Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "adaptive reuse"

Historic Home Tour in Marshall School Neighborhood

2011-09-12T19:57:35Z

Sacramento Old City Association 36th Annual Home Tour
What: A tour of 8 historic buildings in the Marshall School neighborhood, and street fair at 27th and J Street.
When: Sunday, September 18, 10:00 AM-4:00 PM
Where: Marshall Park, 27th & J Street, Sacramento
How Much: $20 in advance, $25 day of event

On Sunday, September 18, the Sacramento Old City Association (SOCA) presents its 36th annual tour of historic homes in Sacramento’s central city. Each year, we offer an inside look into the beautiful and historic buildings that line Midtown and Downtown streets, and some of the newest infill development projects in the city. This year’s tour of the Marshall School neighborhood, in the northeastern quarter of the central city between F and J Street, features homes in the Queen Anne, Craftsman and Neoclassic styles. In addition to seven residential buildings, this year's tour includes a rare inside look at the Sacramento Eastern Star Temple, a National Register listed 1925 Romanesque Revival building.

The tour starts at Marshall Park, at the corner of 27th and J Street. A street fair at the park features local contractors, architects, builders and artisans specializing in historic home rehab and remodeling, local businesses, artists and crafters displaying their wares, local nonprofits, advocacy and local history organizations.

Local musicians Tender Cinders, Garage Jazz Architects, The Freebadge Serenaders, and Emile Dalkey will perform at the street fair in the center of Marshall Park, starting at 11:00 AM.

Those attending the tour will get an inside, guided tour through each building, provided by volunteer docents, including members of the Marshall School New Era Park Neighborhood Association, SOCA, and the Sacramento Art Deco Society. Tour participants can also show their tour wristband for a 15% discount in the restaurants of the nearby Sutter District. The tour costs $25 on the day of the event, or $20 in advance via www.brownpapertickets.com. The street fair is free and open to the public.

Started in 1975, the SOCA Home Tour was created to showcase historic homes in neglected central city neighborhoods. Members showed off their home-repair projects and shared techniques, tools and advice. As these neighborhoods became the Sacramento region’s favorite destination for culture and entertainment, the home tour has grown into a celebration of central city life, including art, culture, business, transportation and transit, entertainment, history, downtown living, and the irreplaceable beauty of Sacramento’s historic neighborhoods. The tour is also a fundraiser that helps SOCA carry out its mission to preserve and enhance a high quality of life for Central City residents, businesses, working people and visitors.

Tickets can be purchased online at https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/187298
For more information about SOCA, visit http://www.sacoldcity.org

Sponsored in part by Midtown Monthly Magazine, The Sutter District restaurants, and Midtown Business Association

Disclosure: William Burg is a board member of the Sacramento Old City Association.

"The Greenest Building" Film Showing at Crest Theatre July 25

2011-07-18T06:55:43Z

What: The Greenest Building Documentary Film, followed by a panel discussion on the connections between historic preservation, green building and economic sustainability.
When: Monday, July 25 at 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM (Movie 7:00 PM, discussion panel 8:00 PM)
Where: The Crest Theatre, 1013 K Street, Sacramento
How Much: Free!

Over the next 20 years, Americans will demolish one third of our existing building stock (over 82 billion square feet) in order to replace seemingly inefficient buildings with energy efficient “green” structures. Is demolition in the name of sustainability really the best use of natural, social, and economic resources? Or, like the urban renewal programs of the 1960’s, is this well-intentioned planning with devastating environmental and cultural consequences?

On Monday, July 25th, “The Greenest Building,” a new hour-long documentary by Eugene, Oregon film producer Jane Turville, will be screened at the Crest Theatre, 1013 K Street, Sacramento. The film presents a compelling overview of the important role building reuse plays in creating sustainable communities. Narrated by David Ogden Stiers, “The Greenest Building” explores the myth that a “green building” is a new building and demonstrates how renovation and adaptive reuse of existing structures fully achieves the sustainability movement’s “triple bottom line” - economic, social, and ecological balance. The film reveals: (a) how reuse and reinvestment in the existing built environment leads to stronger local economies that can compete on a global scale, (b) that sense of place and collective memory, while intangible, are critical components of strong sustainable communities, and (c) the direct correlation between reuse of existing buildings and a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, degradation of the natural environment and overuse of precious natural resources.

