Chattel, Inc. attended the 2018 California Preservation Conference in Palo Alto (May 17-20) and explored innovative historic preservation in the Silicon Valley and throughout California.
Associates Christine di Iorio and Brian Matuk toured the NASA Ames Research Center, site of spacecraft aerodynamics testing for the Apollo and other space missions. The tour granted access to areas normally off-limits to the public, such as the inside of a wind tunnel as well as the facility that simulates atmospheric reentry. Guests also visited Hangar One (1933), one of the largest freestanding structures in the world, and the subject of an ongoing adaptive reuse challenge.
Another highlight of the conference included a tour of the Greenmeadow neighborhood of Palo Alto, an Eichler-designed housing tract with then affordable and modern single-story homes. A National Register historic district, this community-centered suburb includes houses designed by architects A. Quincy Jones and Frederick Emmons.
At the Chattel-sponsored Three Minute Success Stories, attendees enjoyed a showcase of exciting tales of peril, perseverance and buildings saved from demolition and received a complementary This Drink Matters rocks glass designed by HABS photographer extraordinaire Stephen “Schaf” Schafer. The closing event was at the birthplace of Silicon Valley, the garage in Professorville where Hewlett Packard got its start.
Next year the CPF Conference will be held in Palm Springs, the mecca for enthusiasts of Mid-Century Modernism. Chattel will be there—will you?