Temple Door

Restoration of the main entrance doors of Temple Shaaray Tefila, located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, entirely fabricated in bronze.

The Story

This project involved the full restoration of the main entrance doors of Temple Shaaray Tefila, located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

The original doors were carefully removed and fully reproduced in bronze, with the objective of matching the existing design and architectural language as closely as possible.

A key challenge of the project was recreating the distinctive vertical folded pattern, formed by a continuous W-shaped profile running across each door panel. This pattern was fabricated from single large bronze sheets, without visible joints or assembled sections.

Each element — including the two main doors and the adjacent fixed side panels — was produced from individual full sheets, requiring precise forming and controlled metalwork techniques.

Another important aspect of the restoration was the matching of the bronze patina. Since several original architectural elements remained in place, the newly fabricated components had to visually integrate with the existing bronze, avoiding a strong contrast between old and new surfaces.

The objective of this project was not to introduce a new interpretation, but to respectfully restore the entrance while preserving the continuity of the building's original character. The work was carried out with close attention to proportion, material behavior, and finish quality, in coordination with the client and project team.