{"id":4710,"date":"2020-01-07T12:55:13","date_gmt":"2020-01-07T18:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/?p=4710"},"modified":"2020-01-07T13:03:23","modified_gmt":"2020-01-07T19:03:23","slug":"paul-helmer-and-garrett-wilson-15-preserving-and-restoring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/2020\/01\/07\/paul-helmer-and-garrett-wilson-15-preserving-and-restoring\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Helmer and Garrett Wilson ’15: Preserving and Restoring"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paul Helmer
\n<\/strong>As a child, Paul Helmer would often make suggestions to his mother about ways to improve the way their home looked. But his mother would tell him no, because no one in the neighborhood was doing it. \u201cAnd I\u2019d say, \u2018that\u2019s why we should do it!\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

That creative thinking and love of art and architecture continued throughout his childhood, and as Helmer grew up, he came to appreciate St. Joseph\u2019s architecture more and more.<\/p>\n

The St. Joseph Historical Society was most likely pretty surprised when Helmer, still a student at Central High School, started attending Society meetings.<\/p>\n

And his love for historical buildings and architecture has never waned.<\/p>\n

Helmer attended Missouri Western for three years before transferring to Kansas State University to earn an architecture degree. He started his business, Touch of Distinction, in Kansas City about 40 years ago and has completed restoration projects all over the United States, including several in St. Joseph.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went into architecture because I grew up in St. Joseph, and architecture was everywhere, and I could see the beauty of the city and the things that made it unique,” he said. \u201cIt\u2019s the idiosyncrasies that make our cities beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Calling himself both a conservationist and architect, Helmer\u2019s business offers color consultations, faux painting, landscapes, interior design and more for both commercial and residential buildings.<\/p>\n

He completed work on St. Patrick\u2019s Catholic Church and the Twin Spires church (\u201cthe most beautiful church in the city\u201d) in St. Joseph, and recently restored the exterior of the 1890 Krug Mansion. He also restored the original French wallpaper in the Shakespeare Chateau Inn and Gardens in St. Joseph.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a delight,\u201d he said of the Shakespeare project. \u201cI try to bring things back as close to the original as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

And although he lives in Kansas City, Helmer has always remained involved in St. Joseph\u2019s preservation efforts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen someone says no, I say, \u2018why not?\u2019 I always look at alternatives to demolition. The buildings are so beautiful; how can you tear them down?\u201d<\/p>\n

His final graduation project at Kansas State was creating a plan to restore Warehouse Row on 4th<\/sup> Street in downtown St. Joseph, which included converting the upper floors to apartments and filling the ground level with commercial properties. That\u2019s where the Fourth Street Lofts and Boudreaux\u2019s Louisiana Seafood and Steaks are today. And many elements of his senior project, a renovation plan for the Buchanan County Courthouse, made their way into the work that began on it two years later.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we tear down a masterpiece of art and architecture, we lose a piece of ourselves; we lose the connection with those who have gone before us,\u201d Helmer said. \u201cWe are not just preserving beautiful old buildings, we are preserving history.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/133\/2020\/01\/Wilson-Garrett-3-scaled.jpg\"Garrett Wilson \u201915
\n<\/strong>Garrett Wilson \u201915 may be young, but he still appreciates the past and wants to do his part to preserve it. In 2017, he started his own business, GKW Restoration, <\/strong>which specializes in historic masonry restoration such as tuckpointing, stone replacement and patching, brick replacement, masonry cleaning, and new masonry projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cI enjoy being able to stand back at the end of project and look at the before and after photos,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cI like to see how far the project came, knowing we did it correctly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilson, who was born in St. Joseph and grew up in Kansas City, started at Missouri Western right out of high school and played golf his freshman year. He thought he wanted to go into banking, but then decided no.<\/p>\n

Wilson got married and switched to part-time college and full-time work. He began working in construction, and then he knew what he wanted to do. Wilson earned an economics degree from Missouri Western and worked as a project manager for a construction company before starting his own business.<\/p>\n

When he became an entrepreneur just two years ago, he had one employee. Today, there are 30 employees and the company has grown to do millions of dollars in annual revenue. Wilson has offices in Kansas City and Manhattan, Kansas; and plans to open more in the future.<\/p>\n

However, he is quick to credit his wife when it comes to the success of the business.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to mention how big a part that my wife, Maria, has played, and still plays, in the success of the company. She puts up with my 70-hour work weeks and is used to me leaving before the sun comes up and coming home at 8 p.m. She knows that I am not the kind of person that can work a 9-5 job, and she stays at home with the kids so I can do my thing. I couldn\u2019t do it without her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilson says when you are restoring historic buildings, you have to not only learn the skills to restore the brick or stone, but you have to keep up with the regulations and historic preservation requirements, and he enjoys that aspect of the business.<\/p>\n

He is involved in Young Preservationists KC, an affiliate group of Historic Kansas City, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation of the area\u2019s heritage and neighborhoods. GKW Restoration is also a member of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which protects and supports significant historic places and structures across the United States.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Paul Helmer As a child, Paul Helmer would often make suggestions to his mother about ways to improve the way their home looked. But his mother would tell him no, because no one in the neighborhood was doing it. \u201cAnd I\u2019d say, \u2018that\u2019s why we should do it!\u2019\u201d he said. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23,62,33],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4710"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4710"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4710\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4712,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4710\/revisions\/4712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.missouriwestern.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}