Main Street · Downtown Ventura
Building Facades
Tile so close to the original that most people walking past assume it has always been there.
On a few blocks of East Main Street, Michael O’Kelly has re-created lost 1920s tile, rebuilt a Victorian building facade from an old photograph, and clad a lounge in green glaze. Here are the buildings, what they were, and what he did to them.
- Where
- East Main Street, Downtown Ventura
- Buildings
- Watermark, Kaapicat Café, Star Lounge, Paradise Pantry
- Medium
- High-fired glazed ceramic tile
- The job
- Restoration, re-creation and new building facades
The basics
What is a building facade?
A building facade is the face a building shows the street: its front wall, with the windows, entrance, trim and ornament. It is the first thing anyone sees, and it tells them what kind of place they are walking into.
A new or restored building facade can make a tired, plain or damaged building look brand new, often for a fraction of the cost of rebuilding, and it can be as custom as the owner wants.
Michael O’Kelly designs building facades in hand-glazed ceramic tile. He restores historic building facades that have lost their original tile, re-creates lost fronts from old photographs, and designs new tiled storefronts. Every tile is designed, drawn, glazed and fired for that one building, so it looks as if it has always been there.
- Restore a historic building facade to how it first looked
- Re-create a lost front from an old photograph
- Stand out on the street with colour, pattern and a story that is yours
- Last: high-fired glazed tile made to stand up to sun and weather
Then
TodayLooking for a building facade designer?
Talk to Michael about restoring or re-designing your building facade.
More examples below, all a few blocks apart on Main Street in Downtown Ventura.
A 1920s bank · Historic landmark
The Grande Dame of Main Street
Watermark: the tile that wasn’t there any more
Old money, fine manners. She was built as a bank in the 1920s and still dresses like one: cobalt, gold and oxblood tile over patterned brick, a gilded panel at the crown.
- 1920s bank
- Patterned brick & tile
- Ventura landmark No. 15
Over the yearsVentura Guarantee and Loan · the Groene Building · Bahn’s Jewelry · Limon y Sol TodayWatermark, 598 East Main Street
What Michael made
The blue tile arches, the patterned brickwork and the bands of tile across the building facade, re-created where remodelling had destroyed them, and every tile on the added top floor.
The building went up in the 1920s for the Ventura Guarantee and Loan Company. It was restored in 1961 by Theodor Groene, and many Venturans knew it for years as Bahn’s Jewelry. The city lists it as San Buenaventura Historic Landmark No. 15, singling out its decorative tile.
Much of that tile had been lost to one remodel after another. Michael re-created it: matching the patterns and the glazes, and making new tile to fill the gaps. When a floor was added on top, he made all of its tile too.
The blue arches, the patterned brick and every tile on the new floor are his. It all reads as if it were from the 1920s.
Go and see it
598 East Main Street
Downtown Ventura, CA 93001
On the corner of Main and California Street. The tile is all on the outside, so you can see it from the pavement at any time.
Open in Google MapsVentura’s first Post Office
The Comeback Kid
Kaapicat Café: a building facade rebuilt from one photograph
Poised, classical and a little bit Victorian. Lost for decades, she came back from a single old photograph, and now there’s coffee where the letters used to be.
- Victorian front
- Arches & capitals
- Rebuilt from a photo
Over the yearsVentura’s first Post Office · Café du Suro TodayKaapicat Café, 377 East Main Street
What Michael made
The whole historic front above the shop: the four arched windows, the pilasters and the ornate capitals, re-created from one vintage photograph.
This was Ventura’s first Post Office. By the time Michael came to it, the original front was long gone.
Then he found a vintage photograph of it, with “Post Office Ventura” over the door and townspeople posing on the step. Working from that single picture, he re-created the original building facade. See the photograph he started from ↑
Look up
Most people walk past at eye level and see a café. Above the sign are the details Michael re-created from the old photograph: four arched windows, the pilasters between them, and the ornate capitals at the top of each one.
Go and see it
377 East Main Street
Downtown Ventura, CA 93001
Now Kaapicat Café, so you can have a coffee under the arches. Look up above the sign.
Open in Google MapsA new building facade
The Night Owl
Star Lounge: all of it, in green glaze
The one on the block that dresses for the evening: bottle-green glaze that shines under the string lights, stained-glass panels, iron balconies and a wink of orange diamonds.
- Deco spirit
- Green glaze & diamonds
- 343 East Main
Not a restoration this time. For the Star Lounge, Michael made all the ceramics for a new building facade: a deep green tiled shopfront, tile laid on the diagonal around the door, orange diamond accents, and patterned panels over the windows, in the spirit of the Deco storefronts that once lined Main Street.
Go and see it
343 East Main Street
Downtown Ventura, CA 93001
Best seen in the evening, when the string lights come on over the green glaze.
Open in Google MapsSee them for yourself
Take the walk: six stops, from the Mission down Main Street
01211 E Main St · the MissionVentura Historic Mural
Start here: fifty feet of tile telling 150 years of the city.
02- 03
04
0560 S California StLas Palmas
Round the corner, in the lobby: two centuries of Ventura in tile.
- 06
Commissions
Is your building missing something?
Lost historic tile re-created, a building facade rebuilt from an old photograph, or a new storefront that looks like it belongs. Michael works with owners, architects and the city.