If you are interested in buildings, community development, sustainable communities or just plain want to find out if existing buildings really are worth keeping, plan to attend this special event. “The Greenest Building” starts at 7:00 pm. The panel discussion starts at 8:00 PM, and will feature Matt Piner of Pinerworks Architecture, Roberta Deering, LEED AP BD+C, Senior Planner for Historic Preservation, City of Sacramento Community Development Department, Bay Miry of D&S Development, Ray Nalangan of SMUD, Susan Rainier, AIA, LEED AP, of USGBC and UC Davis, and Craig Hausman, AIA, Hausman Architecture. This panel will help relate the ideas presented in the film the film to recently completed and upcoming preservation projects in Sacramento.

From the film's website:

"At the start of “The Greenest Building” narrator David Ogden-Stiers poses the question “Might it be that the greenest building is the one that is already there?” The answer at the end of the film is true for buildings, as well as all consumer products – “Reuse is key to triple-bottom-line sustainability.” Why? When we reuse any consumer product, whether it be a plastic milk jug or a ten story building, we automatically reduce our consumption of natural resources as well as recycle that item either for its original purpose or for a new purpose. An item doesn’t necessarily have to change physically (as in plastic bottles into carpet) in order to be recycled. In fact, synonyms for “recycle” include “reprocess”, “salvage”, “recover”, and “reuse”. In building reuse, it’s often called “adaptive reuse.”"--Jane Turville, producer

This film is presented by the Sacramento Old City Association (SOCA) in conjunction with Wagging Tale Productions and the assistance of the Crest Theatre.

For more information, visit http://www.sacoldcity.org or www.thegreenestbuildingmovie.com.

The Sacramento Old City Association promotes actions that preserve and enhance a high quality of life for Central City residents, businesses, working people and visitors. The organization works to achieve balanced and harmonious relationships among residential, commercial and employment uses in the Central City.

Disclosure: William Burg is a board member of the Sacramento Old City Association.

City To Demolish Landmark "Bel-Vue" Building

2009-07-03T21:28:18Z

The city of Sacramento has announced its plans to demolish the Bel-Vue Apartments, a registered city landmark, in order to clear land on 8th Street for a potential future parking structure.

Located adjacent to the now-vacant corner of 8th and K Street, the Bel-Vue was built in 1910 as the American Cash Apartments. Built in the Craftsman style with Asian overtones, the three-story brick building contains apartments above a commercial ground floor. When the Bel-Vue was built, it was one of many downtown apartment buildings. If it was built today, the Bel-Vue would be described as a mixed-use, transit-oriented infill project. The building is currently owned by the city of Sacramento’s housing and redevelopment agency, the result of a complex land exchange between Mohammed “Mo” Mohanna, Z Gallerie owner Joe Zeiden, and the city of Sacramento. This land exchange was part of the currently stalled plans to rehabilitate the 700 block of K Street.

The city’s plan is to prepare an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) containing two possible alternatives for buildings to be built on the site, and then demolish the existing buildings. One alternative is a pair of residential towers 300 feet high, running from K Street to L Street along 8th, originally proposed by former owner Mohanna and developers John Saca (of the failed 301 Capitol Mall project) and John Lambeth. The other alternative is a 300 foot hotel tower at the corner of 8th and K, currently vacant, and a six-story parking structure on the site of the Bel-Vue and the other buildings at the corner of 8th and L. There is no developer or investor specified in the EIR notice of preparation; the city of Sacramento plans to create the EIR and demolish the Bel-Vue and nearby buildings on speculation, in case a developer appears who is interested in constructing the buildings the city has proposed for the site.

