nReverse

The last Statewide Historic Preservation Plan for California was published in 2006. I had the pleasure of serving on the Information Subcommittee for that plan. The Office of Historic Preservation is working on an update with a goal of publishing it late this year or in 2012. They are holding “Listening” sessions. This is a new term I think for what used to be called community input meetings. One is being held this Thursday, April 14 in Oakland at the African-American Museum and Library, at 649 14^th Street.  Don’t think I will be able to make it, but this is a process to be watched.

The San Jose Fire Museum collection is presently housed at the San Jose Corporation Yard on Senter Road – an incredible collection of fire apparatus. Archives & Architecture prepared a DPR523 recording and evaluation of old Firehouse #1 at North Market and West St. James Streets in downtown San Jose – back in 2004. The site is owned by the San Jose Redevelopment Agency, and the Fire Museum requested the evaluation They have been advocating its re-use into a downtown museum dedicated to fire safety and its history.

The San Jose Planning Department subsequently placed the site on the San Jose Historic Resources Inventory as a Candidate City Landmark (CCL), and in 2008 the San Jose Landmark Commission initiated City Landmark designation proceedings. In 2009, the San Jose City Council deferred action on the nomination indefinitely.

The Fire Museum is presently concerned that, with pending changes to the status of redevelopment agencies in California, the site, being surplus to the agency, may be confiscated by the State of California. They have called a community meeting (see  SJFM Community Meeting Flyer) for April 28th, 2011 at the San Jose Woman’s Club at 7:00 p.m. to bring interested parties together to discuss this issue and the larger issue of creation of this museum in the downtown.

nReverse was an active weblog for a while in the mid-2000s. When work starting getting a little too intense at Archives & Architecture, the weblog fell by the wayside. All those old posts are still in storage, and at some point when we figure out how to revive them, they will show up here again in the archives. Meanwhile, we start anew.

What makes this re-start different is the assistance of Cici Green. Cici has her fingers on the pulse of the local history and architecture scene, and although she has her own weblogs, we’ll see if the synergy she brings into this dialog makes a difference.

The information may come hard and fast for a while, and this message will soon be lost in the archives. Expect the format to change as nReverse evolves – hopefully for the best.

Archives & Architecture also has a facebook news page. The content is limited, given the audience. Most likely everything posted there will also show up on this site.