If you have transvered the intersection of Tuolomne and Broadway, you have no doubt noticed the progress on the construction on the Mayflower building. We’ve written before about the interesting design from Pasadena based developers Jake & Romi.
I got a sneak peak tour today with Jake (@JakeKojikian). Below are a sampling of photos. This where just shot with my phone, it looks much better in person.
You’re in luck, there is an open house tomorrow, Saturday July 23rd 11am-2pm. Show up and take a look. It is a great example of taking an historic building and reinventing it for modern use while still respecting its history.
Below is an email being circulated from Craig Scharton. Until today he was the Director of the Downtown and Community Revitalization Department. His new position will be Assistant Director of the larger Development and Resource Management Department. That department included the Building and Safety Division, Code Enforcement, Housing Division and Planning Division. The department director is John Dugan. There used to be two assistant directors, Keith Bergthold and Jerry Bishop. Jerry Bishop retired last year and his position was left unfilled.
Dear Colleagues: As many of you may have heard, the City of Fresno is rethinking the way it has done business, in order to find solutions to the current budget crisis. As a way to create better efficiency and communication, the Downtown and Community Revitalization Department is merging with the Development and Resource Management Department. I will become the Assistant Director of this Department and will oversee economic development, downtown management, housing and community revitalization (formerly code enforcement). In addition, the historic preservation program will be under this side of the shop.
The City Manager has asked Karana Hattersley-Drayton, the City’s Historic Preservation Project Manager, to also serve as the Historic Preservation Commission Secretary, as she did for several months in 2010.
Historic Preservation is an ethic. Not only is it a personal ethic of mine, it is an ethic shared by successful revitalization efforts throughout the country. This reorganization will allow us to more completely integrate historic preservation into all of our revitalization activities. I look forward to working with Karana, the Historic Preservation Commission and the greater preservation community!
It just like nosy Tower District residents to go poking around the piles of rubble that is Olvie and Wishon this week. What did they find? Remnants of Fresno’s old streetcar rails, according to the TowerExchange listserve and Paula Lyod’s article is today’s Bee.
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Ironicly Fast Track Fresno County is studying putting back streetcars that were taken out some 70 years ago.
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Check out some awesome photos from the Fresno Bee and historical perspective on Fresno streetcars. Fresno Famous had info about this back in 2006.
So what do you think?
Should they be replaced?
Is Fresno too much of a car town?
Is that technology too old anyway?
Is there some other creative adaptive reuse of the rails rather than just recycling them?
Have you noticed all the construction happening in the Cultural Arts District these days?
Another cool project under construction to add to the list is the Mayflower Hotel on Broadway just North of Tuolumne. The Building owners are Jake Kojikian and Romi Baghgegian. They also are the owners of the renovated Hotel Virginia on Kern and the Hotel Fresno that is still deteriorating and been the subject of lawsuits between the city and previous owner.
The three-story brick building is a simple form and once used as a hotel. The proposed design shows a modern exoskeleton and living wall that wrap the midsection of the building. This form contains the function as exterior walk ways on the side and new penthouse on the roof.
No word yet on the floor plans and what the interiors will looks like. Check back here for updates.
Shown here is the existing building with scaffolding around it. Also below is an rendered images of the facade, courtesy of the Redevelopment Agency of Fresno.
In August, 2009 the Agency entered an agreement with the owners of the Mayflower Lofts project at 1417 Broadway in the Uptown area. The Mayflower Building is a three story brick structure, former residential hotel, that has long been vacant. The proposed project consists of 15 rental units with 8 affordable units in consideration for Agency financial assistance in the project. Below are conceptual designs of the project, still in the design and entitlement process. The project is expected to commence later in 2010
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I wonder if this post will be stumbled upon by elementary school students doing a report on the Pilgrims. There are no Pilgrims in Fresno.
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Modernism was a movement. It encompassed art, architecture, culture, music. It substantially changed the world specifically the built environment.
There is a subset of modernism that should be of interest to Fresnans. That is mid-century modernism.
