ISSUES
FORMER YWCA / KIMPTON HOTEL
LOCATION: 78 N. Marengo Ave.
The Pasadena City Council voted Monday, May 22, to stop negotiations on the proposed Kimpton hotel project in the Civic Center, which included rehabilitation of the former YWCA building, and instead directed City staff to start the process anew.
Pasadena Heritage supported an opportunity to sensitively adapt and re-use the 1921 Julia Morgan-designed former YWCA building and to add vitality to the Civic Center through a quality hotel with public amenities, but the project received considerable opposition. Concerns focused on the project's size, type of use, and cost to the CIty. A common theme among most speakers was a general frustration with the amount and size of new development citywide, which is far greater today than when the City acquired the YWCA building in 2012.
The Council's motion was to begin the project selection process again, starting this time with the appointment of a special task force to examine the Civic Center as a whole and specifically consider the range of possible uses for the City-owned land. Previously, the Council approved $500,000 to address the quickly-mounting deterioration and maintenance problems inside the historic YWCA building and secure it for the duration.
Pasadena Heritage remains very concerned about the building's current condition, but also believes this new planning process will be more community-driven and may bring forward new ideas, resources, and possible solutions.
SR-710 FREEWAY TUNNEL
Pasadena Heritage celebrated a major milestone on May 25th with thousands of other 710 freeway tunnel opponents. In early May, a Metro/Caltrans staff report was released that endorsed a the $3.2-billion “single-bore” freeway tunnel as the most effective way to connect the two freeways. In response, METRO Board Chair John Fasana and L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger put forward a motion at the METRO Board Meeting to shift hundreds of millions of dollars from 710 project funding instead toward local street improvements and transportation alternatives (“Locally Preferred Alternative”), which received UNANIMOUS support by the rest of the METRO Board.
GARFIELD PROMENADE IN PASEO COLORADO
LOCATION: 290 E. Colorado Blvd.
ARCHITECT: Gonzalez Goodale Architects
New Paseo Colorado owners and their architect team Gonzales Goodale have proposed a series of alterations to enhance the Paseo Colorado outdoor mall, including introduction of trees and planters among other amenities along the Garfield Promenade. This portion of the Paseo is within the Civic Center National Register Historic District and encompasses the north-south axis that links the Civic Auditorium to the Central Library as established by the 1925 Bennett Plan. The formal axis visually and physically links an ensemble of civic buildings that are designated historic monuments, our city’s highest level of preservation protection.
The Plaza Pasadena mall (1976) failed and reopened in the late 1990s as the Paseo Colorado. A City Center Task Force – led by the Mayor and aided by Pasadena Heritage and the public – fought for and achieved the re-instatement of the north-south view corridor and the Garfield Promenade as we know it today was born of this effort. At this time, the City entered into a Reciprocal Easement Agreement with Paseo owners, which established specific dimensions and covenants to protect visibility across the Promenade for a 99-year period. This legal agreement reflects a promise on behalf of the City to protect and preserve the Bennett Plan and its north-south axis including visual continuity between the Central Library and Civic Auditorium.
Pasadena Heritage strongly supports investments in improving this area and has met with the current design team several times to discuss their plans for the Promenade. However, Pasadena Heritage strongly advocates for improvements that do not obstruct the view to and from the Auditorium. The question of whether or not the City’s easement on the Promenade should be modified to allow trees to encroach into the viewshed will be heard by the City Council. Meanwhile, Pasadena Heritage continues to work with the design team on studying alternatives in order to achieve a holistic Promenade design that preserves the viewshed while incorporating inviting pedestrian amenities and outdoor dining.
