Mission San Antonio de Padua

Originally built in the early 19th century, Mission San Antonio de Padua is one the three California missions founded by Father Junipero Serra. By the late 1800s, the mission was vacated and the adobe structures fell into disrepair. Between 1948 and 1952, the mission underwent a significant restoration, including the reconstruction of lost structures. This campaign restored the extant church and rebuilt buildings of the convento by recreating adobe bricks, as the mission was originally constructed. The restoration covered the building walls with cement plaster and rebuilt the wood framed roofs to support the Spanish clay tile roofs.

Architectural Resources Group authored an Historic Structures Report to help guide a seismic upgrade project for the mission. ARG Conservation Services augmented the findings of this report by working with the architect to verify both the composition of the mission buildings and their existing conditions.

Utilizing a combination of both non-destructive and judicious exploratory techniques, ARG Conservation Services was able to assess the conditions of the wood elements of the building, examine the composition of the walls, floor slabs, and historic campanario (belfry) structure. A team of specialized masons and conservators examined the buildings using infrared thermography, borescopic investigations, and core drilling. The information gathered provided the architect and engineers valuable data regarding the structure and allowed them to formulate a historically sensitive seismic upgrade solution.