Designs Within Reach by Leilani Marie Labong

DESIGNS W I T H I N

REACH There’s no better sign of a growing city than a forest of yellow construction cranes dotting the sky. Some of these civic markers—fittingly adorned with the #SacramentoProud hashtag—are already standing tall over downtown, and many more are on the way throughout the region. The following pages represent only a sampling of forthcoming local architectural projects, and yet they total nearly a billion dollars in investment between them. More importantly, their designs will literally and figuratively shape the future of our region for generations to come. Here we rise. BY LEILANI MARIE LABONG

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THE PLAZA TOWER AT

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DOWNTOWN COMMONS

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HA LE STUDIOS

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The three-tiered Plaza Tower will house five stories of condos, a 250-room boutique hotel, restaurants and retail.

Among the countless inspirational adages about confidence, none are specifically aligned with city redevelopment and design, but lately, Greg Kochanowski, principal architect at L.A.-based Rios Clementi Hale Studios, has been seeing plenty of the plucky virtue in Sacramento, especially downtown. “The city is experiencing a real estate boom, and I think we owe it to the new arena,” he says. “Such a major investment in the city is all about confidence.” The new Golden 1 Center anchors a six-block retail and entertainment complex called Downtown Commons (DOCO). On the northern edge of the site, Kochanowski is helming the design of a 214-foot-tall multiuse tower that will keep the area vibrant, regardless of whether or not the arena is open. “[DOCO] needs to be a place where families can go every day, where people can go for lunch or on the weekends, even when there’s not an event going on,” he says. Think of the building as a three-layer cake, each tier with its own architectural character and purpose. (Though we always favor a dessert metaphor, Kochanowski describes it plainly as a “collage of different buildings that you might find in Sacramento.”) On the ground floor, a four-story structure of retail and event spaces is clad in glass so the bustle inside becomes part of the design. The middle seven stories are slated for the Kimpton group’s 250-room boutique hotel, The Sawyer, soon to be an “iconic marker of the city,” recognizable by its western balconies, teeming with sunsetwatching guests (who can also kick back on lounge chairs at the urban oasis known as the third-floor outdoor pool deck). Crowning the tower is a five-story residential building—the “glassiest piece,” according to Kochanowski— with full-height windows that capture views high above Sacramento’s lush tree canopy. Says the architect: “It’s a real living-in-the-sky experience.”

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THE 700

VANIR

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TOWER

On the formerly blighted 700 block of K Street, the façades of historic brick-and-timber structures are undergoing a meticulous restoration, while their backsides have been demolished to make room for a new six-story residential building. Only steps away from the new home of the Sacramento Kings, this key stretch of property is now officially on the rebound. “This project is exciting because it encompasses so much of what we need in our city,” says Bay Miry, vice president of Sacramento-based D&S Development, which is working with CFY Development and locally based Kuchman Architects to produce the pioneering mixed-use enterprise that’s uniquely weaving itself into the fabric of the city in a few major ways. First, by bringing back the heritage character of its original buildings, down to the Tower Records mural and the roofline cornices of the Pacific States Savings Bank building. Second, by filling the street-level storefront with as many local businesses as possible for “an au-

thentic Sacramento vibe,” says Miry, who confirms that the owners of Kru, Insight Coffee Roasters, The Red Rabbit, and an as-yet-nameless Jewish deli have inked their interest. Third, by offering 137 mixed-income residences, from studios to penthouses, with building amenities that include a 90-space underground garage and a private rooftop patio with sweeping views of the downtown skyline and the State Capitol. Of the latter, Miry wonders why Sacramento is late to the party, and intends to fill that void. “Even cities with inferior weather are creating fun experiences in these [patio] spaces,” he says. Since the prospect of enjoying al fresco cocktails amidst the city’s bustling entertainment corridor should be a privilege for all Sacramentans, not just the residents of the 700 Block, Miry says that some of the restaurants will also have rooftop decks to help them raise—literally and figuratively—downtown’s happy-hour game; just add beautiful weather (check) and glorious sunsets (double check).

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TOWER COURTESY OF PEI COBB FREED & PARTNERS ARCHITECTS .

REN DE RING S_ 70 0 BLOCK CO URTE SY O F D& S DEV ELOPME N T.

The 700 Block of K Street will include restaurants by the owners of Kru and The Red Rabbit, plus rooftop patio spaces.

