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Masters of the Building Arts
focus on the restoration of Michigan State Capitol Building

Masters in the building arts have brought enduring beauty to our built environment. Working in wood, stone, brick and metal, plaster, paint, glass, clay, they transform two-dimensional designs on paper into three-dimensional works of art. Much depends on their workmanship and skill, on their deep understanding of raw materials, their careful selection and use of tools, and their mastery of technique. The successful appearance of the completed buildings is the result not only of their knowledge and abilities, but also their creativity and care—their will to excellence.

Artisans in the building trades share a deep appreciation for the aesthetic value and expressive power of technical perfection. Those who specialize in the restoration of historic buildings also share a respect for the workmen who came before them. The act of restoring fading architectural wonders inspires them. They delight in skill and find meaning and pleasure in the poetic qualities of workmanship—in their ability to craft objects of beauty and strength through their special touch. Their great pride and creative spirit, their love for their work, their respect for the work of generations past, and their commitment to excellence are manifested in a lasting legacy of architectural achievement left behind for generations to come.

This program celebrates the extraordinary artistry of craftspeople who worked to restore Michigan’s architectural gem, the State Capitol, and who are present at the Great Lakes Folk Festival to talk about and demonstrate the traditional skills and values that shape and give meaning to their work.

The Masters of the Building Arts program is presented in conjunction with the Smithsonian Institution’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage.

Manoug Broukian

Grand Rapids, Michigan

Master Wood Carver

Carving in wood was enjoyment for me from a very young age. I like to create things, to make things happen. I enjoy the finished product.

Twenty-one-year-old Manoug Broukian emigrated from Beirut, Lebanon, to Grand Rapids in 1971 to work in the furniture industry. He had completed an apprenticeship in wood carving with his father and with his mentor John Ohanyan, and already had eight years experience in the trade. In Lebanon Manoug became proficient at European-style woodcarving, mastering Louis XIV-, Rococo-, and Italian-style designs. His skills were put to use in the manufacture of fine furniture for American homes. After 15 years in the field, Manoug left the furniture-building industry. Technical advances like multiple machine carving meant that less handwork was needed. The sale of imports rose and styles changed until Manoug’s expertise in hand carving parts and embellishments for wood furniture became unprofitable.

He continued to take custom carving orders and in 1990 was approached by furniture builder Steve Hegedus to carve the Great Seal of the State of Michigan for the handmade walnut desk in the Governor’s office. The new desk complements the beautifully restored office.

Manoug currently works in the furniture hardware business, carving molds for Keeler Brass of Grand Rapids. He continues to build furniture to order in his home, making humidors and fancy jewelry boxes to match the buyer’s furnishings. “I like one-of-a-kind,” remarked Manoug. “I have made 200 some boxes, not one of them the same.”

Willard “Bill” Finch

Stockbridge, Michigan

Master Decorative Painter

I wanted everything to last, not just get the job done. This place is certainly worthy of that sort of spirit about things, because you could see it in the artwork. I could even sense it while repairing the decorative wall plaster, in the movement of the design. I felt like it was made in a whole different era of human existence, when times were less troublesome. Here I saw so many different uses of designs. You could tell there was some real thoughtful art behind them, the way they were fit into these spaces in such a pleasant way. I felt an obligation to be faithful to those men who made those original decisions.

Bill Finch grew up in a neighborhood of town called Finchville, the son of an artisan who worked with metals and grandson of a self-made landscape artist. Inspired by his father and grandfather, Bill created an artist’s life for himself. Without formal instruction he became a woodcarver, an ornamental plasterer, homebuilder, sign writer, graphic artist and decorative painter. After exhibiting his expert brushwork for a decorative paint contractor for the Michigan State Capitol Restoration Project, he was hired as project manager for the restoration of the decorative paint.

Bill worked with approximately 40 other artists to painstakingly recreate the original designs on the walls and ceilings of the Capitol. He also repaired and replicated fancy plaster designs on walls and ceilings. He had to fashion his own tools in order to match the original patterns.

At the conclusion of the restoration he was hired by the State of Michigan as guardian of the restored masterwork. Bill now holds the position of Master Decorative Painter at the Capitol Building, where he zealously strives to preserve the work of so many artists, past and present.

Ernie Hawks

Lansing, Michigan

Decorative Plasterer

I served a four-year apprenticeship; everything I learned was right on the job. I paid attention to what the mechanics were doing. I didn’t goof off at all. Everything that I learned I picked up through the older people and now I’ve taught what I know to some of the younger plasterers.

Fifty-three years ago, Ernie Hawks was busy working as an apprentice plasterer on MSU campus buildings during the post-war building boom. During his four-year apprenticeship he would volunteer his services whenever there was cornice or ornamental work. He learned as much as he could and before long developed a reputation for his expertise in running cornices and making molds in ornamental plaster.

Ernie was coaxed from his Florida retirement home back to Michigan to head up the plaster restoration on the Michigan State Capitol Restoration Project. Over the course of the project he and his crews made thousands of feet of replacement cornice, some of which was 24" wide. They replaced thousands of square feet of plaster walls, using one-inch-thick, super-strength gypsum plaster. Ernie made rubber molds from the few remaining decorative plaster cartouches left behind after the Capitol had been renovated in the 1970s. From the molds, Ernie and his crew made hundreds of cartouches to be replaced above the doors and windows at the Capitol. These plaster cartouches were later painted and grained to look like carved walnut. Ernie worked for five years restoring the plaster at the Capitol, overseeing a crew of 12 men. His crew included his nephew Gerald Vergeson of Lyons who learned the ornamental plaster trade from his uncle. His craftsmanship can also be seen in the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor, the Michigan Theater in Lansing, Fairchild Theater on the MSU campus, the Hannah Community Center in East Lansing, and the Flint Courthouse, to name a few.

Teri Jefferson

Jefferson Art Lighting, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Historic Lighting Restoration

I grew up around antiques and had an appreciation for all these handmade objects, and I learned more about them, how were they made and why do people appreciate them so much. That was a big input into my life, seeing that people really do appreciate things that are hand made.

It’s for the people and all the generations to come, because there’s so few nice things out there. They could never replace these buildings, if you built a new one it would never be that quality. That’s why I like historic preservation.

Teri Arthur Jefferson is a historian who specializes in the restoration and replication of historic decorative lighting fixtures. He is an artist and craftsman from a family of musicians and artists. His background in history taught him how to research the processes used in metal casting; he taught himself the trade. “After World War II, people said ‘We have machines we don’t need you.’ So most of those craftsmen took it to their graves; they never passed on their trade. Occasionally I would find these people, befriend them, and when they saw I was truly interested, they’d give up the information. You had to earn their trust.”

As a young man, Teri went into business with his brother to produce decorative metal lighting fixtures, with glass and porcelain shades handmade by his brother. When Nieman Marcus bought out their stock of lamps at one art fair, the brothers “saw the light” and knew they had found the right niche. Teri spent the next several years studying the history of lighting use and design, and developed a clientele of architects and historic preservation specialists for their restored and replicated fixtures.

Teri received several contracts to restore the historic lighting at the Capitol. He designed and provided thousands of glass shades for corridor fixtures, 56 gas-style electric chandeliers that he replicated from a historic photograph, and a large collection of wall sconces, and restored all the chandeliers in the Senate and House chambers. Teri has provided historic fixtures to many other restoration projects, including the state capitols in Georgia, Ohio, and Alabama. He replicated the first electric lights at the Menlo Park Lab and has acted as consultant for historic lighting at the White House.

Dean Kalomas

Bowie, Maryland

Decorative Painter

You have to leave your own personal style out of the process. You’re taking something that’s already been done and applying your skills to replicating it. Our goal is to respect the integrity of the original work.

Dean Kalomas, a native of East Moline, Illinois began his career as a decorative painter by studying painting at the fine art atelier of Richard Lack in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Upon graduation, Dean began work for church decorator Demetrius (James) Dukas where he mastered mural work, gilding, stenciling and other techniques essential to architectural decoration. He then spent seven years with the prestigious Evergreen Studios of New York. There he was exposed to a wide variety of styles of decorative painting, gained an understanding of good production technique, and worked on the painted decoration in some of the nation’s most important buildings including the U.S. Capitol, Union Station in Washington, D.C., and the Manhattan Supreme Court Building.

In 1991, Dean and several other painters with Evergreen Studios took on the task of restoring the decorative painting in the Michigan State Capitol. For seven months, they lived in Lansing while working on the Capitol. Dean worked exclusively in the rotunda, replacing all the blue fields inside the dome, the decorative panels beside the allegorical paintings and panels decorated with grotesque heads, and other figures.

Dean is now on staff at the Library of Congress building in Washington, D.C., where he maintains and restores decorative painted surfaces. He and his colleagues work at night when the building is empty. This gives him the opportunity to stay at home with his two young children during the day. In his spare time, Dean does his own artwork, painting still lifes and landscapes, and, as a sideline, takes decorative painting jobs in commercial buildings.

Kawkawlin Manufacturing Company

Kawkawlin, Michigan

Furniture Reproduction

Except for using machinery on bits of millwork that were done by hand on the 1881 originals, we did it the same way the workmen did then.

Kawkawlin Church Furniture Manufacturing Company is Michigan’s only church furniture manufacturer, out of 23 in the industry’s heyday, remaining in the state. The company began 68 years ago as a boat works, producing recreational watercraft from wood. Twenty years later, the company turned exclusively to the production of wood furniture for churches—pews, altars, kneelers, and the like.

