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California High Speed Rail – Fresno station AIASJ 2009 Design Awards Decade in Review: Top 10 in Fresno Architecture Penstar Group purchases Bank of Italy Building archop park: Make A Difference Day Well Church responds to controversy over Neighborhood Thrift mural City of Fresno selects Moule & Polyzoides as Downtown Specific Plan consultant
 
California High Speed Rail – Fresno station

California High Speed Rail – Fresno station

There is much anticipation for the California High-Speed Rail and the transformative properties it may have on Fresno. With state and federal money now allotted to the project, it is hard to curb my enthusiasm about the idea. After all we must be realistic that it will be several years if not a decade or [...]

AIASJ 2009 Design Awards

AIASJ 2009 Design Awards

The American Institute of Architects has long set the bar for quality design in the United States. The organization awards buildings and architects that are contributers to a high quality built environment. Awards are given by the national, state and local chapters of the organization. The AIA San Joaquin has a bi-annual awards program. Projects [...]

Decade in Review: Top 10 in Fresno Architecture

Decade in Review: Top 10 in Fresno Architecture

Inspired by an article that John King wrote for the San Francisco Chronicle, we decided to do a Decade in Review article to identify the 10 best buildings representing Fresno architecture. Our parameters were that the buildings be in Fresno County with construction completed between 2000 and 2009. The reviewers were Joe Moore, president of [...]

Penstar Group purchases Bank of Italy Building

Penstar Group purchases Bank of Italy Building

In Fresno, CA there is only one building on the Fulton Mall that is also on the National Register of Historic Places. That is the Bank of Italy Building. A new owner of the building was announced today in a press conference hosted by the City of Fresno. The new owner is the Penstar Group, [...]

archop park: Make A Difference Day

archop park: Make A Difference Day

Saturday was a very active day in the Lowell Neighborhood. Hundreds of volunteers met up at Lowell Elementary School to kick of HandsOn Central California’s Make A Difference Day. This is an annual event that focuses local volunteers on one neighborhood with the hope of making a big difference. Mayor Ashley Swearengin was on hand [...]

Well Church responds to controversy over Neighborhood Thrift mural

Well Church responds to controversy over Neighborhood Thrift mural

Update 10/26/09 In a dramatic turn of events, the mural on the East wall of Neighborhood Thrift got spared from being painted over. In an outpouring of community support that involved emails, phone calls and a human wall in front of the mural the Neighborhood Thrift Board reconsidered it’s course of action. See The Fresno Beehive [...]

City of Fresno selects Moule & Polyzoides as Downtown Specific Plan consultant

City of Fresno selects Moule & Polyzoides as Downtown Specific Plan consultant

The City of Fresno’s Downtown and Revitalization Department has made an announcement on the consultant it selected to complete the Downtown and Neighborhood Specific Plans. The announcement came through a note from department director Craig Scharton on the Department Facebook page. See full announcement below. On Friday we announced that we have selected a team for [...]

1st Public Meeting for Fulton Corridor Specific & Downtown Neighborhood Community Plans

1st Public Meeting for Fulton Corridor Specific & Downtown Neighborhood Community Plans

10 March 2010

‘m in Portland for National Charrette Institute training. So , unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend the 1st public meeting for the creation of the Fulton Corridor Specific Plan and Downtown Neighborhood Community Plan. Though some discussion has been picking up on twitter. So did you attend? What were your thoughts and observations? I also will [...]

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speaking of façade improvements

speaking of façade improvements

09 March 2010

I posted about a bad façade job yesterday. Then today I saw some news in the Business Journal about Fresno County’s façade improvement program. It seems to be pretty effective. [PDF] It was a little reminder that the City of Fresno’s façade improvements are getting more and more behind. I mean if Caruthers businesses are [...]

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WTF: California Funding & Investments

WTF: California Funding & Investments

07 March 2010

This is the first of a reoccurring feature we will cal: What The Façade or WTF Every once in awhile you come across a building that is really well thought out, contextual and pleasing to the eye. This is not the case with the building below. One of our readers sent us the image below with [...]

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Specific Plans

Specific Plans

04 March 2010

The days of vague plans for downtown Fresno are over. It’s time to get specific. his is the hope of the Swearengin administration, Downtown Revitalization Department, The Planning and Development Department and a diversity of private citizens. The contract for the Fulton Corridor Specific Plan and the Downtown Neighborhoods Community Plan were approved by Fresno City [...]

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Developer pours millions into downtown landmark but refuses to pay architect

Developer pours millions into downtown landmark but refuses to pay architect

02 February 2010

On the front page of Saturday’s (1/29/10) Fresno Bee there ran another success story of downtown revitalization. However, after I read through the story, there were a few key details that were left out regarding the San Joaquin Light & Power Corporation Building aka International Trade Center. Both in the article and at the State [...]

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Still Fresno’s 1st & only Architecture & Built Environment Blog

Still Fresno’s 1st & only Architecture & Built Environment Blog

19 January 2010

A few week back I stumbled upon the first blog post I wrote on Fresno Famous. That was two years ago. I wrote a handful of posts on Famous before eventually branching out and creating this site. It’s awesome to see that I’ve implemented many of those ideas set back then. We’ve made great [...]

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