Category: Historical

  • Historic ECR buildings: “Mogies” make the cut

    As we wait for The LIttle Big Dig to start on El Camino it's worth delving into one of the useful things Caltrans did during the planning phase.  They had to commission an historic inventory report on the buildings along the historic thoroughfare–at least the ones that are left after the teardown trend of the last 20 -30 years.  All the way at the south end of town there are two distinctive buildings across from each other at the five-way, St. Catherine's intersection.  They are known as "Mogies" after architect Mogens Mogensen who did a number of projects on the Peninsula as described here:

    Mogen Mogensen (1920-1997) Was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. He graduated in 1942 in Architecture from the Technical School of Copenhagen. Between 1942 and 1946 he worked in architectural offices in Denmark and Sweden.  Mogensen had early success, winning awards for designs for a school in Malmo, Sweden in 1945, and a City Hall in Ulricehamn, Sweden a year later. He arrived in the U.S. in 1946 with the help of a great uncle and aunt who ran a dairy near San Luis Obispo. He quickly found a job with Wurster, Bernardi, Emmons in San Francisco, leaving them in 1947 for a two-year position as a designer with the David D. Bohannon Organization in San Mateo.

    During this time, he became a licensed architect in California. From 1950 to 1952 he worked in several architectural offices in San Francisco and on the peninsula. In 1952 he returned as chief architect for David Bohannon. He opened his own office in 1956. His Bay Area practice consisted primarily of apartment buildings and condominiums although he also built private homes. Mogensen was also involved in master planning, office buildings, and commercial projects.

    If you click through on the link you can see he designed the Adeline Apartments in Burlingame, the Ambassador Apartments in San Mateo, the Belmont Executive Center, and for the Bohannon Corp, the Hillsdale housing development and shopping center in San Mateo.

    Here on the South end, the Mogie at 90 El Camino has been deemed historic in the report which is timely since the building has also gone up for sale for the first time that I can remember in the 34 years I have lived a block away.  Disen Cai has the listing and it pops up on-line for $2.8M.  We will revisit the other "Mogie" across the street–an angular apartment building–at another time. Here's the little Mogie gem:

    Mogie office

  • B’game Night: When trivia takes center stage

    It was a standing room only crowd at the historic Burlingame Women's Club Wednesday night as newly minted 2024 Citizen of the Year Russ Cohen and past Citizen of the Year Mark "Mark at the Mic" Lucchesi led the crowd through more than an hour of entertainment and education.  The first ever Burlingame Trivia Night hosted by the Historical Society and some local partners saw attendees vacillate between nailing trivia answers and flailing away until Russ gave mercy answers.

    It's one thing to know there are seven creeks in B'game.  It's quite another to know all seven names.  Same goes for the decorative sculpture above the door of the Old Post office that lives on in the new building–it's called "The Letters".  Nobody got that one!  Russ has a true skill with the microphone, a la Phil Donahue, that kept everyone engaged and entertained.  It's just one example of the many contributions to community spirit he has made and continues to make.  The Citizen of the Year nomination noted his work leading the Historical Society Museum refresh, donating poster designs (like the Pet Parade), serving as a city council member and, of course, co-founding the Voice as noted here.

    In his acceptance speech last week, Russ quoted Mark Twain's obituary description of Anson Burlingame (they were friends) as one of his aspirations.  Twain wrote “In every labor of this man’s life there was present a good and noble motive.”  Mr. Cohen is well on his way to achieving that life goal.

    The Dairy Boy was a featured question at Trivia Night.  The treasure chest of questions is deep enough for a repeat performance in the future.

    Trivia night 2025

     

  • Revisiting the ’06 Quake in style

    Today, April 18, at 5:12 am is the anniversary of the Big One that hit EssEff in 1906.  The festivities at Lotta's Fountain will take place as usual on Market Street, but this year there will be a special attraction from B'game.  I happened to be at an event at the Candy Store last night where it was announced that the 1906 Locomobile Model H seven passenger touring car that lives at Candy Store will be fired up and driven to Lotta's Fountain to join the remembrance.

