Insights

A Landslide and a Masterpiece: the Disassembly of Wayfarers Chapel

Chapel leadership was left with the impossible question of what to do with the chapel while the earth moved beneath it...

Just Label

ARG is pleased to announce that we are officially a Just organization...

Stitching Cities Together: A Tour of ARG’s Hometown Baseball Parks

"Time may move ever forward, yet the old ballgame remains timeless."...

Earth Day! 2030 Committee Initiatives

As the firm’s “green team,” we look forward to continuing our mission to help meet the AIA’s 2030 Commitment, help ARG’s work reach net zero carbon, and make our practice as sustainable as possible...

Field Day! New Survey Documentation Technology at ARG

ARG always seeking out new technology to streamline data collection in the field and analysis in the office....

The Woman’s Building: Preserving a Feminist Cultural Institution

The Los Angeles Woman’s Building was founded in 1973 during the height of the feminist art movement....

Wood Finishes Study For Historic Buildings

We'll walk you through finding appropriate wood finishes methods and products for historic buildings......

Restoring the First Reinforced Concrete Bridge in the United States

The Alvord Lake Bridge is considered the first reinforced concrete bridge in the U.S. and is located within Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, California....

Graffiti Blog Part II : Are Anti-Graffiti Coatings Appropriate for Historic Masonry?

We will present findings for testing we performed to identify the appropriate anti-graffiti coating for a historic 1930’s building....

Reuse and Rehabilitation of Redlands’ Rondor Building

ARG transforms a historic warehouse, Rondor, in Redlands California into a popular commercial restaurant and brewery....

Window Rehabilitation Manual

The Window Rehabilitation manual provides a high level overview of historic window types and their construction, and basic assessment and rehabilitation principles....

Meet ARGcreate

ARG has a new domain name! ARG’s Marketing Team asked the firm’s Principals about this exciting update and what ARGcreate says about our past, present, and future....

Follow ARG Principal Deborah on her tour through Japan

ARG principal, Deborah journeyed through Japan on a tour of islands that have been converted to art installations or “art houses”....

Graffiti Response 101

Removing graffiti from sensitive historic fabric is a very difficult and often very frustrating task....

Multiple Property Documentation as a Tool for Racial Equity

ARG worked with the City of Portland and African American Resources to nominate the Billy Webb Elks Lodge to the National Register...

How Digital Documentation Tools Support the New Remote Working World

Senior Associate, Julia Ausloos-Bedinger gives us more insight into ARG's technological documentation tools....

Contract Design: A Dose of Designer

ARG Principal Debbie Cooper shares on Contract's Multivitamin series what she does during her creative time....

Cooper-Molera Adobe Adaptive Use

The Cooper-Molera Adobe reflects multiple layers of history, beginning with Monterey’s years as capital of the Mexican territory of Alta California...

Documenting in 360°

ARG has been creating virtual 360° tours of buildings/sites for our projects, which have proven extremely beneficial during design review meetings with clients and consultants...

Alcatraz Quartermaster Warehouse

ARG has been lucky to work on several projects on Alcatraz island, including the Quartermaster Warehouse for the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy....

Transforming Historic Military Barracks into the Lodge at the Presidio

Building 105, the northernmost of the five barracks, is the fourth to be adapted for a new use and recently opened as the Lodge at the Presidio, the second hotel on the grounds of the former-military-post-turned-national-park....

Riding the Cycle of History: The Bike Hub at Los Angeles Union Station

ARG has recently designed one of Metro’s bike hubs at historic Union Station, built in 1939 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places......

Napa’s New Culinary Campus Heats Up

Opened in 2001, Copia celebrated the winemaking and culinary achievements of Napa Valley with art galleries, theaters, classrooms, a demonstration kitchen, and a vegetable and herb garden....

The Value of Interdisciplinary Training

Each fall the International Masonry Institute (IMI) brings designers and craftworkers together for a week-long interdisciplinary training session focused on masonry construction. ...

A Historic Hotel Helps the Homeless

An historic hotel is rehabilitated in downtown San Francisco so that At the Crossroads can continue its mission to provide critical support services to homeless youth....

A Few Tips for Satisfying San Francisco’s New Building Facade Inspection and Maintenance Ordinance

San Francisco’s building facade inspection and maintenance ordinance has gone into effect, and the clock is ticking for building owners...

The Mission 66 Mission: Evaluating and Rehabilitating Yosemite’s Midcentury Modernist Park Buildings

In 1956 the National Park Service launched the Mission 66 program, drawing on the modernist tenets of the day...