Interest in Fresno’s mid-century modern architecture has been growing slowly for a few years. On individual that has been an imputous for this is realtor, Eldon Daetweiler. When he moved to Fresno, he realized our mid-century modern building stock rivaled southern California and Palm Springs but did not have the same levels of community appreciation and tourism. He hoped to change that by focusing on the niche with www.fresnomodern.com
In 2008 the City of Fresno commissioned the Mid-Century Modernism Historic Context that was prepared by Lauren MacDonald, PRA, Inc. The overview includes information and interviews with leading architects and designers who worked in Fresno from 1940-1970. (Download PDF, 6.5mb)
I think National Architecture Week of 2010 was a tipping point for Fresno’s growing interest in mid-century modern. We hosted two events with a distinct mid-century focus. The first was a showing of Visual Acoustic: The Modernism of Julius Shulman. The second was a walking tour of downtown Fresno mid-century modern architecture. I’m calling this the tipping point because for the first time the leaders of what is becoming a mid-century modern movement in Fresno were in the same place at the same time.
At that same time the Fulton Mall was being reviewed by the California State Historic Resources Commission. The Fulton Mall is perhaps the most iconic yet controversial pieces of mid-century modern design in Fresno. This groups formation in many ways catalyzed by strong opinions against the Mall’s nomination including Mayor Ashley Swearengin’s strong opinion letter to the State Historic Preservation Office regarding the Fulton Mall’s nomination for Historic Designation (PDF). Swearengin wrote “Beyond the procedural defects, the nomination itself is a fundamentally flawed attempt to preserve what amounts to a failed urban renewal experiment that has bankrupted every effort to revitalize Downtown Fresno for decades.”
Building from this common interest in mid-century modern and the conflict of the Fulton Mall a modern movement began. There was a push by 8 individuals including myself to educate, protect and preserve Fresno’s mid-century modern architecture and landscape. This manifested as two Facebook groups “Save the Fulton Mall!!!” and “Mid-Century Modern Fresno” As of now the two groups have 1,059 and 433 fan respectively and are growing every day.
It is exciting to be a part of this movement. I feel it really has the potential impacting the shape Fresno’s built environment. This movement goes from virtual to physical this Saturday. We will be gathering for the Grand Party on the Fulton Mall. There will be some great acoustic music, great people and the shops, restaurants, and merchants of Mall will be at your service. See the flyer below and join the modern movement.
Cameron Sinclair of Architecture for Humanity can often be found half way across the world doing some good. Most recently he was in Cambodia. He posted the video below that I thought was interesting. It actually reminded me of what happened recently with the Kress Building.
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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 of the Downtown Breakfast earlier that week, Cliff Tutelian was praised for the investment he’s done over the years in downtown Fresno. Specifically, according the the Fresno Bee, he “invested more than $10 million in the landmark International Trade Center in downtown Fresno, preserving what original 1920s-era architectural features he could and replicating those he couldn’t.”
However, not mentioned in the article is the architect whose specialization in historic preservation made the project a reality, Chis Johnson AIA. It is common for Fresno news to forget to mention the architect, so that is to be expected. But the thing that caught me more off guard is that other key facts of the story were glossed over by the Fresno Bee and mayor Ashley Swearengin in their praise of Cliff Tutilian and the beautiful International Trade Center.
The fact is that Tutilian refused to pay the Johnson Architecture fees for completing the design and construction documents for the renovation. It had even gotten the the point that Johnson Architecture had to fill suit against Tutilian & Company for non payment of fees.
In classic litigation fashion, Tutilain filed a counter suit against Johnson for failing to complete services. If you have been in the building, you’d be hard pressed to argue that it is incomplete or that there were any aspect of the design that the architect didn’t execute with expertise.
So you can see that I was simple baffled hearing all this praise while knowing a little more of the truth. In Fresno, I dream of the day when there is a level of respect for our architects and accountability of our developers.
I’d like to call on Cliff Tutilian to accept the praise that you received for the International Trade Center as a sign that your architect did a fantastic job, drop you lawsuit and pay your fees in full.
*due to ongoing litigation, I did not try to reach either party for comment.
