Projects – Page 10 – Garavaglia Architecture, Inc.

Ukiah Railroad Station: City gets a 50-year lease

The Ukiah Daily Journal last week reported that the Ukiah City Council approved a lease contract with the North Coast Railroad Authority. This allows the project to move forward to restore the depot to its 1929 condition.

Garavaglia Architecture, Inc. is currently underway designing the upgrades recommended in our original Resource Rehabilitation Report. The depot retains a high level of integrity and strongly conveys the association of railroad development in northern California and the economic growth of the City of Ukiah. The railroad development made Ukiah important for shipping of agricultural products. The depot also serviced excursion day-trips from San Francisco for tourists escaping the city life. It is significant for the Southern Pacific passenger operations from 1929 to 1942 and is the only intact building in the Ukiah railroad yard of this area. For more information on the project click on the year 1929 on the timeline.

Click here to read the full article.

Fiddletown Project Wins CPF Preservation Design Award

The historic Chinese structures in Fiddletown has just been selected as a winning project for the Preservation Design Awards.

The General Store (left) and Gambling Hall (right) of Fiddletown. Photo by Kelly Thomas

The California Preservation Foundation just selected the Fiddletown Project Team with a 2009 Preservation Design Award in the preservation category this week. The c. 1850 Chinese Gambling Hall and General Store are part of a grouping of four buildings specifically associated with Chinese miners from the Gold Rush. Along with the Chew Kee Herb Shop and a rammed earth residential structure nearby, these structures constitute a significant sub-district that reflects Chinese gold-era history. Both structures are National Register listed for their contributions to the assemblage of Gold Rush-era structures in Fiddletown, California.

Both the Gambling Hall and General Store are unreinforced masonry and stone buildings. While they have survived nearly 150-years, their overall condition was quite poor, requiring significant structural stabilization and seismic upgrading. Large cracks from seismic movement and settling were evident and visible in pictures dating back to the 1930s. Continue reading “Fiddletown Project Wins CPF Preservation Design Award”

Southwest Museum in the News

Los Angeles’ oldest museum, the Southwest Museum, was recently a topic of a public meeting and received much press.

Vision for the Museum by Garavaglia Architecture

The Southwest Museum in Los Angeles has been in the press as a public meeting was held regarding the expansion of the Autry National Center of the American West in Griffith Park early July. Listed on the National Registry of Historic Places, the Southwest Museum is the oldest museum in the City. Garavaglia Architecture developed a preservation plan for the Friends of the Southwest Museum in 2007. It has been listed as a preservation issue by the Los Angeles Conservancy for quite some time. City Councilman Huizar is now recommending the Autry to sign a legal binding document to preserve the Southwest Museum building as well as its collection. Read more on the status of this project:

“Huizar’s ‘Surprise’ Southwest Museum Proposal Draws Praise,” EGP News, by Paul Aranda Jr.

“Southwest Museum pulls itself up by its bootstraps,” Los Angeles Times, Art Section, Suzanne Muchnic, July 5, 2009.

“Autry, Southwest Museum fued has echoes of a western duel,” Los Angeles Times, California Local Section, by Bob Pool, July 2, 2009

“Saving the Southwest Museum,” by Marc Haefele, Metblog