Piazza Lavoro

The images show an incident of spray-painted graffiti on the marble rustic terrazzo and mosaic architectural installation entitled Piazza Lavoro, by the artist Ned Smythe (completed in 1984).  Located on the North Shore right next to PNC Park, Piazza Lavoro is a circular plaza with rustic terrazzo wall elements, embedded marble mosaics and a palm-leaf finial column on stepped base in the center.  It is part of the collection of the Carnegie Museum of Art.  The location of the installation, far from the museum in a sporadically used area, makes it extremely vulnerable to graffiti and vandalism. 

The materials created a challenging cleaning problem, as we did not want to dislodge marble terrazzo aggregate or mosaics during the process.  And because of the porosity of the degraded rustic terrazzo, concrete and marble, there was a concern that the graffiti might not be removable.  A caustic paint stripper gel was applied to the graffiti and left to dwell.  The graffiti was then removed with a pressure washer on a reduced pressure setting. 

Client:  Carnegie Museum of Art