DETROIT – One of Detroit’s architectural jewels is getting a facelift – actually, a bunch of facelifts – as well as a number of other mechanical and cosmetic improvements that will keep it looking good and operating properly well into the future.

“A beautiful piece of civic architecture,” says AIA Detroit: the American Institute of Architects Guide to Detroit Architecture, about the Detroit Public Library’s main building. The original building was completed in 1921 in the Italian Renaissance Revival Style, clad in white Vermont marble and ringed with terra cotta busts and figures that decorate the cornice on all four sides of the building. A less-ornate addition to the library was built in the 1960s.

The City of Detroit is hardly awash in money, but it fortunately found funds to maintain its main repository of books and historic documents.

General contractor Jenkins Construction is managing several improvements and maintenance projects on the original library building. Work began last August and includes selected window replacement, duct work, painting, roof drain replacement, and a new roof.

“It’s mainly a maintenance project,” said Lethon Lee, who is managing the project for Jenkins. “A lot of what we’re doing is way overdue, probably by about 10 years. But it’s work that most people will never see. For the most part, you can’t see what we’re doing from the street, even the employees in the building don’t know we’re here.”

Grunwell-Cashero and its masons from Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers Local 1 and laborers from Local 1191 are working on the most high-profile portion of the project, and even their work won’t ever be particularly evident.

On the roofline around all four sides of the building, they’re tearing out and replacing about 400 original terra cotta figures and filler pieces – which amounts to about 65 percent of the entire collection. Many of the figures had been defaced and discolored by the weather and freeze and thaw cycles, but they haven’t dislodged from the building.

Joe Dapkus Jr., superintendent for masonry contractor Grunwell-Cashero, said the original steel straps that help keep the figures attached to the building have been found intact. On many buildings, the rusting of steel straps holding masonry panels to a building’s façade are the primary causes of failure.

“I think what caused the original pieces to fail is that they were filled with grout, which might have absorbed or trapped moisture,” said Dapkus. “The new pieces are hollow and have open webs on the back to allow water to flow through.” New stainless steel straps will help affix the new terra cotta fixtures to the building.

Molds taken of the old pieces are allowing Boston Valley Terra Cotta to replicate the pieces taken off the cornice. Dapkus said the facial figures have Greek and Aztec features, and there’s also a Fleur de-lis (which is a symbol associated with French monarchy). “I wish I know what the faces represented,” Dapkus said. The pieces are all removed by hand and lowered to the ground. None of the old pieces will be reused, he said.

The masonry portion of the project also involves the replacement of about 50,000 brick, the vast majority of which are in out-of-the way places like interior courtyards and light wells.

ONE OF THE REPLACEMENT terra-cotta figures on the cornice of the Detroit Public Library’s main building on Woodward Avenue. Looks like this one represents a stern Aztec chieftain. Grunwell-Cashero, Local 1 masons and Local 1191 laborers are performing the “faceoffs” and attaching the new figures to the building.

MOVING A fleur-de-lis terra cotta figure for placement on the north cornice of the Detroit Public Library is Ryan Harding of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers Local 1, working for Grunwell-Cashero.