Our 2013 St. Regis Retrospective

It is hard to believe the 2013 St. Regis Year is drawing to a close…..it went by fast, but we made so much progress. Please join me in looking back over the last twelve months of the Board year, and we will see you all at the 2014 Annual Meeting on Saturday, March 22 at 2 p.m.

After checking with everyone, we thought we would feature our Grant Representative, Ms. Karen Clements on the very first blog of this new year. The 2012-13 support from the Heritage Association and Ms. Clements was a big part of this past year and the progress we made here.  I have worked very closely with Ms. Clements over the last two years in order to put together a successful application to the LONG BEACH NAVY MEMORIAL HERITAGE ASSOCIATION GRANT AWARD, and we could not have been blessed with a more diligent advocate.

When we originally toured the ST. REGIS, Karen told me that visiting brought back such sweet memories for her; the St. Regis, and Karen’s association with her, go back a long way. Karen told me that she (and the Heritage Association) struggled with City Hall in order to save several downtown landmarks from the wrecking ball. These buildings included the Villa Riviera, the Lafayette, the Wilmore, the Sovereign, the Artaban, the Blackstone, and the St. Regis among others. Their group supported the “Earthquake Retrofitting Project” which kept us safe from the City then, and helps to keep us safe now. That “rolling sensation” you feel when we have tremors is a safety mechanism their architects helped design, in order to absorb shocks.

The HERITAGE ASSOCIATION is a non-profit education and advocacy group promoting public knowledge and preservation of significant historical and architectural resources, neighborhoods, and the cultural heritage of Long Beach. “The City of LB has recognized certain buildings and neighborhoods as having special architectural and historical value.” The St. Regis is one of the “protected” landmarks of Long Beach, and you can find our name on the Historic Preservation List on their website,

http://www.lbheritage.org (click on Historical LB, Historical Landmarks)

I hope we can eventually obtain a beautiful plaque to be added to the entrance designating and identifying ourselves as a landmark and a part of this significant community.

In addition, Karen told me recently, that the Heritage Association worked with City Hall to reinstate the Mills Act, a Congressional tax relief bill that “is the single most important economic incentive program in California for the restoration and preservation of qualified historic buildings by private property owners.” This great opportunity will be available to us beginning the summer of 2014 and I will continue to work to see if we can be included in this important program. The Mills Act is an opportunity with an ‘open window’ that can open but also shut, as there are a limited number of eligible participants.

My husband Jon and I have applied for another Grant for 2014 and we are hoping for more good news.  We have many projects which we could get started on, and this financial support that may be offered, is a real blessing to us. Of course, these projects are a lot of work too. This past year, our Grant involved several areas of focus, including needed restorative work to two areas of concrete. These included the large broken area of decorative pediment surrounding the facial areas of the building above the first floor and restoring a seashell corbel at the south column.  Any large project involves a lot of management and organization to ensure that pedestrians and their property are kept safe and that any inconvenience to the residents is kept to a minimum. This project took five days, but we hired a good team and got great results!  Repairs such as this ensure the safety of St. Regis residents and visitors, and add to everyone’s property values.

The Entrance Project will be the final gift supported by the (2012-13) Grant, including the new mahogany doors, the hardware, the lighting, etc.; leading this Project has been our Board President, Rodney Hilburn, and we all owe him a debt of thanks for his work and involvement. These new doors are the ‘face’ to the building and the first thing visitors and residents see when they walk up to the entrance. Our new entrance will be an elegant and beautiful new look for us.

The Architectural Committee put the finishing touches on the urns yesterday. Eli Guzman, Katerina Contreras, Theresa Madrid and I are all part of an active Architectural Committee that has done so much to implement the design and color choices around the building. In addition, Nancy Weatherup helped us glue everything down and we thank her for her help. Another Resident, Joey Hernandez helped us place and stabilize the urns.  Eli’s “eye for detail”, helps bring a design element into a total package of a beautiful product, including the Lobby, the lighting, the color choices, and the design elements of the new passenger elevator.

Speaking of the new elevator, the restoration of our long-dormant second elevator is also a wonderful new, soon to be completed, project. This massive project was done in the “step by step” fashion advocated by the Heritage Association; most large, expensive projects are best done a little at a time, in order to avoid, if possible, large, sudden expenses. Though large, this project was done over time and with no additional hardship on the residents or tenants. No project can go smoothly without team work, and so many volunteers gave of themselves and their time to make this happen. We thank a former resident, Ms. Lisa Chin for helping us locate a very good vendor and helping us begin this massive project.

I also want to thank our wonderful architect, Mr. Jonathan Glasgow. None of our projects could have been done without the “Certificates of Appropriateness” and City Permits. In June of last summer, Mr. Glasgow, Karen Clements, and myself were required to attend a City Hall Hearing whereby all changes and additions to historical edifices are put before a Jury; these historical experts decide the fate of any applications, and believe me, many applicants were turned down and had to start over. Mr. Glasgow defended our projects very well and in fact, the Jury asked me to stand and they commended our building for beginning the long road of Restoration. Working with Mr. Glasgow was an honor and such a wonderful experience for me and the blueprints and advocacy he did for us really helped us succeed in this hurdle and one of the reasons he is the Architectural “Preservationist of the Year.” He advocated we develop a Long Term (step by step) Restorative Plan, which includes a compilation of all potential projects needing to be accomplished over the next two decades.  Mr. Glasgow was recently featured in the Long Beach Press Telegram (click to view the article).  In his words, “I love Long Beach, and I want it to be the best it can be. That’s why our firm is here rather than in L.A., because there’s so much opportunity, and there’s still a lot to do.”

As we draw this Board year to a close, we thank all the volunteers who gave of their time and talents, including President Rodney Hilburn and the members of the Board, members of the Heritage Association, Ms. Karen Clements, Mr. Jonathan Glasgow, the Architectural Committee, our Staff, and everyone who has worked so hard not only on the restoration of the building itself, but the improvement in the quality of life, for everyone living here.