When the city of Sacramento acquired the Bel-Vue building and its neighbors, it was an occupied apartment building with several retail tenants on the ground floor. There were also commercial tenants in the adjacent buildings, and apartments above most of those buildings. The city of Sacramento evicted the residents, and today only one retail establishment, a Chinese restaurant, occupies the Bel-Vue, aside from a parking garage in one of the buildings facing L Street.

All of the buildings on the site have a role in local history. 815 L Street, constructed in 1915, was most recently the site of a nightclub of the same name. In 1957, the site was one of the original Sam’s Hof Brau locations. The side of the building, invisible from the street, still bears a painted mural advertising Sam’s. La Rosa, an Italian restaurant opened in 1927, occupied the site before the Hof Brau. On the corner of 8th and L is the Feldhusen Building, a two-story building with ground floor retail and residences upstairs. It was built in 1895 and remodeled in 1954. It was home to many businesses including grocery stores, dressmakers, and the Diamond Club Tavern card room.
Buildings like the Bel-Vue were once commonplace in Sacramento, but over the years they have become very rare.

Today, some developers seek out historic buildings for residential projects, converting them into modern apartments or condominiums. Local companies like D&S Development (http://www.dandsdev.com) have completed projects like the Old Sacramento iLofts and 1409 R, and are now restoring the historic Maydestone Apartments at 16th & J Street. Architect Mike Malinowski, contractor Bruce Booher and CFY Development helped convert the Globe Mills grain mill complex into unique residential lofts. At the Railyards, developer Thomas Enterprises will make the historic Southern Pacific shops buildings the focal point of a new downtown neighborhood. Other adaptive reuse projects like the Citizen Hotel, MARRS, the Cosmopolitan and the Firestone Building show how vacant historic buildings can be made into exciting, unique urban destinations. Projects like these are often more popular than newly-built projects because they offer one-of-a-kind places to live, work and play in an urban setting. They appeal to those who want to be close to the action of the central city and their downtown workplaces, or just like the unique character of historic buildings. Instead of demolishing the Bel-Vue, the building could easily be repaired and returned to its role as a place to live, with businesses on the street to serve downtown’s residents. Restoration of historic buildings is also a greener option than new construction, as it needs far fewer building materials and requires far less landfill space (where the demolished building’s components would end up.) If sales of recent projects like the 1409 R lofts (opened in April and already two-thirds sold) are any indication, these projects are popular even in slow economic markets, while urban infill projects in new buildings are far less successful. Historic buildings can also qualify for tax credits and other incentives that can make rehabilitation cheaper than demolition and new construction. In the right hands, the Bel-Vue could be a gorgeous, attainable new home for Sacramento’s residents for another hundred years.

In recent years, the city of Sacramento has seen many proposed projects fail to materialize. The failure of projects like John Saca’s 301 Capitol Mall towers at 3rd and Capitol resulted in ugly, gaping pits in our city’s urban fabric. Projects like the 700/800 block, bogged down by unexpected resistance and a poor economy, sit languishing, waiting for a better plan to appear. Projects that encourage the demolition of landmarks encourage speculators to allow their historic downtown properties to sit vacant, deteriorating for years or even decades, with the hope of an eventual skyscraper-shaped payoff that may never arrive. More forward-thinking developers could turn the same buildings into Sacramento's urban showpieces.

No developer or investor has been named by the city to actually build this project or pay for it, and even if a developer and/or investor does arrive, if they want to make significant changes to the plan they would need to complete a new environmental document, making this effort worthless. The sacrifice of one of Sacramento’s irreplaceable historic buildings would be for nothing. And even if the city’s long shot is successful, and a developer does build the project, we will lose a historic landmark and a quarter-block of potentially useful buildings for a six-story parking garage in a neighborhood with many underutilized parking garages.

To give public comment about this issue, contact Jennifer Hageman of the City of Sacramento’s Community Development Department at jhageman@cityofsacramento.org or (916)808-5538. Written comments should be sent to Jennifer Hageman, City of Sacramento Community Development Department, 300 Richards Boulevard, Sacramento, CA 95811. Comments are due before 4:00 PM on July 27, 2009.