Further information on development of the Sacramento Shops area. From the press release, it doesn't appear the developer will have much sympathy for the site's historic, gritty character.

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?f=1&i=238615&t=238615
ryarger@rypn.org

> Further information on development of the
> Sacramento Shops area. From the press
> release, it doesn't appear the developer
> will have much sympathy for the site's
> historic, gritty character.

Not sure I agree, actually. If keeping it gritty means keeping it industrial, then yes, it won't be gritty. But otherwise its a neat project in my book.

The most significant surviving Sacramento shops buldings are going to CSRM, where they will be gentrified to be sure, but will survive and stay in railroad use. Most of the rest of the site where this infill development is going in is old rail yard. The tracks are already gone and the top few feet of surface have already been graded off by UP. The infill development that goes in to replace the yard will feed people to the Capitol Corridor trains and to the light rail: very transit-friendly urban redevleopment. I think both heritage and modern-day public transit are a winner in this one.

eledbetter@rypn.org

This developer is the same that did the Salt Lake Utah yards, I believe. Early sketches show alot of glass, however it may have some sort of industrial theme. What may be the worst aspect of the plan is that it seems to adopt a street pattern and park placement which may hem in functions and operations of the CSRM. For instance, the current yard space in use by the museum between the riverfront and the shops is slated to be a lawn and tree area. They may not be permitted to have any outdoor storage space. Maybe they don't need it, but I would guess that it is the other way around.
Overall, good or bad? I dunno.

> Not sure I agree, actually. If keeping it
> gritty means keeping it industrial, then
> yes, it won't be gritty. But otherwise its a
> neat project in my book.

> The most significant surviving Sacramento
> shops buldings are going to CSRM, where they
> will be gentrified to be sure, but will
> survive and stay in railroad use. Most of
> the rest of the site where this infill
> development is going in is old rail yard.
> The tracks are already gone and the top few
> feet of surface have already been graded off
> by UP. The infill development that goes in
> to replace the yard will feed people to the
> Capitol Corridor trains and to the light
> rail: very transit-friendly urban
> redevleopment. I think both heritage and
> modern-day public transit are a winner in
> this one.

> This developer is the same that did the Salt
> Lake Utah yards, I believe.

Gateway in Salt Lake City in no way reflects the railroad or industrial heritage of the site, other than that they didn't tear down the LA&SL depot. Its development as a shopping mall will also force the station for the upcoming UTA commuter rail lines to Ogden and Provo to be further from downtown than if the LA&SL depot trackage had been preserved for that purpose. The City wanted the "passenger" lines of UP and D&RGW/WP removed so they wouldn't have to replace the bridges over them as part of the I-15 ramp reconstructions prior to the Winter Olympics.

pnichol6@prodigy.net

Last winter I got a tour of the Shops buildings. It is wonderful what the museum is going to do there. Mid-19th century buildings that will still be in railroad work.

Beats anything else a developer can do there! First thing the museum did was replace a long gone transfer table.

The rest is prime downtown real estate. You can be sure that the developers were lined three deep to get their hands on it!

In historic preservation work, a small piece of the pie is better than none at all.

Most of the time we get none at all!

Ted Miles

ted_miles@nps.gov

So whatever happned to the Santa Fe Historical Collection, is it still outside? As far as I'm concerned the 5021 and 2925 should have remained in Santa Fe custody until CSRM was ready to put them into protective storage...but that's another story.