The Adaptability of Historic Buildings: Transforming Kingscote Gardens at Stanford University

Tucked behind lush gardens on the Stanford University campus stands a 100-year-old Eclectic Italian Renaissance building. ...

Understanding the “New” Historic Tax Credit

The federal tax bill that was passed in December 2017 retained the 20% HTC for certified rehabilitations of historic structures, but with several key changes. ...

What in the Sam Hill? Preserving a One-of-a-Kind Museum

One of our projects in the Pacific Northwest is a museum with a fascinating and unusual history. ...

Let’s Go to Jail and Get Some Scones: From Guard House to Bakery at Cavallo Point

If you were looking for a spot to put a bakery, probably a historic jail on a former military base wouldn’t be high on your list. ...

Preservation in Death Valley, Part II: Preserving Historic Modernist Buildings in the Desert

Preserving and rehabilitating modernist buildings in the desert has its own challenges....

Preservation in Death Valley, Part I: Preserving Historic Buildings in the Desert

Preserving the built environment in Death Valley requires ingenuity and patience. ...

3D Documentation in Death Valley

Laser scanning technology captured 3D documentation of historic Ryan, a mining camp in Death Valley....

From Mentee to Mentor—Coming Full Circle with the ACE Mentor Program

Annette Marvin was led to the field of architecture through the ACE program when she was in high school. Now a mentor, she coaches students in San Francisco....

Diversifying Preservation

Architectural Historian and Preservation Planner Mickie Torres-Gil blogs about the movement to refocus the preservation community, widening the scope beyond just the buildings and her attendance at the Past Forward conference....

Lasers, the Crytoporticus, and Negative Ions: A Visit to Historic Sites in Italy

2016 was an exciting year for travel for ARG Principal Kitty Vieth. One exciting adventure lead her to Rome, Florence, Pisa, Ferrara, San Benedetto Po, Cremona, and Milan in six days!...

Fired Up: An Architect and Ceramicist

ARG Principal Debbie Cooper blogs about her introduction into the world of ceramics ......

A Tale of Two Lighthouses

The care and dedication that the keepers of the Pigeon Point and the Point Reyes lighthouses put into maintaining their buildings is a model for us as we look to refurbish these historic treasures and keep them open for future generations to visit....

Reviving San Francisco’s Cinema History with a Contemporary Twist: New Mission Theater

New Mission Theater - Revival of a forgotten gem in the heart of San Francisco's Mission District...

Meet the Morgan Building, ARG Portland’s New Home!

Get to know the Morgan Building, ARG Portland's new home....

Postcard from Washington, D.C.

This blog posts talks about ARG Principal Maya Foty's visit to Washington, D.C., where she attended the Michele le Menestrel Ullrich Legion d’Honneur event....

Growing the Huntington: A Conversation with Laurie Sowd and Steve Farneth

An insight into the new Education and Visitor Center at the Huntington in Pasadena, designed by Architectural Resources Group....

The Golden Pioneer: Preserving the Oregon State Capitol

In 1935, Oregon lost its State Capitol to fire—for the second time....

The Evolving Field of Historic Preservation, Part II

One of the nuances that preservationists—especially conservation specialists like myself—love is when history and art meet....

The Evolving Field of Historic Preservation, Part I

Over the last few decades, preservation has gone mainstream. The definition of preservation continues to become more and more nuanced and at times even philosophical....

Lessons from the Napa Earthquake

The 6.0 magnitude earthquake that hit Napa in 2014 was a wake-up call for the historic preservation community, and there are lessons to be learned....

Historic and Future Hospitality

Our firm has worked on a number of historic hotel projects over the years, including landmark many hotels....

Postcard from the Prairie

Before I went to the recent Docomomo US symposium in Minneapolis, I had never been to the Midwest....

The View From California Tower

After 80 years, the best panoramic view in San Diego is finally accessible to the public again....

Greening Historic Buildings in France

Recently I had the opportunity to spend time in France investigating the intersection of preservation and sustainability....

Talking Preservation

Communications is a central but often underemphasized aspect of preservation planning. Let's talk Preservation....

More Than A Memorial

After World War I, many communities in the United States constructed veterans memorial buildings to honor those who fought for their country and to provide a gathering place for veterans organizations....

Exclusive and Distinctive: Kistler Vineyards

Kistler decided to turn a 93-year-old farmhouse in Forestville into a place where visitors can sample a few of its vintages and asked us to transform the building....

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