American Ruins

People come and go, cities rise and fall, economies stumble and leave in their wake these boarded-up windows and yesterday's signs. This morning I stumbled across this forlorn little scene while motoring into the California Delta for fresh produce from R. Kelley Farms. This is on River Road in Sacramento County, just north of Hood-Franklin Road in tiny Hood, Calif. I don't know the story of this restaurant. A lot of local publications online still list it as active. The building is cinder-block crappy and the town isn't much to look at. But there's something authentic about it, an Old West ghost-town look that surely tells some larger American story.

There is also a ton of Chinese history in this area. Here is a story written from Hong Kong about the nearby Delta town of Locke, which offers a flavor of the region's Asian heritage.

Centers Of Our Highest Aspirations

Years ago in Fresno I used to roam the city's architectural scene with a retired art professor, the late Ara Dolarian, who especially liked churches. He said churches are often designed with our highest human aspirations in mind. Hence the great cathedrals of Europe, the soaring spaces in even the most humble of worship centers and the design lines often pointing heavenward.
Raised as a Catholic, I am often in awe of great older churches in the older parts of older cities. One of those in Sacramento is St. Francis of Assisi Church, dedicated in 1910. That's a century ago. It's still one of the loveliest places in Sacramento, a pioneer city with several majestic pioneer churches in its downtown district.


I found this description in the church's Web site:
The church’s architecture is modeled after that of the Old Mission of Santa Barbara. The interior is a blend of Renaissance and Baroque styles; over 40 stained-glass windows and numerous murals decorate the ceilings and walls, portraying saints and Biblical scenes. The beautiful carved wooden staircase and railing to the second floor organ loft came from the 1906 remodeling of the State Capitol. Installed in the loft is a 1915 Austin electro-pneumatic pipe organ. The church’s bell, cast in New York in 1859, was initially placed in the tower of St. Rose Church in 1895, and later transferred to the belfry of St. Francis of Assisi Church, where it continues to toll daily.

I should mention that St. Francis has also done some of the best-looking affordable housing projects in Sacramento. It's near the church and called St. Francis Terrace. It's 48 apartments for very low-income people, often retirees, Here's a couple of views:




Here's another antique classic in the same old neighborhood, the Pioneer Congregational Church opened in the year of the California Gold Rush, 1849. It is still very much active. This picture was taken just as sunrise broke over the city.

Monuments to Our Ancestors

The Midwest where I grew up and started my newspaper career (Ohio and Indiana, specifically) is chock full of pioneer statues, cannons and great orators and politicians in courthouse squares. We have so little of that in the West. Most of the great statues are in old city cemeteries, or historic old squares of San Francisco and Portland.

What a pleasant surprise then this week in downtown Sacramento to find a statue of the city's founder, John Augustus Sutter.


Old John looks west toward the site of his original settlement, Sutter's Fort, and now a California State Park. It's at the corner of 28th and L streets, prominently parked at the hospital that also bears his name, Sutter General.

Birdwatching the Sky Crane

Of all the birds in all the world, none steps up the heart rate like the Sky Crane. Yes, it's the worst cliche in the world to say, as so many cities did in the 1990s and early 2000s, that the sky crane is the city's official bird. But when I see one in the evening hovering over a major construction project I know something powerful is up.

On a recent trip to Asia I saw dozens of sky cranes above the skylines of booming Singapore, Taipei and Hong Kong. But in busted California they've become what the condor used to be: an endangered species. This rare sighting hovers over the top of Sutter Medical Center, which is doing a $700 million expansion in downtown Sacramento.


Here is its twin sister, with the moon on its wings:

Wide World of (Hometown) Sports

For all the talk about hugely expensive sports stadiums for millionaire athletes, often with taxpayer subsidies, it's a pleasure to see great athletic fields where everyday people play ball and their relatives and friends watch.
I am on vacation this week, so I had time this morning to trek around Elk Grove's new regional sports park. It's the newest creature of the Consumnes Community Services District. We human beings like bright colors and this 46-acre Hal Bartholomew Sports Park has plenty of it. An employee told me they don't have numbered ball fields. They're all by color: blue for baseball, and yellow, green and red for softball fields.

