AMERICAN SWEDISH INSTITUTE

Designed in Chateauesque style and completed in 1908, the Tumblad mansion, now The American Swedish Institute, is one of the most important historic buildings in Minneapolis. Its exterior walls, constructed from Indiana limestone, are embellished with extensive stone carvings. Its interior is also ornately appointed with woodcarvings, painted and gilded plaster moldings, and stenciled and hand-painted ornamental designs on ceilings and walls.

Most of the rooms on the Second Floor of the building and the Grand Staircase were damaged by infiltrating water from a defective roof. The most water damaged areas were the Grand Staircase’s ceiling and the Glass Room’s ceiling. During the investigation phase of the project, we also discovered several inappropriate interventions on the original decorative elements and surfaces. The wonderful original gilded/painted plaster ornamentations in the Library Room and in the Tourette Room were painted over. Also, the walls and the plaster ornamentation in these two spaces presented numerous cracks, as well as flaking of the original paint layers.

The casted, painted, and gilded decoration was restored to its original appearance. Restoration consisted of repair and/or replication of the damaged plaster moldings and corbels in the Grand Staircase space and restoring all decorated architectural elements and surfaces in all spaces throughout the entire Second Floor of the building.