USC Physical Education Doors

Before and After pictures of restored doors at the USC Physical Education Building.  Its amazing how much better the doors look with the appropriate hardware!

‘We Love LB’ Mural will be reused at the Meeker Baker building

Photo by Gary Friedman

Photo by Brian Addison

Large murals that used to grace the facades of the Meeker Baker and Press Telegram buildings as they sat vacant will be repurposed and reinstalled by David Van Patten and James Carey at the renovated Meeker Baker building.

Read more at the Long Beach Post

Bonus #TBT Los Angeles Police Academy

For some reason this one didn’t post last week, so we get 2 this week!

 

 

You might recognize our newest project from the intro to the original Charlie’s Angels tv series. We started documentation of the Los Angeles Police Academy this week in anticipation of the upcoming renovation.

#TBT Wilshire Boulevard Temple under construction

photo from the Los Angeles Public Library archives

 

K.C. Restoration is attending the LA Conservancy‘s annual award’s luncheon today, where the Wilshire Boulevard Temple is receiving the prestigious President’s Award!

 

The Temple was also featured on NPR today.

Wilshire Boulevard Temple wins the LA Conservancy President’s Award!

The LA Conservancy just announced the Wilshire Boulevard Temple has been recognized with the President’s Award for their 2014 Preservation Awards!

We’re also gearing up to start work on Phase 2 – the restoration of the historic school on the Wilshire Boulevard campus.

And, a new book has just been released all about the history and restoration of the Temple.

 

 

#TBT Huntington Mansion

We’ve worked on several projects at The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens over the years, but in 2008 we completed extensive restoration work on the original mansion (now the art gallery) including window, door and architectural woodwork restoration; decorative iron work restoration; plaster, cast stone, concrete and limestone restoration, color analysis and consulting; painting of all surfaces.

 

#TBT: Bradbury Building

Where were you 23 years ago? We were busy restoring the Bradbury Building (which had been recently purchased by Ira Yellin), one of KC Restoration’s first projects. Its understated exterior houses one of the city’s most beautiful commercial spaces. The building is listed on the National Register, is a National Landmark, and an LA Monument.

We worked with architect Brenda Levin, and our work on the building included recreation and replacement of exterior deteriorated sandstone, fabrication of decorative metal stairway panels, recreation of custom bronze door hardware, fabrication of decorative elevator gate, restoration of glass ceiling over the atrium and complete stripping and refinishing of all woodwork including doors, windows, railings, and moldings.

Wilshire Boulevard Temple Tour

Did you see our presentation at the LA Conservancy tour of the Wilshire Boulevard Temple last weekend? We mixed over 110 custom paint colors and used over 20,000 sheets of gold leaf during our restoration work!

Meeker Baker historic doors

Salvaged doors have been reinstalled and are awaiting refinishing.

COMPLETED PROJECT: Mayfield Senior School Copper Door Restoration

Mayfield Senior School was originally founded in 1931 by the Society of the Holy Child Jesus, and is a private, all female, college prep school in Pasadena, CA.  The house at the heart of the campus was built between 1914-1919 and was known as the Marshall-Eagle Estate.  The property was purchased for the Society of the Holy Child Jesus by Dr. Charles and Vera Strub in 1950.

We were contacted a few months ago to see if we could save a pair of original copper and glass doors.  The existing doors were pretty far gone: missing handles, missing trim, numerous holes and old patches in the copper cladding, deteriorated wood, mismatched hardware, etc.  However, they couldn’t merely be replaced, because installing new doors would mean the opening would have to be upgraded to meet the current building codes.  So instead, we took the doors back to our shop and got to work on the meticulous restoration:

• repaired the deteriorated wood core
• replaced the non-salvageable copper cladding
• repaired existing trim and replaced missing trim
• patina’d old and new copper to match
• reproduced a missing handle
• installed new slimline door closers

The existing copper doors before restoration.

One of the original handles was long gone.

Newer polished brass door hardware did not coordinate with the historic doors.

After the copper cladding was removed, we repaired the water damaged wood core.

Copper doors after restoration was completed

Can you tell which handle is the reproduction?

New slimline door closers were installed and existing brass hardware was refinished to better coordinate with the historic door.

We’re pretty happy with the results, and the school is ecstatic that we could save their beautiful doors.