Richard Lewis is the Controller/Project Manager of JRVD, which is handling the redevelopment of the Psychic Temple. I visited Richard shortly after the project, which was put on hold for over a year due to California’s budgetary crisis, began to pick up steam once more.

PT: You’re revisiting the Psychic Temple for the first time in a year or so. Any new thoughts after so long?
RL: The outside of the building is so special with the Romanesque brick work and large wood windows. However, you forget that the interior of the building is so special. Yesterday, I showed the inside to some people who hadn’t seen it before and loved seeing it through their eyes. The light and volumes of the space are really beautiful. It is an exciting project.

PT: Do any details stand out?
RL: The basement is special with its access under the sidewalk and the Coke bottle skylights. I can’t wait to see it built-out. There is also a large original skylight in the center of the building that is very beautiful. When the building is completely restored all of the exterior details will really stand out and it will make a difference in defining that neighborhood. When you think about what’s going on in Downtown Long Beach, such as the emergence of the Promenade and new businesses opening, it is fantastic to think how this building is going to play such an important role in extending the Broadway corridor. One seminal project can make a big difference.

PT: Do you remember the first time you saw the building?
RL: Yes. I have always loved the building from the outside. We toured the interior of the building in 2009 and immediately saw its potential. We made a proposal to the City to redevelop the building it in a way that celebrates the history and makes it contemporary at the same time.

PT: It has good bones, right?
RL: It has beautiful bones. When we started to work on the front, we found cast-iron columns that had been hidden for years. And when we went through historic records and plans we found that there once was an arch where the new entrance to second floor will be.

The retail spaces on the ground floor have been reconfigured so many times over the years that most of the historical elements on the ground floor level have been loss. So instead of trying to recreate it, we will be using a more modern glass treatment. We want the ground floor to shine, so when you drive down Broadway it will create excitement.

The Romanesque brickwork and all the giant windows on the 2nd and 3rd floors will be restored.

PT: How precise is the restoration process. Do you use Q-Tips?
RL: Not Q-Tips, but we definitely pay attention to the details. For the brick work alone, we have an experienced crew cleaning and re-pointing the mortar walls brick-by-brick.

PT: People think Long Beach’s Art Deco buildings are old, but this was built before the earthquake.
RL: Yes, the building was built in 1905. We actually have the original newspaper article announcing the construction of the “Psychic Temple.” The building did suffer damage from the 1930 earthquake. There were originally finials along the top parapet of the building that fell off during the earthquake.

Long Beach has lost a lot of its iconic historic buildings, so we feel a responsibility to bring this building back to life in a responsible way. There’s satisfaction in knowing that once the restoration is complete that this building will last another 100 years!

Jan Robert van Dijs at the Arts Building on 3rd St. (August 2011)

Jan Robert van Dijs is the namesake of JR van Dijs, Inc. Drawing from his experience and expertise in constructing large-scale, high-end projects in New York, Paris, London, Italy, and Asia, he and his crew are committed to changing the way people perceive and experience Long Beach, CA, one old structure–more often two or three–at a time.

van Dijs and his team have restored and updated buildings from beloved historic structures such as the Ebell Club and Art Theatre to more recent landmarks such as the former compound of SST Records (where his offices are now located). I met Jan across the street from there at yet another one of his projects, the Berlin coffeehouse. We talked about his career and his team’s upcoming work on the Psychic Temple.

PT: How did a guy like you, who has worked in many of the world’s great cities, wind up settling down in Long Beach?
JRvD: For a number of years, I was in construction management and worked internationally but lived here. Then about nine years ago, I decided to stop. I really enjoyed it, but the travel was getting to me, my daughter was about to be born, and I knew that things were changing.

PT: Can you share your views on the preservation and restoration of old buildings?
JRvD: Everything is political, social, and economic in this world that we live in. But for me, it’s very personal. This is the city I live in and this is the city I work in, and it just so happens that my personal passions align with my profession.

I like old buildings. I believe in them from a practical standpoint and from a redevelopment standpoint. They give texture to streetscapes and allow for more interesting projects. I think the people who want to tear everything down and build anew are shortsighted and narrow-minded. That might be easier, but it’s not necessarily better. And in the long run, if you’re looking to salvage communities and rebuild your inner city core, restoration is the best way to do it. I believe that passionately.

Psychic Temple entrance (circa 2011)

PT: When did you become aware of the American Hotel?
JRvD: The city bought the building in 2000. At the time, it was operated as a flophouse-type hotel, and I don’t know if they intended to salvage the building.

Shortly after they bought it, they entered negotiations with some hotel groups. The process got far enough that I was asked to go to several planning and redevelopment meetings to serve as a liaison for the historical community to see what was being planned.

PT: Can you describe any of the proposed plans?
JRvD: There was one developer who said, “I can’t save the building. All I’m going to do is save the façade.” The reality was that he wanted to buy the whole lot and was just keeping the façade as a token, but that fell through.

PT: And how did your team become more directly involved with the building’s future?
JRvD: Four and a half years ago, I wrote a letter to the city. I said, “The building is degrading to a point where it will be unsalvageable unless you do something soon.  It’s still a significant historical building, but water’s pouring in and it’s a mess.”

Three years ago, we were issued an exclusive negotiating agreement and got pretty far down the road in our partnership with the city, to make and market creative offices upstairs and a restaurant and bar downstairs. We went to the historical department and got a Certificate of Appropriateness. Everything was moving forward until January 2011 when the wheels fell off due to the state budget crisis. We re-proposed different things to the city, but the reality was that every time we came close to reaching some kind of an agreement, the rules changed again. It was just a big mess.

Psychic Temple first floor (circa 2011)

PT: And when did interTrend enter the picture?
JRvD: Julia (Huang from interTrend) discovered Berlin during an art walk. She realized it would be a nice place to have lunch and brought some of her staff the next day. There were like eight of them. From here, she looked across the street at our office and said, “That is what I’d like our loft to look like.”

I was in my conference room and they were all lined up along the window, looking in. So I went out and said that we had some spaces in back. But they needed more square footage than that. The American Hotel was the only building I was working on that was big enough. I was pretty honest about it from the beginning, and said we had a lot of issues to work out with the city.

PT: Can you describe working with Julia and interTrend?
JRvD: Very few people are capable of seeing that kind of building in that condition, but they saw the building and showed a shocking amount of vision. Philosophically, we share the same vision in terms of our businesses: we want to be on the street because we want to have a connection with our community. You don’t make connections by pulling into a parking garage, going up an elevator, and looking out of a ninth floor window.