Commercial Architecture March 2018 - 12

FEATURE

historic buildings
if it were a strict restoration," he said. He explained that, in
the 1940s, a good deal of stone was pulled off the building
because it was falling down. For example, decorative
crockets that lined the entries off of Fifth Avenue were
falling off and were replaced with a less-ornate entry to the
building. "In our recent work, we did not put the crockets
back. We took what was there, and we conserved it. We
cleaned it, fixed it, and patched it," Murphy said.
"While being true to preserving the historic fabric of
the cathedral, a handful of things that we did were actually quite modern," Murphy added. Monsignor Ritchie, the
rector at St. Patrick's, started throwing open the big,
bronze doors on Fifth Avenue as a welcoming gesture for
visitors and passersby, he explained.
The obvious downside was a significant loss of heat or
air

conditioning.

The

solution

was

mechanized,

sliding-glass doors pocketed into the walls. "Every morning when it's eight degrees out, they can open the bronze
doors, press a button and close these glass doors, and everybody who walks by can see that the cathedral is open.
They actually just go around to the vestibule doors and go
in. That was a modern addition, a mission-related thing
that made the cathedral as welcoming as possible," Murphy explained.
A similar solution was applied in the back of the church
in a space called the Lady Chapel, which is right behind
the altar and that had a high arch that was approximately
35 ft. wide and 55 ft. high. "It's a very lovely chapel, but it
was really just always loud. People walking around the
church would be laughing and talking, and it wasn't a very
intimate worship space," Murphy recounted.
After considering more traditional approaches, MBB
designed an all-glass, 55 ft.-high partition that filled the
entire space. "We also designed a glass beam that supports
these three 9,000-pound glass panels. The enclosure looks
like it's not actually there. If we had done something like
that more traditional with wood, you would have noticed
a real a change in the church. Because we were able to use
this modern language, it's actually, in our view, a better
and more respectful response. In some cases technology
solves a lot of problems that historic buildings have," Murphy said.
WHAT'S HISTORIC?

"Historic character is a loose term, but determination of
historic significance is typically made based on the guidelines of the National Park Service," said Lada Kocherovsky,
Assoc. AIA, principal, Page & Turnbull, San Francisco
(page-turnbull.com).
"In California, the California Environmental Quality
Act (CEQA) mandates that impacts to the environment

For the San Francisco Mining Exchange Building, Page and Turnbull used
original terra cotta detailing to make casts for new terra cotta pieces,
and made multiple in-person visits to ensure the replicas were sculpted
and fired properly in the correct color. Photo courtesy Page and Turnbull
10

COMMERCI A L A RCHI T EC T URE

MARCH 2018

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