It has been a while since the State built any office towers
downtown, but plans are in the works to build an office tower that will
accommodate up to 3,500 state workers and could begin construction at the end of next year. The building
would replace the Resources Building on 9th Street and be approx. 20
stories, 300 feet tall, and 800,000 sf. The proposed project would be built on
surface parking lot and around the Heilbron House, an historic 140-year-old
home at the corner of 7th & P Streets. Due to the Capitol View Protection
Act enacted in 1992, height restrictions
and setback requirements limits the to 250 feet on the northwest corner. The
state requires large floor plates for new state offices, so expect the massing
of the building to be huge and bulky.
The state has a miserable track record when it comes to
designing anything downtown. Does the BOE tower on N Street ring a bell? Its
ugly and it makes people sick, and the East End Complex is hardly something to
be proud of. When the state builds, they don’t need approval from anyone in
Sacramento. Sure, they might hold a few meeting with residents and ask for the
cities opinion, but it’s all a show and they will build whatever they want.
How many blocks south of Capitol Mall are surface parking
lots owned by the state? Quite a few. They were all neighborhoods at one time
and then in 1950’s they were demolished by the state and have sit empty ever
since. Now the state picks a block that has one historic house built in 1881
for possible demolition? It’s unlikely but it’s being considered.
I expect nothing more than a mediocre building. It will be big
filling up the entire block and put a few cranes in the air, but the design
will suck just like all the other times the state has crapped out buildings
downtown. Here's the EIR for the building
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