Innovative Design Quarterly 404

UNIQUE APPLICATIONS IN ARCHITECTURE & LIGHT

ISSUE 404 • 2015

6 Kings Theatre 18 Museum at Prairiefire 32 Reagan Ranch Center Golden Age Venue Reborn

Natural History, Modern Design Keeping History Alive

MUSEUM AT PRAIRIEFIRE

Jonathan Kharfen from Verner Johnson of Boston sets the Kansas prairie on fire

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6 Kings Theatre Photo credits to Matt Lambros

16 Design Workshop 18 Museum at Prairiefire

Photo credits to Verner Johnson, Lian Davis, Michael Robinson, Sam Fentress

30 Product Showcase 32 Reagan Ranch Center Photo credits to Young America’s Foundation

38 Global Lighting News Making the switch

Innovative Design Quarterly Magazine, Issue Volume 404, is published quarterly by Gow Industries, Inc., PO Box 160, Elkton, SD 57026.

Postmaster: Send address changes to Innovative Design Quarterly Magazine, PO Box 160, Elkton, SD 57026 Subscription Inquiries: There is no charge for subscriptions to qualified requesters in the United States. All other annual domestic subscriptions will be charged $29 for standard delivery or $65 for air delivery. All subscriptions outside the U.S. are $65. For subscriptions, inquiries or address changes contact info@innovativedesignquarterly.com.

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Copyright Š 2015 Innovative Design Quarterly Magazine. All rights reserved. Nothing in publication may be copied or reproduced without prior written permission of the publisher. All material is compiled from sources believed to be reliable, but published without responsibility for errors or omissions. Innovative Design Quarterly and Gow Industries Inc, assume no responsibilities for unsolicited manuscripts or photos. Printed in the USA.

TA B L E O F

CONTENTS Kings Theatre

Museum at Prairiefire Reagan Ranch Center

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Golden Age Venue Reborn Kings Theatre

Architect- Gary Martinez of Martinez + Johnson • Architectural Preservationist- Jeff Greene of Evergreene Architectural Arts Photo credits to Matt Lambros

According to legend, a teenage Barbra Streisand once pointed to the marquee atop the Kings Theatre’s famed façade in Brooklyn, NY, and declared, “Someday, my name is going to be up there.” In 1973, the iconic singer, songwriter and actress got her wish when she performed in the opulent French Renaissance-style venue.

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Ten years later, the City of New York purchased the aging theater, which had closed in 1978, and performed critical structural repairs. But the theater continued to languish until 2010, when the Kings Theatre Redevelopment Company (a consortium of ACE Theatrical

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The Kings Theatre is once again at the center of Brooklyn’s cultural fabric, presenting programming that reflects Brooklyn’s diverse communities and providing a resource to foster and support creativity in the area.”

– David Anderson, President and CEO of ACE Theatrical Group

Group, the Goldman Sachs Urban Investment Group, and the National Development Council) began restoring the theater in order to provide Brooklyn with a revitalized venue for the performing arts.

Today, the historic Kings Theatre, restored by Martinez + Johnson Architecture of Washington DC and New York City, is a cultural hub and catalyst for economic growth along Flatbush Avenue and throughout Central Brooklyn. The largest indoor theater in Brooklyn, and the third largest theater in New York City, Kings Theatre is the centerpiece of the revitalized Flatbush area.

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Historic image of the Kings Theatre from the Loew’s Collection, American Theatre Architecture Archive, Theatre Historical Society of America.

BEFORE

“We are so proud to breathe life back into this long-lost cultural treasure, while creating jobs and driving economic growth in the Flatbush neighborhood and beyond,” says David Anderson, President and CEO of ACE Theatrical Group. “The Kings Theatre is once again at the center of Brooklyn’s cultural fabric, presenting programming that reflects Brooklyn’s diverse communities and providing a resource to foster and support creativity in the area.”

