HomeMy WebLinkAbout5C - Staff CorrespondencePALM Sp CITY OF PALM SPRINGS
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DEVELOPMENT SERVICES DEPARTMENT
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cq,,fro] MEMORANDUM
Date: February 23, 2022
To: Mayor Lisa Middleton
Mayor Pro Tem Grace Elena Garner
Councilmember Christy Gilbert Holstege
Councilmember Geoff Kors
Councilmember Dennis Woods
Justin Clifton, City Manager
From: Flinn Fagg, AICP
Deputy City Manager
Subject: Appeal — Certificate of Appropriateness for Removal of Frank Bogert Statue
HSPB #33D/Case 3.3377
Based on issues raised by the appellant in the matter of the Certificate of Appropriateness
for removal of the Frank Bogert statue from City Hall grounds, staff requested that
Architectural Resources Group (ARG) provide additional analysis of their findings relative
to the statue. The attached memo, prepared by the author of the historic resource report
that served as the basis for staff's analysis of the Certificate of Appropriateness
application, provides additional discussion of the statue relative to the character -defining
features of City Hall and its period of significance. Staff will discuss this additional
analysis as part of the presentation at tomorrow's City Council meeting.
5 oL
rMM NO. Cl-
Architectural
Resources Group
Memorandum
To Flinn Fagg, AICP
Deputy City Manager
City of Palm Springs
3200 E. Tahquitz Canyon Way
Palm Springs, CA 92262
360 E. 2nd Street, Suite 225
Los Angeles, California 90012 �lHCrv4are.eonr
Project: Palm Springs City Hall, Limited Historic Resources Report
Date: February 23, 2022
Via: Email: Flinn.Fagg@palmspringsca.gov
Upon request by the City of Palm Springs, Architectural Resources Group (ARG) has prepared the
following supplement to the Palm Springs City Hall Limited Historic Resources Report, dated
January 24, 2022. Specifically, ARG has augmented Section 1.3, Findings, as follows:
1.3 Findings
In summary, ARG recommends that the period of significance for Palm Springs City Hall be 1956-
1965.
Contributing elements of the property as currently designated/defined include:
• The original building (started 1956, completed 1957)
• The open space at the front of the building including the parking lots, landscape areas
and drive aisles (1957)
• The northwest addition (1965)
Specific character -defining features are listed in Section 7, Character -Defining Features.
According to National Register Bulletin 16a, a "period of significance is the length of time when a
property was associated with important events, activities, or persons, or attained the
Architects,
Planners &
Conservators
characteristics which qualify it for National Register listing."' A property's period of significance
relates directly to its reasons for significance; it could be a single year (date of construction) or a
span of years. In the case of Palm Springs City Hall, the period of significance is defined as 1956-
1965, encompassing the period that it was designed by Clark, Frey and Chambers in collaboration
with Williams, Williams and Williams, with landscape design by Garrett Eckbo, and including a
later compatible addition by Williams, Williams and Williams. All alterations and modifications
made to the property outside of (before or after) the period of significance are not considered to
contribute to its reasons for significance and could be removed without impact to its historic
character.
Non-contributing elements including those that have been substantially altered or added outside
the site's period of significance are:
• The northeast addition (1972)
• The north addition (1985)
• The rear parking lot and landscaping (1985)
• All plant materials (1957-present)'
• The flagpole (1957, moved to front lawn 1981)
• The Bogert statue (1990)
The non-contributing elements above are physical features that are unrelated to the reasons that
City Hall is significant and eligible for listing as a Palm Springs Class 1 historic site. Their removal
from the property would not impact its historic character, to the extent that it conveys the
aesthetic sense of its historical period of 1956-1965.
The complete Palm Springs City Hall Limited Historic Resources Report provides a summary and
contextual basis for analysis and a discussion of how these findings were made.
' U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, National Register Bulletin 16a: How to Complete
the National Register Registration Form, Washington, DC: 1997, 42.
2 Council Resolution No. 23106 (attachment to November 2, 2021 HSPB staff report) specifies that landscape plant
materials are excluded from the property's Class 1 historic site designation. This is presumed to apply to any surviving
original vegetation — namely, the olive trees directly fronting the building, and possibly other mature trees — as well as
replacement vegetation.