At the beginning, store owner Bev Ashcraft declared she'd rebuild the community landmark as close to its familiar, original version as possible. In keeping with that choice, the seminal new building, now shrouded in netting draped over it to protect passers-by from falling bits of stucco, has recently sported a feature that goes back to the store's earliest days. That would be the turret, overlooking Half Moon Bay from the building's southeast corner at Main Street and Kelly Avenue.
And in keeping with the Coastside, that turret is a community effort.
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"This feels great," Ffortissimo said. "It's a lot of work, but it's a little involvement with the community."
The original building, constructed in the early 1800s, sported a turret. It was part of the original construction style that incorporated beautifully carved woodwork such as what Ashcraft described as "that fancy gingerbread around the windows." But the wood did not hold up over time, and in the 1940s, after the war, it was taken down and replaced with stucco.
"I felt (the turret) should have been put back on someday," Ashcraft said. "I'm glad to see it back."
Ffortissimo, an accomplished artisan and metalworker, leaped at the chance. But his time was tight, and so he approached some of his students to help.
Enso offers an "ArtLabs" art class series, which explores different artistic media with a project at the conclusion. This class, with seven Coastside students, is now part of rebuilding Cunha's.
"You don't get that many opportunities to actually, hands-on, rebuild something that matters," said student Erin Tormey.
To create the decorative finial at the top of the turret, Ffortissimo chose 16-ounce copper, which means there will be one pound of copper per square foot in the finished product.
He decided on copper for the finial because of its longevity and malleability, he said. "Copper lasts a couple of hundred years," he said. And, "It lets you do whatever."
He decided on a watertight design topped with hand-cut shingles in graduated widths from the top down. He made the prototype shingle.
The rest of the work is up to the students. Besides Tormey, they include Lisa Petridis, Silvia Teng, Kathy Bristol, Vicky Cormack, Janet Kern and Alexander Meyer.
"The students are very excited," said Ffortissimo. "It's a lot of teamwork."
They are hand-cutting each shingle in its respective size. Then they are softening the edges, shaping them to make rain flow off easily, and refining the edges.
"We do 16 (more) times what I did, again," said Ffortissimo.
All the while, they are participating in the rebuilding of history. Ffortissimo says that he plans that the turret work will be done by or around March 5, "God willing."
"This is a neat thing for the class," Tormey said.
When Cunha's burned in May of last year, she continued, "it affected a lot of people on the gut level. So many of them wanted to do something, but they didn't know what. In doing this, it presents them with an opportunity to actually do something."
One of the things the whole class is doing, is making Ashcraft happy.
"It's just beautiful," she said. "Mauro does a beautiful job."
The metalworking class meets every Thursday from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. at Enso, located at 131 Kelly Ave. in Half Moon Bay. Anyone who wants to join in the Cunha's effort is welcome, said Ffortissimo.
"If somebody wants to, they certainly should," he said.
Call Enso at 726-1409.
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