80A - JT PUBLIC HRG-320 WEST FOURTH

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Historic Resource Impacts Courthouse Lofts Project 320 West Fourth Street Santa Ana, California ranging from Churrigueresque to Mission-influenced during two distinct growth periods centering around the years 1922 and 1928. During this period the area was infilled with two-story and larger buildings designed in a variety of styles including Beaux Arts and Renaissance Revival. New construction of the late 1920s featured Art Deco and Moderne influences, The resulting aesthetic of the downtown was a distinctly urban pattern of corridors of buildings constructed to the street lot line and encompassing most or all of their lots. Many of the buildings were used for retail or commercial services at the street level and many of the structures featured storefronts with display windows at the street level. The National Register Nomination observed that the 1933 Long Beach earthquake "left more visible physical alterations than any other event in Santa Ana's history. The earthquake came at a time of economic collapse, so the reconstruction of the physical fabric of the city was simple in design and inexpensive in character... [and] elaborate cornices on classical facades were replaced by simple Moderne geometric designs...the post-earthquake materials were predominantly stucco and concrete." The Nomination notes that a "great number of fayade alterations" date from this period. The Nomination in describing the resources observed that funds for repair were limited during the Depression and "many buildings [sic] owners who were left to provide their own funding simply performed inexpensive remodels on the facades and left the Victorian interiors alone." Other than earthquake repair, the decade of the 1930s and 40s saw little change to Santa Ana's downtown. After World War II Orange County underwent suburbanization with commercial real estate investment directed away from the city center toward automobile oriented shopping malls and business parks. The Downtown Historic District underwent changes along West 4th Street in the period 1955-1958, but limited funds".. .prevented severe modernizations on upper floors, interior and exteriors." Fayade alterations were generally neo-modern panels of aluminum or stucco covering original facades. The last decade of the 20th Century saw the beginning new investment and rehabilitation in Santa Ana's downtown spurred by City sponsored improvement projects such as the Fourth Street retail corridor streetscape enhancements and new in-fill development projects. In 1997, the high-rise Ronald Reagan Courthouse, a civic institution and major employment center was developed across from the west end of the Downtown Historic District. The National Register Nomination identifies the character of the Downtown Historic District stating that "the predominantly two story business blocks with ground level retail uses and upper story residential or offices uses are complemented by a scattering of taller structures, the largest of which is six stories," The main east-west axis of the District is Fourth Street and Kaplan Chen Kaplan 3 April 20, 2006 80A-82