A visit to L.A.’s Historic Core yields many wonderful treasures for those with a penchant for classic architecture and design. Once such treasure, the former Barker Brothers Furniture building on Broadway, is a marvelous example of the city’s venerable heritage of a pre-war style and design celebrating elegant symmetry tempered with a Renassiance flair.

The eight-story structure, originally built by real estate investor and philanthropist Clara Burdette in 1909, is one of the oldest of its kind in the district. The building was the largest store in the Barker Brother furniture chain by the time of its completion, and thrived as a very successful arm of the business until World War II. In the 1940s, like many of its retail neighbors, the business migrated to the burgeoning business trade on Wilshire Boulevard.

Sadly, the building lay mostly dormant and neglected for several decades until 2016 when it was acquired by our clients, the British real estate firm Satila Studios.

The new owners immediately recognized all the wonderful possibilities for the interiors, including the iconic grand staircase, large renaissance inspired archways, ornate plaster corbels and cartouches, and spiral columns. The preservation of these fine details were imperative to the new owners, so needless to say attention to detail was key.

Our design lead Adam Kast went to work in creating drawings to not only replicate the extant ornament and motifs, but to enhance those elements as well. The JP Weaver plaster shop went to work and fabricated 19 of the columns, and 19 of the capitals as so many of the original ones were damaged beyond the possibility of restoration. The plaster columns fabricated by JP Weaver were reinforced with rebar for structural stability.

The result is a re-creation of a timeworn classical interior into a magnificent interpretation of space, keeping the essence of its roots while heralding a contemporary milieu.

Our clients could not have been happier with Adam’s direction along with the impeccable craftsmanship of plaster and ornament by the JP Weaver plaster department. We all here at JP Weaver very much enjoy the architectural restoration and preservation projects that come our way. They always seem to serve a most pleasant and appreciated reminder from where we came.