St. Andrew Catholic Church - Upper Arlington, OH - 3/35 Austin - Organ Facade - Construction and Assembly

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St. Andrew Catholic Church
3/35 Austin

Under the Pipes

St. Andrew Catholic Church
Upper Arlington, OH
3/35 Austin
Opus 2771 - 1998

Organ Facade - Construction and Assembly

case drawing

Story of facade construction continued...

After seeing that he could do the work, Dr. Caranna obtained plans from the architect and organ builder. However, questions came up during the project. "After the initial call with Austin, I really didn't want to call them, but I had to." He then was given a nickname by the staff at Austin Organs. "Every time I called, they would say the hobbyist from Columbus is on the phone."

Determined to not be deterred, Dr. Caranna went to work on the project. "Initally I wasn't sure where to start so I just built a section. I liked how it looked and things fell into place from there."

Construction of the facade was done in sections in Dr. Caranna's basement workshop. There was no way the entire facade, or even one of the facade's towers, could be put together in the shop. So Dr. Caranna attached two adjacent sections together to ensure they would fit. Then when a new section was built, the first section would be detached and the new section attached. The finished the sections were then moved to the garage.

Moving the facade proved to be an adventure. Fr. Buffer assembled a group of volunteers to help move the facade to the church. "The volunteers showed up at 9:00 a.m. but Father wasn't there with the truck. Then when he showed up he didn't have any furniture blankets so he had to go back and get some from the rental agency." Dr. Caranna believes it took two trips with the truck to move all of the sections. Once everything had been transported to the church, it was time to take the sections to the loft. Everything was moved by hand up the stairs to the loft except for a few pieces which could not negotiate the curves in the stairwell. "They had a lift on site for some of the larger organ pieces so they used it to move the sections which did not fit up the stairs."

With eveything in the loft, the work for the day was done, right? Nope. "Fr. Buffer said 'OK men, let's start putting it together' even though it was late and no one had eaten dinner yet", commented Dr. Caranna. One of the volunteers worked for a construction company and told Fr. Buffer that his company would take care of erecting the facade. "It took them about three weeks to put the facade together. It was a lot more work than what Fr. Buffer thought it would be."

Read more about the story of the organ's facade by clicking the "finished facade" link below.

Dr. Caranna has generously provided slides of the building of the facade and final assembly. Below is a sampling of those slides. Click on a photo to get a larger view.

Raw materials being delivered to the Caranna's residence.	Dr. Caranna assembles part of the organ facade in his shop.	Assembled sections waiting for final sand down and lacquer finish.
Another view of some of the front sections of the facade.	One of the decorative wood brackets is hand-carved by Dr. Caranna.	Finished brackets are secured to the base of one of the organ facade's sills.
The organ facade's center sill section being assembled.	The base of a large sill is assembled on the work bench.	Dr. Caranna lacquers one of the larger sill bases of the organ facade.
A sill base has been glued and is being pressed into place.	Detail view of one of the sill sections.	Sill sections of the facade have been lacquered and are ready to be installed.
Pieces of the organ facade from the Austin Organs factory. Note the organ's opus number "2771" on the boxes.	Several sections of the organ facade are staged in the church's Narthex prior to installation.	Pieces of the facade on the floor of the church awaiting installation. Note the lack of pews in the church.
Grainy view looking into the choir loft prior to case and facade assembly with the church's Rose window clearly visible.	Back part of the organ case being assembled. Note the church's Rose window at top.	Another view of the back section. The holes in the front are for the air supply lines to the pipes.
Dr. Caranna, showing good hand position for a clarinetist, "plays" one of the pipes of the organ.	View of the Choir Division. The pipes visible are the haskelled 16' Spire Flute rank.	Here's a view of the scaffolding used to aid in the construction of the organ facade.
Pipes have been installed in back, now the facade gets put together.	Facade pipes of the center section, still wrapped, have been installed.	The pipes in the facade have been unwrapped. Work is almost done!

Links about the facade of the St. Andrew Austin Pipe Organ.

drawing

construction

Construction and Assembly

Finished

Finished Facade

St. Andrew Catholic Church
3/35 Austin

Under the Pipes

List of Pipe Organ Profiles

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