to ascend the Grand Staircase to experience the family’s private rooms on the 2nd floor, the velvet ropes whisked away.

The makeover will allow museum-goers to reunite with the Rembrandts, Van Dykes, Vermeers, Turners and 16thto 18th-century furnishings, and dine at the Frick’s first-ever cafe, opening later this spring.

But less evident is the A-team of craftspeople forging new traditions at the Frick: textile weavers, lighting restorers, tassel makers, woodworkers, glass artisans and painters, from Lyon, France, to Gowanus, Brooklyn, whose skills have brought fresh energy and sparkle to an ageing mansion.

The Frick’s interiors, including the Garden Court and the Oval Room, were largely the work of architect John Russell Pope, who was tasked with transforming the house into a museum in the 1930s. The reimagining this time around was similarly daunting.

"Mr Frick had the best materials and craftsmanship, so we had to come up to that level of quality," said Ian Wardropper, the Frick Collection’s longtime director, who recently retired. And it was impossible to restore just one gallery. "It's like if you redo the living room and suddenly your bedroom looks shabby," Wardropper said. "My job is to preserve what everyone loved about the Frick, but with new lustre and polish."