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Balboa Park's Municipal Gym to Regain Monumental Artwork
By Roger Showley
November/December 2024
It was called the "Palace of Electricity and Varied Industries" at the 1935-36 California Pacific International Exposition. But when it was converted to a gymnasium after the fair, its elaborate—but temporary—decorative elements were stripped away.
Now, the Balboa Park Committee of 100 expects to begin restoring monumental artwork in early January 2025, with completion about six weeks later. The $634,000 restoration will give new life to this old building’s exterior and complete a major phase in the plans for restoring the Palisades to its look of 90 years ago.
Designed by pro-bono architect and C100 board member Robert Thiele, the project includes three main entry features:
- The monumental bas-relief over the entrance, originally designed by Arturo Eneim, depicts the wheels of industry and electrical works, symbolizing the building's function at the fair. Measuring 14 by 22 feet, the relief was proposed, planned, and completed within nine months. It was originally made out of fiberboard, as were many of the fair’s decorative ele-ments, and includes 120 objects and three figures, seen below, representing an engi-neer and two onlookers, whose identities remain unknown. Surrounding the relief are 110 ornamental pieces shaped like what appear to be electrical resistors, along with decorative panels lining the rim of the two blade structures flanking the entrance.
- The decorative elements on the rim of the marquee above the entry doors, culminating in an oversized gear.
- A terrazzo-like illustration on the floor at the front door that represents the building's original use. It has remained in place all this time and will be cleaned up and repaired as nec-essary. Missing decorative elements will also be added around the doors.
 Mockup of the 14 by 22-foot restored scene to be installed over the entrance to the originally named Palace of Electricity and Varied Industries building in Balboa Park’s Palisades. The 1935 building is now used as a gymnasium. |
 Kevin Matson of Bellagio Precast looks over the large model of a three-dimensional gear destined to restore the building's marquee. |
 In the studio are, left to right, Balboa Park Committee of 100 president Ross Porter, C100 vice president Kevin Carpenter, and Bellagio Precast founder Mike Matson reviewing preparations for the gym facade’s restoration. |
 Project architect and C100 board member Robert Thiele created this rendering to show how the marque will look once restored. All photos courtesy Balboa Park Committee of 100 |
As could be expected, a great deal of planning and engineering went into making what were temporary features into permanent and impermeable elements of this major show-case building.
Thiele engaged Bellagio Precast, headed by Mike Matson and his son Kevin, to fabricate the ornamentation and relief panel details. They worked from fuzzy black-and-white photos of the building and in some cases, such as the figures, applied a bit of educated guesswork to arrive at the final design.
They built full-sized models to create a mold for the bas-relief and filled it with glass fiber reinforced concrete (GFRC), coated it with a bronze finish, and attached it to stainless steel frames.
“What seemed mind boggling and extreme is now done and being molded for permanent display in cement, bronze, and steel. Intoxicatingly fun business,” said Mike Matson.
Meanwhile, structural engineer Michael Krakower, an expert in GFRC construction, designed a steel truss system behind the building’s parapet to support the two large pieces that make up the bas-relief. He also designed a way to cantilever the marquee through a bow truss and not impact the historic building frame. Barnhart-Reese Construction serves as general contractor and construction manager. Douglas Barnhart, company chairman, made a lead gift to get the gym project under way.
The final touch is the installation of a reproduction of the original Art Deco-style signage, "Electricity and Varied Industries," and lighting to illuminate the artwork at night.
C100 decided in 2015 to shift its focus from the largely completed restoration of 1915-16 Panama-California Exposition buildings and grounds to the Palisades, which some called Balboa Park's unloved and overlooked stepsister. This is the group’s third, but not the last, Palisades project.
Read more about C100’s Palisades restoration work.
Roger Showley is C100’s immediate past president and a longtime reporter on San Diego history, real estate, and development for the San Diego Union-Tribune.
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