Toward the end of February 2018 I was contacted by a representative from La Casa De Maria in Montecito, CA. You may recall that the exclusive enclave of Montecito, just South of Santa Barbara, was hit by ravaging mudslides. La Casa De Maria was originally built in the mid 1950's. The 26 acre estate , in addition to its magnificent home, has a Spanish style Catholic Church that was built in 1955. The church eventually became a retreat center for the Catholic Archdiocese, and years later changed to be a multi denominational retreat. The mud slides brought disaster to La Casa De Maria. What was once a beautifully landscaped wooded retreat was not chocked with tones, and tons of mud and rock. The San Yisedro Creek had been forced to overflow from the washed down boulders. The resultant flood washed not only mud, but giant boulders for miles. Many smashing into cars. trees, homes, and other buildings. The slides caused at least 22 deaths.
I was asked to come up to Montecito to give a proposal to remove a stained glass window from the La Casa De Maria Church, restore, crate, and store it until restoration of the church was completed. When I arrived I as astonished at the size of the catastrophe. The lush vegetation that had been there was gone, mud and boulders were everywhere you looked. In areas there were huge mounds of dirt, concrete, boulders, and building materials that were the aftermath of the floods, and slides. In some cases entire buildings were gone.
I was accompanied to the church where I noticed an eight foot and 5 foot boulder that had slammed into the side of the church. The resultant collision had fractured a 12" x 8" beam that was supporting the windows from below. There was a hole in the building that was about eight feet across, and, I was told, led to 24 large boulders and three feet of mud being deposited in the church. The mud and boulders had been cleaned out, but the shock of the collision from the giant boulder had caused the ceiling timbers to shift. We had to remove the stained glass window( approximately 3' x 11') directly above the hole so that the walls could be rebuilt, and the ceiling timbers restored.
The nine stained glass windows are magnificent. Originally fabricated in Ireland they have very vibrant colors and have a modern feel to their design. I completed my inspection, returned to the studio, and drafted my proposal( which included all necessary work on all windows), and emailed it. It will be at least a year before the restoration work on the church structure is complete. The administrator shortly there after informed me that they would like me to proceed. Since they were in as hurry to start, and couldn't do anything until we removed the window we went up the following week. We removed, crated, and transported the four sections of the window back to Santa Monica.
I'll follow up in a later blog with the progression of our work, and also that of La Casa De Maria.
