Mission Abbey
The Abbey San Encino was a utopian artisan community planned for the Arroyo Seco area of Los Angeles during the Craftsman period. Visionary designer/typographer, Clyde Brown, conceived the central structure as a European abbey complete with bell tower. Unfortunately, traditional methods of unreinforced masonry often do not fare well in earthquake country, and the bell tower sadly fell during the 1994 Northridge quake. Our mission was to rebuild the tower to today’s seismic standards, while matching the original masonry design.
The stones from the bell tower had been strewn about the property over the intervening decades, so the first step was to collect the rocks, identify their location through documentary photos, and inventory them. The original masonry stones were then veneered and meticulously applied to their original locations, on top of a new steel-reinforced cement core. The final bell tower is indistinguishable from the original, yet demonstrably more earthquake resistant.
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info@homefrontbuild.com
(323) 732-4663