After supplying a church in Lansing with seating, company president Frank King received an invitation to bid on a job to duplicate an 1881 bench originally made for the gallery seating in the House of Representatives. Kawkawlin won the bid, and the company got to work on the reproduction of 34 benches for the Senate gallery and 41 for the House gallery. The company used the only two original benches remaining—the rest had been discarded—to replicate new benches, using the same solid black walnut for the ends, combined with more durable oak for the seats and backs. The 1881 benches had been replaced with theater-style seating, a change probably made with the comfort of the visitors in mind. Because the replicated benches are somewhat narrow and straight, Capitol historians allowed the addition of cushions to the re-created benches.

Ron Koenig

Saline, Michigan

Architectural Conservator Building Arts and Conservation

The detective work in the conservation of our architectural past is as exciting as the unearthing of any lost civilization. Taking the scattered physical evidence left to us by those who are gone and gathering it together into a cohesive whole allows us to see and touch a shadowed past otherwise lost to us.

Ron Koenig started on the restoration of Michigan’s State Capitol as an artisan working with John Canning & Company and later worked on the project under painting conservator Darla Olson. For two years he worked, dressed head-to-toe in protective clothing, painstakingly removing layer after layer of paint from the walls and ceiling of the Capitol, more than 9 acres of area in all. Ron’s goal was to uncover the original 1890s layer of decorative painted surface. When he found a decorative pattern he would uncover it until he found its repeat. This was only the first step in the restoration process for the painted surfaces in the monumental Capitol Building Restoration Project. Next was the preparation of detailed tracings of the original patterns and microanalysis of the original paint chemistry and color. This information was transferred to blueprints so the rediscovered designs could be reinstated onto freshly painted and plastered walls. 

Following Ron’s experience at the Capitol, he was smitten with the idea of preserving historic buildings. He received a Master of Science degree from University of Pennsylvania in Architectural Conservation and has since worked on the restoration and conservation of several important buildings, including the Wisconsin State Capitol, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Avery Coonley House, and The Midland County Courthouse. He also worked as Head of Building Conservation at Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village.

Ron’s company, Building Arts and Conservation, is currently heading up the restoration of Lansing’s historic Turner Dodge House (1858), Albert Kahn’s Detroit Athletic Club (1916), and the University of Michigan’s Student Union Ballroom designed by Pond-and-Pond in 1914.

Walter Kraus

Traverse City, Michigan

National Coatings, Inc. Commercial and Industrial Painting Company

 My grandfather started the painting business in his garage. When it got bigger his sons got involved. I grew up in the painting business. Been in it all my life.

How do you strip and re-paint a metal structure nearly 300 feet in the air? Ask Walter Kraus, he can tell you. Walter was born and raised in Manistee, where his family owned Kraus Paint Company. Walter grew up in the painting business, specializing in residential and small commercial jobs. He became a member of Local 1716 International Brotherhood of Painters, receiving his journeyman certificate in painting in 1963. When he decided to get into bigger things, he went to work with Burdco (now National Coatings, Inc.) of Traverse City, a company specializing in large industrial paint projects .

Walter Kraus served as field superintendent for Burdco when they received the contract to restore the Michigan State Capitol dome inside and out. The logistics of the job were staggering. Walter oversaw a crew of eighteen painters as they sand-blasted, chemically stripped, primed and repainted the entire cast iron and galvanized metal structure. Walter was responsible for compliance with health and safety regulations, as well as paint application guidelines that allowed a variance in thickness of only one millimeter. He kept daily and weekly data logs on the project, including careful readings of temperature and humidity conditions. Near the end of the job, Walter signed the spire on top of the dome with his name, signifying his pride of workmanship in the complex job.

Following the Capitol dome restoration, Walter was promoted to Project Manager for the Painting Division for National Coatings and was moved to Denver, Colorado where he has been involved in the painting of the Denver International Airport, thePepsi Center, Coors Field, and Invesco Field where the Broncos play.

Peter Morenstein

San Francisco, California

Cire Cast, Inc. Metal Casting

I have spent my life as a craftsman. I work with my hands as much as I can. Youcan’t not keep practicing the trade. You have to be involved in it daily or you lose touch with it.

Peter Morenstein started his business, Cire Cast, Inc., as a young man 30 years ago in San Francisco. Craftsmen at Cire Cast, Inc. use the lost wax process, a traditional technique dating perhaps to 5500 b.c. for casting metals. Peter learned the process through books, because he couldn’t find a course or teacher to teach him. For the Michigan State Capitol Restoration Project, Cire Cast, Inc. provide hundreds of reproduction metal architectural hardware including metal hinges, door knobs, and lighting fixtures, all manufactured to exactly match the original fixtures of the Michigan State Capitol Building. Cire Cast, Inc. also reproduced one of the Capitol’s four famed elk chandeliers designed by Mitchell Vance and Company and dated to the turn of the century. The original one had been destroyed when it fell to the ground many years ago.

Peter and his crew have provided reproduction hardware to many wondrstructures around the country, including the Governor’s mansion on Mackinac Island, the U.S. Capitol, the New York State Capitol, and the Smithsonian Institution. He was once featured on the television program This Old House, where they described the fascinating process of lost wax casting and its role in historic preservation and restoration.