Sacramento Preservation/Adaptive Reuse Projects

[wburg]

Now here's an interesting adaptive reuse project:

http://www.sacbee.com/driver/story/2246977.html

Back-seat Driver: Could Sacramento use recycled parts of Bay Bridge?
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Buzz up!By Tony Bizjak
tbizjak@sacbee.com
Published: Monday, Oct. 12, 2009 - 12:00 am | Page 1B
Last Modified: Monday, Oct. 12, 2009 - 12:23 pm
Sacramento needs a few more bridges -- so some say.

They're talking about one connecting Natomas to downtown for light rail and one between Sacramento and West Sacramento.

But there's no money.

Reader Gunnar Henrioulle has an idea. Why not get Caltrans to give us sections of the old Bay Bridge east span?

The state is going to disassemble that span in a few years when it opens the new bridge it's building there.

We could ship a few sections up the Sacramento River on barges and retrofit them for use here, Henrioulle proposes.

Crazier things have happened. See: London Bridge in Arizona, a major tourist attraction.

We asked a Caltrans representative.

"It's not a crazy idea," Caltrans' Bart Ney said.

Caltrans considered doing that for a Bay Area county when it tore down the old Carquinez Bridge a few years ago.

But the bridge and its rivets were too old.

Because the Bay Bridge is on historic registers, Caltrans is required to put some parts of it on display, in museums, for example.

But re-using sections?

We sprung the idea on Sacramento city spokeswoman Linda Tucker.

"A hand-me-down bridge?" she said. Then, diplomatically: "Um, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

It probably would be a tough fit, though. The Bay Bridge is a double-decker, many lanes wide, and no one here is talking about needing a bridge that wide.

While the double-decker part may be less than ideal, the width of the bridge isn't that enormous. The Tower Bridge was 52 feet wide as originally built, and its two pedestrian "outrigger" lanes make it more like 60-65 feet wide in its current form. The Bay Bridge is 57.5 feet wide.

Even more interesting: the lower level of the Bay Bridge was originally intended for trucks and interurban trains. When the Bay Bridge opened, you could take Sacramento Northern trains from Chico or Sacramento all the way to the Transbay Terminal in San Francisco, and Key System commuter trains went from the terminal throughout the Bay Area. Why not make use of a "recycled" bridge that can handle auto traffic on its upper deck, and both streetcar and pedestrian traffic (in comfortable shade) on the lower deck?

Definitely one of the weirder ideas on record, but interesting.

[Formula7]

Originally Posted by wburg

Now here's an interesting adaptive reuse project:

http://www.sacbee.com/driver/story/2246977.html


While the double-decker part may be less than ideal, the width of the bridge isn't that enormous. The Tower Bridge was 52 feet wide as originally built, and its two pedestrian "outrigger" lanes make it more like 60-65 feet wide in its current form. The Bay Bridge is 57.5 feet wide.

Even more interesting: the lower level of the Bay Bridge was originally intended for trucks and interurban trains. When the Bay Bridge opened, you could take Sacramento Northern trains from Chico or Sacramento all the way to the Transbay Terminal in San Francisco, and Key System commuter trains went from the terminal throughout the Bay Area. Why not make use of a "recycled" bridge that can handle auto traffic on its upper deck, and both streetcar and pedestrian traffic (in comfortable shade) on the lower deck?

Definitely one of the weirder ideas on record, but interesting.

I love it! It's a difficult fit, but, what the hey? I'd love to at least give the idea more thought.

[singlecell]

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[singlecell]

I like the thinking here...

How about re-building sections of the bridge through visually rich areas of oldsac and downtown? visualize the manhattan high-line project.

Sure, it would have to be a straight vector, but surely we could get a pleasing trajectory..

[wburg]

Through town? That seems kind of...well, affected. Actually using it for a bridge is one thing (there is plenty of precedent for moving and reusing old bridges) but putting them downtown to represent an elevated railway we never had doesn't quite fit. (We still have part of our own "high line," the old Southern Pacific/Transcontinental Railroad main line along B Street, but we never stopped using it. The old R Street railroad levee/trestle was removed in the early 1900s but they kept running trains, just at street level.) Not to mention, where would you put such a thing?

