ESBD_373826_1724099601517_Attachment A - Scope of Work.pdf

State Preservation Board

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

RFP 809-24-0016

FOR

Governor's Mansion Cast Iron Centerpiece Replication

ATTACHMENT A: SCOPE OF WORK

DESCRIPTION OF SERVICES REQUESTED

The State Preservation Board (SPB) is seeking a firm to provide turnkey replication of a historic cast iron fountain including removal of original fountain from the site as necessary, 3D scanning of the fountain, reconstruction of the 3D model, pattern printing, casting new elements in bronze with black patina, and return of original and newly-cast elements to the site.

Background:

The cast iron centerpiece is an early 20th century JW Fiske design that was originally placed on the Texas Capitol grounds around 1905. It was then relocated in 1967 into a fountain at the Texas Governor's Mansion in the Connally Garden where it has remained since. The fountain was used to create a replica for the restoration of the Capitol Grounds in 1996, putting a copy back where it originally came from. At the time, the original was restored with a stainless steel reinforcing rings with recessed mounting points infilled with polystyrene filler, and returned to the Mansion.

There are issues maintaining this historic fountain and ensuring the water is constantly running. The water requires treatment to address certain challenges at the mansion, which makes pH hard to maintain. The structure of the fountain with the hollow upright fountain riser, multiple joints, and stainless steel armature makes it extremely difficult to maintain with any sort of coating system. SPB re-coated it in 2019 without disassembly, and the rust from the joints--though expected--is worse than anticipated. Pits--though epoxied, filled, and epoxied again with a proper Tnemec system--started rusting out about a year later. Tnemec couldn’t warrant the ideal system more than 7 years, and each re-coating will reduce the surface profile. Top-coating maintenance is not an option since the joints and the interior of the body, which are inaccessible without disassembly, required digging out the polystyrene plugs to unscrew the stainless steel armature (SPB left them unplugged at the last painting, and are probably less of an issue, but the corroding interior and joints are still a problem). Sacrificial anodes were evaluated, but because each piece is isolated by a coating layer, and the water flow is inconsistent, we couldn’t find a place to attach one to each piece in a way that would work reliably.

The consensus is that it has reached the end of useful functional life for a cast iron piece. The approach SPB is considering is 3D scanning and replicating the fountain in a non-corrosive metal, and retiring the historic piece to storage. Black patinated bronze seems the best path forward. It’s unfortunate that the piece may need to be retired; however, given the stainless steel armature and its mounts, the joints and the hard-to-reach inner stem wall, maintenance coating of this piece has becomes too difficult. Alternatively, SPB considered the process of a full re-painting every 5-7 years, which is expensive and seems to require abrasive blasting down to clean iron for a proper re-coating, which will erode the profiles slightly every time.

Detailed Scope of Work

• Pickup from current object from the SPB worksite

• Disassembly into constituent parts

• Perform abrasive blasting and immediate treatment to prevent flash rust

• Zinc-rich prime all surfaces

• 3D scan each piece, rebuilding profiles as necessary in the digital model without making it “too perfect.” Design in any sleeves necessary for the piece to be able to be broken down for shipping and to facilitate installation of plumbing, but also be stacked in a way that is self-supporting without an internal armature or externally visible fasteners. The project could be broken down into existing constituent parts with multiple stem elements, or just base-stem-bowl as long as the stem is not too heavy to lift by hand and drop down over the plumber riser.

• Pattern printing of the pieces

• Lost-wax casting in bronze.

• Bronze alloys at the option of the bidder, as long as they are fully corrosion resistant and durable against erosion in running water.

• Sand casting may be considered if quality can be proven to perfectly match the existing piece. Bidder must provide separate price for each approach if offered in the proposal.

• Finished with a solid black patina

• Returned original pieces and newly cast pieces to site, and newly cast pieces assembled

Images of the Fountain

2019 Repainting:

2023 Condition:

View 1: Looking into the bottom, showing the two joint mounting rings, the interior areas inaccessible for blasting and coating:

View 2: Mounting recesses (not re-filled with polystyrene in the most recent repainting):

View 3: Dimensions from when this original piece was used for the 1996 reproduction. It shows the constituent parts. Derived from the drawing, bowl width is 1’-10”.

View 4: Specifications