By Jessica Easthope
Without Christ’s body and blood, a church is no more than brick and mortar.
Most Precious Blood in Astoria Queens has been built and renovated to withstand. The job, done by Zaskorski and Associates, took 15 years to complete.
“The building is a gem, early Art Deco design, and so on many levels, the building is interesting and exciting and important to preserve,” said Carlo Zaskorski, Founding Principal of Zaskorski and Associates Architects.
The roofing, facade, stained glass windows, wall, and bell tower were just some of what was restored on what Carlo Zaskorski calls an Art Deco masterpiece.
“You have to understand the design and significance and keep in mind in the repair that you were not to damage or build anything that was not correct or original or part of the original design,” Zaskorski said.
Zaskorski’s firm has renovated 20 churches across the Diocese of Brooklyn, but two stand out. Renovations at Most Precious Blood and St. John the Baptist in Bedford Stuyvesant has received the Lucy G Moses Award, the New York Landmarks Conservancy’s highest honor.
“It’s very exciting,” Zaskorski said. “You work on a project, and an organization like the New York Landmarks Conservancy recognizes the work you did and says you did a good job that’s very valuable.”
“It was a life-changing experience,” said Jason Galindo, Assistant Project Manager at Zaskorski and Associates Architects. “Seeing the church on a different level, seeing it as I have to protect and inspect every brick, every stone, it was a surreal moment.”
Galindo finds that his two jobs intertwine. In addition to his job at the firm, Galindo works nights and weekends as the youth minister at St. Brigid Church in Bushwick. He came into the job when the existing youth program was feeling the effects of the pandemic, but he built that back too from the ground up and now has 160 kids registered.
“When I came in it was literally a fresh start and I had to bring them back,” Galindo said. “I thought the best way to do this was a program called Faith and Sports.”
Carlo and Galindo’s Catholic faith has become a tool of the trade in renovating churches.
They’ve removed and replaced, redesigned, and reimagined, but Christ remains the cornerstone of every job they do.
Zaskorski and Associates will be presented with the Lucy G Moses Awards at a ceremony on April 10 at the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan.