Project profile: A national historic landmark in California

By Emma Peterson.

20 roof decks, three crane deliveries, a shutdown of traffic and a lot of hard work went into restoring the Mission Inn.

The Mission Inn Hotel and Spa is known as a premier luxury California destination and has been a staple in the Riverside, California community. It was first founded in 1876 as a boarding house by Frank Miller. By 1903, the hotel was expanded to over 200 rooms, all built in Mission-Revival style. The hotel has seen many notable guests, including “U.S. Presidents Roosevelt, Taft, Hoover, Nixon, Reagan and Bush Jr.; social leaders such as Booker T. Washington, Susan B. Anthony, Amelia Earhart, Albert Einstein, Helen Keller and John Muir; and entertainers including Judy Garland, Bette Davis, Clark Gable, Tom Hanks, Barbra Streisand and James Brolin.”  

More recently in 2023, the historic and treasured landmark, now over 150 years old, was in need of a new roof. That’s where Veirs Kluk Roofing (VK) came into the picture. VK was quick to put a bid in when they heard about the project. Thomas Hayward, VK’s project executive, shared a bit of what this project means to him and his small team, saying, “VK has been in Riverside for 75 years. To reroof the crown jewel of Riverside, that's the feather in our cap and the biggest capstone project we've had so far.”

And it truly was a big undertaking. It took eight revisions to the original bid and six job walks to come to the final scope of the project, which started at 30% of the hotel and grew to almost 85%. On top of the growing amount of sheer work, there was the compounding factor that Mission Inn is an operating hotel and needed to stay that way. Only the top floors were able to be closed during the project.  

Luckily, VK wasn’t tackling these challenges alone. Justis Massey, a regional sales director for Beacon Building Products, shared how they came in to help the local team, saying, “On a project like this, Beacon steps in to review the details, visit the jobsite and provide accurate, competitive pricing. We establish loading schedules, align on timing and processes, and coordinate with the branch. Our goal is to help contractors submit accurate bids and deliver materials on a schedule that keeps the project moving.”

In the end, VK completed the project on September 4, 2024, about a year after they first submitted a bid for the project. The process wasn’t without its hiccups, ballasted flat roofs, historic tiles and material loading offered unique challenges along the way, but through communication and collaboration everything was completed with only two complaints from hotel guests total. Both Thomas and Justis shared some thoughts on what factors lead to the project’s success. Thomas explained that communication “was probably the sole reason why this thing went as smooth as it did — getting the information to whoever needed it as soon as possible.” Justis added that the team that was brought together was also crucial. He shared, “Our team — consisting of the outside sales representative, key account manager, branch manager and contractor — worked together seamlessly to keep the project running smoothly.”

Learn more about the project here.