Each year, Long Beach Heritage presents
awards at a major event, the Annual
Awards Benefit, to meritorious members
of the community for commercial, residential,
adaptive reuse, and restoration
projects.
Long Beach Heritage will hold its nineteenth
Annual Awards Benefit on February
21, 2008 in the Grand Salon aboard
the Queen Mary. At this Benefit we will be
honoring those individuals and organizations
who have made significant contributions
to the preservation of the architectural
and cultural heritage of our city. More
information on award winners.
Excellence In Architecture- The 2008 Excellence in Architecture
award is going to be presented to Richard
L. Poper, AIA. He has been a noted
architect for sixty years.
His artistry can be seen and enjoyed in
over 6,000 homes which he designed
for Lloyd S. Whaley and the Mac-Bright
Corporation. These homes are located in
Park Estates, Ridgeway Heights, Campus
Homes, Los Altos Junior Executives and La
Marina Homes. He also designed homes
in Naples, Belmont Shore, and the Bixby
area. Included in his contribution to the
streetscape of Long Beach is a myriad
of commercial buildings, banks and
schools. Mr. Poper is definitely deserving
of this award.
Preservation Awards- The Preservation Awards are intended to
recognize efforts in the areas of adaptive
reuse, restoration, and creative solutions
to preservation problems. This year’s
awards are being presented to three
homes in different sections of the city.
The Olson residence, located at 727 Cedar
Avenue, is in the Willmore City Historic
District. This magnificent wood frame,
Colonial Revival home was constructed
in 1907 by Mr. Merriman. Through the
years, it was divided into apartments. The
home was purchased by Tom and Juliette
Olson with the intention of restoring
it to a single family residence. Soon after
beginning work, a disastrous fire on the
second floor burned up through the attic
and roof. The Olsons not only repaired
the damages, but they restored the interiors
to their original magnificence.
The Von Hemert residence is located in
Belmont Heights. This home was constructed
on a prominent hillside at 121 Belmont in the 1920s in the Italian Renaissance Revival style. In 1930 it was the home of William Hosking, business manager of the Press Telegram, and his wife Mary Lou. Within the last decade a process of restoration included some minor cosmetic changes to the exterior, preservation and enhancement of the interiors, and the inclusion of spectacular gardens.
The residence of Helena and Elbert Segelhorst is located in the Bluff Park Historic District at 2828 East First Street. This award is for the sympathetic addition to the rear of the notable 1908 Edwardian home that the Segelhorsts had previously restored. The nearly seamless alterations stand as an example for anyone wishing to enlarge his/her historic home without destroying its charm. The architect was Kevin Motschall, the contractor was Peter Devereaux, and the color consultant was Michael Caponigro.
Merit Awards- Merit Awards are presented to individuals, organizations, or public agencies who have made significant contributions to the preservation of Long Beach through initiative and innovative leadership. A Merit Award is being conferred on Magnum Builders for their expert craftsmanship and preservation technology on a historical restoration project, the seismic retrofit and restoration of the Bembridge carriage house and driveway. These were daunting undertakings, but the final result leaves nothing wanting. The completed project, with partial siding replacements, window rebuilding, and flipping the huge floorboards over to achieve a smooth surface while retaining the century old wood, exudes the ambience of the original even down to the hay chute.
Cultural Resource Studies- This year there are four recipients in the area of cultural resource studies. Meighan Maguire, in conjunction with Rancho Los Cerritios and the Long Beach Unified School District, created an invaluable and innovative program entitled “Handling History: Exploring Daily Life on the Rancho in the 1840s”. This program includes a comprehensive and extensive teacher’s guide as well as thirty trunks filled with representative items of the period to enhance the learning experience for fourth grade students in the district.
The Long Beach Firefighters’ Museum receives a Merit Award for its collaborative work on the book entitled Long Beach Fire Department, part of the Images of America series by Arcadia Publishing. It is an interesting collection of photographs and text that traces the history of the department from its inception. It provides a valuable resource for researchers. The Firefighters’ Museum also created a CD, “Long Beach Firefighters-The Early Years,” which is a compilation of early films depicting events from the horse-drawn steamer era.
