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HomeMy WebLinkAbout9/29/2025 Item 4a, CooperSave Our Downtown _______________________________________________________________ Seeking to protect and promote the historical character, design, livability and economic success of downtown San Luis Obispo. To: San Luis Obispo Cultural Heritage Committee Re: September 30, 2025 Meeting: Item PH4A) Review Of Updates To The Historic Preservation Ordinance And Historic Context Statement From: Allan Cooper, AIA, Secretary Save Our Downtown Date: September 27, 2025 Honorable Chair and Committee Members - Our over riding concern is a procedural one. When tracking a project through several advisory bodies starting with the CHC, never do the CHC minutes (or a summary of the CHC’s deliberations) appear in the staff reports for either the Architectural Review Commission, Planning Commission or City Council. These subsequent reviews fail to benefit from insights that can be gained when reviewing the CHC’s deliberations on any given project. We learned from the review of 71 Palomar back in 2017 that the CHC had failed to consider existing trees as part of the cultural landscape. Like historic buildings and districts, cultural landscapes reveal aspects of our country's origins and development through their form and features and the ways they were used. Cultural landscapes also reveal much about our evolving relationship with the natural world. For example, the Italian Renaissance garden emerged in the late 15th century at villas in Rome and Florence, inspired by classical ideals of order and beauty, and intended for the pleasure of the view of the garden and the landscape beyond. In the late Renaissance, the gardens became more symmetrical. The symmetrical placement of the two Eugenias and the two Norfolk Pines relative to the entrance of the Sandford Residence should have been preserved as they complemented the Italian Renaissance revival architecture. With the exception of the Smith House and the Nurse’s House, cottages built in the 1880’s in the Greek Revival/Italianate style with a pyramid or dutch gabled roof and crown headered windows are not represented in SLO’s Master List of Historic Properties. Such working class buildings as those located at 873 and 863 Chorro Street should be included in this master list (or at least as “contributing” properities) particularly as they are also located within the Chinatown Historic District (see: https://www.oregonlive.com/hg/2017/03/hardly_noticed_pyramids_recall.html) Another notable omission from the SLO Master List of Historic Properties is the the old San Luis Obispo City Library at Palm & Morro Street which was designed by John Roy Badgley (1954). His designs featured signature elements such as walls made of rocks from local rivers. The Mid- Century Modern Movement was essentially conceived of as a rebellion against 19th Century academic and historicist traditions and against Victorian nationalism and cultural absolutism, Other examples of mid-century modern buildings missing from this list are the San Luis Obispo County Courthouse Annex on Palm Street completed in 1964 and designed by John Badgley and the former Riley’s Department Store and Sports Authority at 1144 Chorro Street designed by architect William Decker Holdredge, the same architect who designed San Luis Obispo’s City Hall. . We hope the above recommendations will assist you in this important endeavor.