Save Our Heritage Organisation

01/06/2024

SOHO IS PLEASED TO SHARE that we have received a 2023 Governor's Historic Preservation Award! Something like a Lifetime Achievement Award, this is a huge honor and a remarkable way to kick off our 55th year.

The awards recognize SOHO and five other organizations and projects for outstanding achievements in preserving and celebrating California’s richly diverse heritage.

The Governor's Historic Preservation Awards are California's only state-sponsored recognition program of its kind. SOHO's award highlights more than half a century of diverse, ground-breaking and successful advocacy, much of it thanks to you for generously contributing your energy, ideas, time, talents, and resources.

As you know, we’re a countywide group nationally renowned for saving and ensuring the restoration or revitalization of dozens of prominent historic buildings and places, and the protection of hundreds of homes that embody San Diego's authentic character and multicultural history. It’s impossible to imagine San Diego today without the iconic Santa Fe Depot, Hotel del Coronado, Ballpark District, Warehouse Thematic Historic District, Gaslamp Quarter, Balboa Park’s historic core, Temple Beth Israel, Horton Plaza fountain, Santa Ysabel Store, North Park and South Park historic districts, and the many more historic sites SOHO has saved and continues to protect.

To recap our activities that helped us win this award, SOHO actively engages and educates the public in the work and mission of historic preservation. Our annual People In Preservation Awards, which celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2023, has honored superb preservation efforts by over 400 individuals, businesses, and groups throughout San Diego County. Our campaign to establish individual neighborhood preservation organizations has led to the formation of five active groups.

In addition, our Sherlock Homes Historic Homeowners Consultation Program, Old House Resource Directory, and Adobe University all promote awareness and skills regarding the region’s historic architecture and cultural heritage and inspire the public to engage in preservation efforts. The bimonthly Our Heritage eNews, which reaches nearly 4,000 subscribers—including you, we hope—is a part of SOHO's publishing arm that has released more than two dozen architecture and history guides and several books.

“We are deeply honored to receive this prestigious recognition,” said SOHO president David Goldberg. "For 55 years, SOHO has been dedicated to serving the community, enriching the lives of all San Diegans through the preservation of our invaluable and irreplaceable historic places, and making San Diego a better place to live and work.”

Bruce C***s, SOHO's executive director, added, “This award holds great significance for us. It symbolizes the collective efforts of our board of directors and staff, and the countless devoted individuals who have generously contributed their knowledge, energy, and personal resources to safeguard our region's historic treasures for both current and future generations."

SOHO has received four previous Governor’s Awards for specific achievements. In 1995, a dual recognition for the repair and restoration of Saint Francis Chapel in Warner Springs and for special efforts to protect our state's heritage and projects demonstrating an outstanding commitment to excellence; in 2007, a special commendation for the outstanding around-the-clock response monitoring during that year’s massive Witch Creek Fire that resulted in saving multiple East County historic sites by helping to inform the public and first responders. In 2010, a Governor's Award recognized SOHO's documentary film, Four Decades of Historic Preservation in San Diego; and in 2016, a fourth award lauded the period restoration of the 19th-century Santa Ysabel Store and adjacent Hoover Barn.

In addition to SOHO, the 2023 honorees include the Ah-Ha Mut-ta-ti' e Traditional Cultural Landscape Evaluation Report, which SOHO saluted in May with a 2023 People in Preservation Award; California Garden and Landscape History Society; Historic Shipyard at Pier 70, San Francisco; Palm Springs Preservation Foundation; and Rooted in Richmond Tour App.

The awards will be presented in Sacramento under the sponsorship of the California Office of Historic Preservation (OHP) and California State Parks on a date to be announced soon.

01/06/2024

Preservationist buyer wanted. Attributed to architect Lloyd Ruocco, City Heights.
* EDITED There will be an architectural tour of the home tomorrow, Jan. 7th, from 11-2pm, for those who would like to experience it in person.

