For a couple of years now, the fate of the Herkimer Arms has been hotly debated. The only apartment building designed by the famed Greene and Greene architects, poor old Herkimer was destined to be either moved or demolished, and it sure looked like it was going to be the latter.At the last minute, Heritage Housing Partners and saved the day. The building will be moved and converted to condos - expensive ones. According to some, that was the only way to pay for the project. Fine, I say. Better than tearing it down. I think plenty of folks around here will pay good money to own a piece of Greene & Greene.
Then again, we have yet to see what depths the California housing market can reach. But that's another story.
Kudos to Pasadena Heritage for keeping the spotlight on this and other endangered structures, and to Heritage Housing Partners for being the deus ex machina.
Thanks to Ben for asking in the comments section: for now, you can still see the Herkimer Arms at its original location, 527 Union Street.
6 comments:
where is this? the website you linked to says it is a part of Fuller's campus... which is where I go! I can't place it.
Ben, good question. I'll edit the post to add the information. It's at 527 Union Street, right next to all the construction. It should be really obvious! But it's an unassuming building. I drove by it often for a year and never noticed it. Then I saw the information on the Pasadena Heritage website, made the effort to find it and it was staring me right in the face.
There is definatley something in the air this week. So many of us on D.C.P. have highlighted a building from our area in need of some care and attention not demolition, or neglect.It Reminds me of those wondeful art deco building we get along the English Coast. If only our worldwide posts could svae all these marvellous building.
I just took a look at yours, Babooshka. From the number of comments, I'd say your post just might save that lovely building on the Isle of Man.
Just found your blog - lovely work.
Obviously, I'm ecstatic they found a home for the Herkimer Arms. I'm even more glad there wasn't a contingent of people fighting the move. While attitudes have changed, there are still many in the preservation community who believe that a historic building, once moved and altered, looses some sort of credibility. Obviously, this creats a catch-22 situation for a lot of these structures. Kudos to the developer for the forsight to see a real gem when it was presented!
Hi Brian, thanks for stopping by.
I agree, kudos to the developer.
The world changes, that's a given. Adapting an old structure to the world as it is now is the equivalent of recycling. That's a whole lot better than tearing the building down.
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