Respect Your Elders

We love buildings. We design new ones to push the envelope for function, materials and efficiency. But we also appreciate old buildings – they make up 80% of our urban landscape. We take great pride in preserving, rehabbing, adapting and upgrading well-loved buildings for future use. Here are some of our favorites:

Fremont School – What happens when three of Sacramento’s major arts organizations operate under one roof in a beloved historic school? Magic…the sugar plum fairy kind.

The 3R’s of urban redevelopment – Restore, Repurpose, Revitalize – are giving the Sacramento Ballet, Sacramento Opera, and Sacramento Philharmonic a new home. The Fremont School will have new future as the E. Claire Raley Studios for the Performing Arts.

In 2006, the Sacramento Ballet, the Opera, and Philharmonic came up with a vision that would merge their creative and operational needs in one location.

Julia Morgan House at 3731 T Street in Sacramento, photo by Brian Kellogg

Julia Morgan House – We are upgrading this stately 1924 mansion designed by California’s first female architect, Julia Morgan, to preserve the best historic features while adding state of the art communication technologies for use as a conference center. This building is her namesake because of her importance to the fields of architecture and engineering. It was bequeathed to Sacramento State University in 1996.

Railyards Shops Buildings

Railroad Technology Museum – We are working with State Parks to stabilize and preserve two historic train shops in the Sacramento Railyards just north of downtown Sacramento. We will then insert a modern, interactive Museum of Railroad Technology to bridge the centuries.

Powerhouse Science Center, rendering courtesy of Dreyfuss + Blackford Architects

Powerhouse Science Center – This classic 1912 power station, one of PG&E’s earliest structures, was designed by Willis Polk. The exterior will be painstakingly preserved for history, while the interior, and planned expansion spaces will become a state-of-the-art interactive education and learning center.

Vogel Chevrolet Showroom

Vogel Chevrolet Dealership: The Shop of VSP Our firm created a gleaming glass jewel box in 1959 for Vogel Chevrolet. Now, decades later, we are re-imagining this classic mid-century space as a think tank for Vision Service Plan.

For us, the old buildings in our community are every bit as interesting and important as the new ones.