The Sparta Building Columns

Just a short post to let you see that we've struck "Ionic" at the Sparta Building project in downtown Medford.  The contractors have removed the stucco/brick work that has encased these features for more than five decades.  I am told that there is a severe case of whiplash as people driving by the project gawk.  Hard to believe they ever covered them, isn't it?

All the cool stained fir beadboard, hidden above three layers of ceiling, was a nice surprise too.  We'll keep almost all of it as part of the new storefront system.  Now we just have to restore the capitals of the columns.  Thank goodness for W. F. Norman!

Medford Gets a Hit...Again!

Awhile ago I wrote about “White Elephants,” and how the lucky city of Medford, Oregon seemed to be on a streak of finding new uses for long vacant buildings, along with new and creative owners with the vision and the wherewithal to actually take them on and restore them.  Well, Medford’s hot streak continues, as last week the Jefferson Public Radio Foundation, already in the planning process for the restoration of the long-vacant Holly Theatre, announced plans to move their studios, museum and associated uses into the also long-vacant Medford Grocery Warehouse.

The warehouse, built in 1910 is a fine brick structure that was last used over a decade ago as a dance club.  Purchased by local merchant Bruce Larson, Bruce had us list the property on the National Register with plans to use it as part of his Larson’s Appliance and Furniture business.  That project, like so many before it, never happened and Bruce apparently decided it never would.  Upon reading of JPR’s Holly plans, he contacted them and asked if they had a use for another structure in downtown, saying that if they did, and were willing to renovate the $500K property for a new use, he would donate the Medford Grocery Warehouse to them.  Wow!  Of course, JPR, which had long been looking for new studios to replace its cramped basement quarters on the SOU campus, jumped at Larson’s offer.  After a certain amount of process and planning, the deal was made public last week, to an unsurprisingly excited Medford City Council and media.

So, JPR will now be renovating TWO historic properties in Medford, as the money becomes available.  The Larson’s project is proposed to include a small cafe that will double as live broadcast and live performance space, a small 100-150 seat theatre for movies and lectures, and a new home for the Western States Museum of Broadcasting...a longtime JPR project that has national recognition despite never having found a permanent display space.  Oh, and the JPR offices and studios too.  The 40,000 square feet of the Medford Grocery Warehouse, essentially vacant for years (if you don’t count the pigeons) will once again be humming with activity.  This is exactly the sort of activity that urban renewal agencies live for, extending the use beyond the business hours, bringing new visitors into the downtown core AND taking a long vacant building and transforming it into a hub of activity.  JPR’s Larson’s project, like the Holly, should spark all sorts of associated investment and new business.

Coupled with the Holly, the renovation of the Sparta Building and all the other smaller projects that are going on as the result of the MURA Facade Grant program, Medford is a city that is proving the “down” economy creates phenomenal opportunities if you are willing to provide incentives and seize them.  It’s a good model for other cities to consider. 

The center, in Talent

Last week saw beginning the research on the Talent Elementary School, an 1899 building that is in the early steps of becoming that city’s second ever National Register-listed property.  Built at the corner of I and Main streets as Talent’s third public school, it was replaced after little more than a decade of school use by a larger, brick, building.  In 1914 the Talent School District sold the property to the city for $1500, which transformed it into Talent’s first City Hall.

Today the building is called the “Talent Community Center” and now, as for most of the past century, that name is entirely accurate.  Talent’s first city hall, the location of the city’s council meetings and officials, the venerable building housed Talent’s public library from 1920 until 1975, has served as a polling place, the post office, the chamber of commerce, and the historical society.  In addition to the Talent Community Club, which played a major role in the building’s history and its grounds, the VFW and the Grange met here,.  So did the Campfire Girls, the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts, and the Garden Club and, during WWII, the Red  Cross.  Talent's fire department and police department were both housed here.  The Lions Club has helped improve the property from more than half a century.  There was even a church group that met here for awhile, renting the hall from the city to hold services and in the 1960s and 1970s one of the city’s first preschools occupied the basement.