In Norse tradition, Vanir is a tribe of mythological gods who can conjure magic and see the future. Musing on this, Michael Bischoff of New York-based Pei Cobb Freed & Partners Architects designed the highly anticipated Vanir Tower—the imminent world headquarters of the Vanir Group, a development company currently based in Natomas—with an avant-garde form: North and south faces are sloped like a parallelogram, a reference to the opposing one-way traffic on J and I streets, while the east and west sides are subtly contoured into triangles. Did we mention that it’s clad almost entirely in glass? “Sacramento is ready for a bold addition to its downtown skyline,” says the architect. While the tower—currently slated at 26 stories and 377 feet tall, including a multilevel, 775-space garage—is a striking contrast to the nearby heritage buildings (specifically, the neoclassical D.O. Mills Bank from 1912, and the 1930 Spanish colonial Ramona building across the street, now occupied by the Church of Scientology), it pays them due respect in its own way: The height of the Vanir Tower’s podium base was established by these historic structures to give the main entrance a more familiar scale, and to create a more welcoming public plaza. Despite its location just beyond the boundaries of Downtown Commons, so too will this block (J Street between 6th and 7th) be a vibrant hub of activity, thanks to the Vanir’s transparent lobby with two restaurants, a cafe and a bank branch. The elegant geometry of the tower ensures that light and shadow are constantly at play on its surface, a feature that’s further dramatized by the building’s energy-efficient glass, which helps “soften the perception of what is essentially a large, impenetrable building,” says Bischoff. “Its skin will reflect the [changing] sky and clouds,” he adds. “That will make the building seem less static and more dynamic.”

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The façade of the 26-story Vanir Tower will consist almost entirely of glass panels.

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SACRAMENTO REPUBLIC FC’S

In anticipation of the Sacramento Republic FC’s rise to Major League Soccer status, blueprints for a new stadium in the historic railyards wait in limbo until the MLS makes the local franchise official. (According to team president Warren Smith, putting the cart before the horse—that is, proving the team brand, growing a strong fan base, and securing an urban-core stadium site—is standard operating procedure when courting the league. “We’re copying a model that has worked in Portland, Seattle and Orlando, all of which now have MLS expansion teams,” he says.) Intimidation, it seems, was a chief factor in the design, as you might expect from a team whose official hashtags include #indomitable. “The stadium will be a place where [Republic] players love to play, and visiting teams dread to visit,” says the project’s architect Gerardo Prado of Kansas City development firm HNTB. As such, much of the seating, which takes its

MLS STADIUM ESTIMATED COMPLETION:

With its steep bowl design, the Sacramento Republic FC’s would-be Major League Soccer stadium in the railyards would provide the ultimate home field advantage.

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TE SY O F H NT B

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cues from the hinchada sections in South American stadiums, reserved for the most ardent fútbol fans, was designed with a 32-degree rake for maximum rah-rah potential: The steepest seating bowl in the biz would create a menacingly seamless wall of supporters, who, in addition to having unparalleled views of the pitch, would also be able to swarm on cantilevered, standing-room-only bridge decks. A partial roof would wrap the whole stadium, not only essential for sunshade, but also for throwing shade—taunts (and cheers) would be significantly amplified by the overhang. Since game-day hype is heightened upon arrival at the stadium, facets of the team’s crest, a beveled star, would distinguish the exterior, guiding fans toward the mother ship. “One of our key goals is for the stadium to have a clear and relatable identity that is unique to the Republic FC and the city,” says Prado. “It’s all [about] Sacramento.”

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Randy Paragary’s six-story Fort Sutter Hotel will provide a midtown counterpoint to the boutique hotels sprouting up downtown.

B STREET

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After 11 years of intense fundraising and planning, the beloved B Street Theatre has finally started construction on its new complex at Capitol and 27th, on land donated by Sutter Health in 2005. Whereas the existing theater location—B Street’s base since the company’s launch in 1991—has always felt temporary given its no-frills, vibration-prone, railroad-abutting whereabouts on the edge of New Era Park, the stage troupe’s future home will be at the heart of a revitalized corner of midtown near the Sutter Medical Center. Maintaining B Street’s trademark intimacy was a priority for its artistic director, Buck Busfield, who cofounded the organization with his brother, actor Timothy Busfield. As such, the expansion, which includes a courtyard and on-site restaurant, carefully toes the line between repurposed arts warehouse and civic-minded performing arts center. B Street’s signature thrust-stage setup, in which the audience is closely arranged around

three sides, will continue in the new 250-seat Mainstage Theatre. And its new Sutter Children’s Theatre, which is also destined to host concerts and speaker events, will have 365 seats. The materials palette is informal too. “Concrete block and corrugated metal will reflect the simple, hardworking permanence of the theater itself,” says Ron Vrilakas, a principal at Vrilakas Groen Architects who is also helming the design of the neighboring Fort Sutter Hotel. “It’s been a challenge to reconcile industrial materials with a location that is more historically refined.” We can’t help but wonder if the romanticism of a community theater located on the fringe will, on some level, be missed. “Many memories were made in the warehouses next to the train tracks,” says Vrilakas. “But I suspect that the nostalgia for the old warehouses will be short-lived. [The new complex is going to] be a beautiful place to spend some time.”

The show will go on at B Street Theatre’s new 615-seat home in the heart of midtown.

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Though uber-restaurateur Randy Paragary’s vision for the corner of 28th and Capitol—the site of a building he owns, which houses the original Cafe Bernardo on the ground floor—has long been to revamp the upstairs apartments into hotel rooms, he patiently waited to strike while the iron was hot. That is, for the nearby new Sutter Medical Center to open its doors (which it did, in August 2015) and infuse this historically sleepy part of midtown with fresh business opportunities. Come mid-2017, Paragary will break ground on his new boutique hotel with some major boom-goes-the-dynamite action. “We are replacing a small building of limited architectural heritage with one that is much bigger,” says Fort Sutter Hotel’s architect Ron Vrilakas, who is also designing the new B Street Theatre next door. “Complete urban places need good lodging and entertainment. With this project, midtown will soon have that.”

