Kelley Park: Japanese Friendship Garden
The primary focus of this project was the reassembly and reinforcement of a large granite lantern in San Jose's Kelley Park Japanese Friendship Garden. The park was dedicated in 1965, and was designed to resemble a famous garden in Okayama, Japan. The garden contains many Japanese style granite lanterns, most of which are reproductions. The lantern in this project, however, is an original that was donated to the park. It is estimated to have been carved in Japan 400 years ago.
The lantern consists of six separate pieces, which were originally assembled at the Friendship Garden using only a thin layer of epoxy between each piece. In 2011, the lantern was hit by a vehicle and a number of pieces were knocked to the ground. These pieces were cleaned, reinforced, and reassembled.
The granite of this lantern had accumulated significant staining from biological growth, dirt, previous polymer based coatings, and excess epoxy.
The old epoxy was removed mechanically, and a variety of products were used to restore the original appearance of this lantern. These products included strippers, chemical cleaners, and biological growth remover.
Templates were used to lay out holes for reinforcement pins. Four to six holes were drilled in each piece.
Four to six stainless steel pins were installed between each piece using knife grade epoxy.
In areas where minor chipping or spalling had occurred, a custom composite patching mortar was used to repair the breakage. Crushed granite granules of various colors and sizes were used as aggregate in the mortar, to match the lantern in shape, color and texture.
