As the Washington Monument gets a major face lift over the next 18 months, the historic centerpiece of the nation's capital will retain its stature and beauty thanks to a unique textile project.

The National Park Service, with private funding, has undertaken a top-to-bottom and inside-and-out overhaul of the monument that was first opened to the public in 1888. Over the years, piecemeal repairs and cleaning have been undertaken, but park service officials have concluded that a major restoration is needed. The $9.4 million project, scheduled to be completed by July 4, 2000, is being underwritten by Target, Kodak, 3M, Coca-Cola, General Electric, and Discovery Communications, Inc.

Project architect Michael Graves insisted the monument retain an aesthetic appearance during a major rework of its granite exterior, and that presented, literally, a monumental challenge to Universal Builders Supply, Inc. which has the contract to erect the 32 miles of aluminum folding needed to cover the 555-foot monument while the work is being done.

Bo-Lite fabric covers the Washington Monument, Mark Tsirigos, UBS' branch manager in Cheverly, MD, told Textile World, "With such a high profile project on a national monument we couldn't settle for traditional scaffolding. We had to do something different, and we had to make certain it was both practical and attractive."

UBS, which provided scaffolding for the restoration of the Statue of Liberty, the Jefferson Memorial, and the Library of Congress among other projects, worked with the architect and the general contractor to help carry out Graves' concept by using woven bluish-gray decorative mesh fabric panels to shield the scaffolding. When in place the decorative fabric panels will give a "running bond" appearance of the mortar joints between the stones in the monument.

Bo-Tex of Hogansville, Ga., weaved the 15,000 sq-yd of fabric which will be assembled into decorative panels by The Sinco Group, one of the nation's leading manufacturers of webbing for everything from buildings and monuments to golf ranges. The fabric panels will have a specially designed structural hein through which a nylon web cord will be inserted to tie the horizontal and vertical panels to the scaffolding surrounding the monument. Sinco created the design so the panels would resist the strong winds that swirl around the monument. A customized color was created to make the panels blend in with the monument. It is estimated the decorative panels will use some 1.3 acres of fabric.

Bo-Tex fabric comes from the company's Bo-Lite product line - durable mesh fabric comprised of high-tenacity polyester yarn.