Cellar Area Render

conceptual rendering of water feature and bar in the cellar area at the Palace Hotel:

Concrete Columns

Considerable progress has been made to clear out the back end of the first floor at the Palace.  This is the roughly 10,000 SF concrete and brick portion on the western side, which was built in 1914 and then added on to in 1929.  Workers cleared the deteriorating wood lath, wallpaper and plaster off of the interior and returned the rugged concrete and brick structure back to its bare bones. 

As I stood in the middle of the newly exposed space for the first time, the possibilities of uses began to speak to me.  The 12’ tall ceilings and window frontage could make successful retail while the large space on the southern end could make a banquet hall, public assembly space, or even an exercise facility for local residents.  The passageway that cuts through the middle of the hotel is lined with brick arches and skylights, which could make a beautiful, sunlit alleyway for impromptu public meetings and walk-throughs. 

Here is the current break up of the programmatic uses for back end of the first floor.  As you can see the western end is retail (blue) while the large space on the southern end is an assembly hall (green) and the passageway (the yellow highlights the atrium above) cuts through the building.

The green squares dotting the concrete portion represent a 15-foot grid of large, 16” columns supporting concrete beams.   The columns are part of the concrete building's robust structural system which was engineered for a building two stories taller than the Palace.  These columns could offer an artistic statement in themselves, by either being covered with stucco and intricately detailed or sand-blasted and left with their existing, rugged appearance.  Although very different aesthetically, both methods could work well with the Palace, either by contrasting the interior finishes with an honest, gritty structure or the classical ornate.

Atrium Ideas

The atrium is a 100x20 foot rectangular void that is surrounded by rows of condo units and acts as the core of the 2nd and 3d floors at the Palace.  

Exposed by at least 60 windows, including 2 large windows at the 2nd and 3d floor entrances, the atrium is one of the primary visual focuses for the upper floors.  The space therefore has to be alluring and pleasing to the eye.  The space should also draw sunlight through windows into the condo units and through skylights to the first floor, and act as a meeting and resting place for residents.  I've been sketching out and modelling several ideas for the atrium, placing in different designs and then stepping back to see how they fit.  Here are a few of them:

Atrium sketch with a spiral staircase leading up to a walkway on the second floor,
and playful canopies to add form and color.

Atrium sketch with a water feature dripping down the furthest wall,
a fire pit, and vertical gardens.

Atrium rendering using the modeling program Rhino and rendering program
Vray.  The water feature on the furthest wall could collect rain water from the roof,
and then siphon down into another water feature on the ground floor.

Cellar Area Reinvented

Conceptual drawing for the cellar area, a 180 SF space that is adjacent to the restaurant and 12 feet bellow street level.

Sketch with water feature on furthest brick wall.

The Many Faces of the Palace Hotel

The Palace Hotel in Ukiah has gone through many face transformations throughout the years.

From the 1890s to 1950s, the facade of the building was constantly being painted, pushed and pulled, and added to in the name of modernization and being up to date.  Around 1917, an addition was added to the back of the hotel that extended to School Street, equipped with modern conveniences such as steam heating, flush toilets, and electrical wiring.  The concrete addition in the late 1920s brought in a car garage to accommodate the growing popularity of automobiles. In the early 1920s the facade was modernized with a slick covering over the brick and the ornate balcony was replaced with a simple awning.  The facade received further modernization when the first floor was recessed back slightly and the cast iron columns were boxed in and covered from sight.  Through these 60 years there is the trend of stripping the building of ornament and detail and slimming it down to it's basic components, aligning with the architectural ideals of the time.

It's interesting that now, in the 21st century, we are pushing into an increasingly technological society, and sometimes it seems as if we have lost control of our dependence on modern conveniences.  In reaction to this I think that there is a movement to grab hold of values of the past, or to the remnants of a more simple life.  Because of this historic renovations have more value than ever.  Although we have the technology to cover the building in a glass bubble or transform it into futuristic steel contraption, we will not do this because we appreciate the value of it's original design. The final face transformation of the hotel, hopefully, will rewind the dial back 120 years.

Vision for the future facade at the Palace.

Winter Ready

The 18,000 SF roof is now completely covered with a 10-mil black polyethylene, to protect the building from further water damage during the rainy season.

A Welcome Discovery

This week during debris removal, a row of 15-foot cast iron columns were discovered within the front wall of the building.

The 11 columns support a concrete beam, which supports 45 feet of brick wall above.
 These columns are a welcome discovery because not only they are they elegantly and beautifully designed but they also add more structural integrity to the brick portion of the building.

According to old photographs, the columns were boxed in within the facade sometime after the 1920s, and over time the front section of the building was pushed out and the two entries were recessed in.  This photo of the Hotel from the 1910s shows the columns exposed to the street (highlighted in red.) 

A plaque at the corner of the building announces that the columns were made by O’Connell & Lewis, a popular and reputable iron business in San Francisco during the late 19th century.  

Plaque says "Architecture Iron Works,
O'Connel & Lewis, 238 Steward Street, SF"

Cast iron columns were popular in the late 1800s because they were a quick and efficient, non-combustive material.  Also because of their compressive strength they allowed front facades to be opened up with large windows, letting in natural daylight.  The columns could be made from a mold in a factory and then shipped to a site with little onsite labor.  These cast iron columns are a prominent example of prefabrication and mass production, ideas that were just blossoming when the Palace was built.

For the renovation we aim to bring the facade of the 1891 building as close to its original state as possible, which would include pushing the first floor facade back a few feet to expose the columns once again, and replicating the original window and door placements of the first floor.  This will not be an easy task, but it will be worth it in the end because it will open up the columns to the street and will preserve an aesthetic and ideal of an era that has passed.