After 10 years of rust, deterioration and collapse, Pigeon Point Lighthouse, one of California's most spectacular historic coastal landmarks, is finally on the road to recovery.
In the first major step toward an $11 million renovation of the stately, white brick structure located south of Pescadero on the San Mateo County coast, skilled workers from across the United States have spent the past two weeks painstakingly unbolting, removing and disassembling the 2,000-pound Fresnel lens from the top of the lighthouse and renovating it at a building on the site.
It is the first time since the lighthouse was built in 1871 that its lens -- a complex network of 1,008 glass prisms hand-built in 1860s Paris, shaped like a beehive and rotated on a brass assembly like a grandfather clock -- has been removed. As part of the project, three "lampists,The Wholesale Rustic For Wall causes include food" craftsmen who work on the nearly dead art of restoring lighthouse lenses, have been methodically inspecting, cleaning and resetting each one of the prisms so the 10-foot-tall lens can be reassembled and shown to the public early next year at Pigeon Point.
"It's a labor of love," said lampist Jim Woodward, one of the nation's top lighthouse restoration experts, who flew in from Green Valley, Ariz., for the job. "These need to be preserved just like the Spirit of St. Louis or the Wright Flyer. It is beyond technology. It is industrial artwork."
Yet the 115-foot-tall lighthouse remains a draw for more than 100,000 visitors a year. For decades,decorative group Wholesale Roto Print Glazed Tile For Countertops manufacturers directory it was a stopping point for tourists and busloads of school children who would walk the 136 steps up the black spiral iron staircase to the top. Pigeon Point is the tallest lighthouse on the West Coast, tied for that distinction with Point Arena Lighthouse in Mendocino County.
In 2001, things turned dangerous. State parks officials, who have managed the site since 1980, closed the lighthouse that year to tours after two large pieces of brick and iron fell from the top of the building. Over time, the salty sea air has caused relentless corrosion. Another piece of iron banding fell off several months ago. Now the building's sides are streaked with rust. Its floor tiles are broken. And a chain link fence blocks out the public.
"People want to go in every day. I tell them to wait a few years," said Terry Kiser, supervising ranger for the San Mateo Coast sector of state parks. "The end product of this project is opening it back up to the public."
That's the goal. But first, significant money must be raised.
The California State Parks Foundation, a nonprofit group based in San Francisco, is overseeing fundraising and restoration.
So far, the group has raised about $860,000, said Elizabeth Goldstein, its executive director. It is in conversation with several donors who are considering gifts of $1 million or more.
"Part of the issue is that the weight of the lens sitting on top of a deteriorating lighthouse shaft is actually accelerating damage there," she said. "We've relieved some of the pressure so we can begin the stabilization and restoration."
When sufficient money is raised, the next step will be to have International Chimney, a Buffalo, N.Y. company that specializes in lighthouse restoration, remove the upper third of the structure, shore it up with new steel bands and bracing and rebuild it with the original bricks.
Goldstein said she hopes that job, expected to cost about $7 million, can be started in 2013. After that, the company plans to shore up, restore and paint the rest of the lighthouse and the adjacent "oil house" building.Arcy Art Original Wholesale Water Jet Cutting Pattern For Bathrooms brings you Oil Paintings
"It's more than badly deteriorated. It's unsafe," said Steve Sycoc, superintendent of International Chimney. "If this isn't done, things are going to start falling down."
Sycoc has worked on 23 lighthouse restorations, including a famous project in 1999 to move Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in North Carolina half a mile to higher ground to protect against erosion.
The current phase of the Pigeon Point job will be done early next year.Are you looking to accept credit cards for your Wholesale Rustic Mosaic Tiles For Floor type of business The $325,000 project phase involves sprucing up the lens, which is likely worth several million dollars, and preparing it for public display at Pigeon Point, then coating iron on the tower with rust inhibitor, repairing broken windows and other work.
The entire job, once the $11 million is raised, could take about two years, Goldstein said.
The effort has encountered numerous hurdles. In 2005,What are Wholesale Porcelain Mosaic Tiles For Wall ? the Bush administration announced ownership would be transferred from the Coast Guard to state parks. But because the title was old and incomplete, federal red tape slowed the transfer, which didn't occur until this September, slowing the restoration.