Just east of Hollywood Park, Swan Canyon offers quiet, breezy connections to the natural landscape. Cozily nestled in this wonderful canyon setting, the Linton Residence’s Spanish Cedar and glass exterior connects flawlessly with its surrounding exotic succulents and mature plantings. With design ...

01/04/2024

SOHO President's Message, By David W. Goldberg January/February 2024

"To everyone who responded to SOHO “Action Alerts” during 2023 with calls, emails, and letters to local decision makers, or by attending Planning Commission and City Council meetings in person or via Zoom, you have my deepest gratitude. Your efforts made all the difference in mitigating damage that would have occurred if recent housing legislation had been enacted as proposed. To those on the sidelines, I encourage you to write short, one- or two-sentence emails using links provided in the “Action Alerts.” These statements, brief or long, make a big impact at City Hall and strengthen our message.

There is much work to be done, and together we’ll continue to monitor, protect, and defend our irreplaceable historic and cultural heritage."

At the beginning of each new year, I like to reflect on the recent and not so recent past, and think about what the future may hold. 2023 was definitely a year for the record books. It was one of the most challenging for the preservation movement that I can recall, and that’s saying something!

01/01/2024

Thank you for all of your support for historic preservation in 2023- Now! Let's hear it for the new year!

01/01/2024

"We found a way to add more than 500,000 homes — enough to house more than 1.3 million New Yorkers — without radically changing the character of the city’s neighborhoods or altering its historic districts."

OPINION GUEST ESSAY
How to Make Room for One Million New Yorkers
By Vishaan Chakrabarti

Vishaan Chakrabarti is the founder of Practice for Architecture and Urbanism, a New York City architecture firm, and the former director of planning for Manhattan.

New York City doesn’t have enough homes. The average New Yorker now spends 34 percent of pre-tax income on rent, up from just 20 percent in 1965. There are many reasons homes in the city are so expensive, but at the root of it all, even after the pandemic, is supply and demand: Insufficient housing in our desirable city means more competition — and therefore sky-high prices — for the few new homes that trickle onto the market.

Some New Yorkers harbor fantasies that instead of building more, we can meet our housing needs through more rent control, against the advice of most economists, or by banning pieds-à-terre or by converting all vacant office towers into residential buildings, despite the expense and complexity. Given the enormity of the crisis, such measures would all be drops in the bucket, leading many to worry that if we were to actually build the hundreds of thousands of homes New Yorkers need, we would end up transforming the city into an unrecognizable forest of skyscrapers.

This resistance to change is more than just the usual grumbling from opinionated New Yorkers; it has become a significant obstacle, and it threatens to stifle the vitality of this great city. As Binyamin Appelbaum of The Times argues in his analysis of New York’s housing crisis: “New York is not a great city because of its buildings. It is a great city because it provides people with the opportunity to build better lives.”

To do that, New York needs to build more housing, and it can. New York could add dwellings for well over a million people — homes most New Yorkers could afford — without substantially changing the look and feel of the city.

My architecture firm, Practice for Architecture and Urbanism, previously worked with Times Opinion to imagine the future of the city’s rail infrastructure and streets. This time, we took a fresh look at housing.

We found a way to add more than 500,000 homes — enough to house more than 1.3 million New Yorkers — without radically changing the character of the city’s neighborhoods or altering its historic districts.

Here’s how we got to 500,000 housing units — the same number that the mayor has called a “moonshot goal.”

Apartments near public transit are convenient for residents and better for the environment, so we started by looking at areas within a half-mile of train stations and ferry terminals.

Next, we excluded parts of the city that might be at risk of flooding in the future.

In the remaining areas, we identified more than 1,700 acres of underutilized land: vacant lots, single-story retail buildings, parking lots and office buildings that could be converted to apartments.

For each lot, we calculated how much housing we could add without building any higher than nearby structures.

Take this single-story grocery store in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn.

A mid-rise apartment complex built above a replacement grocery store could create 58 new housing units. The resulting structure wouldn't be any taller than the apartment complex next to it.

We also identified sites that could support smaller developments, like this vacant lot on the northern edge of the Bronx.