An original Wonder Theatre

Originally designed by the architectural firm of Rapp & Rapp, Kings Theatre opened in 1929 as the flagship for Loew’s five Wonder Theatres. Loew’s Incorporated, North America’s first theater chain and the parent company of MGM Studios, built five of these theaters—or rather, movie palaces—for showing the new moving pictures with sound known as “talkies,” as well as live vaudeville acts. Another of the five, the Jersey in Jersey City (also originally designed by Rapp & Rapp) is also slated for renovation with Martinez + Johnson again in the lead.

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The Kings Theatre before restoration photo by Matt Lambros.

DURING

AFTER

“In the 1920s, between 300 and 500 theaters were built across the country every year,” says Jeff Greene of EverGreene Architecture Arts, a consulting firm that worked on the project.

“Kings was built in less than a year. An army of anonymous craftsmen did all of the sculpting and painting.”

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Rapp & Rapp took its design inspiration from the opulent Paris Opera House and Palace of Versailles in France. The design featured high curved ceilings, ornate plaster walls, wood paneling, pink marble and a glazed terra-cotta façade. The European influence, Greene explains, made the theater “relatable for recent immigrants, but also created a fantasy world in which anyone could be transported from their day job” to the magical world created by the theater.

Early 20th-century theaters like Kings, adds Gary Martinez, principal of Martinez + Johnson Architecture, “became treasured institutions in their communities.” When shuttered and left to decay, Martinez adds, they became “a blight, a stain, almost an open wound in the neighborhood. As older residents forgot they used to attend the theater, and new residents arrived with no idea of what the inside looked like, fewer people became aware of the building’s history and importance to the community.”

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Historic images of the Kings Theatre from the Loew’s Collection, American Theatre Architecture Archive, Theatre Historical Society of America

As historic theaters like Kings struggle to remain viable, they’re often converted to churches, symphony halls or performing arts centers. And the restoration challenges can be daunting.

Restoring historical accuracy

“Kings Theatre is one of the most unusual rooms we have ever worked in,” says Martinez. “The theater recognizes, in its architecture, the transition from vaudeville and other live entertainment to cinematic presentations with large seating areas at orchestra level and shallow balconies.” Martinez + Johnson’s restoration included expanding the theater’s original

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In the 1920s, between 300 and 500 theaters were built across the country every year.

Kings was built in less than a year. An army of anonymous craftsmen did all of the sculpting and painting.”

– Jeff Greene of Evergreene Architectural Arts

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“

We have worked with Jeff and his team at Evergreene many times and consider them preeminent craftsmen

footprint from 83,000 to 93,000 square feet to accommodate musical performances and offBroadway shows.

Another aspect the team changed was “the slope of the seating, to make it steeper, both on the orchestra level as well as in the balconies,” Martinez explains. “When you are viewing a film, those floors tend to be very flat because the audience is looking up at a screen. When you are watching a live performance, the better vantage point is to be looking at least somewhat downward at the performers on stage.” The team added concrete over the existing slab to modify the slope.

The team also reconfigured the balconies and replaced existing seating with wider, more comfortable seats. When decorative end stanchions couldn’t be salvaged, new ones were made to match. Overall seating capacity changed from 3,600 to 3,200 with the modifications.

Because the back-of-house areas were largely obsolete, the team enlarged and modernized these spaces. The dressing rooms were updated and reconfigured and space created for future second-level dressing rooms. Two new loading docks and a large lift for moving sets provide the theater with capabilities not available to all Broadway theaters. The team also replaced all mechanical and electrical systems, upgraded theatrical lighting and acoustic accommodations, and restored original chandeliers and lighting fixtures.

The spacious theater boasts superb sightlines, as the majority of its seats are located on the main floor. A sweeping lobby staircase leads to the mezzanine, from which the theater can be viewed. New carpeting, tapestries, and curtains and tassels were created from remnants and historic photographs.

Evergreene Architectural Arts was responsible for creating a stabilization program to protect as much of the original artwork and finishes as possible, and for restoring the plaster, paint, metal, marble and wood in the theater. The firm’s forensic research included scraping

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in this type of work. It is a collaborative, supportive relationship that we have with them.”

