The Rialto Theatre (Photo – Marina Khrustaleva)
After years of inactivity, the Rialto Theater is coming back to life beautifully.
By Joanna Hankamer
The owners are literally peeling back layers of paint to reveal its past. Starting in early 2020, the owner of Rialto Theatre, Shomof Group, has been working on the repair and restoration of the exterior of the building with assistance from Escott O. Norton/Friends of the Rialto. The Shomof Group is a real estate developer with extensive experience in restoring historic buildings in downtown Los Angeles. A few of the restoration and adaptive reuse projects done by the Shomof Group include Spring Tower Lofts at 639 South Spring Street, the Premiere Towers at 621 South Spring Street, and Hotel Alexandria at 501 South Spring Street.
City staff are working closely with the Shomof Group and Escott O. Norton to ensure all the exterior work is consistent with a Historic Structure Report for the property prepared by Architectural Resources Group. The exterior restoration is near completion but the storefronts for the retail units are still in progress.
Paint Layers Removed with a Scalpel
KC Restoration collected several paint samples from the face of the building and both the blade and marquee signs. Paint samples were removed with a scalpel and taken to include a portion of the substrate to ensure that a full paint layering sequence was obtained. The result shows many layers of different paint colors over time as illustrated in the photo above. The Shomof Group is planning to restore the building and both signs to their original colors.
More details to come on completion of the storefront and hopefully a fully occupied retail frontage.
Joanna Hankamer is South Pasadena’s Planning and Community Development Director.
The article says “many layers of different paint colors over time as illustrated below”… where can I see the paint-layers illustration for this article? Thank you
Hi Lorelei,
That was a mistake overlooked by one of our copy editors. It should say “as illustrated in the photo above.” It was fixed. Thank you and stay safe.
wonderful that the theater is being restored, our family went there when we lived there.