J. Louise Larson

That 70s Building: For a Modern Dilemma, an Intriguing Architectural Solution



Posted: Thursday, February 14, 2008

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http://familyrootsandwings.blogspot.com/

While architect Wayne Schlock, AIA loves Pasadena, Calif.'s unique and historic Arts & Crafts-era niche, he has an affinity for the modern-era buildings that sprung up there in the past 50 years.

Undeterred by dated details that might leave others unenthused, Schlock's Bluepoint Architecture & Exteriors has a knack for taking modern architecture out of the mid-life crisis it's languished in for some years. Take the recent transformation of what was a diamond in the rough at 959 East Walnut.

The 1970's modernist office building wasn't just an undistinguishable wallflower – you could miss it completely, Schlock said.

"For a building whose address was 959 E. Walnut, it had no entrance on East Walnut. There were some very minor numbers on the building, but you could easily have driven by and not known it was there," he said. "It was one block from a major corridor, Lake Avenue, the premium address of office buildings in Pasadena – and it had a main entrance that's a seven-foot-high opening on a side street."

Working on a modest budget for the building-wide renovation, his team came up with a new architectural vocabulary for the entrances – to make them unique to the building, so they would stand apart, the first of a series of strategic architectural interventions. "We felt the monolithic quality had to be broken down," Schlock said.

Now light-filled, the new north and south entrances orient the building to Lake Avenue and grab the passerby's attention with angles that zig and zag just enough to make a makes a statement that intrigues – and invites.

If a token, polite refreshing of a modern building would have been a Band-Aid, perhaps Schlock's studied reinvigoration is day-surgery – taking the existing building's architecture as a background and framework. Informed by an affinity for innovative materials, he added new elements and redesigned old ones to react to the building's original design.

"This whole project was a series of strategic changes in a building that would transform the whole building. I felt that the building had ‘good bones' but it did have some major design flaws," Schlock recalled.

Popping out moody strip windows covered with 1970s-era film and putting in bay windows in high-performance glass still filtered out UV light while letting in the light demanded in premium office space.

On the exterior, alternating bands of concrete paving on the building relieved the building's former static state. "We added these elements to create a motion on the exterior of the building," he said. Carefully "random" raised wood bands were added to an existing wood fascia to give a complexity and scale not native to the building.

Inside, raising the ceilings gave the existing back lobby a lift. A new break room showcases a 14-foot panoramic photo of Pasadena circa 1915, courtesy of the Pasadena Historical Museum. "In an otherwise very simple space oriented toward the garden, it also gives people inside a really fascinating piece of artwork they can refer to. They can sit and look at how Pasadena has changed," Schlock said.

A door leads into the courtyard. Previously overgrown and uninhabitable with narrow walkways navigating a dark and overgrown center, the garden is pared down, with Zen-like tranquility, a reflecting pool and carefully chosen plantings and alternating bands of paving mirroring color-blocked bands of shading strategically strung overhead.

Long cement tables flanked by equally long benches in glowing teak that's striking in the cool, light color scheme could easily host an outdoor staff meeting or one contemplative reader.

So are there other gems out there in the Pasadena market – modern-era buildings ready and even yearning to either be readapted for a new use, like the buildings with small floorplates that have been converted into condos, or to be renovated to current standards for commercial viability?
Absolutely, said Wayne Schlock. "Southern California has had a huge building boom in the past 50 years – one that really transformed the whole landscape. It has a very strong modernist architectural history. This building boom has created lots of modern office buildings that are obsolete and need to be brought up to current standards or adaptive reuse," he said.
Some building owners try to just refresh the property by slapping post-modern appliqués on modernist buildings with uneven results – and that's a shame, he said. "I feel very strongly that California has such a strong modernist tradition. Pasadena has landmarks by Frank Lloyd Wright and Harwell Hamilton Harris. I think it's time for us to celebrate some of the modern buildings that we have," he said. "I think we have, in recent architectural history, gone from complete rejection of modernist history to where modernism is being rediscovered. I think there are lots of buildings out there that have unrealized potential."

And if a delight in design isn't enough for those tempted to just splash on a little paint and paper to gloss over aging design issues, perhaps money will talk. There's much to learn from the numbers of the renaissance at 959 Walnut: purchased two years ago at a stage of 90 percent vacancy, it's currently 95 percent occupied, he estimated.

"The owner's a smart man and he saw the potential for the building," Schlock said. "He understands that design has value – the gentleman understands a good design can add value to a project."
This article was originally published in Pasadena Monthly magazine. http://www.pasadenamonthly.com/
-- J. Louise Larson
http://jlouiselarson.blogspot.com/

J. Louise Larson is the managing editor of The Ennis Journal in Ennis, Texas. She is a Texas-based writer and speaker whose work has been published in magazines and newspapers, including Entrepreneur Magazine, AirTran's Go Magazine, Smart Business Magazine, Midwest Airlines' MyMidwest Magazine, DS News, the Dallas Morning News and others. Her work has been featured on thestreet.com, msnbc.com, entrepreneur.com, business.com and other sites. Her family blog can be seen at http://familyrootsandwings.blogspot.com/ and her writing blog at http://writingporch.blogspot.com/. She is the author of The FabJob Guide to Become A Party Planner (FabJob Publishing 2006) and a member of The Author's Guild and the Writers League of Texas.

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