– Gary Martinez of Martinez & Johnson

Ornate plaster walls, wood paneling and pink marble are

off layers of paint, then viewing those just a few of the unique design features that were restored layers under a microscope to determine in the Kings Theatre. the theater’s original color palette and appearance. Martinez added, “We have worked with Jeff and his team at Evergreene many times and consider them preeminent craftsmen in this type of work. It is a collaborative, supportive relationship that we have with them.”

“When the original craftsmen created the artwork at Kings, the glazing, patina and effects were done to appear as though they’d been present for long time,” Greene says. “Kings looked like an historical building when it opened. We tried to use many of the same original techniques, although we also incorporated modern methods and technologies.”

The questions, then, included “How do you get the paint to read accurately under modern lighting and still feel authentic?” Greene continues. “How do you consolidate existing plaster and incorporate new? What were the original craftsmen trying to achieve? How do I achieve that today with the materials I’m using? One of the most unique challenges in this particular project was simply the scale of it

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The European influence made the theater relatable for recent immigrants, but also created a fantasy world in which anyone could be transported from their day job to the magical world created by the theater.”

– Jeff Greene of Evergreene Architectural Arts

(the theater’s dome is 90 feet high in the center) and remaining consistent throughout the entire project.”

A historic marquee returns

In addition to tuck-pointing the building’s exterior and reroofing the theater, the team also restored the theater’s iconic façade. Altered in the 1940s, the marquee was redesigned “to emulate the style of the original by studying historical photographs,” Martinez says, which included a tall “blade” extending up the middle of the façade above the marquee.

“When we dedicate these resources and go to this kind of effort to bring a building like this back, the most rewarding part of a project like Kings Theatre is witnessing the public’s reaction during the opening and dedication,” Martinez says.

“I also enjoy watching the community using and enjoying the facility and making it their own. Now, 200 nights a year, thousands of people will be along Flatbush enjoying the theater and the community.”

Adds Greene: “This project spurred economic growth in the area even before it reopened. It’s the largest theater in Brooklyn, one of the largest in New York, and has its own unique character. That’s what we’ve preserved.” n

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Natural History, Modern Design Museum at Prairiefire

Lead Designer- Jonathan Kharfen, Verner Johnson of Boston Photo credits to Verner Johnson, Lian Davis, Michael Robinson, & Sam Fentress

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Before European settlement, more than 170 million acres of North America were covered with native prairie. Over time, the tallgrass prairies in the center of the continent adapted to the frequent fires started by lightning or set by Native Americans during buffalo hunts. Today, less than four percent of that prairie remains, mostly in eastern Kansas and Oklahoma. The Museum at Prairiefire in Overland Park, Kansas, celebrates that vast prairie ecosystem and the fires that sustained it through innovative architecture and an engaging use of materials.

Designed by Jonathan Kharfen of Verner Johnson, Inc., Museum Architects and Planners, in Boston, the museum’s overall design concept reflects the undulating topography of tallgrass waving in the wind, while the building’s front façade is clad in iridescent stainlesssteel panels and dichroic glass that evoke a prairie burn, with “flames” rising in places to almost 56 feet.

“Fire is not a concept I have ever seen evoked in a building design before,” says Kharfen, with a laugh. “But I knew of some materials that I thought would be perfect in creating the illusion of fire. Fire is constantly moving, constantly changing, so I wanted to incorporate materials that shimmer and glow as visitors walk around the building.”

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I had ideas about how to use these elements, but I had to develop a language for each of them and how they would relate to each other.”

– Jonathan Kharfen of Verner Johnson, Inc., Museum Architects and Planners in Boston

McCownGordon Construction, the construction management company for the project, suggested Verner Johnson to the project’s developer, Fred Merrill of Merrill Companies, LLC, in Overland Park, Kansas, when he was looking for a new design approach. Merrill was asked to visit Flint Hills Discovery Center in Manhattan, Kansas, another project for which Kharfen was the architect and project manager. Merrill liked what he saw and brought Kharfen and Verner Johnson in as his lead architect for Prairiefire.

