HomeMy WebLinkAbout11/12/2019 Item 10, Schmidt
Wilbanks, Megan
From:Richard Schmidt <slobuild@yahoo.com>
Sent:Tuesday, November
To:E-mail Council Website
Subject:Heyd Adobe on Nipomo parking site
Dear Council Members,
Please do not approve demolition of the Heyd Adobe to facilitate the new theater on the city parking site
at Nipomo/Monterey/Palm.
Demolition is unnecessary. As an architect, I can testify there is site space for both preservation and
the new facility, so claims to the contrary are simply incorrect. Cost-effective changes to the theater's
preliminary design can provide a win-win for theater and historical heritage.
Also incorrect is staff's maintaining the adobe is without historical or cultural significance. James Papp's
research shows this was the prototype for constructing adobes using locally formed adobe blocks
stabilized with bitumen, and that makes this building very important. Traditional adobe melts when
exposed to water, and needs protection with roof overhangs and the proper sort of plaster, and even then
requires regular maintenance. Fortifying traditional recipes with bitumen allowed adobe to be shown off
as adobe on a building's exterior with less fear of aqueous erosion. This stabilization of the building
material literally made possible the modern adobe house, which reads on the outside as adobe.
We had the world's first motel, and look at the disgraceful destruction of it! Will you impose total
destruction on another of our city's firsts just because somebody who should be able to modify a design a
tad is unwilling to do so in the interest of protecting our city's cultural heritage?
I certainly hope we can count on our Council to honor this city's stated dedication to preserving its cultural
heritage for the enlightenment and enjoyment of those who come after us.
Thank you.
Richard Schmidt, architect and architectural historian
1