Santa Cruz Changes 54: 130 Center Street

 

Another tall mixed-use project has been approved, at 130 Center Street, shown in the rendering above. Given the preliminary name "Calypso", this is another Swenson development, and includes 233 small (295-400ft2) "affordable" rental units. The location is opposite the end of Washington Street, by the Depot Park soccer fields. The overall design follows the familiar recent pattern: street-front retail w under-building parking behind, and multiple levels of apartments above. The U-shaped single building has its open end facing south.

The new building will replace two existing auto-related businesses: a body/paint shop and a rental agency. The photo below shows what the location looks like now, from approximately the same direction. The rendering and photo both include the hotel immediately beyond the project site, although the rendering makes the hotel look much farther away. The large tree shown in the rendering just beyond the end of the new building is fictitious. The line of much smaller street trees (and wider sidewalk) are shown in the project plans, which can be viewed/downloaded here. Other renderings show green spaces on either end of the building along Center Street - also fictitious.

It would be nice if the project included undergrounding the utilities (the existing utility poles/lines aren't shown in the rendering), but that's probably also fictitious. The submitted plans show the existing overhead lines remaining, although undergrounding could have been added as a condition of approval. 

It's odd that the third auto-related business in this row (another body shop, partially-seen at far left in the photo) will remain, with its wall hard against the new adjacent building. On the other side of that lone remaining commercial business is the Blackburn House apartments. It's hard to know whether residents there will appreciate the preservation of their sunshine more than they would enjoy losing the noise and paint fumes.

Santa Cruz Changes 53: Rivermouth Culvert

 

A newly-completed city engineering project is designed to regulate high summer water levels in the lower river lagoon, caused by the annual sand buildup that blocks the rivermouth. It will do that by pumping backed-up lagoon water past the blockage and out to the beach through a 24" culvert (top photo) whenever it rises above a certain level. That level is low enough to prevent flooding, but high enough to protect the lagoon habitat for its inhabitants. The outflow water will presumably stop being so rusty once the culvert rinses out.

The lower photo shows the construction scene shortly before completion. The culvert is the bright horizontal line in the middle distance, below the bluffs. 

Santa Cruz Changes locations can be found on this Google Map.

Santa Cruz Changes 52: 2019 state law affects local development rules

 

After noting many of the changes happening around Santa Cruz this year, especially along Front Street (aerial photo by Kevin Painchaud / Lookout Santa Cruz), I took a break to watch them progress. 

In the meantime, let me direct our attention to a very interesting article in Lookout Santa Cruz (in itself a notable recent change in Santa Cruz journalism). Written by Christopher Neely, "A design standards vote turns into a last grasp for local housing control in Santa Cruz" looks at recent changes to the local general plan/zoning process. 

Although the article begins by noting an upcoming City Council vote on building design standards (an important subject it itself), the most interesting part of the article to me is a description of how a 2019 state law has changed local development decision-making. The law flipped the previous local pecking order between current zoning rules and the longer-range general plan, essentially accelerating the 2030 General Plan goals into current zoning. Opponents to those goals will likely now have to pivot from opposing individual project re-zoning applications to supporting broader General Plan amendments.

Santa Cruz Changes 51 - The spring has sprung

The stop-and-go demolition of the Casa del Rey Apartments on Beach Street (better known as La Bahia) has been halted for weeks since removal of one of the last courtyard foundations caused a hidden spring to bubble up. An earth berm was pushed up to contain the flow, and now holds a good-sized pool. 

Resumption of work presumably awaits design changes to deal with the unexpected groundwater.

To anyone who has read about the history of La Bahia, however, finding the spring is not such a surprise. According to a 1928 Santa Cruz Evening News article, the spring was a well-known source of drinking water in the pre-development days of Beach Hill. 

The spring was also known to architect William C. Hayes, who designed the apartment complex that opened in 1927. The layout included two interior courtyards, one of which enclosed the spring, and directed its flow into a rock-lined pool in the courtyard named El Fuente de los Marineros (Fountain of the Mariners).  