Low-rise apartment buildings house many more people than single-family homes. If designed thoughtfully, they could become just as much a part of the urban fabric as the city's brownstones.

This single-story store in Flushing, Queens, is just minutes away from a subway stop on a line that runs straight to Midtown Manhattan. It’s a prime example of underutilized land.

Matching the density of surrounding buildings, a high-rise built above new retail spaces could create 242 apartments.

Last, we considered office buildings that could be converted to apartments.

Office building conversions can require a tremendous amount of construction. But we should consider any reasonable proposal to house more New Yorkers.

The hypothetical buildings in our analysis would add 520,245 homes for New Yorkers. With that many new housing units, more than a million New Yorkers would have a roof over their head that they could afford, near transit and away from flood zones, all while maintaining the look and feel of the city.

Of course, adding apartment buildings would place more demand on our subways and schools in some neighborhoods. But the construction of over 520,000 homes would stimulate our economy; add people to our sidewalks, making them safer; and make the city more accessible to middle-class families — who are essential to the long-term health and prosperity of New York.

Getting to 500,000
How many housing units our proposed buildings would add.

Mid-rises
336,551

High-rises
93,331

Mid-rises wouldn’t feel out of place in many parts of the Bronx and Queens.

Low-rises 55,056

Office conversions 35,307

Total
520,245

Almost all of the office conversions we’re proposing are in Manhattan.

Residents of high-rises along Atlantic Avenue could easily take the subway to work.

Low-rises near the Staten Island Railway could house thousands
more New Yorkers.

Several political, legal and economic impediments stand in the way of addressing New York City’s housing crisis. Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Kathy Hochul have proposed ambitious plans to build hundreds of thousands of new housing units, but they have faced stiff opposition. Our City Council and State Legislature need to support a significant expansion of housing supply for the city or otherwise answer for our housing and homelessness crisis.

There are many reasons it is so difficult to build new housing in New York City — including zoning, the under-taxation of vacant and underutilized land, the continuing rise of construction costs, the elimination of important tax incentives, and intense and often misguided anti-development sentiments. These challenges can and should be addressed. But please, don’t let people tell you we can’t build the homes New Yorkers need because we’ve run out of room or because it would ruin the city’s character. We are, in fact, a very big apple.

Methodology

We identified underutilized lots using the Department of City Planning’s PLUTO dataset. Transit stations include stops for the subway, ferry, Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North train lines. For the flood risk analysis, we used the NYC Flood Hazard Mapper’s 0.2 percent annual chance floodplain for 2100.

Contiguous lots facing the same street were merged to maximize hypothetical development potential; small and irregular lots were excluded from the analysis. Maximum building heights were determined by looking at buildings in an 800-foot radius from sites on local streets or quarter-mile radius for sites on more heavily trafficked thoroughfares, as defined by the city’s LION street database.

For low- , mid- and high-rises, we calculated the number of units in each proposed building using the following assumptions: We allocated 37 percent to 45 percent of each lot to open space, and then multiplied the remaining lot area by the number of stories allowed as determined above to calculate the amount of buildable area. Of that total buildable area, we allotted 15 percent to hallways, lobbies and mechanical spaces; we divided the remaining residential space by an average unit size of 750 square feet to determine the number of units.

To identify offices that could be converted to apartments, we created a list of larger, older offices that were built between 1950 and 1990 and have not been altered since 2003. We excluded offices that are publicly owned or have architectural or historical significance. To estimate the number of units in the proposed conversions, we allocated 40 percent of each building to hallways, lobbies and mechanical spaces.

To calculate how many people could live in the proposed housing, we used a rate of 2.56 people per housing unit, based on statistics for New York City from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Graphics and production by Gus Wezerek. Analysis and 3D renderings by Vishaan Chakrabarti, Ruchika Modi, Mark Faulkner, Skylar Bisom-Rapp, Maria Lucia Morelli, Junxi Wu, Andrés Rábano Luzano, Patricio Fernandez and Gregory Keller. Videography by Xizmo Media.

New York needs affordable housing. My architecture studio has a plan for where — and how — the city can build 500,00 new homes.

