Tag: community

Advocating for a historic resource now can pave the way to successful projects

It could be said that there is probably no better friend to historic preservation than a recession.  With slowed development pressures, advocates are in a great position to start planning now for future historic preservation projects.

Do you know of an untapped or underused historic resource in your community?  Perhaps an unoccupied building that has fallen into disrepair, or an older or historic district that is in desperate need of revitalization? Now is the perfect time to begin advocating for your community, to initiate proactive planning, and to direct funding for future projects.

Garavaglia Architecture, Inc., provides a variety of services that are tailored to help launch your planning process including:

  • Strategic Planning
  • Feasibility Studies
  • Commercial District Revitalization
  • Grant research and support
  • Fundraising support
  • Use Studies for Fundraising
  • Stewardship Training
  • Visioning and Board Training

Please feel free to contact us to find out more about our services or to discuss how we can help.

Case Study:  In rural Amador County, a National Register listed juvenile reform facility had been abandoned since the 1960s. To save this unique resource, a group of local individuals initiated key steps to save the site.  Their efforts included:

  • Forming a non-profit foundation
  • Numerous successful fundraising & promotional activities
  • Securing grants including one from the National Trust for Historic Preservation for a rehabilitation study
  • The Foundation’s preservation efforts were recognized with a 2008 California Preservation Foundation President’s Award.

Garavaglia Architecture, Inc. was retained to assist the Foundation and to date we have provided services that include:

  • Rehabilitation planning, potential use consultations, core Historic Structures Report, National Register nomination update planning, identification of additional rehabilitation funding, and community visioning workshops
  • Guidance on maintenance and stabilization to sustain funding opportunities
  • Assistance and direction to the Foundation including board training and visioning services

Garavaglia Architecture, Inc. Celebrates 25 Years in Business

We are happy to announce that Garavaglia Architecture, Inc. just celebrated its 25th year in business. The company has expanded over the years into a multi-disciplined, award winning historic preservation architecture firm. With an integrated architectural and historian team, we provide a wide and diverse range of services rooted in our vision to create a place for history in all of our lives.

The variety of resource types and varied locations of our projects have taken us throughout California and provided an opportunity to explore its past in depth. Whether it is the stable that housed a recuperating champion racehorse or the last works of a master concrete sculptor, institutions for immigration or buildings from the gold rush, our environment is still rich in history. Evidence we gather through research, historic photographs, ghostings of what was once built demonstrate that little is actually lost, but rather it waits to be discovered again. Retracing footsteps from the past through our work, we uncover the story each project has to tell. Some may be controversial, others obscure, some are fantastic, and some familiar, but all together they weave a larger context – an identity that all of us can connect to.

Our culture is shifting from an attitude of “newer is better” to an awareness of sustainability. We can learn from our past, whether it is history we strive not to repeat or rediscovering sustainable building practices long forgotten. There is a reason to make a connection to this history as a part of our cultural identity and to continue to foster and use this collective knowledge. As we breathe life back into buildings and neighborhoods, we seek to preserve this important link to our past to achieve better, enriched, and vibrant community for future generations.

Stay with us as we pursue these new ideas, continue to learn from our past, and work towards a more vibrant, sustainable future that has a place for history in all of our lives.

Pave the way to community revitalization

How we prepare for economic recovery now can have lasting effects on the future character of our communities. With slowed growth, now is the perfect time to rework and expand revitalization and sustainability programs.

Creating solid and useful documentation as a part of preservation “tool-kit” will aid in making sound decisions regarding historic resources. Putting these tools in place now can actually stimulate economic recovery.

Planning for older and historic resources can benefit communities in the future by:

• Leveraging preservation incentives to create projects.
• Attracting development projects that enhance the community.
• Promoting sustainable development through building reuse.
• Creating local pride through reinforced community character.
• Identifying a resource’s needs to aid acquisition of grant funding to implement projects.

Having a sound set of preservation tools in place will streamline environmental reviews and expedite projects.

Case Study:

• A Main Street community’s strategic downtown plan identified rehabilitation of a historic theater as key to revitalization.
• Re-establishing the theater’s original use was identified as a way to attract people to the downtown area and benefit local businesses.
• Grant money funded initial study.
• A core Historic Structures Report (cHSR) was commissioned as a first step in planning for repairs and building upgrades.
• cHSR was used to apply for implementation grants to move project forward.

Garavaglia Architecture, Inc’s integrated staff of architects and historians brings the unique perspective of each stakeholder’s point of view to all of our projects.  Contact us to find out how this perspective can benefit your project.