Santa Cruz Changes locations can be found on this Google Map. 

Santa Cruz Changes 50: 530 Center Street Mixed-Use

Many previously-reported changes are now under construction, but this one somehow came in under my radar. A new mixed-use development has broken ground at 530 Center Street. That site was a big, underutilized public parking lot, next door to the Calvary Episcopal complex. 

There are usually a lot of empty spaces, so this lot was probably the best downtown candidate for asphalt removal - good riddance.

As can be seen in the photos, the large parking lot fronts on both Center and Cedar Streets, and is right across Cedar Street from the lot where the Farmers Market happens every Wednesday, which is also where the City Council wants to build the controversial library/housing/parking structure. 

A non-binding referendum on that project has qualified for the November ballot, so we'll see how that turns out.

The under-construction photo above left is from last week's Sentinel, and to the right is a conceptual rendering from the developer's submittal to the city. The viewpoint is from the corner of Cedar and Cathcart, approximately the same spot as in the Google Street View image at top right. To the left of the new building can be seen the 25-foot-wide public "paseo" that will run through from Cedar to Center.

Like most of the recent mixed-use downtown projects, this one has retail/commercial spaces on the ground floor and apartments above. Unlike most of the others, however, this building has no internal parking for residents, and only 12 on-site parking spaces. 

Santa Cruz Changes locations can be found on this Google Map.

Santa Cruz Changes: 49 - Rail Trail 2022

The Rail Trail project is progressing steadily, being now complete from Wilder Ranch to Bay Street in Santa Cruz. Also in place is the short segment along Beach Street, from Pacific Avenue to the recently-widened pedestrian bridge across the San Lorenzo River. In between is the segment from the corner of California and Bay to Pacific Avenue.

Construction on that segment is scheduled to begin later this year. Above right is a rendering of what the completed California Street end will look like. The roadway at left is the entrance driveway into the sewage treatment plant. To the right of the driveway, at center-left in the rendering, is the plant's sign.

That same sign is in the photo at left, taken today, looking in the same direction along the railroad tracks. The new trail will be to the right of the tracks. The other end of this segment will connect with the existing paved trail from Depot Park, following the tracks under the wooden West Cliff Drive bridge to Pacific Avenue, next to the Monterey Bay Marine Sanctuary museum.

Santa Cruz Changes locations can be found on this Google Map.

Santa Cruz Changes: 48 - Mansard evolution

Regular readers will have noticed that the kinds of changes noted here usually involve the built environment. Such changes most often happen when an older building is torn down and replaced. However, architectural styles have also changed a lot over the years. Sometimes those changes come full circle, when a new building is designed - at least in general terms - in an older style.

The style known as "Second Empire" features what was a new design invention at the time (1850s), and was perhaps the first architectural workaround. The city of Paris enacted a height limit, coupled with a requirement for pitched roofs. In response, some clever designer invented the mansard roof. 

The style didn't reach Santa Cruz until the 1870s, and its popularity only lasted about ten years. At that time, Santa Cruz didn't have height limits or roof pitch requirements, so the French innovation lacked its main raison d'etre. Today, only two Second Empire designs survive within our city limits, and one has been extensively altered. The Hotel McCray on Front Street, shown in the photo at right, was originally a private home, remodeled in Second Empire style in the 1870s. 

Now the old hotel structure forms the central core of today's Sunshine Villa, an assisted living facility. Extensive additional wings flank the original building. Attempting to preserve design consistency, the additions restate the original mansard roof and corner tower style.  

A view from above Pacific Avenue, near the north end of West Cliff Drive, offers an opportunity to see this design evolution circle from a single vantage point, along with an example of what later gave the mansard a bad name in modern commercial design. 

At upper left (pink) is part of the Sunshine Villa additions, showing its many dormer windows in a mansard roof. 