    It cruises comfortably at 40 mph, so the owner will only have to leave around 4am after he lights the carbide head lamps.  How fun!  Here it is.

    Locomobile

  • Peanuts and Vince Guaraldi in B’game

    The B'game Historical Society had standing room only on Wednesday at the Lane room for a presentation about the history of the Mendelson/Melendez production company and the Charlie Brown TV specials.  Voice readers know the company is born and bred Burlingame and may recall when Lee Mendelson himself did a presentation back in 2013 here.

    This time around Lee's sons, Sean and Jason, focused in on the music that accompanied the various TV specials.  The driving force behind the music was local composer and jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi who passed away in 1976.  After the sons did some archival digging in various places, the original tapes of the Peanuts music were located, remastered and repressed (on bio-vinyl no less!).  It's the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown! is the current release.  Originally recorded in the famous Wally Heider Studios in EssEff, it was the twelfth Peanuts score by Guaraldi.  I won't attempt to tell the whole story that can be found in the liner notes, but Linus continues the proselytizing that began with A Charlie Brown Christmas in 1965.

    The story Sean told about how the Christmas special came about was pure local gold.  The TV sponsors (mainly Coca-Cola) had turned down another of Lee Mendelson's shows but offered him a chance to fill a Christmas slot if he could give them a script in a couple of days.  He rushed back to his partner Bill Melendez and to Charles Schultz who pulled the script together over a weekend.  Guaraldi put the music together and Lee added the lyrics on the back of a napkin.  The Coke execs were unimpressed, but Lee told them to let their families decide if they liked it and the classic was born.  That's the short version.  To get the long version, you hadda be there.

    Peanuts presentation

  • Avenew update: Bye bye pavers

    We haven't addressed any changes on The Avenue recently although there has been bits of news and commentary.  So here goes.  Burlingame native turned San Franciscan, Peter Hartlaub of the SF Chronicle, did a piece this week titled "Nostalgia and progress are a tough balance. This Bay Area downtown gets it right." that was highly complementary of the San Mateo downtown.  He likes the B Street closure and all of the restaurant choices down there.  Regarding his hometown Avenue, not so much:

    The Peninsula has changed so much since I grew up in Burlingame in the 1970s and ’80s that I sometimes wonder whether I imagined the whole thing.

    All of my favorite South Bay movie theaters, comic book stores and sandwich shops are long gone. Marine World Africa USA’s dolphin shows and waterslides were replaced by Oracle headquarters. Main drag Burlingame Avenue turned from a haven of small businesses catering to the middle class to a Boulevard of Things I Can’t Afford.

    On that "boulevard" the city has finally thrown in the towel on some of the pavers that are cute, almost nostalgic in a faux cobblestone sort of way, but a maintenance headache.  The replacement project was scheduled to be complete last night:

    Several downtown Burlingame Avenue intersections will be under construction from March 24 through March 27. At the intersection of Burlingame Avenue and Primrose Road and the intersection of Burlingame Avenue and Lorton Avenue, the City will remove existing pavers and install new asphalt concrete, which will reduce the maintenance required for the pavers. At the intersection of Burlingame Avenue and Park Road, pavers will be replaced both in the intersection and in the crosswalks.

    I just walked through the busy core intersection of Primrose and The Avenew where a few loose pavers are hanging on.  Maybe they stay for historic reasons?  Or the project is just going slower than planned.  Be on the asphalt alert.  Right at that crossroad, Joe and the Juice is closing "for maintenance".  The windows were being papered over this morning.  I admit being surprised a coffee and juice place of that spacious size can survive on the Ave with all the coffee competition.  It never looks even half full, but they say they will be back.  Maybe Hartlaub will stop by Broadway on his next journey down the Peninsula?

