Curtains Close on Restoration – The Long Awaited Completion, Transport, and Installation of the Loew’s Theatre Lights

One of Grand Light’s largest projects to date has reached its very final stages. The Loew’s Jersey Theatre, originally opened in 1929, has been closed since 2021 to complete a massive scale, top-to-bottom restoration. With their first wave of concerts, shows, and stage performances booked earlier this summer, the theatre is set to fully reopen by Fall of this year.

Grand Light’s focus was a vast assortment of historic luminaires, with several custom fixtures on top of that. The restoration included many different complex and unique designs, spanning across dozens of sconces, large and small pendants, chandeliers, topped off with the eye-catching, massive, 6-armed 16-foot-tall centerpiece chandelier.

A few years ago, our professional artisans went on-site to tackle the first step of any restoration: planning a course of action and building the scope of work. Before removing any fixtures, we gathered all the information we could through a visit on-site, brought this back to our factory in Connecticut, and built an in-depth survey, letting the Theatre know what the process might look like, before finally preparing our artisans for the removal and transport process.

Soon after, the Grand Light artisans traveled back to New Jersey with all necessary material, carefully taking down the sconces, pendants, packaging them appropriately and loading them into our box truck, ready to hit the road. The centerpiece chandelier was a more in-depth project to tackle, with hundreds of hanging crystals needing to be taken off and packed, each of the 8-foot-tall arms fully removed from the center, and a complex mounting rig in our truck to guarantee safe transportation.

Back at the Grand Light factory, each fixture was carefully disassembled and evaluated before restoration. Brass components were cleaned and refinished to preserve their antique brass and copper-wash appearance, while deteriorated steel received a new copper finish. Damaged and missing details were repaired or replicated, electrical components were replaced and tested, and crystal and glass elements were carefully cleaned.

The centerpiece chandelier received the most extensive restoration. Standing approximately 16 feet tall and nearly 12 feet across, the six-armed fixture was completely disassembled, rewired with 166 new sockets, and refinished throughout. Missing or damaged decorative and functional components were repaired or replaced, while hundreds of crystal elements and its amber glass bowl were meticulously cleaned, bringing new life back to the theatre’s defining centerpiece.

Thank you to Jersey City’s Jennifer Brown (@jbrophoto) for stopping by the factory to see and photograph the restoration process for this project. It’s always a privilege to share the craftsmanship that goes into jobs like this!

Check out this great video featuring an interview about the project with our Vice President Ryan Stockman, and a more in-depth look at the process on the jerseycitynj Instagram!

Once fully restored and repaired, our artisans prepared the fixtures for the trip down to New Jersey. Most fixtures were packed similarly to the removal, but the large chandelier presented a new challenge to solve.

Our artisans built a wooden frame to load the chandelier’s body into. After testing and building it to be the proper size, the body, alongside its many arms, were carefully wrapped in bubble wrap, allowing us to hang the cocoon within the frame and get the show on the road.

Over two days, Grand Light artisans worked tirelessly alongside the theatre’s professional crew to install all fixtures that were fully complete and ready to go. Having documentation from the initial submittal and countless hours learning these fixtures inside and out, it was a matter of following the process.

We are grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the restoration of the remarkable lighting fixtures within the Loew’s Jersey Theatre and are looking forward to the grand reopening!

To learn more about Grand Light’s Historic Lighting Restoration services, visit our Historic Lighting Restoration & Custom Lighting Project Portfolio.