By Bill Parry
Workers at the New York State Pavilion have completed a $3 million beautification project that painted the crown of the weather-worn structure in its original “American Cheese” yellow paint. The work began June 14 and took less than eight weeks.
“We had some difficulty at the start with the scaffolding and rigging, but once we had that sorted out and everything was safe it was a smooth operation,” said Jed Coldon, the executive director for the New York Structural Steel Painting Contractors Association. “We also had terrific weather, only losing four or five workdays to rain.”
The project was done for free with the union providing the time, material and equipment as part of its apprenticeship training program, but the plan had to be modified after the rough start.
“We realized that it was just too difficult for just apprentices and we had to bring in an expert rigger foreman and some journeymen to help,” Coldon said.
The extra labor costs were not passed on to the city as the contractor group’s president, Keiran Ahern, used funds from the union’s promotional fund. There will be an official ribbon-cutting ceremony Oct. 17.
“We had 15 workers on site every single day to get this done,” Coldon said. “Now we’re just going to review the project and digest it for a while before we decide what we’ll do next.”
Coldon would not rule out taking on the three observation towers, however.
“It’s not out of the question.” he said.
Reach reporter Bill Parry by e-mail at bparr
