Fabricator Focus: Kopelov Cut Stone Inc.

Labe Kopelov explains he knew Shawn Tibbs of Mill Valley, Calif.-based Restoration Stone when Tibbs lived in New Mexico. Tibbs, with a restoration project of the Chronicle Building in downtown San Francisco for Giampolini-Courtney, a San Francisco contractor, contacted the Kopelovs while trying to match a purplish sandstone from the building’s façade.

Click photo to enlargeThe Chronicle (or DeYoung, in honor of the man who built it) is San Francisco’s first skyscraper. Built in 1889, it served as the home of the San Francisco Chronicle until 1924, despite having to be extensively rebuilt following the 1906 earthquake.

In 1962, the building’s exterior was “modernized” when it was covered by white enamel sheeting. In 2006, under new ownership, work began on restoring the original façade, adding eight stories, and converting the space from offices into residential units and a hotel.

“Shawn knew there was some stone out here that was sort of a match, and we sent him a couple samples,” says Labe Kopelov. He adds that he knew the project was also looking at the option of importing a similar-looking stone from China.

Not satisfied with the idea of a sort-of match, Kopelov began researching where the original stone had likely come from.

“There were references to two different quarries, and I got the feeling that it was the one north of Los Angeles,” he says. “Because we had samples of the existing stone, Kino drove out to California to see if it was the same stone, and it was an exact match.”Click photo for detail work

Even better, in this case the stone was available on private property adjacent to a national forest, and the owner was very happy to think about having his stone used for an historic restoration.

Even then, Kopelov learned it isn’t always smooth sailing to act as a supplier to projects of this nature; cost also can be a factor.

“I had to meet the contractor, the architect and the clients out there, just so they could see it really was the stone and I could get it,” he says. “However, everybody was so turned on by it that we ended up getting the job.”

The Kopelovs took six semi-loads of the stone back to New Mexico, and Labe Kopelov says that one job really helped move the company further into the stone-restoration market they’d been seeking.

It’s certainly put them on the map in terms of doing restoration work in San Francisco. One of Kopelov Cut Stone’s current projects involves another early skyscraper in the City; because of its design, the Kohl Building (400 Montgomery), completed in 1901, is one of the few buildings to escape both the 1906 earthquake and subsequent fire with only minimal damage.

It’s also a job that interests the Kopelovs because they’ve been called upon to reproduce architectural features utilizing many of the same tools and techniques employed by the original masons on the project, John McGilvray Stone Co.