Los Angeles, CA
Mount St. Mary's College, Doheny Mansion
Scope/Solutions
Built in 1899 for the Oliver P. Posey family, the Doheny family occupied the home for nearly sixty years. The three-story mansion was designed by architects Theodore A. Eisen and Sumner P. Hunt with elements from the Gothic, Chateauesque, Moorish, and California Mission styles. Now part of the Mount St. Mary’s College downtown campus, the structure is a Designated Historic-Cultural Monument for the City of Los Angeles. Historic Resources Group retained SGH to prepare the building enclosure, materials conservation, and waterproofing portions of their report for the Doheny Mansion.
SGH performed a visual survey of the mansion exterior. We noted the following:
- Wood-framed exterior walls are clad with plaster, ornamental cast plaster, marble, and sheet metal
- Prominent features of the Doheny Mansion are a Tiffany glass dome, numerous wood balconies, and a wooden tower above the main entrance
- The main skylight covers the Tiffany dome, and acrylic skylights are located throughout the low-sloped built-up roofs, pitched clay tile roofs, and at the east entry canopy
For this project, SGH’s work included the following:
- Water tested to confirm leak paths
- Conducted paint adhesion tests
- Documented concealed conditions of the exterior wall construction at exploratory openings construction
- Analyzed exterior plaster in our laboratories
- Recommended immediate and long-term repairs, maintenance, and further testing
- Wrote the exterior walls and roofs portions of the Historic Structures Report
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Project Summary
2005
Completion Date
Solutions
Repair & Rehabilitation | Preservation
Services
Building Enclosures | Applied Science & Research
Markets
Culture & Entertainment
Client(s)
Historic Resources Group
Specialized Capabilities
Condition Assessments | Preservation | Physical Testing | Environmental Simulations | Materials Science
Key team members
Additional Projects
West
de Young Museum, Golden Gate Park
Damaged beyond repair by the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, the building was demolished in 2000 to make way for a new 292,000 sq ft building containing 116,000 sq ft of gallery and education space. SGH consulted on the building enclosure for the copper-clad museum.
West
Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego
Since opening in 1941, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego was expanded several times and by 2014 needed more space again. SGH served as the structural engineer of record and consulted on the roofing and waterproofing design for the project.