Skirvin Hotel
Skirvin Hotel
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
This project is a historic restoration of the Skirvin hotel first built in 1918. The lower two stories were covered over in the 1960’s with a plaster façade. In the process, the beautiful cast stone details were chiseled off and lath was attached for plaster.
Within two decades of this façade change the hotel closed and remained so until 2006 when effort began to bring back this building which is a centerpiece for our city. New cast stone had to be manufactured to replace ones damage by nearly a century of wear along the upper parapets. But, worst of all were the details of the lower floors. The second floor windows heads and sills had been completely destroyed during the 60’s remodel and the only reference was a photo of the original building dating to 1918.
With pieces salvaged from the existing and a sketch, recreating the look of the original from a grainy photo, our artist reshaped a model using molding plaster, clay and the original concrete castings. From there we used Poloytech rubber to help form new molds to recreate replacement stone. We also used the molds to pour more molding plaster and create several different header sizes and eventually even a fireplace mantel.
In addition to the historic pieces remade we were also called on to provide a full panel façade for the new ball room added to the property.
