ATTACHMENT 2 RICHMOND CIVIC CENTER HISTORIC STRUCTURES REPORT TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION Introduction ....................................................................................................................................1-3 SIGNIFICANCE Brief History ...................................................................................................................................4-7 Important Persons ..........................................................................................................................7-9 Summary of Significance..............................................................................................................9-11 Integrity ......................................................................................................................................11-12 Chronology .......................................................................................................................................12 EVALUATION Historic Preservation Evaluation ...............................................................................................13-16 Site Evaluations..........................................................................................................................17-22 Building Exterior Evaluations ...................................................................................................23-28 Building Interiors .......................................................................................................................29-30 Zoned Site and Floor Plans.....................................................................................................8 sheets REFERENCES Resources..........................................................................................................................................31 APPENDICES Copies of Original Drawings and Historic Documentation ............................................................... TABLE OF CONTENTS RCCHSR Fig.1: RCC, c1956 INTRODUCTION View of City Hall from Auditorium Lobby (from Aluminum in Architecture) Richmond’s Civic Center (hereafter referred to as the • Memorial Auditorium building, including Art RCC) is a mid-twentieth century Modernist campus Center and courtyard; designed from 1945-1948 by the architects Timothy L. • 25th and Barrett surface parking lots and Milton T. Pflueger, and constructed from 1949-1951. In magazine and news accounts of the RCC, there is As illustrated on the attached plan (Fig.2), the RCC is much ado about the modern, cutting edge intention of clearly bounded—starting at its north edge and moving this place. But such expressive pride comes with at least clockwise, by Barrett Avenue, 27th Street, Macdonald an equal measure of civic and commercial boosterism. Avenue, 26th Street, Nevin Avenue, and 25th Street. The Nevertheless, the RCC is perhaps not only the first, but 13+ acre property consists of the following individual plausibly the one and only, given its particular mix of buildings and landscapes: geography, people and built environment. Moreover, the • Civic Center Plaza title of Modern is very authentic to this institution. It • City Hall, including directly adjoining outdoor was named as a memorial to the Second World War, circulation, entry spaces and yards which was not yet over by the time planning was fully • Barrett and 27th surface parking lot, including and realistically underway. On August 3 of 1945, the covered stalls Richmond City Council deemed the name of its future • Hall of Justice civic center the “Memorial Civic Center.” On August 6 and 9th, respectively, the U.S. launched atomic bombs on • Macdonald Avenue and 27th surface parking lot the Japanese cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. By mid- and landscape, including entry path and audito- rium signage August, the War was over. • Public Library (including courtyard); Before that war, Richmond was a small town. During and thereafter, Richmond was a City. Richmond and the INTRODUCTION 1 BARRETT AVE. Art Center Yard City Hall Yard CITY HALL Art Center C’yard Barrett/27th Lot CIVIC AUDITORIUM CENTER 25th STREET PLAZA Barrett/25th Parking/ Auditorium Service Yard HALL OF JUSTICE Auditorium Yard Hall of Justice Yards NEVIN AVENUE 27th STREET 26th STREET PUBLIC 27th & LIBRARY Macdonald Parking Civic Center Pl. Library C’yard Library Yards Forecourt MACDONALD AVE. Fig.2: RCC Aerial View c2007 (North is up) 2 INTRODUCTION war effort were uniquely allied, and the RCC is a child of years of the Great Depression and then the Second that alliance. World War, as so many institutional ambitions were. Yet, In this context, it is not inappropriate to say that the in Richmond’s case, such ambitions were not lost to design intentions of the RCC were heroic. The “aren’t we time, but were realized without any additional delay, the best/the skies the limit” spirit is certainly manifest in resulting in the RCC that has stood upon this site, with the writings about this place in its day, but it is also little in the way of intervention, for very nearly sixty arguably manifest in the place itself. years. The RCC is of a particularly ambitious time. It and Purpose and Methodology the bridge and the highway. Products of a culture that The primary purpose for this HSR is to document his- was literally barreling ahead, making things from whole toric site and building significance, and to specifically cloth. Was it optimism? Is that fair to imagine on identify the relative significance of site and building another people and time, as we often do of the spaces and features, in order to provide and disseminate American way of the mid-twentieth century? We say such information to those responsible for ongoing and they were barreling ahead, optimistically. But is optimism future projects that may affect the property. the reason that we barrel ahead? As we do. Would we call our reason for doing so optimism? After all, we This HSR is generally intended to provide: build bridges and civic centers – or rebuild them, any- • Baseline historical information summarizing the way. What is our reason? significance of the subject property • Detailed description of the subject resources Certainly, such activities have to do with forward • Preservation planning in the form of the identi- motion. What culture doesn’t move forward? Even fication of characteristic features of the subject those that face despair move forward. So it can’t be the historical resource moving forward that distinguishes the American people Otherwise, as this HSR is specifically about physical of the 1950s. Rather, it is the nature of their moving for- structures and sites, no analysis of the various artworks ward. Their necessities were on the scale of city build- that grace the property is provided. ing, and for what was then distinctly emerging as mass American culture. New bridges, interstate highways, RCC Project Team shopping malls, airports, corporate headquarters, etc. Project Sponsor: Richmond epitomized that culture. The RCC came City of Richmond Planning Department directly in the wake of the building of whole shipyards 1401 Marina Way South from scratch, or nearly so. It also came directly in the Richmond, CA 94804 wake of WWII and its victory, and the part that those Richard Mitchell, Director of Planning very shipyards directly played in that victory. Lina Velasco, Senior Planner In reality, such things as the shipyards didn’t spring ph.510-620-6841/f.510-620-6858 up overnight. Richmond’s port facilities were begun ear- [[email protected]] lier in the century, along with the arrival of the railroads and Standard Oil. Which is where industrialization began Historical Architect: for Richmond. But, even then, settlement remained at Mark Hulbert the density of a small town through the 1930s, while the Preservation Architecture Port remained fledgling, without a primary purpose 274 Fourteenth Street other than the desire to attract port related activity. Oakland, CA 94612 The RCC didn’t arrive whole cloth either. As dis- ph.510-740-0146/f.510-808-0378 cussed herein, earlier iterations indicate longstanding ([email protected]) intentions to create a bona fide civic center for Richmond. Such intentions were set aside during the INTRODUCTION 3 RCCHSR Fig.3: RCC Rendering, c1945 SIGNIFICANCE From the Nov. 21, 1945 Richmond Record-Herald under caption “Richmond Votes Yes for New Civic Center,” and signed in lower BRIEF HISTORY OF THE RCC right corner by “Timothy L, Pflueger, Architect, SF” Development of a civic center for the City of Richmond ter is advisable, but each public building in itself should took shape over the course of three decades, with an ini- be treated as a unit of civic development. The present tial planning proposal in 1920, followed by a more site of the City Hall should be used as a nucleus for a detailed yet very conceptual design proposal in 1930 and, civic center as originally intended, while at least one half finally, the design and construction that came to realiza- block east and west of the City Hall, fronting on Nevin tion in the late-1940s and early-1950s. Avenue, should be devoted to an auditorium and other 1920s public building respectively. The half block on the road of the property should be acquired as park property. While the WWII era resulted in a tremendous population The three half blocks south of Nevin Ave. from 25th to boom in Richmond – from a pre-war population of 27th Streets should be acquired by the City, the center some 25,000 to that of some 125,000 post-war,