12/27/2023

Secretary Haaland Announces Sixteen National Historic Landmarks!!

"On December 13, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland designated sixteen new National Historic Landmarks (NHLs) and two new National Natural Landmarks (NNLs) that represent unique stories, rich history, and significant natural resources of our nation. Included on the list for the NHL Program are two designations at historic places long advocated for by the National Trust.

The Rio Vista Bracero Reception Center in Socorro, Texas represents a significant site associated with the Bracero Program that brought skilled Mexican workers to the United States as part of the Mexican Farm Labor Program established by executive order in 1942. Recent efforts to document the site and its history help tell the unique story of labor, immigration, and migration patterns from the Bracero Program that shaped the region and beyond. In Guerneville, California, Pond Farm Pottery is a new addition to the NHL program adding a site within the Pond Farm Workshops artist colony conceived during World War II. The site was the home and studio for nationally prominent ceramicist Marguerite Wildenhain, who fled Jewish persecution in Europe and taught at this summer school for three decades." -NTHP

Learn more here: https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nationalhistoriclandmarks/recent-nhl-designations.htm

12/26/2023

Our historic resources face unprecedented challenges. While the word “unprecedented” may be overused, it accurately describes the current state of affairs. Every historic neighborhood in San Diego is under siege, and the difficulties are intensifying as residents are subjected to poor public processes, insensitive development, and the regrettable demolition of our irreplaceable historic resources.

Without hyperbole, I emphasize that we are facing an existential threat to the legal protections for historic sites and buildings that we have helped build over the past 50-plus years.

While our mission revolves around preserving the past, we are predominantly engaged in shaping the present and the future. San Diego, with its allure as a place to live and for investment, has always been a magnet for development. However, the next few years appear to be the most daunting yet, marked by mounting pressure for neighborhood development, densification, incompatible structures and threats to our historic resources ordinance. Even the landmark Mills Act is in danger of being gutted or killed entirely.

If these and other proposed changes are imposed on us, including making a political assessment of which properties are “worthy” enough to be designated historic would be decided by people with no background, expertise, or aptitude to ascertain, let alone understand, the many facets of what makes a site historic. I can’t think of a worse scenario and injustice to San Diego’s 250 plus years of post-European history and the many millennia of Native culture.

Historic preservation occupies a unique and cherished role in our lives. It holds transformative power for individuals and communities, infuses intrinsic value into our surroundings, and provides solace in an often-chaotic world. Preserved remnants of our collective past offer a timeless connection to our heritage that transcends generations.

SOHO remains resolute, standing as the community’s David against the establishment’s Goliath. We are able to stay strong because we are supported by your belief in our work, and your trust in our dedicated staff and board. This is what enables us to be resilient and vigilant in the face of so much adversity.

I’m reaching out to you with a sense of urgency and a renewed commitment to preserving the essence of our beloved San Diego and asking you to choose SOHO this year to make your tax-deductible year-end donation.

Please DONATE HERE:
https://form.jotform.com/233174520668155

Image courtesy Gregory May

12/23/2023

Found at My Old House"Fix"

12/21/2023

They Had Facades Then-San Diego's Architectural Marvels and Misfires.
By Thomas K. Arnold for San Diego Reader
Pages 8 thru 12

Flipsnack is a digital catalog maker that makes it easy to create, publish and share html5 flipbooks. Upload a PDF or design from scratch flyers, magazines, books and more.

12/20/2023

"They follow, in effect, an architectural version of the Hippocratic oath – first, don’t demolish. It’s a message that has never been more pertinent, as it dawns on the construction industry that constant demolition and rebuilding is an environmentally devastating activity."

The French architect duo, winners of the 2023 Soane medal, whose work has ranged from straw huts to social housing, talk about the freedom of working with what’s already there – and how to step back from perfection

12/20/2023

12/19/2023

Do you have a passion for safeguarding the rich history and cultural legacy of San Diego? Consider joining Save Our Heritage Organisation (SOHO) and be a catalyst for change in your community.