CITY'S ANTI-MANSIONIZATION STUDY - PHASE III UPDATE
LA LOMA BRIDGE
UNION STREET CONDOS
LAS ENCINAS MENTAL HEALTH HOSPITAL & ASSISTED LIVING FACILITIES
ALEXANDRIA REAL ESTATE HEADQUARTERS
FORMER TWIN PALMS IN OLD PASADENA
PARSONS SITE
HUNTINGTON MEMORIAL HOSPITAL
WASHINGTON THEATER
GREEN HOTEL APARTMENTS
FORMER LOUD FORD SHOWROOM
1906 PINNEY HOUSE
At the direction of City Council and in response to the community’s concerns about “mansionization,” the City’s Planning Department embarked in 2015 on a three-phase effort to revise the Zoning Code regulations that govern single-family residences:
Phase 1 - Lower Hastings Ranch (adopted October 2016)
Phase 2 - Non-historic, non-hillside single-family residential properties (in progress)
Phase 3 - Hillside Overlay Districts (expected to be adopted soon)
On April 26th, the Planning Commission approved Phase 3 amendments to the Zoning Code regulating hillside properties. The changes were based on input and feedback from hundreds of residents who participated in multiple public meetings held by the Planning Department since 2015. The amendments generally address the overall allowed size of structures, view protection, and ensuring compatibility of new construction with the surrounding neighborhood.
In addition to the community’s primary concerns, City Staff identified additional hillside permit amendments to add further protections from potential over-building in these specific neighborhoods:
- Institute a maximum gross floor area for houses in Upper Hastings Ranch
- Require story-poles and digital renderings as part of the visual analysis requirements for two-story projects and second story additions
- Provide earlier notification of Hillside Development Permit applications to neighbors within 500 feet of a proposed project with second-floor construction
- Simplify the thresholds for when a project is required to obtain a Hillside Development Permit
- New regulations pertaining to basements
- New regulations pertaining to the size of individual accessory structures
- Revised View Protection regulations and how proposed changes are reviewed
- Turning the existing Neighborhood Compatibility guidelines into actual code requirements but with additional clarification, i.e. with graphics
- Simplified Hillside Development Permit thresholds
- The addition of a "Major Renovation" threshold for Hillside Development Permits
Dozens of residents attended the hearing and comments ranged from concerns of newly arrived residents for their property values to long-time residents welcoming the restrictions, and three neighborhood associations spoke in support but requested refinements. The Commission commended City Staff on drafting a complex set of recommended amendments that attempt to balance growth and protection and voted in favor, but requested a “status report” within 18 months of implementation, in order to review the outcomes of these changes and determine if revisions will be necessary. The City Council will next review and make the final determination on these recommended changes later this year.
With pre-cast brackets in place and the road deck recently poured on the 1914 La Loma Bridge, the bridge is set to re-open late June! Final surface repairs to the historic concrete members below are nearly complete, and the scaffolding is coming down, while the Arroyo trails are being restored.
LOCATION: 254 E. Union St.
LCRA Architects received positive feedback from the Design Commission for preliminary designs presented in April. Current approach showed a much improved contextually sensitive design compared to the previously approved but unrealized design for a 36-unit condo project west of the Main Post Office and immediately south of the former Julia Morgan-designed YWCA and City Hall. The applicants will share their revisions with Pasadena Heritage Advocacy Committee in early June.
LOCATION: 2900 E. Del Mar Blvd
NEXT PUBLIC HEARING: Tuesday, June 13th at 6pm in City Hall Basement
Two additional historic buildings on the Las Encinas hospital campus are to be relocated to make way for a large new senior housing development. The Lodge is an old Craftsman bungalow with shingle siding and wood windows. The second building, Las Palmas, is a Mediterranean style 1920s building with a Batchelder tile fireplace and original windows. The Las Encinas / Southern California Sanitarium campus was designated a National Register Historic District in 2012 at Pasadena Heritage’s recommendation due to the outstanding concentration of late 19th and early 20th century buildings found there. In 2009, the approved Master Development Plan for the hospital included new assisted living and psychiatric hospital buildings. Conditions of the master plan approval require specific historic buildings on the campus to be relocated within the boundaries of the Historic District to accommodate the new construction. Download the Design Commission agenda and Project Staff Report before the June 13th public hearing:
http://ww5.cityofpasadena.net/commissions/design-commission/
LOCATION: 380 E. Union St.
ARCHITECT: Gensler
Late March the Design Commission approved a hyper contemporary design concept with conditions that instruct architect to reconsider the proposed terra cotta screen treatment and mechanical room location on the north elevation facing City Hall and the Maryland Apartments. Pasadena Heritage supports the project but strongly urged the Commission and applicants to respect the gravitas and formality of this Civic Center location through a more contextually sensitive response.
