St. Joseph Cathedral

Project

St. Josephs Cathedral, San Jose, California, is number one on the list of historic buildings in CA. Built-in the 1860s this wooden structure badly needed structural repair and restoration. The dome had to be light enough to avoid overloading the wood trusses. Kreysler & Associates utilized high-performance boat-building techniques to fabricate the ornamental ribs, cornices, and cupola structures out of FRP. St. Joseph’s is one of the hundreds of examples of the long-term durability of architectural FRP throughout the world.

Details

• Location: San Jose, California

• Client Name: St. Joseph’s Cathedral

• Expertise: K&A utilized high-performance boat-building techniques to fabricate all the ornamental ribs, cornices, and cupola structures out of FRP. Although the restoration is 25 years old now, the FRP remains beautiful and clean.

• Partners: 

  • TBI Dinwiddie Joint Venture, General Contractor

  • Juri Komendant, Engineer

More info on Composites Durability

Tony Mirenda, President and CEO of TBI Construction reported: “Hi Bill. Here’s an aerial shot comparison from 1989, two years after installation as compared to a photo taken just a few weeks ago. As I mentioned to you, the durability and beauty of your product over 20 years is remarkable. They have not done a thing to it. And every time it rains, it cleans the product to where it looks as if it is brand new. From a flexibility standpoint, I was equally impressed by the ease of handling and installing the product given the warped 100 year old shape of the structure we needed to mount it to. And the strength of the product was superior to any precast options we explored.”