SAN JOSE, CA
HISTORIC
STATE MEAT
MARKET
BUILDING
HISTORIC
PRESERVATION
This Edwardian Style Building was built in 1913 and was the location of the City of San Jose's first Asian owned meat markets that would later develop into California's first completely owner and operated Asian meat market and grocery food chain.
This historic building is situated directly across the street from the newly constructed City Hall in Downtown San Jose, and had been in a state of disrepair for many years. The original wood constructed storefronts at the street level had been completely removed and had plywood signboards installed over the original glazed tile transom windows above. This had been done by the previous tenants, so interior suspended ceilings could be installed to hide the building's mechanical, plumbing and electrical distribution above. On the outside above the storefront level, large sections of the existing cement plaster had detached from the brick masonry walls and presented an immediate danger of falling to the public sidewalk below, if repair measure were not quickly executed to correct this condition.
Above the street level, most of the original wood sash windows of the apartment units were deteriorated by the weather and did not operate properly, and the wall plaster relief ornament on the exterior facade were also in need of significant repair and restoration work, because like the rest of the building, it had been neglected and never properly maintained by its many previous property owners.
Our client was the Redevelopment Agency for the City of San Jose and had a very limited construction budget they were willing to spend on this project. As such, we had to focus our reconstruction and restoration efforts on the buildings two street facades, East Santa Clara Street and North Fourth Street. Knowing the limited financial resources we had to work with we set to work and prepared all the drawings and specifications for the reconstruction and restoration work for this project that included: Restoration and repair of the building's original exterior decorative features and ornamentation, repair and repointing of damaged brick, resurfacing and replastering of the building's exterior, reconstruction of the retail tenant storefronts to provide accessible street entrances, restoration of the remaining upper glazed tile transom windows, replication of a hand painted ghost wall sign.
This project received 2004 Golden Nail Award