page_title: Cathedral of St. John the Divine
section_title: Resumption of work
hierarchical_section_title: Cathedral of St. John the Divine / History / Full-length opening and expansion / Resumption of work
caption_attribution_description: English: The Cathedral of St. John the Divine - Downtown Face
context_page_description: The Cathedral of St. John the Divine is the cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of New York. It is at 1047 Amsterdam Avenue in the Morningside Heights neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City, between West 110th Street and West 113th Street.
  The cathedral is an unfinished building, with only ​²⁄₃ of the proposed building completed, due to several major stylistic changes and work interruptions. The original design, in the Byzantine Revival and Romanesque Revival styles, began construction in 1892. After the opening of the crossing in 1909, the overall plan was changed to a Gothic Revival design. The completion of the nave was delayed until 1941 due to various funding shortfalls, and little progress has occurred since then, except for an addition to the tower at the nave's southwest corner. After a large fire damaged part of the cathedral in 2001, it was renovated and rededicated in 2008. The towers above the western facade, as well as the southern transept and a proposed steeple above the crossing, have not been completed.
  Despite being incomplete, the Cathedral of St.
context_section_description: Morton announced in December 1978 that construction would soon begin on constructing the two western towers, extending their height by 150 feet (46 m) and bringing their total height to 291 feet (89 m). The job was expected to cost $20 million and take five years. However, by then, there was a shortage of qualified stone carvers in the area. James R. Bambridge, who was hired as the stonemason, planned to employ unskilled younger workers from the surrounding community. Bambridge hired Nicholas G. Fairplay, an English stonemason, as master carver. The architect was Hoyle, Doran and Berry, the successor to Cram's architecture firm. The expansions would be based primarily on Cram's revised designs, published before his death. The north transept would be completed, but would remain separate from the main building.
  Work on the western facade's towers was restarted with the opening of St. John's stone yard, the Cathedral Stoneworks, which received its first several Indiana limestone blocks in June 1979. Construction started first on the south tower, named for Saint Paul, which began to rise in 1982. However, the project continued to be delayed due to a shortage of funds, and due to slow development of the towers' designs. Work also progressed slowly because the stonemasons were carving a myriad of minute details on the south tower. By 1984, St. John's was projected to be complete in 2000. Under the leadership of master stone carvers Nicholas Fairplay, Simon Verity, and Jean Claude Marchionni, work on the statuary of the central portal of the cathedral's western facade was started in 1988 and completed in 1997. During this era, the cathedral expanded its cultural programming, hosting some 140 shows and performances in the 1987–1988 season, some of which drew up to 3,000 observers.
  By 1992, the construction budget had been depleted; work was halted, and the stone yard was closed. By then, another 50 feet (15 m) of height had been added to the south tower. While some of the scaffolding was removed, other portions remained, rusting away for fifteen years. The Very Reverend Harry H. Pritchett Jr., who succeeded Morton in 1997, decided against further expansion of St. John's, especially since the existing facilities needed $20–40 million in repairs.
caption: The facade of the southern tower, which was expanded in the 1980s and 1990s
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