Quote:
Originally Posted by Jerry of San Fran
4/17/2017 10th St. at Howard St. This building which has some sort of historical designation is being re-purposed as an office space. The process is taking many years to complete. Due to declining attendance of the church & because the CC church could not afford the seismic upgrade the church sold the property.
I love the color of the exterior - much nicer than that flesh tone previously applied. The grey color brings out the architecture to my eye. Notice the seismic bracing on the south side of the structure. This is going to be a beautiful building when complete.
The slate roof tiles were removed, a new roof installed & the slate put back on. I was wondering if the crosses would be removed but they are being refinished & will remain. There is still a lot of work to be done. The bell towers are in a bad state of decay.
This is not great architecture but I am glad to see it rehabilitated as this kind of building will never be built again in San Francisco. Well, the new Greek Orthodox Church on Valencia Street is an exception . . . .
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- Agree the new color is better and probably closer to the original
- The roof work is standard. Modern (i.e. the last 150 years or so) slate and tile roofs, unlike ancient ones, were more decorative than waterproof. They depend on a waterproof membrane under the tiles or slate and that deteriorates over time in spite of the protection the tiles provide. Because this work is labor intensive and thus expensive (removing the tiles, replacing the membrane and replacing the tiles), too may homeowners opt to save money by having original tile roofs replaced with shingles or other types of roofs. That makes me sad.
- I disagree with you about the architecture. I've always loved this church and hoped it would find new life as something. It's certainly typical of so many late 19th century/early 20th century urban churches, most of which were built with vast numbers of small contributions from devout adherents to their faith. And these were people without a lot of money in most cases. As for the crosses, I'm pretty sure they would be covered by the protection of the historic designation and can't be removed.
- Finally you mentioned the seismic bracing. My favorite example of seismic retrofitting on a church is St. Dominic's on Post St. There, the basic architectural style was Gothic so they added flying buttresses just as a medieval architect would have and it works wonderfully.