SOHO is an advocacy organization for historic preservation across San Diego County, working to protect and preserve the city's architectural, cultural, and historical assets.

Be a part of our mission by becoming a member today and contributing to the preservation of San Diego's history and legacy.

Save Our Heritage Organisation, SOHO, is San Diego's only countywide organization dedicated to the preservation of architecturally and historically significant structures, sites, and cultural landscapes. Think about your favorite historic building, park, or neighborhood in San Diego. Chances are, it...

12/08/2023

Imagine if city leaders looked at developing programs to increase preservation /restoration adaptive reuse efforts. Trades work is so important and the benefits to the community are tremendous.

"The survival of historic buildings depends on training the next generation of masons, carpenters, and roofers.

We speak with preservationists and business owners, and hear about a national initiative to promote jobs in the historic trades."

We’ll go On the Record with preservationists working to recruit and train the next generation of historic trades professionals. We hear about a national apprenticeship pipeline to meet the growing need for carpenters, masons, and other highly skilled workers.

12/07/2023

As we have been saying - calling out the WIMBYS (Wall Street In My Backyard) crowd, congress is taking steps.

" If signed into law, the legislation called the End Hedge Fund Control of American Homes Act of 2023, could upend a growing sector of the housing market, and potentially increase the supply of single-family homes available for individual buyers. Homeownership, long a cornerstone of generational wealth in the United States, is increasingly out of reach for Americans as home prices and interest rates soar.

“You have created a situation where ordinary Americans aren’t bidding against other families, they’re bidding against the billionaires of America for these houses,” said Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon, who introduced the bill with Representative Adam Smith of Washington. “And it’s driving up rents and it’s driving up the home prices.”

A bill introduced in the House and Senate would prevent hedge funds from owning single-family houses in the United States.

12/05/2023

Saturday, December 9, 2023:

The University Heights Historical Society is offering a guided walking tour of the early history of University Heights on Saturday, December 9, 2023, at noon, starting in front of the Darling House at 1625 Adams Avenue.

A 1-hour walk and talk about some of our most significant historical landmarks. Founded in 1888, University Heights is one of San Diego’s oldest neighborhoods and home to the original site of San Diego State University, Mission Cliff Gardens, Bentley’s Ostrich Farm, the San Diego Silk Mill, and much more.

Register at the link!

Join us for a one-hour guided walking tour of the early history of University Heights on Saturday, December 9, 2023, at noon starting in front of the Darling House at 1625 Adams Avenue. Founded in 1888, University Heights is one of San Diego’s oldest neighborhoods and home to the original site o

11/29/2023

Last month in celebration of American Archives Month, SOHO hosted the webinar Tracing Your Home’s Roots: Utilizing Local Archival Resources.”

Attendees were treated to a wealth of insights on historical research through archival resources, shared by experts from four prestigious San Diego organizations and agencies: the Coronado Historical Association, La Jolla Historical Society, La Mesa History Center, and the San Diego County Archives.
For those interested and who may have missed it:

https://www.sohosandiego.org/enews/1123rtracingroots23.htm

Watch the video recording of the event on YouTube.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94ss-5xYS3o

In celebration of American Archives Month, SOHO hosted a highly successful webinar on October 12, 2023, titled Tracing Your Home’s Roots: Utilizing Local Archival Resources. Attendees were treated to a wealth of insights on historical research through archival resources, shared by experts from fou...

11/28/2023

Loma Portal Residents Protest Removal of Historic Lampposts

Grassroots and Progressive views on local, national and world news

11/27/2023

Sharing this free online event from our friends, the good folks at California Preservation Foundation

Date: Nov 28, 2023 - Dec 12, 2023
Time:12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
Eat | Drink | Be Merry - A Sensational Series on the Heritage of Food, Drink, Fun
This Holiday series looks at the new frontiers of heritage preservation through engaging and entertaining online events centered around historic food practices, vintners, and creators of miniature models inspired and driven by a love of design and architecture.