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The six-story property, which will operate under a hotel brand still to be determined, will have 105 stylish guest rooms around all four façades of the building (read: no unsightly “backside”) and a potentially lower price point than its downtown counterparts, present (The Citizen) and future (The Sawyer, see page 82). “[We want] to create a place that has an independent, boutique-hotel aesthetic unique to midtown,” says Vrilakas. The ground floor will display “a bit of grandness” with towering ceilings, flowing spaces, and exposed concrete columns throughout, while a new Cafe Bernardo will regain its rightful place, sharing a passage of open-air dining with B Street Theatre’s forthcoming restaurant. And in the name of European Laneway loveliness, strings of lightbulbs will light the covert corridor. “At its completion, [the hotel] will become one of those unexpected urban discoveries,” says the architect.

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THE ICE

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LATE 2017

“complement the historic façade,” and new builds are clad in corrugated metal siding. “We’re pushing it a bit modern, but at the end of the day, [The Ice Blocks] fit the corridor,” says Heller. Fresh plans for the site of the three-alarmer, Block 1, aka the Ice Shops, include twin mixeduse buildings—retail on the ground floor, four stories of office space above—with a modernist glass-and-raw-steel exoskeleton and an interior plot twist of heavy pine and Douglas fir timbers that will resemble a mountain lodge. Block 2, the Ice House, will feature two staggered residential towers clad in a brick-hued metal, with a central Zen garden to underscore the idea of home as a sanctuary. Aptly, the view of the construction from Heller’s new office across R Street in the recently completed Block 3, the Ice Shed—a small community hub where bocce courts, a band stage, and soon-to-come food truck park will be anchored by three barn-inspired retail buildings—proves that the future, once ablaze, is now on the rise.

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O F HELLER PACI FI C

Sacramento real estate developer Michael Heller is in the midst of a great career feat, on par with a proverbial phoenix—in this case, a new retail and office complex on the site of the former Crystal Ice and Storage building at 16th & R—rising from the ashes. But he doesn’t want to talk about the November 2015 fire that leveled two years of planning and 89,000 square feet of construction. Like any worthy visionary, his sights are trained on what’s to come. The Ice Blocks, designed by Steve Guest of San Francisco architecture firm RMW and Sacramento’s Ron Vrilakas, encompass three city blocks formerly occupied by the abandoned 1924 Crystal Ice manufacturing plant, once recognizable by its weathered mint-green exterior. Honoring the area’s industrial heritage was always a priority in Heller’s plan to transform the space into a vibrant micro district, further revitalizing the R Street Corridor. Some original brick exteriors have been preserved, the sliding barn doors throughout

REND ERI NGS_ CO UR TE SY

BLOCKS The Ice Blocks will continue the revitalization of the R Street Corridor with a trio of mixed-use complexes featuring everything from residential units, office space and retail shops to a Zen garden, bocce court and food truck park.

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CORDOVA CREEK

VIEWING CHAMBER

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Located at the confluence of the American River and Cordova Creek, the viewing chamber will allow visitors to descend below the surface of the water and see fish and wildlife in a natural environment.

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Taking inspiration from the popular Taylor Creek Stream Profile Chamber in South Lake Tahoe, the proposed Cordova Creek Viewing Chamber will provide visitors with a rare underwater survey of the wildlife at the confluence of Cordova Creek and the American River below Folsom Lake. Imagine a native-habitat aquarium, in which rainbow trout and Chinook salmon, among the more than 40 native and nonnative fish species in the river, are free to swim their wild routes. Suddenly, traditional public aquariums seem eerily like a Neptunian version of The Truman Show. Sacramento architect Matthew Shigihara, of the global engineering and architecture firm Stantec, envisions a conservation-minded discovery center in Rancho Cordova that also showcases the riparian habitat of the surrounding American River Parkway—home to such aquatic plants as cattail and cottonwood, buckeye and bay—by linking existing walking trails

to the site. A rooftop viewing platform arranges for a bird’s-eye view (literally—there are up to 175 feathered species, from double-crested cormorants to yellow-billed magpies, in the Parkway) of the creek. Inside, a wall of 10-foot-tall, 1-inch-thick polycarbonate “glass”—a tough, transparent, scratch-resistant material—acts as the main underwater portal, providing deeper or shallower views of the river’s ecosystem, depending on the daily water levels (a depth of 6 feet on average). In fact, to attune to the river’s natural flooding potential, the chamber will be designed to take on the overflow, rather than try to keep it out. “It’s a safety issue,” says Shigihara, who prefers simple concrete as the primary building material, since it’s virtually maintenance free: In the event of a flood, the chamber will be closed to the public, and as the water ebbs from the space, the plants and pebbles left in its wake can easily be power-hosed away. “As much as possible, the chamber shouldn’t fight the river,” he says.