Historic Resource Assessments

400 South alameda street
arts district, Los Angeles, California

Chattel completed a Historic Resource Assessment for the Stockwell-Haley Company building, originally a four-story mattress factory of mill construction designed by architect Robert B. Young and completed in 1908. The HRA was prepared for a proposed project to rehabilitate the building as a hotel. In order to determine if the project had the potential to impact a historical resource under the California Environmental Quality Act, the HRA first evaluated whether the property was eligible for listing in the National Register, California Register, or locally as a Historic-Cultural Monument or contributor to a historic district.

Chattel evaluated the historic significance of the building by describing its physical characteristics, integrity, historical use, and evaluating specific criteria eligibility. Additionally, because the property was identified in SurveyLA as a contributor to a potential historic district, Chattel evaluated the project’s impact on the potential historic district as a whole. Chattel’s report included recommendations to propose a project in conformance with the Secretary’s Standards.

Starbucks
hollywood, Los Angeles, California

The Streamline Moderne former Gilmore Gas Station, built in 1935, was comprehensively rehabilitated and creatively reimagined as a drive-thru and walk-up coffee shop for the Melrose neighborhood in Hollywood. Designated as a Historic-Cultural Monument in 1990, the gas station had been a backdrop for famous film and photo shoots including Herb Ritts’ 1984 “Fred with Tires”. It closed in the 1990s and was vacant until Chattel worked with Starbucks, Valerio and a team of specialists to develop a rehabilitation plan that brought this beloved neighborhood landmark back to life.

Chattel’s first task was to perform a Historical Resource Assessment and evaluate the proposed project for historical resources impact under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Through primary and secondary source research of the property and analysis and review of the project plans, Chattel designed mitigation measures to ensure conformance with the Secretary’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties and therefore a less than significant impact on historical resources under CEQA.

The project required remedial environmental cleanup, repair and reconstruction of historic materials, such as the cantilevered canopies, removal and replacement of incompatible alterations, and transformation of windows and doors to service counters. Spectra performed critical rehabilitation and reconstruction work. The sensitive adaptive reuse of the Gilmore Gas Station has revitalized this important Historic-Cultural Monument as a newly imagined "fuel" station.

The project received a 2018 Los Angeles Conservancy Preservation Award and a 2018 Preservation Design award for Rehabilitation from the California Preservation Foundation.

notre dame high school
Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, California

Chattel consulted on the Master Plan for the Notre Dame High School campus located in the Sherman Oaks neighborhood of Los Angeles. Collaborating with Corsini Stark Architects, Chattel helped ensure that the location and design of new campus buildings were compatible yet differentiated from the Mission Revival style architecture present on campus. 

Notre Dame High School’s first building dates to 1947 and the campus was identified in SurveyLA as individually eligible as a Historic-Cultural Monument. Chattel also identified the campus eligible as a potential National Register and California Register historic district. Based on this eligibility, Chattel participated in design collaboration to ensure infill construction on campus was in conformance with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation and would thus not cause material impairment pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

HARVEY MUDD COLLEGE
CLAREMONT, California

Chattel evaluated Harvey Mudd College, one of the Claremont Colleges, for historic significance and assessed the cultural resource impacts of the 2010 Master Plan Amendment. Developed between 1957 and 1972, the historic core of the Harvey Mudd College campus is significant for its design and planning by architects Edward Durell Stone and Earl Hetschmidt, as well as landscape architects Thomas Church ad Ralph Cornell. The 2010 Master Plan Amendment included demolition of one contributing building, Thomas-Garrett Hall, and replacement with a new building.

Chattel found that loss of the building did not significantly impact the potential historic district, and collaborated on the design of the replacement building with Portland-based Boora Architects to make sure the design was in conformance with the Secretary’s Standards. Chattel also worked with an architectural photographer to implement Historic American Building Survey (HABS) Level II documentation of Thomas-Garrett Hall and its setting.