Category: Blog
-
Post Demolition
The general cleanup has ended and demolition has begun. Above: Non-weight-bearing walls are being removed on the first floor. Below: When the walls are gone, the curved corners will go, too. So will the shoe repair gear.
-
Rooftop Views
The demolition process has allowed access to the rooftop and some spectacular views.
-
New walls, new graff
Brand new walls are being erected outside the Psychic Temple and word is getting out. Some tagger named Caution is already all over the place.
-
Buildings We Like – Pt. 1
Bertran Smith Acres of Books, 240 South Long Beach Blvd. Long Beach isn’t known for its architecture, but perhaps it should be. With waves of development following the 1933 earthquake and the completion of the 710 freeway, there are plenty of eye-pleasing examples of Art Deco (Bertrand Smith Acres of Books, above) and Modernist (International…
-
Psychic Temple + Wheat Paste = Win
The Long Beach Fencing Club’s winning concept for the Design a Fence contest is streetwise, inexpensive, and flexible. The use of wheat paste is also brilliant because it flips a medium that is best known for illegal advertising, revolutionary politics, and street art. What has become synonymous for rebellious expression on someone else’s wall is…
-
Join the Long Beach Fencing Club
Breaking news: This afternoon, the Long Beach Fencing Club won the Design a Fence contest with its streetwise, flexible, and budget-minded modular wheat paste concept (above). More details to come… Congratulations to the Long Beach Fencing Club and thanks to the judges!
-
Plans
We’ve been sharing a lot of information and images pertaining to the Psychic Temple’s past. Here are some recent plans for the building’s future. They aren’t finalized, but they hint at how the structure is being reimagined and repurposed as a creative space. Above: Basement, first floor. Below: Becond floor, third floor.
-
Psychic Cleansing
After the Psychic Temple, which was valued at $35,000, was purchased in the wake of scandal and via auction by Anna Sewell for $2,910.09. She renamed the American Hotel, and the narrow spaces where Dr. D.W. Price’s “psychic healing” took place became rooms for rent with shared bathrooms at the ends of each floor. Most…
-
The Graffiti Room
Although the Psychic Temple has been boarded up for roughly a decade, it has not been vacant. Plenty of evidence can be found in one of the second floor’s green rooms. “Last of a dieing [sic] breed.”
-
Colors
Before renovation began, the Psychic Temple looked rather bleak from the outside. However, the interior was once quite colorful. Even after the initial demolition, many of the remaining surfaces revealed a springlike palette.