HISTORICAL NOMINATION of the Mission Hills Branch Public Library 925 West Washington Street ~ Mission Hills Neighborhood San Diego, California Ronald V. May, RPA Kiley Wallace Legacy 106, Inc. P.O. Box 15967 San Diego, CA 92175 (858) 459-0326 (760) 704-7373 www.legacy106.com June 2019 Ronald V. May, RPA Kiley Wallace Legacy 106, Inc. P.O. Box 15967 San Diego, CA 92175 (858) 459-0326 (760) 704-7373 www.legacy106.com August 2019 1 HISTORIC HOUSE RESEARCH Ronald V. May, RPA, President and Principal Investigator Kiley Wallace, Vice President and Architectural Historian P.O. Box 15967 • San Diego, CA 92175 Phone (858) 459-0326 • (760) 704-7373 http://www.legacy106.com 2 3 State of California – The Resources Agency Primary # ___________________________________ DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI # ______________________________________ PRIMARY RECORD Trinomial __________________________________ NRHP Status Code 3S Other Listings ___________________________________________________________ Review Code _____ Reviewer ____________________________ Date __________ Page 3 of 24 *Resource Name or #: The Mission Hills Branch Public Library P1. Other Identifier: 925 West Washington St., San Diego, CA 92103 *P2. Location: Not for Publication Unrestricted *a. County: San Diego and (P2b and P2c or P2d. Attach a Location Map as necessary.) *b. USGS 7.5' Quad: Point Loma Date: 2015 T ; R ; ¼ of ¼ of Sec ; M.D. B.M. c. Address: 925 West Washington St. City: San Diego Zip: 92103 d. UTM: Zone: 11 ; mE/ mN (G.P.S.) e. Other Locational Data: (e.g., parcel #, directions to resource, elevation, etc.) Elevation: 380 feet Legal Description: It is Tax Assessor’s Parcel (APN) # 444-611-03-00. *P3a. Description: (Describe resource and its major elements. Include design, materials, condition, alterations, size, setting, and boundaries) The original Mission Hills Branch Public Library, built in 1961, is an excellent example of the Googie Modern or Futurist Modern architectural style. Sometimes the Architectural and design style is also referred to as Space Age or Populuxe. The building was surveyed as part of the 2016 Uptown Community Plan Area Historic Resources Survey and identified as 5S3, denoting, "Appears eligible for local historic listing and is further described in the historical survey as minimally altered" (please see attachment A.7). This civic building features a dramatic "floating" style roofline with wide extending eave overhangs. The library building has large, expansive floor to ceiling glass window walls and also reflects the "Contemporary Modern" architectural style as defined by the City of San Diego Modernism Context. The sweeping shed roof is anchored an interlocking tower form surfaced with brick in a repeating stacked design. This abstract arrangement of sharp triangular roof and glass form and solid rectangular brick form displays varied forms and textures on the building and creates a striking appearance which is visible from cars driving by. The north (front) elevation faces West Washington Street. (See Continuation Sheet.) *P3b. Resource Attributes: (List attributes and codes) (HP2) Commercial property (library) *P4. Resources Present: Building Structure Object Site District Element of District P5b. Description of Photo: (View, date, accession #) View of north (front) elevation. Photo by Dan Soderberg. Historic Prehistoric Both *P6. Date Constructed/Age and Sources: A Notice of Completion was not found for the library. The original water permit is dated June 29, 1960. Original architectural rendering, Robert Brandt AIA circa 1960. Historic photos are dated April 1961. 2016 Uptown Community Plan Historic Resources Survey shows an estimated date of Construction of 1960 *P7. Owner and Address: City of San Diego Real Estate Assets Department 1200 Third Ave., Suite 1700 San Diego, CA 92101 P8. Recorded by: (Name, affiliation, and address) Ronald V. May, RPA, and Kiley Wallace, Legacy 106, Inc., P.O. Box 15967, San Diego, CA 92175 *P9. Date Recorded: August 2019 *P10. Survey Type: (Describe) Intensive *P11. Report Citation: (Cite survey report and other sources, or enter "none.") Historical Nomination of The Mission Hills Branch Public Library, San Diego, California for the City of San Diego, Historical Resources Board, by Ronald V. May, RPA, and Kiley Wallace, Legacy 106, Inc., August 2019. Legacy 106, Inc. is indebted to Alexandra S. Wallace and Dan Soderberg for extensive research, and other assistance with the preparation of this report. © 2019 Legacy 106, Inc. