Public Eye

A Julia Morgan-designed staircase at Asilomar in Pacific Grove, just south of Monterey, where we stayed last week on NorCal vacation ....

There's a lot of interest in our own Julia Morgan, the exquisite, long-shuttered YWCA on North Marengo Avenue, after a posting on Curbed LA and a story in the Pasadena Weekly and a posting on our new and fun Rose Magazine blog about another plan to restore the gorgeous, Julia Morgan-designed YWCA in Pasadena's Civic Center.

An architecture student at Cal Poly did a proposal for an adaptive reuse. Good stuff.

Comment-posters on all the stories and sites either lauded the design or expressed a general interest in preserving the best of the architectural past.

I'm glad the city and its preservationists are in a huff, that closed-door meetings are going on. But I also understand that suggestions being made to move the Pasadena Water and Power Department into the spiffed-up version of the YW are problematic considering how expensive it would be to rehab and the fact that we're paying tons more for water in the drought.

One commentator, who apparently has inside knowledge of the current owner, having worked on several proposals over the years with her, got to the crux of the matter: The building is privately held. And by one of the richest billionaires in Hong Kong. She can sit on the property until Kingdom come and not worry so much as the average developer would about paying the taxes and putting fresh plywood on the boarded-up windows.

It's a shame. But it's a fact. When the real-estate economy turns around, I hope she sells to someone who can do right by it -- boutique hotel or whatever.

The one big worry is not to worry over -- it's a protected building. No one can knock it down or do anything but rehab it while entirely maintaining its architectural integrity.

As an aside, back in the YWCA day, Doo Dah founder Pete Apanel and painter-writer D.G. Fulford both had studio/offices there ...