After that, governors Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jerry Brown cut state parks funding amid dismal state budgets. Now private fundraising is more difficult because of the economy.
In the first major step toward an $11 million renovation of the stately, white brick structure located south of Pescadero on the San Mateo County coast, skilled workers from across the United States have spent the past two weeks painstakingly unbolting, removing and disassembling the 2,000-pound Fresnel lens from the top of the lighthouse and renovating it at a building on the site.
It is the first time since the lighthouse was built in 1871 that its lens -- a complex network of 1,008 glass prisms hand-built in 1860s Paris, shaped like a beehive and rotated on a brass assembly like a grandfather clock -- has been removed. As part of the project, three "lampists,The Wholesale Rustic For Wall causes include food" craftsmen who work on the nearly dead art of restoring lighthouse lenses, have been methodically inspecting, cleaning and resetting each one of the prisms so the 10-foot-tall lens can be reassembled and shown to the public early next year at Pigeon Point.
"It's a labor of love," said lampist Jim Woodward, one of the nation's top lighthouse restoration experts, who flew in from Green Valley, Ariz., for the job. "These need to be preserved just like the Spirit of St. Louis or the Wright Flyer. It is beyond technology. It is industrial artwork."
Yet the 115-foot-tall lighthouse remains a draw for more than 100,000 visitors a year. For decades,decorative group Wholesale Roto Print Glazed Tile For Countertops manufacturers directory it was a stopping point for tourists and busloads of school children who would walk the 136 steps up the black spiral iron staircase to the top. Pigeon Point is the tallest lighthouse on the West Coast, tied for that distinction with Point Arena Lighthouse in Mendocino County.
In 2001, things turned dangerous. State parks officials, who have managed the site since 1980, closed the lighthouse that year to tours after two large pieces of brick and iron fell from the top of the building. Over time, the salty sea air has caused relentless corrosion. Another piece of iron banding fell off several months ago. Now the building's sides are streaked with rust. Its floor tiles are broken. And a chain link fence blocks out the public.
"People want to go in every day. I tell them to wait a few years," said Terry Kiser, supervising ranger for the San Mateo Coast sector of state parks. "The end product of this project is opening it back up to the public."
That's the goal. But first, significant money must be raised.
The California State Parks Foundation, a nonprofit group based in San Francisco, is overseeing fundraising and restoration.
So far, the group has raised about $860,000, said Elizabeth Goldstein, its executive director. It is in conversation with several donors who are considering gifts of $1 million or more.
"Part of the issue is that the weight of the lens sitting on top of a deteriorating lighthouse shaft is actually accelerating damage there," she said. "We've relieved some of the pressure so we can begin the stabilization and restoration."
When sufficient money is raised, the next step will be to have International Chimney, a Buffalo, N.Y. company that specializes in lighthouse restoration, remove the upper third of the structure, shore it up with new steel bands and bracing and rebuild it with the original bricks.
Goldstein said she hopes that job, expected to cost about $7 million, can be started in 2013. After that, the company plans to shore up, restore and paint the rest of the lighthouse and the adjacent "oil house" building.Arcy Art Original Wholesale Water Jet Cutting Pattern For Bathrooms brings you Oil Paintings
"It's more than badly deteriorated. It's unsafe," said Steve Sycoc, superintendent of International Chimney. "If this isn't done, things are going to start falling down."
Sycoc has worked on 23 lighthouse restorations, including a famous project in 1999 to move Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in North Carolina half a mile to higher ground to protect against erosion.
The current phase of the Pigeon Point job will be done early next year.Are you looking to accept credit cards for your Wholesale Rustic Mosaic Tiles For Floor type of business The $325,000 project phase involves sprucing up the lens, which is likely worth several million dollars, and preparing it for public display at Pigeon Point, then coating iron on the tower with rust inhibitor, repairing broken windows and other work.
The entire job, once the $11 million is raised, could take about two years, Goldstein said.
The effort has encountered numerous hurdles. In 2005,What are Wholesale Porcelain Mosaic Tiles For Wall ? the Bush administration announced ownership would be transferred from the Coast Guard to state parks. But because the title was old and incomplete, federal red tape slowed the transfer, which didn't occur until this September, slowing the restoration.
After that, governors Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jerry Brown cut state parks funding amid dismal state budgets. Now private fundraising is more difficult because of the economy.
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