By Robert Thiele, Project Architect
“What seemed mind boggling and extreme is now done and being molded for permanent display in cement, bronze and steel. Intoxicatingly fun business.”
— Michael Matson, Bellagio Precast
By the time that the California-Pacific International Exposition opened on May 29, 1935, hundreds of workers had put in round-the-clock shifts for a frantic seven months to plan, design, build, coordinate, decorate, and otherwise transform Balboa Park’s Central Mesa. Down to the last colored light bulb, it was done in time for opening day.
The expo’s supervising architect, Richard Requa, writes in his 1937 book, Inside Lights on the Building of San Diego’s Exposition, about artistic director Juan Larrinaga’s time-saving choice of wallboard for exterior decoration of the Palisades buildings “The great plaque above the portal of the Palace of Electricity and Varied Industries was made of wallboard built up to great thickness and the figures were actually carved out of the material, forming a very bold bas-relief. The final treatment of the plaque was a bronze coating antiqued to give the effect of weather-aging. Juan was of invaluable assistance to me in planning all of the details of decoration for the entire exposition and he personally directed this work.”
Arturo Eneim, an artist on Juan Laranaga’s design team, created the bas-relief wheels of industry mural in fiberboard, coated with plaster of paris.
The Municipal Gym was at the start an “exposition palace,” devoted to the wonders of electricity and industry, with the building trades proudly featured alongside such Buck Rogers stuff as radio-wave popped corn, television and a kitchen you could talk to.
Today, such a reconstruction is a collaboration between architect, sculptor, engineer and history.
How do these projects happen?
In 2018, under the leadership of Mike Kelly, the Balboa Park Committee of 100 undertook the creation of a vision for the Palisades area of Balboa Park, reflecting the historic period of 1935-1936. It included the re-creation of Pan-American Plaza by removing half of the parking lot; the tile murals, bears and flagpoles on the San Diego Automotive Museum (originally, the California State Building); the Firestone Singing Fountain in the plaza; and the monumental artwork on the Municipal Gym (originally, the Palace of Electricity and Varied Industries).
As an architect and C100 board member, I saw these projects as an opportunity for the committee to do something extraordinary and actually create something in the park.
Having worked with Michael Matson, sculptor and owner of Bellagio Precast, on the Automotive Museum, I approached him on recreating the massive 14-by-22-foot bronze mural on the west wall and the decorative elements on the marquee above the entrance. The material used is cold-cast, bronze, glass fiber reinforced concrete (GFRC) that Matson had used for the two grizzly bears on the Auto Museum roof. This finish would have a patina. We were almost giddy imagining how to fabricate, transport and install the massive mural on a historic structure in the park.
First, we found every photo we could of the building as it was in 1935, including postcards from the period. There were 110 pieces of ornament, top and bottom, surrounding the mural, and 120 pieces of industrial sculpture within the mural Matson’s model has been developing for the past three years at his studio east of town. The mural’s 120 elements have been created and laid out on an enormous table in the studio yard.
Much conversation and humor was batted around about the gender of the images in the mural. The mural features varied mechanical elements in a factory setting with smokestacks, gears, wheels, generators and mechanical tools.
Three human figures preside over the composition. One at a drafting table and one more gazing out upon the panorama with his hands on a lever as though he was starting it up.”
Rubber molds were then made for a casting surface for the bronze finish, created from bronze powder and polymers with layers of GFRC built up to create each element or collection of elements. Once the elements were cast, they were ready for the stainless steel frame that is encased within the GFRC collection of elements.
Critical to the team was structural engineer Michael Krakower, who had experience in addressing the GFRC loading on an historic structure. He designed a steel truss system behind the parapet wall to hang the mural. Eight portholes through the wall will allow the mural to be hung in two large pieces with a stainless steel frame embedded inside the mural pieces. The marquee structure will cantilever through a bow truss not impacting the historic frame.
My job was to create the vision, research, design, develop drawings, process the building permit through the city and assist the contractor, Barnhart-Reese Construction to bring the project to completion this fall.
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