San Diego, San Diego County,
California, USA
The Museum of Art and the California Tower are major architectural elements of the historic core of Balboa Park in San Diego, site of the 1915 California Exposition. Earthquakes and constant exposure to a salt-laden marine environment had combined to cause significant deterioration to this Churriguersque entry surround, and required replacement of much of the original historic fabric with new matching cast stone.
This decorative cast stone reproduction project involved careful disassembly of the original facade. This was executed using diamond-tipped chain saws and circular saws to help ensure that enough original material could be preserved for the use of the new cast stone manufacturer’s mold makers. Some stones were, unfortunately. so far degraded that original surface material (needed for the reproduction process) was missing and had to be later recreated by artisans during the mold making process.
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