People at Work #9 : : High Altitude Sign Hanger

Originally built by AT&T to protect telecom gear from a nuclear blast, (seriously) this windowless concrete building in the heart of downtown Santa Rosa has been empty for almost 20 years. The city purchased it in 2007 and planned to demolish it, but the blast proof concrete walls made the plan prohibitively expensive. I find it rather ironic that it would ever be more expensive to demolish a building than to leave it standing.

A developer finally bought the building in 2013 and began blasting holes for windows through the depressing fortress like structure. The first tenants, the architectural firm that redesigned the building moved in a few months ago. A picture in the local newspaper featured several dozen millennials holding files, potted plants and other personal items "riding" their wheeled office chairs down the street. I assume the bank, currently occupying space in four downtown buildings, will be moving in soon.

The final work of hanging the white cladding and "fins" and the Luther Burbank sign has been going on for several months off and on. When the crane is operating, a traffic lane is closed, requiring everybody to move into the left hand lane which turns into a left turn only lane in the next block…a bit of an obstacle course, but as OilMan and I were just commenting following our recent return to Berkeley, it pales in comparison with the nightmare traffic there. Narrow streets, quirky intersections, too many cars with too many rude drivers and a large campus, inaccessible to cars combine to make many Berkeley streets almost impassable.

I will refrain from expounding further on my opinions on civic architecture in Santa Rosa….