Since the main floor of the Community Center (then the city hall) was the largest assembly space in town, in addition to all its regular users, the building hosted any number of dances, and fundraisers, talent shows, art shows and other events.  A schedule for the City Hall during any typical week of the mid-20^th century must have found nearly every citizen in Talent in the building at one time or another.

Looking back at that history, it's hard not to compare the role of the Talent Community Center, a vibrant combination of government, civic, charitable, religious and educational uses all co-mingling under one roof, with the way we separate all those activities into different venues of today.  Few towns still enjoy the experience of pushing back the trappings of local government to make space for the garden club or an ice cream social.  I’m not so sure that is progress.

Talent prides itself on its small town character and its friendliness.  Their historic community center, still a pretty busy location, epitomizes that attitude.  It has for the better part of 110 years.

Sign Details

The planning for the reconstruction of the long-lost projecting marquee and neon blade sign at the Holly Theatre, in Medford, continues.  With a funding application from the Medford Urban Renewal Agency, JPR is working with three local sign companies in an effort to design entirely new, and energy efficient, signage that replicates the visual character of these features while using modern materials and electrical equipment to reduce operating costs.

These signs were BIG.  The pylon, at the corner, was 33 feet tall and was considered the largest sign in Oregon outside of Portland when it was installed in 1930.  The marquee, with its projecting globe lights and twined sine-wave neon rims must have lit up 6^th Street to announce the shows.  Re-creating them is a fun project…for me and for the sign companies.  They just don’t make ‘em like this anymore.

One advantage that we have in Medford, aside from the financial support of MURA that helps this project go forward, is the City’s visionary adoption of alternate sign approval guidelines.  A few years ago, after several restoration projects involving neon signs were forced to install 3/5^th scale pylons by the city’s sign code, the Medford Landmark and Historic Preservation Commission took the bull by the horns and pushed forward alternate standards that essentially allow the City to ignore any aspect of code (height, projection, lighting, number, etc.) when the result better supports the historic character of downtown.  Signs need to comply with building code, of course, but other than that, if you can convince LHPC it’s the right thing, they have the authority to approve it.  We will hope that they agree a 33 foot tall sign, as much like the original as we can make it, will improve historic character!

Medford’s alternate sign standards are on the web, if you are interested. 

http://www.ci.medford.or.us/files/medford_sign_approval_guidelines.pdf

Gold Ray - DONE

Earlier this week, in the snow, I went out to the Gold Ray Hydroelectric site to review the progress on the interpretative center that Jackson County, Oregon SHPO and NMFS installed as part of the mitigation for the removal of that historic property.  As I have written earlier, we elected to salvage an entire power generation system, from turbine to switch panel, that would explain how this very early power system in southern Oregon worked.  Interpretative panels, with historic photos as well as some of the HAER images taken prior to demolition, were installed on the former site of the Clubhouse, upslope from the river, and the mammoth generators, pulleys and other elements were moved there so that public could appreciate, and understand, what they are.

I was quite pleased with the way everything worked out (you never know, sitting in front of your computer, how something is going to play in 3D).  I think this one played out pretty well and everyone involved seems pleased.  The County has some minor security/vandalism protection to install, so the “public” doesn’t run off with any of the artifacts, but other than that, the project is complete.

If you live in southern Oregon, or are passing through, and want to see a very unusual example of an early power generation system, tour a spot on the Rogue River that hasn’t been generally accessible for more than a century, or just appreciate a great view of a river restoration project and the Table Rocks, you should check the Gold Ray site out.  Jackson County hopes to have something available for the public by mid-2011.

On a more personal note, 2011 is looking to be an interesting year.  January should have me at the Oregon Coast, documenting what is purported to be one of the largest swing bridges in the United States, among other things.  I’m sure I will find something to write about.  Happy New Year!

