Three Syracuse University alumni have been commissioned to commemorate the Statue of Liberty by building a museum on Liberty Island in New York Harbor.

The Phelps Construction Group was founded by SU alumni Douglas Phelps and Frank Salerno, both 1981 graduates, and Jeffrey Rainforth, who graduated in 1997. The company was commissioned by the Statue of Liberty–Ellis Island Foundation to build the museum.

The group hopes to complete construction of the Statue of Liberty Museum by the end of 2018, so the museum can open to the public in 2019. Construction on the museum will begin this month.

The museum will house artifacts related to the Statue of Liberty as well as an interactive display that tells its history. The museum will be designed by New York-based architecture firm FXFOWLE, which was co-founded by another SU alumnus, Bruce Fowle.

One of the most significant artifacts that will be exhibited in the museum is the Statue of Liberty’s original torch, which was moved to the base of the statue and replaced with a replica in the 1980s due to damage.

“At some point in 2018, we’re gonna take the original torch out of the base of the statue and move it to the museum, where it will stay, and it’ll be one of the big exhibits inside the museum,” said Phelps, president of the construction group.

The museum will sit above sea level and is designed to take on storms that may affect Liberty Island, said Rainforth, co-founder and vice president of Phelps Construction Group, in an email. The museum will also have an observation deck so visitors can view the New York Harbor, he added.

“The structure will be beautiful with a modern look, yet we will construct it with materials and a design that will fit in perfectly on the island and be a compliment to the statue,” said Salerno, co-founder of the construction group, in an email.

The construction group was formed in 2007 when Phelps and Salerno, who were former roommates at SU, got together with Rainforth, who interned at Phelps’ firm while he was a student at SU.

“There is no coincidence that our company logo is blue and orange,” Phelps said.

The construction group has worked on many other projects in the New York and New Jersey areas, including buildings in the Teachers Village in Newark, New Jersey, as well as several projects for the New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League, Phelps said.

The Statue of Liberty Museum will join another of Phelps Construction Group’s important projects in the area, the Peopling of America Center on Ellis Island. This center was completed in May 2015 and features exhibits that explore immigrants’ journeys to the United States, according to the Statue of Liberty–Ellis Island Foundation’s website.

“This landmark project is just another place a few proud Orangemen have dug their heels into the grounds of history,” Rainforth said.

Published on November 1, 2016 at 7:35 pm