A convoy of vans and pickup trucks swarmed the house on Tuesday morning, a home-repair SWAT team armed with ladders and paint brushes, scaffolding and plywood.
By 9 a.m., the driveway was jam-packed, so four of the vehicles hopped the curb and unloaded equipment in a nearby park.
The beneficiary of all the frantic sprucing up: the next mayor.
As Michael R. Bloomberg prepares to leave office, his staff has ordered a last-minute gussying up of the stately home where he has never lived but where his successor undoubtedly will.
Workers from New York City’s parks department have descended on Gracie Mansion to repaint and re-wallpaper, not to mention fix railings and rooftops before the weather turns cold and a new occupant arrives.
Outside the house, a laborer described the work as the “big push by the mayor to leave the home in ——”
A passer-by jumped in to ask, Pristine condition?
Yes, the worker said. “Pristine.”
Gracie Mansion is no stranger to periodic work: at Mr. Bloomberg’s direction, it has undergone extensive remodeling and redecorating. Soon after his election, the mayor asked his adventurous longtime decorator, Jamie Drake, to make an effort at updating the house, originally built in 1799 and located at what is now 88th Street and East End Avenue.
A few months and $7 million later (all of the money was privately raised), the mansion had new floors, plumbing, lighting and ventilation, as well as fanciful touches like a four-post mahogany bed, an 1820s chandelier and fake-bamboo furniture.
This time, much of the work is on the outside. Workers will repoint the base of a chimney, repair a damaged section of fence, repaint shutters and replace security lighting on the roof.
City Hall on Tuesday called it routine summer maintenance, not unlike that in 2010, when the fake-marble floor in the foyer was restored, or 2008, when ultraviolet protection was applied to windows on the second floor.
The wear and tear has intensified since Mr. Bloomberg, who chose to remain in his town house on East 79th Street throughout his mayoralty, opened Gracie Mansion to the public in 2002 as a kind of living museum. “It’s 200 years old and now sees a couple hundred thousand visitors a year,” said Marc LaVorgna, a spokesman for Mr. Bloomberg, “so it requires a lot of regular maintenance like this.”
This, however, will be the last round of beautification during Mr. Bloomberg’s tenure, and it is extensive, bearing all the hallmarks of the mayor’s keen eye for detail: even the brick steps in the basement are to be repaired.
read more…