Prismatic Glass

In the late 19^th and early 20^th century, before reliable sources of electric light were available, commercial storefronts almost always included high ceilings and transom panels.  While this had positive aesthetic benefit it was, like most “traditional” design, firmly rooted in the practical.  Transoms allowed more light into the dark interiors of narrow, deep, storefronts.  Merchants could better display their wares, customers could better see them, and it made for a better shopping experience.

We tend to think that “high tech” is a new concept, and that it was the folks behind LEED who suddenly discovered passive energy improvements (We also tend to act as though Duany Plyter-Zyberk invented the front porch, but that’s a different rant).  Of course, early storefront designers, without electricity to save, still employed technology to improve building design.  One of my favorite examples of science in the support of better buildings is what is called “prismatic glass.”  Simply put, prismatic glass was designed with a series of angled ribs on one face that were cast based upon a strict calculation of latitude to increase their dispersal, broadcasting more light into the interior than would be the case through plate glass.  The illustration below, from a 1923 Pittsburgh Glass catalog depicts the “Scientific Explanation of the Prism” as used by that company’s 3-Way Luxfer Pressed Prism Tiles.

 

Nobody makes prismatic glass anymore and salvaged, often purpled, tiles (usually 6x6” or less) seem to mostly show up in antique stores where they are sold as trivets.  For restoration work I have had success having more typical ribbed glass cut into small squares, installed in zinc channel in alternating directions, and coming pretty close to replicating the traditional “Look” of prismatic glass if not its function. This is a small sample of the idea, prepared for a project in The Dalles.  The idea might get dusted off for a White Elephant in Medford, if the numbers are right.

White Elephant No More?

In most cities of any size there are a few historic buildings that for whatever reason seem to defy the odds.  They are too cool, or interesting, or locally beloved to tear down, but nobody ever seems to be able to come up with a productive use for them either.  They sit, and everyone in the preservation field wonders when and if something good will happen to them.  I, and I am not alone, call such projects “White Elephants.”  Over the years I have had the good fortune to work on several, most notably what is now the Ashland Springs Hotel (formerly the Lithia Springs Hotel), and the Hot Lake Sanatorium, outside of LaGrande, Oregon.

Medford has several white elephants…the Holly Theater has been the subject of several blogs already and good things are in store for it.  Next week I will start work on what should a nifty rehab of another…the Sparta Building, at the corner of Main & Riverside, just as you enter downtown.  Designed by Frank Clark in 1910-11, the Sparta started out rough, with no use until C. E. “Pop” Gates opened Gates Ford on the first floor.  Eventually a series of auto dealers and parts suppliers were located here, right on the corner of Main Street, on the Pacific Highway, in the core of Medford’s famed “Auto Row.”

The upper floor became the home of Medford’s first successful radio station, KMED, with elaborate studios occupying much of the building, below twin, giant, wooden towers that helped broadcast the signal.  The “arts” theme was carried out by an entire host of musical renters, teaching everything from Hawaiian Guitar, to voice and piano.  During WWII the sounds of music gave way to business, as CMC, the contractors that built Medford’s US Army cantonment, Camp George A. White, had their offices there.  Downstairs, after the car dealers moved out, became more office space and a restaurant, the Cozy Nook.  Upstairs became apartments.  In the 1970s and 1980s there was a series of popular nightclubs on the ground floor and some point a fire destroyed the upper units.  Nobody even bothered to rebuild.

And there, with its fine (if much remodeled) glazed brick façade, the Sparta Building sat.  After a change in owners the building was listed on the National Register at some point, there were various plans to renovate the façade, to re-expose the graceful corner entry, rebuild the transom panels and generally clean it up but nothing much ever came of it.  One owner replaced all the windows (except the curved corner) and the next owner started to rebuild the apartments upstairs.

Now, another new owner has taken possession, with great plans to finally return the Sparta Building to its full glory.  Next week we’ll start to poke around a little and see how much of what was once there is still, buried under plaster, and paint, and at least two levels of dropped ceiling.  I will post pictures if I can.