Richmond Monument Story

Digital Restoration: Richmond Monument

The Story:
The history of the Richmond Monument begins almost two centuries ago, when in the winter of 1811 there was a horrible fire that destroyed the Richmond Theater and took the lives of 72 people. The United States government commissioned the great American architect Robert Mills to erect a church and a monument dedicated to the citizens who perished in the flames.

For almost 200 years, the Monumental Church and its monument have stood and taken a barrage of abuse. The jump start of the industrial revolution and mass transportation began to create chemical effects on the weather, namely acid rain. The acid rain would be the downfall of both structures.

The Challenge:
John Milner & Associates was commissioned by the Historic Richmond Foundation to restore and re-install the Richmond Monument as it would have looked when it was first installed in 1812. return to full slide show

The Solution:

Carefully 3D laser scan the deteriorating monument onsite
Compile a high resolution digital model
Work closely with art historians to study the deterioration of the monument as compared to the original
Analyze the high resolution digital model against original sketches, notes and photographs
Virtually re-build the monument in 3D using all the available information
Recreate and align names in CAD and subtract from model
Combine the re-built models with the scanned model
Rapid-prototype a half-scale model
Add hand-sculpted additions to the rapid-prototype
Scan the rapid-prototype with new additions
Combine new data with the earlier digital model
Send the final data to a milling company to be milled from marble

The final marble monument was installed in the exact same space as the original monument in 2005.
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