“As I drove through the Flint Hills, a part of the last remaining tallgrass prairie,” Kharfen recalls regarding his inspiration for the new project, “I saw that it was a traditional practice to intentionally burn acres of prairie, to eliminate trees and shrubs and stimulate growth of the native grasses. So the concept of using these fires as inspiration for the museum’s design came to me right away.”

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“Lines of fire� resembling flames are created by vertical planes of tinted vision glazing, dichroic glass and multi-colored stainless-steel panels.

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A Language of innovative materials evokes prairie fire

The 41,000-square-foot Museum at Prairiefire, which features a wetland landscape, is the centerpiece of a new 60-acre Prairiefire mixed-use development in a suburban setting. The museum’s exterior was designed with shifting geometries that create a lively contrast with the wetland’s curving forms and the development’s linear grid, while reminding visitors of their proximity to the remaining native tallgrass prairie nearby.

The museum’s interior was designed to engage visitors and local students with exhibitions of the world’s largest dinosaurs, and provide significant educational opportunities. The Museum at Prairiefire is the first venue outside of New York City to continually host traveling exhibitions from the American Museum of Natural History, which is part of the Smithsonian Institution.

The museum’s expansive, two-story lobby is enclosed with “lines of fire,” Kharfen explains: faceted vertical planes of tinted vision glazing, dichroic glass and multi-colored stainless-steel panels are arranged in a composition resembling flames. On the building’s exterior, the colors of the glass and steel shift depending on the visitor’s point of view and location, creating a vibrant and ever-changing glow around the museum.

The lobby connects the museum’s two wings, which are set at angles to create a plaza at the northeast entry side and protected terraces at the west park side. The wings are clad in stone, much of it native Kansas limestone, with contoured parapets that reference the prairie’s softly sculpted hills. The stratified stone also creates a tonal gradient — from darker “charred” stone at the base, to near white at the parapet. The entry plaza and park side terraces are paved in dark stone, edged in dichroic glass, and illuminated with LED lighting to recall the singed ground and fire lines Kharfen observed during the prairie burns.

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Layers (of chromium oxide) refract and reflect light differently, and appear to be different colors as visitors move around the building’s exterior.”

– Jonathan Kharfen

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Dichroic glass had never been used in an application of the museum’s size and scope, Kharfen says. It is traditionally used in smaller, decorative applications.

To get a custom product, Kharfen worked with Goldray Industries in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, “which used a dichroic film Dichroic glass had never been used in an application of this size, lead developed by 3M as an designer Jonathan Kharfen decided on a veneer system, where the interlayer that was laminated glass was veneered to steel plates attached to structural steel tubes. between two sheets of glass, thereby protecting the film from both outside and inside elements.” The verticality of the glass helps create the illusion of tall flames, while horizontal lines on the building’s façade create deliberately random geometric shapes.

The façade is also comprised of lightinterference coated stainless steel. The steel panels are manufactured by Millennium Tiles in Elkhorn, Wisconsin, by

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layering chromium oxide (which already exists in stainless steel) in a variety of thicknesses to create different wavelengths and therefore colors, Kharfen explains. He collaborated with Millennium on a custom palette of colors, so the “layers refract and reflect light differently, and appear to be different colors” as visitors move around the building’s exterior.

Because Kharfen also wanted to layer the façade’s fire elements, the glass touching the ground is tinted gray “to keep a strong connection between the building and the earth, and between the inside and outside of the building,” he says, adding that the dichroic glass surrounds the vision glass, and the iridescent steel surrounds dichroic glass.

The steel panels were applied using a flatlock seam, a standard system for wall panels, and have all the durability of traditional stainless steel.

“I had ideas about how to use these elements, but I had to develop a language for each of them and how they would relate to each other, which is not uncommon in architecture,” Kharfen says. Also, he didn’t want the steel panels evenly stacked. “I wanted a gradient that was darker with blue and purple at the bottom, and worked its way up to reds,

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The walls are basically steel frames and every mullion is steel. The verticals are 8-inch, 10-inch or 12-inch-deep tubes, depending on the height, with 4-inch tubes for the horizontals. The effect is transparency. You don’t see columns and you can walk right up to the wall. It’s a very different feel than having to look around structural supports like columns.”