But hey, maybe we could use it to deck I-5!

[Formula7]

Originally Posted by wburg

But hey, maybe we could use it to deck I-5!

Woo! Lol.

[kamehameha]

Final design of the porposed R street Capitol Lofts by CADA.

http://rstreet.info/wp-content/uploa...5/Picture1.jpg

[kamehameha]

what to do with the vacant downtown post office building.

Pushing the EnvelopeWith Sacramento’s historic post office building about to lose its namesake tenant, now is the time to think big and put our stamp on this city’s future.
by Rob Turner

In the 1930s, with the country suffering through the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt initiated an economic stimulus plan called the New Deal, and put millions of Americans back to work by constructing thousands of new federal projects in cities across the country. And because of the program’s mandate to build high-quality structures that would last for generations, it also left a legacy of architectural gems, many of which still stand today.



http://www.sactownmag.com/June-July-...-the-Envelope/

[wburg]

It's not actually going to be vacant--it is a federal office building occupied by federal offices, only the Post Office staff will be vacating and they only use a small portion of the building. It is still kind of a bummer, because that building is very iconic and beautiful inside and out--effectively it will no longer have any public function and become a restricted-access federal building.

Of course, if the feds are willing to hand it over, it would become a great base for a satellite campus, or, better yet, part of a full-time four-year private college campus located in downtown Sacramento--and it's pretty close to another iconic and beautiful but vacant building, the old Hall of Justice at 6th and H Street, which would provide expansion room. Then all we need are some dormitory buildings for student housing...preferably, tall ones.

[ozone]

Originally Posted by wburg

Of course, if the feds are willing to hand it over, it would become a great base for a satellite campus, or, better yet, part of a full-time four-year private college campus located in downtown Sacramento--and it's pretty close to another iconic and beautiful but vacant building, the old Hall of Justice at 6th and H Street, which would provide expansion room. Then all we need are some dormitory buildings for student housing...preferably, tall ones.

I like that idea. Don't forget the former police station down the street is still for sale.

[wburg]

I thought "Sports Basement," the regional sports equipment chain that is in places like an old Fry's in the South Bay and the Presidio BX building, got the lease and was going to open there?

[Pistola916]

Would love to see a college/university move to the Post Office. Maybe another museum of sorts or a music venue.

[kamehameha]

Groundbreaking for the R Street Warehouse Artist Lofts(WAL) is February 14, 2013.

[kamehameha]

Hotel conversion

https://www.bizjournals.com/sacramen...anned-for.html

[kamehameha]

I wish the Senator Hotel could be converted into a hotel again.

[Pistola916]

Originally Posted by kamehameha

I wish the Senator Hotel could be converted into a hotel again.

I was thinking that would be a great spot for a Ritz Carlton or Fairmont hotel

[wburg]

Heck, I wish the Senator would go condo...great views of Capitol Park! While the Senator served business travelers, it was also a "residential hotel" for wealthy folks who needed a pied-a-terre in Sacramento, and quick access to the Capitol.

[ltsmotorsport]

It would be great either way; residential or hotel. Would add more pressure to the local office market to hopefully get the larger projects (ahem, Vanir!) back on track.

Same thing should happen in midtown. Many of the Victorians were converted to offices to save the buildings some years ago. The city could now benefit greatly with these properties going back to their original use.

[wburg]

Fully agreed--it's a bit annoying to see 1910 Craftsman homes with a sign in front reading MIDTOWN OFFICE BUILDING FOR LEASE. But due to the shortage of for-sale homes on the grid, the reconversion to housing is already happening--some friends recently bought a foursquare on Capitol that they converted to a home, excavated the basement to add a fully ADA accessible apartment and an office/photography studio in the ground floor, and since it's commercially zoned, they can use it as an office by right. Plus they're going to add an alley-facing ADU apartment/garage, so overall they will triple the housing density of the lot, plus a commercial use, while maintaining the historic home. Win-win-win.

[kamehameha]

another ground breaking in the horizon. The Powerhouse Children's Science Museum.

http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/new...173097166.html