LOCATION: 85 W. Green Street
ARCHITECT: Gonzalez Goodale Architects
The Design Commission approved in late March concept designs for a new 3-story courtyard building that would replace the existing Twin Palms establishment at Green Street and DeLacey. Proposed are restaurant and banquet facilities on first two stories and a data center on top floor. Contextually out-of-place “contemporary stripped Renaissance” style with hipped roof tower elements has more in common with unmemorable suburban stripmalls than the remaining historic character of this segment of Green Street. A more contextually responsive design could have rooted this new building squarely in the Old Pasadena, capitalizing on while also contributing to its distinctive and memorable location in our historic core. The applicant is also requesting relief from the City’s protected tree replacement laws for the two protected palm trees he illegally removed last winter, claiming palms are not suited to his courtyard restaurant design.
LOCATION: 100 W. Walnut St.
OWNER/ARCHITECT: Lincoln Properties / SOM Architects (office); HED Architects (residential mixed-use)
Pasadena Heritage has worked hard to advocate for the best design possible for this enormous mixed-used project proposed on the present-day parking lots surrounding the Parsons tower complex, immediately north and west of the Old Pasadena National Register Historic District. Phase 1 of this project has been approved by the City and construction is expected to start early 2018.
LOCATION: California Blvd. at Pasadena Ave.
ARCHITECT: Freeman White (San Diego)
The hospital is updating its Master Plan with proposed changes over the next 20 years. Two 1930s buildings in the center of the hospital’s west Pasadena campus will be demolished for a large garden area after a new seismically-superior 90ft annex tower is constructed at the northwest, along Pasadena Avenue. This side of the hospital campus is immediately adjacent to the Markham Place National Register Historic District, one of Pasadena’s oldest residential neighborhoods. Pasadena Heritage is concerned about the impact the height, siting, and massing the proposed tower will have upon the modest turn-of-the-century character of the neighborhood.
LOCATION: 839 E. Washington Blvd.
ARCHITECT: Puchlik Design Assc.
The Washington Theater was originally constructed in 1924 in the Spanish Colonial Revival style but remodeled in 1937 in the Streamline Moderne style. Today, the seismic retrofit of the west wall of the theater box, some interior work, and exterior masonry repairs are ongoing while facade rehabilitation is planned for the coming months. The owners have asked the City permission to restore the 1924 marquee instead of the 1937 marquee, stating that the latter somehow incurs frequent damage from delivery trucks servicing the shopping center across the street. At last year’s Commission review of the project, it wasn’t clear if but has now been confirmed that the original 1924 marquee remains beneath the 1937 one. Significant delays in work have lead to City intervention to prevent public safety hazards and nuisance issues.
LOCATION: 86 S. Fair Oaks Avenue
ARCHITECT: Architectural Resources Group
Revised designs anticipated soon for a new 5-story multi-family residential building similar to the proposed-but-never-constructed west wing of Hotel Green on southwest corner of Castle Green historic site. Architectural compatibility remains critical issue, along with traffic safety and parking needs.
LOCATION: Hill Street at Colorado Blvd.
ARCHITECT: Moule & Polyzoides Architects & Urbanists
As part of a new Planned Development District, J&K Plus Investments LLC plans to build a 375-room hotel at 1355 E. Colorado and another, smaller 150-room hotel facility across the street at 1336 E. Colorado. Commercial use is proposed on the ground floor of both sites. The site includes the former Loud Ford dealership, designed by Sylvanus Marston and constructed in 1946. We are monitoring the project as it proceeds through the approval process and how the new structures impact the immediately adjacent and neighboring historic buildings. The proposed Planned Development project will identify new, site-specific development standards, such as building height, form, setback, and massing based on proximity to street frontages and historic buildings.
LOCATION: 180 S. Euclid Ave.
OWNER/ARCHITECT: Balian Investments LLC / Onyx Architects
Now destined to be relocated to North Fair Oaks Avenue, originally new owners attempted to have property's historic status removed in order to be allowed to demolish the rare Mission Craftsman home. Pasadena Heritage has taken the position, conveyed to the City Council, that the building retains its historic character and its landmark eligibility, and that the subtle alterations over time have not compromised the building’s historic integrity. We also find the building to be an important contributor to the streetscape along this block between Green and Cordova Streets, where an eclectic mix of older buildings comprises a unique and pleasing setting. Estimated timeframe for the building's relocation is unknown.