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oranges and gold at the top. Then there was the shape of the overall wall forms themselves.

So part of the challenge was developing a language that would achieve the overall result I was seeking.”

He succeeded. The fire elements blaze within the landscape of lush native tallgrass and prairie flower plantings, designed by the landscape architects Ochsner Hare & Hare in Kansas City, MO, and the wetlands near the building. The metal panels spark within the faceted fire planes. The stone volumes are up-lit, accenting their natural roughness against the smooth, reflective steel panels and glass. At dusk, the gray glass becomes semi-transparent, the red dichroic glass shifts to blue, and up-lighting at the terrace walls transforms the museum into a vision of embers glowing in the prairie night.

Experiential learning through architecture

Visitors enter a tall, colorful lobby space, also known as the Great Hall, where sunlight streams through the tinted and dichroic glass. The building’s innovative steel frame construction creates transparency between inside and outside, while expressing the dynamic roof forms of the ceiling. “Large spaces with a great deal of glass need a structure to support the roof,” Kharfen explains. “But I didn’t want to do the typical curtain wall with aluminum mullions attached to columns supporting the roof. I felt that would take away from the concept of the thin ‘lines of fire’.”

He settled on a veneer system, with the glass veneered to steel plates attached to structural steel tubes. “The walls are basically steel frames and every mullion is steel,” Kharfen continues. “The verticals are 8-inch, 10-inch or 12-inch-deep tubes, depending on the height, with 4-inch tubes for the horizontals. The effect is transparency. You don’t see columns and you can walk right up to the wall. It’s a very different feel than having to look around structural supports like columns.”

From the lobby, visitors can explore the American Museum of Natural History’s changing exhibits gallery, whose enclosed volume seemingly floats within the open flowing space of the Great Hall. Visitors also enjoy a dramatic T-Rex dinosaur exhibit in the Paleo Hall located near the main entrance. Gray sound-absorbing Tectum panels are arranged in swirling smoke-

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The Discovery Room (above left) provides children with a hands-on, interactive learning environment, while other exhibitions boast some of the world’s largest dinosaurs (above right).

like forms at the ceiling. Extruded edgelit features echo the undulating forms of the exterior walls, and highlight the entrance to the changing exhibits gallery and the classroom windows above.

Also on the museum’s first level, visitors can wind their way from the north side of the lobby to the south side facing the wetlands, stopping at the museum gift shop or the café. The Cafeteria with view of wetlands (above) and the tall entrances to the gift shop and café are colorful lobby space or Great Hall (below). sculpted volumes that look as if they’ve been charred by fire. The designers used gray-stained oak throughout the interior to evoke smoke rising and pooling at the ceiling in dynamic shapes. Seating for the café spills out into an intimate area of the Great Hall and provides views of the wetlands outside. Here, also, the exterior’s colored stainless steel panels wrap in at the overlapping “lines of fire,” to be discovered by visitors as they view the wetlands.

Across from the gift shop, an elevator and the Grand Stair connect to the second floor. Visitors arrive on

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“

“I wanted a gradient that was darker with blue and purple at the bottom, and worked its way up to reds, oranges and gold at the top. Then there was the shape of the overall wall forms themselves. So part of the challenge was developing a language that would achieve the overall result I was seeking.”

– Jonathan Kharfen

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a floating bridge, which bisects the Great Hall, connects the two main building volumes or wings, and leads to the Discovery Room. The bridge extends from the Discovery Room’s balcony and tapers down to the Discovery Room entrance to provide visitors with a dramatic entryway to the room’s experiential exhibits.

The bridge leads in the opposite direction to flexible classrooms, restrooms and administrative offices. The classrooms and offices open to the east onto a roof terrace, which provides additional opportunities for educational exhibits and programs. Below, on the museum’s first level, the bridge’s sculpted underside creates a unique hallway to the coatroom and restrooms, and forms the ceiling of the stairway to the right.