    Joe Juice temporary closure

  • Brutalism in Burlingame

    Empty buildings in B'game make me nervous.  I envision the Claw showing up some day and the whole structure being gone in a couple of days.  Many of the replacements are sterile.  It happens all over town in both commercial and residential areas.  That's why I got nervous after seeing our only local Brutalist building appearing to be empty.  It sits at 1825 Magnolia behind The Trousdale and Burlingame Plaza.  Borrowing from Wikipedia, we learn:

    Brutalist architecture is an architectural style that emerged during the 1950s in the United Kingdom, among the reconstruction projects of the post-war era.  Brutalist buildings are characterized by minimalist constructions that showcase the bare building materials and structural elements over decorative design. The style commonly makes use of exposed, unpainted concrete or brick, angular geometric shapes and a predominantly monochrome colour palette; other materials, such as steel, timber, and glass, are also featured.

    Descending from the modernist movement, brutalism is said to be a reaction against the nostalgia of architecture in the 1940s. Derived from the Swedish phrase nybrutalism, the term "new brutalism" was first used by British architects Alison and Peter Smithson for their pioneering approach to design.  In the United Kingdom, brutalism was featured in the design of utilitarian, low-cost social housing influenced by socialist principles and soon spread to other regions around the world, while being echoed by similar styles like in Eastern Europe.

    Brutalism has been polarizing historically; specific buildings, as well as the movement as a whole, have drawn a range of criticism (often being described as "cold"). There are often public-led campaigns to demolish brutalist buildings. Some people are favorable to the style and in the United Kingdom some buildings have been preserved.

    I asked around a bit and some think it was built as the Teachers Association headquarters (now a few blocks away) and was later a bank.  The good news is that rather than being empty, an on-line search shows it is owned by the Dharma Realm Buddhist Association, also known as "The City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, which is based in Ukiah.  The parking lot must be chained when not in use.  I think the building is oddly cool and worth taking a moment or two to appreciate.  Here is it

    Brutalist1

    Brutalist2

  • City Hall Moving Around the Corner?

    We covered the shortcomings of the historic City Hall here last September when the search for alternatives started.  As we noted then, a central downtown location is an intangible that is hard to value and harder to replace. Right on cue, staff is recommending a move around the corner to 1440 Chapin Ave–across the street from Mollie Stone's.  The move would involve two phases–a leased period followed by a purchase of the building and inheriting some of the existing tenants.  Per the Staff Report

    Pursuant to the Lease and Purchase Agreements, the City is required to purchase the building by June 30, 2027, for a price of $34,500,000. After the building is purchased, the City plans to retain existing tenants in office suites not occupied by the City, which will serve as a source of revenue for the City and offset some or all of the costs associated with purchasing 1440 Chapin. Revenue is estimated to be $1,656,000 per year from rental income.

    The city as a landlord could also extend to "the opportunity to collaborate with other public agencies, if they would like to lease space in the new City Hall."  The plan is up for discussion at tomorrow night's city council meeting and as these things go, I would think the deal is basically done.  Enough ground has been laid and there are enough short-tenured councilmembers that staff's say-so will suffice.  We don't have a Rosalie O'Mahony to issue a caution that would prevail.

    The real question is what of the current City Hall property?  The DJ piece raised the question, but the answer is "we'll figure that out later"

    Nearly 10 years ago, Burlingame had weighed the possibility of developing housing at the current City Hall site, though (Mayor Peter) Stevenson said conversation around the fate of the old building would be held at a future date.

    Engaged locals are already worried about the open space in front of city hall.  The holiday tree lighting is a classic B'game community event.  The pressure to flip it to a developer who would "stack and pack" it with a mix of "affordable housing" will be high.  Is there enough backbone to resist it and make the best use of the aging facility possible?  Are there potential tenants who don't need Class A space?  What about those "other public agencies"?  There is also a decent amount of parking on the site so if a Return to Office move is afoot for city staff, those spaces are a short, healthy walk to 1440 Chapin.  We shall see.  An eagle-eyed reader sent me the Instagram post about tomorrow's meeting.  I didn't know the city was posting there.

