MILESTONES.

Kuo and his team has contributed to important milestones in Los Angeles history. In 2014 Andrew Meieran asked PSGX to include in its scope; to relocate the oldest continuous illuminated Neon in the world! PSGX was up for the challenge and with careful planning and execution - successfully moved the near 80 year old neon from its original location about 20 paces to the lobby landing in Cliftons' Cafeteria.  The challenge wasn't so much the move, but the criteria that in order for the this neon tube to be qualified into the Guinness World Records - the neon had to remain charged, or on during the entire process! Our team, had to first carefully brace, then remove the glass tube, while carefully jumping the electrode from the old transformer onto a new transformer in order to keep the neon illuminated during the entire process. The move took nearly 4 hrs of careful planning and execution. 

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A year later, Kuo, PSGX was awarded the bid to restore the oldest and largest blade sign on the entire west coast, perhaps southwest. The 12 story 'Commercial Exchange' blade sign at the Freehand Hotel at 8th and Olive in Downtown Los Angeles. The near 130' foot tall sign built in 1924, has since sat dormant for over the past 50 years, and building remained mostly vacant since the late 80s. The Commercial Exchange sign presented many challenges, including evicting dozens of pigeons and over a hundred lbs of their nesting from over the decades. Another few hundred lbs of the original transformers, broken glass, hardware and decayed metal panels. The patch work and restoration took nearly 6 weeks on scaffold, another 2 weeks of touch ups. Kuo was directed by Sydell Project Manager, Alex Baum-Stein to maintain the age of the sign - thus we applied by brush, multiple coats of thinned paint in order to match the new panels to the original tone. The goal was to capture the age and oxidation, allowing that natural patina to 'grin' through. Our crew had to walk all the neon up the stairs in order to avoid breakage. A very interesting and historic find, during removal the original "O" was still intact - and may perhaps be the oldest existing working neon in the world!