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from Legacy 106, Inc. is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Legacy 106, Inc. with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. *Attachments: NONE Location Map Sketch Map Continuation Sheet Building, Structure, and Object Record Archaeological Record District Record Linear Feature Record Milling Station Record Rock Art Record Artifact Record Photograph Record Other (List): DPR 523A *Required Information 4 State of California The Resources Agency Primary # DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI# CONTINUATION SHEET Trinomial Page 4 of 24 *Resource Name or #: The Mission Hills Branch Public Library *Recorded by: Ronald V. May, RPA and Kiley Wallace *Date: August 2019 Continuation Update *P3a. Description: (Describe resource and its major elements. Include design, materials, condition, alterations, size, setting, and boundaries) (Continued): Googie / Futurist Modern Architectural Style (1950-1965). The Googie or Futurist architectural and design style displays the optimism and zeitgeist of the post-World War II Space Age era. The Mid-Century Modern Googie architectural style directly reflected the jet age of airplanes and fin topped automobiles speeding along America's new interstate highway system, as well as America's burgeoning NASA space programs. During the 1950's, the International style of European Modernism had reached a high point of popularity and a new generation of architects and designers began to experiment with innovative and sometimes startling expressive new roof forms mated with large expanses of glass or window walls and other futuristic gravity defying features. This Mid-Century Modern Googie roadside architecture added much needed whimsy to the strict modernist vocabulary and was created to be eye catching from a passing car (often itself a space age 1950's era design) as the building form and roofline often became the building signage. The style is sometimes said to appear (like automobiles of the era) to be in motion even when standing still. The Googie architectural style began in California and was popular nationwide throughout the 1950's and early 1960's. The Googie style was utilized widely for commercial retail, restaurant, office and sometimes civic uses, such as the former Mission Hills Branch Public Library. The Googie style was named after a well-known (now demolished) 1949 Los Angeles coffee shop called Googie's, designed by renowned Modernist architect John Lautner in the vibrant Googie style, which was also sometimes referred to as California Coffee shop style or Coffee House Modern style. In the 1950's and early 1960's, the Googie Modern style was utilized for commercial uses across America. The transparent modern style was combined with the new 1950's trend for open "exhibition" style cooking which provided confidence to automotive travelers along America's new highway system. The experimental futuristic Googie Mid-Century Modernist style brought an accessible unpretentious and fun "peoples" Modernism to the average middle class American and introduced people of all classes in the U.S. to Modern design throughout the 1950's and 1960's. The Googie style, like the earlier Streamline Moderne and Art Deco styles, can also be used to describe a variety of industrial designs and graphic designs including space age automotive design, modernist "Jetsons" style floating furniture designs, large graphic script lettering and colorful shaped signage, and the term is even used to describe atomic Sputnik satellite style home lighting fixtures of the period. The Architectural expression of the style is characterized by its overall dramatic and futuristic forms. Advanced engineering of steel and concrete roof allowed the style's characteristic large "floating" style and sometimes dramatically shaped roofs. Steel beams supported the large roof forms and the walls were hence relived from having to hold up the roof entire structure and could then made of large expanses of transparent clearstory glass with aluminum framed windows. The Googie style often utilized sharp angular massing and could sometimes utilize organic abstract amoeba or kidney bean shapes. The Mid-Century Modern Googie style became widely popular in California in the 1950's and early 1960's and spread around the country and was seen around the world. The Googie style served as a precursor for many of the fanciful designs later used by architects such as Wayne McAllister along the Las Vegas Strip, designed to attract attention from passing motorists. The experimental yet unpretentious Googie Modernist style brought modernism to the average American and made Modernism more accessible to many in the post-World War II era. The Futurist / Googie style shares many elements and often overlaps the Mid-Century "Contemporary" Modern style as seen in residential home design and construction by builder Joseph