At Villa Riviera in Long Beach, award-winning restoration work includes a bit of the grotesque

 
When the 16-story Villa Riviera condominium building in Long Beach receives its preservation award from the Los Angeles Conservancy on Thursday, some of the credit will belong to the grotesques -- often called gargoyles -- guarding the landmark's roof line.

Six of the original 30 grotesques -- including a dog, a bear, a griffin and an eagle, each 5 to 6 feet tall -- have been missing since the 1970s, believed to have been removed by penthouse residents improving their ocean view. Spectra Co., contractor on the project, replicated the six missing grotesques by making silicone molds from existing grotesques, then casting new figures with glass fiber concrete.

Writer Jeffrey Head shares the whole story on the grotesques and the revival of Villa Riviera's Tudor Gothic Revival design.

Upper photo credit: Thomas McConville / Spectra Co.

Lower photo credit: Spectra Co.

ALSO:

Frank Lloyd Wright's Ennis House

The last Greene & Greene house in L.A.

Lost L.A.: The past through the lens of the present

Comments

[Pam]

Every day when I drive home from work, I pass by that gorgeous building. It is spectacular. Downtown Long Beach is very beautiful now, much prettier than when I was kid and hung out at the Pike! The Pike was really fun and really seedy, of course when you're a kid, seedy is great fun. Now as an adult living in Belmont Heights in Long Beach, I'm glad it's such a beautiful city!