Check out these colorful awnings over the bleachers. Compared to what I remember of city sports parks most of my life - bleachers in the sun and faded green dugout and backstop paint - this is a spectacle of good taste.


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Here's how it looks to the players:
From the pitcher's mound:


And first base:

I'm anxious to come back here at night, under the bright lights. This park is a winner. Play Ball!


Or football:

Or soccer (both of these on artificial turf, by the way. Look at that green.

Placemaking That Works

I believe it is Jane Jacobs in "The Death and Life of Great American Cities," who says that big cities are prone to small, random "marvelous accidents." You are walking somewhere and come across something by surprise, a place that gives some unexpected human sensory experience.
I would argue that's not just a city experience. This below is my favorite little suburban retail oasis, a random, small surprise in placemaking. I credit these large palm trees, lighted at night, and towering over outdoor tables and a fountain in Elk Grove, California.
I usually cruise through here on the way to Borders. The experience is 15 to 20 seconds of outdoor music, three or four restaurants and a quick sense of life happening here. It's not big, not great-city grand. Just a nice small place that you can feel. It works. Young people congregate here. It's all the more amazing being next to a suburban parking lot.(Left click twice for a bigger photo).

Charms of Old Capitol Avenue

They don't build them like they used to, fans of century-old houses and historic architecture like to say. That's why it's always worthwhile to take a walk on Sacramento's Capitol Avenue. It's a long, quiet stretch of splendor between Capitol Park downtown and the Capital City Freeway. It makes me feel like people are intelligent, and that beauty and good taste are a critical ingredient of being alive.

The big old gentry houses are carved up now into lawyer and lobbyist offices, and apartments. It's become more common to see scaffolding lately as owners paint and touch up some of the giant residences fallen into disrepair. Here are a few pictures I took as July began, during a lunch hour walk a little after 1 p.m.





Here below are a few more on the street. They remind me sometimes of being a young professional in Fort Wayne, Ind. We wannabe bohemians lived in the fashionable West Central District near downtown. We sat around tables late at night in those ancient, classic dining rooms below chandeliers designed for original well-to-do owners. After we'd met our deadlines for the morning paper and the bars had closed, we drank Stroh's beer brewed in Detroit in those houses, and felt the full flavor of being young and hip in a beautiful old neighborhood. Imagine it, The Journal-Gazette then actually had a neighborhoods beat reporter. She tracked neighborhood associations and preservation efforts for these old beauties. Those beats are long gone in the newspaper business; the beauties endure.










Lest, however, I get too nostalgic for the good old days of design, check out this office building that opened recently on the avenue. It's called 2600 Capitol, built by Fulcrum Property to LEED status. I really like the modern lines and the mix of wood, steel and large windows. It's a clean look that really adds to that part of the avenue.



A close-up below. Beautiful.



And finally, a street mural on the old neighborhood Rick's Market. It's being remodeled for a Food Outlet. The mural isn't long for this world.

State Cooling Tower, California style

I swear this thing looks like something commissioned for Dubai World, a design element you might see at a shopping mall in a country with too much money. But it's a new cooling tower in the middle of downtown Sacramento, a project nearing completion by the California Department of General Services. This cooling tower is a key part of a new $181 million Central Plant. being built by Sweden's Skanska Group. This plant is powering dozens of state government office buildings across the downtown area. The picture above was shot at about 6 p.m. in early July. Note how it captures the early evening sunlight.

Normally, California's state government is more famous for Stalinist office architecture like the nearby Department of Natural Resources building below: (Ouch, my eyes).


But I'll hand it to the state for this one. DGS has designed a massive steel net around a round cooling tower and added what looks to me like a crown on top. I am sure the City of Sacramento told them not to build a government monstrosity - and somehow, they didn't. The Ironworkers Union has a big old sign on the thing, claiming credit for construction. Hats off.

Here are three more views:






We'll reserve a final judgment until we see how it looks with a head of steam blowing out the top.