Tuesday, September 30, 2008

The Orleans

The other day I got to tour of The Orleans in Old Sac and think it's a very nice project. The rebuilt Orleans was just completed at a cost $12 million and has 24 rental units with space for retail or a restaurant on the ground floor.









The views from the top floors are awesome... the city view looking east is cool but the sound off I-5 is pretty loud if your out on the deck. The western views are great with the tower bridge on the left and trees everywhere. It sure would be exciting to wake up every morning in the heart of historic Sacramento and walk down the wooden sidewalks to start the day.

Sunday, September 28, 2008

The Cosmopolitan Cabaret

This last weekend my wife and I were able to see the premiere performance of "Forever Plaid" and we both enjoyed the show. The Cosmopolitan at 10th and K seems to bring a new energy and street presents that K Street has been needing so badly. The Cabaret has both a contemporary bar and restaurant (by Paragary) with a night club soon to be opening upstairs.



"Forever Plaid's" a fun show that likes to get interactive with the audience. The theater's very distinguished from other Sacramento theaters in that it's cozy and gives everyone a good seat to enjoy the performance. The production made me laugh and get into many songs from the 1950's that were fun to hear in this setting. The Cosmopolitan’s defiantly worth checking out. New life has been given to a street and corner that deserves more entertainment like this.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

PARKing Day - Friday, Sept 19th

Website: http://neighborhoods.org/sacparkingday

PARKing Day has returned to Sacramento for 2008! Join us at the corner of J and 20th in Midtown on September 19th from 7:00A-6:00P. Download the Event Flyer. We will again be converting a car parking space into a beautiful mini-park called Presley Park — complete with sod, park benches, and trees! We guarantee a good time :)

Another Sacramento park is being organized by VOX Café at the corner of Broadway and Land Park Drive (at R5 Records).

Why are we doing it, you ask? Well, contrary to what a local media outlet inferred last year, we are not a bunch of pot-smoking, hippie environmentalists looking to eliminate cars. We are a group of regular citizens, businesses, and non-profits that would like to see more urban space dedicated to parks and less space dedicated to the automobile. Did you know that in most cities roughly 70% of outdoor space is dedicated to the private vehicle? And while many consider Sacramento to be a "green" city, only 7.6% of the city is dedicated to open space for its people. Those figures are not acceptable to us!

Our goal is to educate others about the importance of green space in cities, and shock some people by demonstrating everything you can fit into one parking space. Some spaces are about 168 square feet in area—even larger than some families' bedrooms!

Please join us on September 19th! If you are able to volunteer, or would like more information, please contact:

J and 20 – Presley Park
Eric Fredericks – eric@neighborhoods.org or 916-669-0676
Michelle van Tijen – michellevt@gmail.com or 510-421-0240

Broadway and Land Park
Cynthia Kruschel cindyk@voxsac.com

For more information on how this idea came about, visit the National Parking Day website. Original concept by REBAR.

You can also:
Join our Planning Group
Join our Facebook Event Page
Join our Facebook Group
View some photos from Parking Day 2007
Read neighborhoods.org articles about Parking Day
SPREAD THE WORD!!

Thursday, September 11, 2008

The new B Street Theatre

More renderings of the new B Street Theatre.

Ankrom Moisan Associated Architects

Services Employed: Architectural Design, Graphic Design, Interior Design

CLIENT GOAL: Design a flexible, high quality performance space for this innovative theatre company that has been recognized as one of northern California’s top professional theatres.

DESIGN RESPONSE: The project is on a half-block site in midtown Sacramento. There will be two performance venues for the B-Street Theatre on the ground floor and five floors of condos, approximately 95 units, above. The sale of the condo units will help to subsidize the construction of the theatre space. The full theatre space is approximately 50,000 sf - the thrust stage will have 250 seats and the proscenium will have 350.








Saturday, September 06, 2008

500 Capitol Mall Granite & Glass

The granite and glass are going up quickly on Sacramento’s newest high-rise and using premium materials in the process. The granite for instance, has been mined in Brazil and then finished in Italy. Not since 1990 when the Well Fargo tower was built has granite been used for the skin of a building in downtown. The over all tower design has a bit of an 80’s feeling to me and looks fine so far. I’m curious to hear what others are thinking?









Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Railyards Awarded $17.9 Million

Both the city of Sacramento and The Railyards redevelopment project were awarded $17.9 million Proposition 1B transportation bond funds on Tuesday. The money will be used to extend 6th Street to the north and to construct a pedestrian tunnel at 7th Street. Construction of this portion of the project is slated to begin in 2009.

Back in July $47 million was awarded to the railyard redevelopment from the Proposition 1C bond program, the largest such award in the state.

Back in 2006 voters approved both Proposition 1B and 1C authorizing $2.85 billion in housing bonds for uses that included creating infrastructure and affordable housing near transit. The Sacramento Railyards development is said to be the largest urban infill project in the country. Plans ultimately call for creating a new neighborhood north on downtown Sacramento.

Project developer Thomas Enterprises commissioned a study that predicts the project will create 19,000 permanent jobs, 2,800 hundred annual construction jobs and result in an ongoing annual positive economic impact of $2.7 billion. Private investment in the project is expected to top $6 billion.

http://sacramento.bizjournals.com/sacramento/stories/
2008/09/01/daily11.html?surround=lfn&brthrs=1

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It’s good to see money flowing and work continue at the railyards. Hopefully infrastructure work will start next year.