The award to John Thomas, Christopher Launi, and Suzanne Tarbell Cooper is for their book Long Beach Art Deco, another Images of America publication. John and Suzanne researched and wrote the book, which is an illustrated survey of buildings and artifacts from the 1920s and 1930s. The photographs include historic as well as contemporary images of “survivors” by Christopher Launi. The book is an important tool for students of the Art Deco style. It has made a large segment of the population aware of the period treasures which are located in Long Beach.
The third Merit Award is for the Paul Revere Williams documentary by David Kelly and the Advanced Media Production Department at CSULB. This award is for a cultural resource which advances local historical knowledge and educational awareness. This fascinating documentary details the architecture and career of the first African-American to gain success in his field in Los Angeles. Mr. Williams designed more than 3000 structures including the Long Beach Naval Station and homes in Park Estates and Virginia Country Club. The film was funded by the Long Beach Navy Memorial Heritage Association.
The final Merit Award is being presented to the Rancho Los Alamitos Foundation for the restoration and preservation of a man-made landscape environment having particular historical significance. The restorations were completed under the guidance of Pamela Seager. The gardens were all created during the 1920s and 1930s. There are a total of eleven distinctive spaces, each with its own enchanting features. One is the “Native Garden,” which includes many water elements with a rock streambed and waterfalls, designed by the Olmstead brothers. The “Cactus Garden” was designed by William Hertrich, who created some of the gardens at the Huntington Gardens in San Marino where he was superintendent for over twenty years. The geranium walk and rose gardens were designed by Florence Yoch, who was responsible for the landscape sets in the film “Gone with the Wind”.
Richard Poper to Receive the
Long Beach Heritage
Excellency In Architecture Award
“Architecture is the finest of the useful arts and the most useful of the fine arts”, —John Ruskin.
Sixty years of Richard L Poper’s architectural artistry can be seen and enjoyed in the over 6000 homes built forLloyd S. Whaley and the Mac-Bright Corporation in Long Beach. These include houses in Park Estates and Ridgeway Heights, Campus Homes, Los Altos Junior Executives, La Marina Homes and a Better Homes and Garden’s “Home for All America”.
Richard Poper was a principal in the firm of Jones, Lockett and Poper that designed these housing developments, as well as many individual projects. Examples are the Charles Z. Walker house at 844 Roxanne Street, the Grace Brethren Church at 3601 Linden Avenue, the Immanuel Presbyterian Church at the corner of East Sixth Street and Termino Avenue, the Los Altos YMCA, and Long Beach Fire Stations #10, #16, and #21.
The firm also designed numerous educational
buildings, for example, nine structures at Long Beach City College, the Book Store at California State University Long Beach, five buildings at Copper Mountain College in Joshua tree, eleven structures at Crafton Hills College in Yucaipa, and fourteen buildings at San Bernardino Valley College.
Richard L Poper graduated from USC in 1949 after his service with the US Air Corps in World War II. He served in the Army Air Force in the headquarters architectural office at Wright/Patterson in Dayton, Ohio as a draftsman and designer. After completing four years in service and resuming his studies at USC, Poper passed the California architectural licensing exam.
Prior to his Army service he worked as a draftsman in the office of Jess J. Jones at Fifth Street and Termino Avenue. Jones was the successor to Kirtland Cutter, a well known Long Beach architect in the 1920s. Also working in that drafting room were another USC graduate, Thomas Curley, and Long Beach’s first woman architectural designer, Virginia Thompson. These three later formed the nucleus of the team in Jones’ office at 1870 Long Beach Blvd. when the firm known as Jones, Lockett and Poper was founded.
Mr. Poper was instrumental in the founding of the Cabrillo Chapter of the American Institute of Architects and became its first president. He received awards for his excellent work at Crafton Hills College in Yucaipa and Long Beach City College and was inducted into the latter Hall of Fame in 1997. Richard Poper was also recently honored by the Mayor of Lakewood for his eight years of service on the Development Review Board.
As Ruskin also said, “When love and skill work together expect a masterpiece”
