14th STREET RESTORATION
Chris and Mary Ann bought the apartment building on 14th Street as a unique investment opportunity. It was actually an abandoned wreck that the city of Long Beach had red-tagged and slated it for demolition. Chris and his wife saw this an opportunity to save this old castle from the wrecking ball and return it to its former glory.
The building was in such bad disrepair that the city of Long Beach Code Enforcement had issued over nine pages of code violations. The previous owner had taken what was four 1-bedroom units and turned each into what he called 3 bedroom units. The closets had been turned into bathrooms, bathrooms were ripped out and turned into bedrooms, and living rooms divided even further into tiny areas with beds. We knew that we had walked into a slumlord-run apartment building and the condition reflected that.
This would be arguably one of the biggest restoration projects that we had come across, but we were up for the challenge. The first order of business was to investigate and find out what could be restored and what needed to be rebuilt. Starting with the structure, we had uncovered that there were major foundation problems and the whole back of the building suffered from dry rot. The only way to correctly fix this was to rebuild the back half of the structure. While having the building open, we ran new electrical and plumbing from the ground up.
The interior was another mess that had to be dealt with. From mold to makeshift walls, we demolished everything that wasn’t original to the building, uncovering clues to what was intended to be in place nearly 100 years ago. Fortunately some of the crude walls only covered the old architecture and didn’t replace it, enabling us to glimpse back to some of the original details in the building. We also worked with members of the Historical Society of Long Beach and the Long Beach Heritage Society for advice to restore the building as close to original as possible. With those clues, we carefully recreated and matched the original coved ceilings, hand-applied plaster textures, contoured moldings and cabinetry.
Restoring the original single bedroom floorplans, adding modern touches like Noritz tankless water heaters, climate control throughout, and rooftop access via a Trex stairwell, are all things that now make this residence a great place to live for its residents. But the icing on the cake was the award of distinction that Chris and Mary Ann received – the 2012 Long Beach Heritage Society Restoration Award.