The Discovery Room provides children with a hands-on, interactive learning environment. Tall windows at the northwest corner form a perfect setting for learning about field biology, enhanced by access to the exterior balcony, which cantilevers over the site. The stone-clad balcony acts as a promontory from which visitors can view the nearby wetlands and learn about the wetland ecosystem below.

A regional learning and civic hub

Not surprisingly, this project has been submitted for LEED certification and won several awards. Thus far, those awards include the Architecture Podium 2015 International Architecture Award, Rethinking the Future 2014 Sustainability Honorable Mention, Associated General Contractors of Kansas 2014 Award of Excellence, and the Kansas City Business Journal 2014 Capstone Award for Architectural Design.

Kharfen notes that Merrill Companies, LLC, which is creating the entire Prairiefire development including the museum, utilized funding through the state’s STAR (Sales Tax Revenue) Bonds program. The program provides Kansas municipalities with the opportunity to issue bonds to finance the development of major commercial, entertainment and tourism areas, and to use the sales tax revenue generated by the development to pay off the bonds.

Verner Johnson, which focuses exclusively on the planning and design of museums, science centers and other attractions, has completed more than 200 projects on several continents — including the Louvre in Paris and the Smithsonian Institutions in Washington D.C. With the Museum at Prairiefire, the architectural firm has not only designed a world-class museum and learning institution, but also has created a civic hub for the region. At the same time, the museum’s singular architecture establishes an identity for the community by celebrating the region’s ecological history as tallgrass prairie, while inspiring a new generation of future scientists. n

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A 5,000-pound section of the Berlin Wall is permanently installed as a powerful symbol of Reagan’s term in office.

Keeping History Alive Reagan Ranch Center

Architect: Jan Hochhauser of Hochhauser Blatter Architecture Photo credits to Young America’s Foundation

In 1987, then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan challenged his Soviet counterpart, Communist leader Mikhail Gorbachev, to “Tear down this wall!” Standing at the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin, Reagan was referring to the Berlin Wall, a symbol and physical manifestation of Communist oppression that divided East and West Germany.

Today, a piece of the Berlin Wall, which was dismantled in 1990-1992, is prominently displayed in the renovated Reagan Ranch Center in Santa Barbara, California.

Designed by Hochhauser Blatter Architecture, an architecture and planning firm in Santa Barbara, CA, the Reagan Ranch Center is an excellent example of historic renovation. Hochhauser Blatter transformed the aging and declining structure into a visitor and education center and exhibition space for the Young America’s Foundation, which owns the building. Located in the heart of historic downtown Santa Barbara next to the Santa Barbara Train Station and near the Reagan Ranch, the project is a win-win for the client, the city and history buffs around the world.

The Hotel Neal’s storied history

The City of Santa Barbara and its Historic Landmarks Commission have recognized the structure as a Building of Merit for its storied history. Built as the Hotel Neal in 1905 by businessman Neal Callahan, the Mission Style brick-veneer structure complemented other railroad buildings in the area. The two-story structure originally housed a hotel and “depot eating house” catering to the nearby Southern Pacific Train Depot. The owner later added a third level to serve the anticipated hordes of auto excursionists

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“

So a key part of the project was saving the outside of the building and creating a new structure inside the preserved shell” – Jan Hochhauser of Hochhauser Blatter Architecture traveling the recently opened Rincon Highway.

An earthquake of 6.2 magnitude in 1925 extensively damaged the building’s façade, lower floor and structural footings. In 1926 the building was rebuilt with four stories and served as a hotel for many years.

The Callahan family sold the building in 1940. Thereafter, the The integrity and style of the existing shell of the exterior had to be ground floor housed a mix of preserved, even though they were resting on substandard foundations tenants including a restaurant, and were extremely fragile. barber, grocery, tailor and cigar stand.