All programs below are FREE and open to the public.

https://californiapreservation.org/events/eat-drink-fun/?fbclid=IwAR3aJvnqSJ1GjvUdZWWBDhFKnnU__69pH6RF8s6AZ0Ed6KQxJ48aDqiIpyc

California Preservation Foundation

11/23/2023

THANK YOU for being a friend. ❤️

11/22/2023

CALL TO ACTION: Tomorrow morning at 10 am!

Join Pt Loma neighbors for Channel 8 News tomorrow morning ( Wednesday, Nov 22, to protest the removal of the community's historic lamp posts. Meet at the corner of Zola and Willow at 10AM.

Organizers are asking folks to please come by to help save the historic lampposts!

Picturesque historic streetlights have graced the streets and neighborhoods of San Diego for well over one hundred years, and now they are facing a dire and unnecessary threat of destruction. Despite being structurally sound and possessing the potential to endure for another century with reasonable....

11/21/2023

....”PRESERVATION, RESTORATION, AND ESPECIALLY ADAPTIVE REUSE need to be appreciated as larger expressions of environmentalism—not just as an homage to the past, but as pathways to sustainable neighborhoods and cities." -James Marston Fitch

Image: The $20.6 million rehabilitation project (which SOHO supported) set aside 56 units for Veterans,8 units for transitional-age youth ages 18 to 25, and 8 units for adults exiting the corrections system.

Hotel Churchill preserves 72 units of affordable housing for individuals with incomes up to 60 percent of San Diego’s Area Median Income (“AMI”) and for an additional 10 years for individuals with incomes up to 80 percent of AMI. These 72 units will remain affordable for a minimum of 65 years

11/19/2023

Nice HABS of the Glenn & Ida May Moore Rowhouse
Rancho Santa Fe, San Diego County, CA ( 1926 initial construction)

Glenn & Ida May Moore Rowhouse
6126 Paseo Delicias
Rancho Santa Fe, San Diego County, CA

Building Dates: 1926 Initial Construction
Delineator: Juan Tampe ( The Catholic University of America); 1991.

SIGNIFICANCE
This building, commissioned by the Santa Fe Land Improvement Company as a small-scale pre-sold speculative in the midst of the commercial center of the town, is one of a group of four rowhouses in the Civic Center of Rancho Santa Fe designed by Lilian Jenette Rice in emulation of urban residences in Spain. The house has a public (street) decorated with iron window grills and heavy wooden gate, and private front patio and back garden. It is the only one of the four rowhouses with its original interior fabric still intact.

LEARN MORE
See the rest of the HABS documentation in The Library of Congress at https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/ca1680/

Read about Lilian Rice, one of the first to earn a degree in from the University of California, Berkeley in the class of 1910, on the Rancho Santa Fe Historical Society webpage at
https://www.ranchosantafehistoricalsociety.org/about/history/lillian-rice

11/18/2023

How San Diego Speaks to Me
A historic preservation writing contest

Save Our Heritage Organisation invites amateur and professional writers to help us tell real-world stories of historic preservation in San Diego. This contest encourages writers to share their personal experiences, impact, connections, memories, and interpretations of historic places and buildings anywhere in San Diego County.

Save Our Heritage Organisation invites amateur and professional writers to help us tell real-world stories of historic preservation in San Diego. This contest encourages writers to share their personal experiences, impact, connections, memories, and interpretations of historic places and buildings a...

11/16/2023

Also designated in October 2023, at 4210 Palmetto Way, in Mission Hills, is the Morris and Ida Irvin Spec House #3, built in the Craftsman style in 1920.

The designation includes the original detached garage. It meets HRB Criterion C by embodying distinctive characteristics of the style, including a low-pitched roof with wide overhanging eaves, exposed rafter tails, gull wing roof line, porch with large round stucco columns on square piers, a generally symmetrical façade, fine grain stucco cladding, and wood frame windows of various lite patterns and groupings. It is also designated on Criterion D for being a notable work of Master Builder Morris B. Irvin and retains integrity of the original design. Specifically, the house reflects Irvin’s work in the Craftsman style using elephantine columns and gull wing roof line.

Photos are from the California Historical Resources Inventory Database (CHRID)