Below right is Las Palmas Taco Bar, with its green mansard false roof, used to screen mechanical equipment on the roof. To be fair, a mansard is probably not the least attractive way to provide such screening. The style was so overused in the 1950s-70s, however, that it became emblematic of that era's "tackytecture". 

A disclaimer, by the way: the food at Las Palmas has always been great, no matter what you think of the building.

Santa Cruz Changes locations can be found on this Google Map.

Santa Cruz Changes: 47 - London Nelson Center

Last summer, the City of Santa Cruz passed a resolution to correct a longstanding historical error: the misspelling of London Nelson's name. That meant changing some signage, most prominently at the community center renamed for Nelson in 1978. The image at right is from 2017 Streetview. 

I don't know exactly when it happened, but there's now a new sign at the corner of Laurel and Center Streets. The photo at left was taken a couple of weeks ago, on one of our many cloud-free January days. 

On Christmas Day, I found that the name change has reached the monument at the top of the old stone Mission Hill schoolyard steps on Mission Street (right). A new bronze plaque has been attached, covering the engraved top surface of the granite plinth. The only change to the information previously displayed is the corrected spelling of  "London".

Santa Cruz Changes locations can be found on this Google Map.

Santa Cruz Changes: 46 - Wee Kirk

News came this week that the old "Wee Kirk" in Ben Lomond has a new owner who promises to continue the preservation and restoration efforts of the building's previous owner. The Streetview image at right shows the little church in January, 2014. 

The following is from an article in Good Times:

Where the Wee Kirk Church once welcomed parishioners to mend their souls, nonprofit Santa Cruz Community Health will now provide comprehensive primary care services. . .a new health clinic opened at the site of a Ben Lomond historic church on Jan. 24.

The building was previously the home of Dr. Steven Leib’s family medical practice. He and his wife Vivian restored the historic church in 2014, and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2017.

Lisa Robinson, president of the board of the San Lorenzo Valley Historical Society, who was at the opening, told the Press Banner the Leibs did a really good job fixing it up. “They’ve always felt that this building belonged to the community,” she said. “I’m really pleased that they have found the right group to take over.”

She expects it will continue to be a powerful place of healing. “It has just such a special feeling when you come through the door,” she reflected, as people milled through the space for the first time. “You feel better just being in this space.”

Santa Cruz Changes locations can be found on this Google Map.

Santa Cruz Changes: 45 - Aptos library

The venerable Aptos library (shown at right) will soon be replaced, so Changes is jumping out to Aptos this week. According to this Good Times article:

"Plans are moving forward with the Aptos Branch Library project to raze the existing 8,000-square-foot building, near the corner of State Park and Soquel drives, and build a 12,400-square-foot replacement. . .the wrecking ball isn’t expected to swing loose until next summer."

As can be seen in the concept rendering at left, the overall size and shape of the new building won't be too different - a low one-story structure (haven't used the term "one-story" much lately!) We'll check on progress at some future date.

Grab the current issue of Good Times for more details, or go online to Aptos Friends of SCPL.

Santa Cruz Changes locations can be found on this Google Map.

Santa Cruz Changes: 44 - Live Oak Crossing

 

Returning to the Live Oak area to begin 2022, after a two-week holiday break, Changes looks at the corner of Brommer Street and 17th Avenue. An apartment development named "Live Oak Crossing", completed in 2019, now fills that corner where an empty lot sat behind chain-link fences for many years. 

The 2017 view from Brommer Street (above right), did not add to the charm of this central Live Oak intersection. 

The unusual up-sweeping roof design of the new apartment buildings (left) has had its share of detractors. Also, in a reversal of program from earlier decades, the apartments' large parking lot is hidden behind the street-fronting buildings. While it arguably creates a more attractive view for passing motorists, residents would probably prefer a parking lot located between their homes and the street, giving them some buffer from the traffic noise at this busy intersection.

Santa Cruz Changes locations can be found on this Google Map.