A “Champion” of a Table

“It was one heck of a job and an amazing story. [President Modernization/Construction Robert Masterson] embarked on a mission,” says Donald Gelestino, president of NYC-based Champion Elevator, of this project. That mission began when Gelestino casually mentioned a unique, 1,900-lb gear that a customer had gifted to him and that it might make a nice table. At that point, the gears began turning in Masterson’s head, and he got to work designing both the table and a custom base, which itself weights approximately 400 lb. He assembled a team from Champion, and they worked over several months — cleaning and sandblasting the gear, building the base (“almost a mirror image of the gear itself”) obtaining a glass top and, finally, assembling it in Champion’s offices near Times Square.

Gelestino was pleasantly surprised that a somewhat offhand remark he made about the gear — which once served a factory elevator in the Bronx — resulted in a one-of-a-kind-yet-utilitarian piece for Champion’s offices. “It’s almost like [Gelestino] whispered something in my ear, and I ran with it,” says Masterson, who has been in the industry nearly 40 years.