New York’s Bald Spots: Missing Roof Decorations Are Being Restored and Recreated
The Park Avenue office of Roy Stillman looks more like a room at the Metropolitan Museum of Art than one inside an office building.On one wall, eight vases and globes by Louis Comfort Tiffany rest on teak shelves, a fraction of an expansive personal collection. Mr. Stillman, a developer, sits behind a monolithic desk made by Jacques Adnet, where two nickel blocks support a slab of leather, across the room from a beloved, one-of-a-kind Jean Royere couch. Behind that is a tapestry by Henri Rousseau of a lively jungle scene.
Yet, at the moment, the most precious antique in Mr. Stillman’s collection might just be the one he is restoring himself: 36 Bleecker Street in NoHo. And the most important piece is one that has been long gone, a refrain common to many of the city’s old buildings — the decorative pediment crowning the sixth floor.