In the 1970s and 80s, the Hotel Neal was a restaurant and dance club on the first floor, with offices for small businesses on the second level. In 1996, Venoco Oil Company bought the building and used it as a corporate base before selling to the current owner, the Young America’s Foundation.

The foundation’s vision was to create a visitor center, museum, exhibition space, education rooms and administrative offices focusing on the United States’ 40th president, Ronald Reagan, and his nearby “Western White House,” the Rancho del Cielo. Because Rancho del Cielo is remote and located within sensitive habitat, the new center would make the ranch experience

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accessible to Santa Barbara residents and visitors. But the foundation and its architects faced daunting challenges.

Stabilizing an “eggshell” exterior

Part of the building’s historic status is due to its poured-in-place concrete shell—a method unique to the time in which the building was constructed. As such, the integrity and style of the existing shell and exterior had to be preserved. Still, as Jan Hochhauser, principal of Hochhauser Blatter points out, those exterior walls, intended as major structural components, were resting on substandard foundations and extremely fragile. “So a key part of the project was saving the outside of the building and creating a new structure inside the preserved shell,” Hochhauser says.

Before construction began, Hochhauser Blatter created a temporary structure to support the existing “eggshell” façade. Once the fragile façade was shored up, the building’s woodframe, four-story interior was gutted. A conglomeration of revisions and modifications made by building tenants and owners over the years, the wood frame was non-compliant with current building, fire and seismic requirements. The site’s soil and geology profile also indicated the building’s vulnerability to seismic activity.

To stabilize the building, Hochhauser Blatter used helical anchor screw piles to underpin the existing concrete structure and deliver structural loads to soil levels capable of supporting the building. A new foundation and new concrete floor/ceiling assemblies were created to fully utilize the space for its new use within the shell’s four-story envelope. “The historical building was preserved, with the addition of some new windows and features,” Hochhauser says.

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The Reagan Ranch Center is an excellent example of historic renovation. Located in the heart of historic downtown Santa Barbara, the project was a win-win for the client, the city and history buffs around the world.

Main conference area in The Reagan Ranch Center.

While the original Hotel Neal reflected the Mission Style, it had little adornment. Hochhauser Blatter not only restored the original exterior, but also introduced new Mission Style elements— including an entry arch and trellised loggia. These features enrich the building’s scale and proportion, and provide a pedestrian walkway between the building and Train Station.

A center for celebration

The interior of the new Reagan Ranch Center includes a large foyer and multi-story atrium.

Here a 5,000-pound section of the Berlin Wall is permanently installed as a powerful symbol of Reagan’s term in office. Also on the first level are a restaurant and café, gift shop and gallery space focusing on aspects of Reagan’s life, especially his time spent at Rancho del Cielo.

On the upper floors there are additional exhibition spaces, a two-story gallery and classrooms.

A multimedia theater was designed and detailed “to be sympathetic to the Reagan Ranch,”

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Hochhauser explains, “the aesthetics of the ranch being, of course, cowboy and western.” Throughout these spaces the Young America’s Foundation promotes Reagan’s presidency, his life and his accomplishments. The administrative areas and conference room on the upper floors allow the foundation to consolidate its daily operations.

Another challenge with the project, Hochhauser explains, “was Classrooms (above) and a multimedia theater (below) incorporating all of the client’s program designed specifically for the Reagan Ranch Center are goals and objectives while adhering located on the upper floors. to the City’s rigorous review process, policies and guidelines, and remaining sensitive to the nearby train station, which is also of historical significance.

So the completed project not only addresses the client’s policies, goals and objectives, but also fits into the context and urban guidelines of the City.”

Today the former Neal Hotel, now the renovated Reagan Ranch Center, is approachable from pedestrians and vehicular visitors on two sides. The interior spaces—successfully inserted within a restored historic shell—incorporate state-of-the-art lighting, environmental and audio-visual technologies, while the historic façade has been given a more authentic expression of Mission Style architecture in Santa Barbara. From here, the Young America’s Foundation celebrates Reagan’s legacy, and shares the story of the nearby Reagan Ranch and its place in history, with the world. n

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