Horatio Warden Resurrected.

Following the 2004 San Simeon Earthquake, the City of San Luis Obispo enacted legislation requiring all unreinforced masonry buildings to undergo seismic retrofitting.  Over the course of the last five years, this has resulted in some pretty major construction work downtown, as much of the city’s oldest building stock was quite unsafe.  Thankfully, we can all worry less about having bricks rain down on our heads the next time an earthquake strikes this area.

In addition to improving public safety, many building owners have taken advantage of construction retrofits to give their older buildings some much needed repair and restoration work.  Beginning in the 1950′s, many building owners saw their cornice clad, ornamented and polychromed storefronts as anachronistic signs of days gone by.  Modernism was in, and so brick and stone were covered over in gleaming white planes of stucco.  Large plate glass windows and expansive storefronts were removed in favor of smaller aluminum frame windows and mechanical systems for lighting and cooling.  Like most attempts at building modernization, the results would be judged by the public as feeble.  

The Warden Block is one such example.  Built by a prominent local businessman more than a century ago, it was ruined in the 1950′s in an attempt to transform it from its late 19th century elegance into a bizarre attempt at the International Style. For nearly half of its life, the facade was wrapped in a formless layer of white stucco, with small holes punched for the windows.  The locally quarried granite was invisible.  The cast iron cornice removed.  

The building’s current owner, Rob Rossi, has spared little expense in his extensive retrofit and restoration of the building.  And while Rossi has had some difficulty finishing his work at other historic sites (Motor Inn, old French Hospital, the Fremont, etc), the Warden Block has been fully revived.  I’ve never met Rob Rossi, but I can appreciate his vision for this building.  It certainly could have been easy for him to ignore the restoration work that could be done while making the necessary seismic improvements to this building.  Likewise, it could have been easy for him to give the building a partially historic appearance using inexpensive modern means of construction. Instead, Rossi chose to make what I can only imagine was a huge investment in the careful restoration of this place using building materials that contribute to the age and history of Downtown.  The Warden Block serves as the standard by which other restored buildings should be judged.

Ringing in the New Year

I like bells.  I live a block away from the Mission, and I always get a thrill when I can hear bells ringing for Mass.  I have no idea what the Catholics do for worship, but they sure do it often.  There are several cadences the bell ringers ring out, and my favorite is the one they use for celebrations.  I can hear it on Saturdays after weddings, and at Christmas, New Years and Easter at midnight. 

The bells are hung in a fixed position, and rung by attaching a rope to the clapper.  This involves a crew of bellringers, and occasionally they can be spotted in the bellfry portico wearing hearing protection.  The fixed position of the bells is typical for the type of construction the unskilled mission builders employed.  More sophisticated constuction would have allowed the bells to pivot, or be struck by mechanical hammers.

First Presbyterian doesn’t have bells.  It does however have a mechanical bell system, which consists of air-raid type megaphones on top of the Hart Building that make bell-like sounds.  At least it sounds real.  The computer which runs the system is capable of mimicking all types of bell ringing, including the familiar Westminster Chimes and tolling of the hours (the little song played by just about every hall clock in the world) and carillon concerts featurings selected hymns played at noon and 5 p.m. everyday.  I like to play Name that Tune when I walk home at lunch. 

Erick and I got a key to the cabinet and “snuck” into the building to play the bells at midnight on New Year’s Eve.  I selected a bell “peal” which is common for celebrations in England and parts of the Anglo-world.  It sounds something like this.

I don’t know if anyone heard it, or enjoyed hearing it, but I certainly enjoyed making all that noise.  Maybe one day we’ll have some real bells.

Bridge over Concrete

 

Civil Engineers used to have a good eye.  Today, we in the architecture profession tend to loathe our CE friends for their practical nature and their disdain for aesthetics.  However, I am fairly certain it has not always been so.  A trip down the Los Angeles River (a figurative trip, that is, as the river is hardly navigable) reveals dozens of cleverly designed concrete bridges.  The spans are delightfully executed in styles from Beaux Arts to Streamline Moderne.  The most beautiful among these bridges, which can be found along the river from Figueroa in Atwater Village all the way down to the Alameda Corridor, span the river east of Downtown.  If you have seen any car commercial in the last four years, you’ve probably seen these bridges.  

Here are two photos of the 6th Street Viaduct, which connects Boyle Heights and the Arts (or Warehouse) District.  The span is suffering from Alkali-Silica Reaction, which will probably cause it to collapse in an earthquake of any significant magnitude.  Several plans are in the works to replace the span, and with it’s National Register designation, we can be hopeful that the next generation of civil engineers can design its replacement with a good eye too.