    City Hall purchase Instagram post

     

  • Pushing back on the YIMBYs

    From the "broken clock is right twice a day" file comes this Letter to the Editor of the SF Comicle.  Somehow the editors let this one slip through the cracks and into print.  I don't know the woman or the organization, but she hits pretty much every button right on the nose:

    YIMBY housing fantasies won’t work in California. Here’s the reality

    Regarding “There’s no protecting California values without building more housing” (Open Forum, SFChronicle.com, Dec 13): The steady drumbeat of op-ed pieces from SPUR and YIMBY housing advocates is tiresome. Many Californians disagree with them.  Urban density and infill housing are supposed to remedy suburban sprawl. But urban density, in practice, simply creates overcrowded streets, with motorists circling in search of rare parking.   Infill comes at the expense of historic buildings and districts, which are often demolished. A classic example is the enormous apartment buildings planned for the former California College of the Arts campus in Oakland.

    Transit-oriented development? This fantasy assumes that public transportation is a fixed utility. Many bus lines that once served our communities have been cut.  How many voters will oppose a tax to support BART because of the agency’s plans to put apartments in its parking lots? How many people have quit taking BART because there is no secure place to park near the stations?

    The SPUR and YIMBY people want Soviet-style apartment blocks wherever they can be crammed in, extinguishing every vestige of charm from neighborhoods.  It’s time for the state to stop forcing draconian “density bonus” and “builder’s remedy” laws on neighborhoods that want to retain some breathing room.

    Amelia Marshall

    Board member, Oakland Heritage Alliance

    Amen, Amelia.  Look no further than our latest Cellblock at One Adrian Ct.  It may not extinguish any charm in the neighborhood since it sits next to a Public Storage business, but you can bet it will raise traffic thru the Worst Intersection in the State and put pressure on all sorts of public services.  Did the grid get any major upgrade?  School capacity?  Did we hire another police officer for traffic enforcement?  Anything thing else listed here?  Keep up the good work, Ms. Marshall.  You are far from alone.

  • B’game Train Station: Museum coming soon

    Our extra special correspondent to the Daily Journal, local author Joanne Garrison, has penned a history of our historic train station at Burlingame Ave. as part of the run-up to reopening the Historical Society Museum in the station.  The DJ piece notes

    Members of the Burlingame Country Club lobbied for the train station, selected its location, and chose its architects. The members also insisted that the station stop be named “Burlingame” after their club.  The Southern Pacific Railroad was involved, of course, but it contributed less than half the cost of the station — the country club members picking up the bulk of the tab. As architects, the BCC selected George H. Howard, a club member and a scion of the family who owned the property on which the station would sit, and Joachim B. Mathisen, a Norwegian immigrant who had been a draftsman in the office of A. Page Brown at the time Brown designed the California Pavilion for the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. Commissioned to reflect the uniqueness of California, Brown designed the temporary Chicago structure to resemble a California mission.

    More than half a century after it was built, the Burlingame Train Station was awarded both California landmark status and a listing on the National Register of Historic Places because of its architecture. It is the first permanent structure that employs all the elements of what came to be called the Mission Revival-style.

    There was a nice event with several hundred people at the station to celebrate the electrification of Caltrain with e-trains offering free hops down to San Mateo where a larger event was held.  There will be more to follow as we get closer to the reopening of the museum.  We should enjoy the train while we can since its financial status is shaky at best.  As one wag said at the event, Waymo is going to give Caltrain more fiscal heartburn as people get used to driverless, door-to-door service for a good price.

    E-train ceremony

  • Legal in all 50 States: The Voice blog turns 21

    As I said last year on our 20th anniversary, the cathartic exercise continues–for me and hopefully for most of you.  As we watch the slow decline of our local control and rights driven by Sacramento and Redwood City (i.e. the county supes, ref:  La Quinta Inn Millbrae fiasco), having a place to track issues and memorialize facts and positions is ever more important.  Never forget this quote.  “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” – George Santayana, The Life of Reason, 1905.

    The Eagles had this to say about turning 21 

    21 and strong as I can beI know what freedom means to meAnd I can't give the reason whyI should ever wanna die
     
    You got no cause to be afraidOr fear that life will ever fade'Cause as I watch the rising sunI know that we have just begun
     
    Onward to another year hoping our B'game community and quality of life will not fade….too much.

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