OTM: The Bank of California Building is Back Again
We received word recently that the Bank of California building on Pacific Avenue is on the market again. We wrote about it a few years ago – the last time it came on the market. The plan had been to convert the huge lobby into an event space. But, seismic retrofit requirements and an ever morphing economy seems to have changed those plans. The key question for all of you is this … what can you do with this kind of space? Is it possible to preserve the huge wall to wall lobby with 42 foot ceilings? The three vaults must be good for something … Any ideas?
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19 comments
A altered Chords June 25, 2009
I know. A bank!
Y You're Welcome June 26, 2009
The same thing I always suggest: a bar!
T Thorax O'Tool June 26, 2009
Check out the Ionic columns… like everything built for the government and banks before 1920, it’s super-ultra-mega Greek influenced.
So then, why not a Greek-inspired spa?
Rework the thing internally to look like a Greek temple, have like a huge ass sauna in the center. The employees dress in togas, and an enormous 12 meter tall statue of a seated Zeus at the other end.
May as well go over the top… seems the only way to attract business nowadays.
T Tora! Tora! Laura! June 26, 2009
We can call it the Geek Temple Spa…
M Mofo from the Hood June 26, 2009
One of the overused buzzwords of the day is “authentic.” But if you want to rework this building into an authentic Greek Temple then somehow someone needs to round-up a crew of female temple prostitutes.
J Jesse June 26, 2009
Cable-car power station.
B BRH June 26, 2009
nightclub and event center. san diego’s On Broadway (http://www.obec.tv) has been around for years and is always in use. it used to be a bank as well!! then again, tacoma is not exactly attractive for nightclubs, our city has no upscale crowd for places like that.
N NSHDscott June 26, 2009
A year or so ago, I chatted with someone who represented the then-new owners of this building. He told me about the seismic improvements being required of them, and they sounded very extensive, very expensive, and likely damaging to the historic interior (which is very nice).
Unless the city relaxes its requirements, which seems unlikely to me, it’s hard to imagine this being used for a people-intensive use. I don’t know why all that wasn’t a concern when it was a bank, seems kind of weird to me. Regardless, given those constraints, cable-car power station is probably the most realistic of the suggestions put forth so far.
D Douglas Tooley June 30, 2009
Russell’s new West Coast Stock Exchange?
An exchange for carbon credits – with a coffeehouse – perhaps Black Water and Air?
A jail for Washington State Madoff’s?
6 6ther July 1, 2009
How would a cable car power station work? I don’t think I even know what that is.
Is that just like it sounds?
B Bob July 1, 2009
This building has been on the market for a while now… we’re talking MONTHS….
6 6ther July 2, 2009
It’s been on the market for a month and half Bob.
D David Boe July 2, 2009
How about turning it into a historic urban church? It is just a bit of a push from it’s secular past (and it already has the stained glass).
T Thorax O'Tool July 2, 2009
How about a museum?
Those will save downtown and make us a tourism mecca, right?
N Nick July 3, 2009
Would be a sweet place to have a regional stock exchange. Than the IFS area would be too legit to quit. Tacoma’s mini-answer to the NYSE anyone? ;-)
W Willy July 6, 2009
With its high ceiling it would potentially be a fun venue for a model airplane museum, with the airspace full of 6 foot scale models. And here’s the deal, the ground floor would be lined with computer screens, each with a laser pointer attached. When you point at a model in the air, the screen shows the model in flight. Point at two planes and the computer generates simulated dogfights based on the design capabilities of competing aircraft.
C crenshaw sepulveda July 6, 2009
You’d think, with the proximity to the Russell building, that the Russell company would have some interest in this substantial financial services building. Kind of gives the public the impression that Russell is solvent and all. I’m telling you if I had money in the California Bank building I’d know it was safe and sound. Kind of hard to believe your money is safe in a bank that looks like a converted 7-11.
A altered Chords July 7, 2009
Cren – start using direct deposit and on line bill pay. No one will steal the electrons and photons that represent your money. No safe, pillars or brinks trucks required.
6 6ther July 7, 2009
Does anyone know if there’s some kind of federal grant money available to help with seismic retrofits for historic buildings? I don’t even know if this building is on the historic registry… but still, does anyone know where you go to find this stuff out?
That may help open some more avenues for this building to be used for something other than a bank. Especially since banks have found it much more cost effective to do their business in converted 7-11’s.