Publication Date: Wednesday, March 23, 2005
Palo Alto in transition
Palo Alto in transition
(March 23, 2005) Old buildings face possible redevelopment
by Bill D'Agostino
An aging supermarket shuts down. A former low-income hotel could become an office building. A tattered public plaza is the center of a remodeling battle.
In some towns, the physical landscape stays nearly the same for decades. Not Palo Alto.
Over the next few years, another round of transformations could remake some of the city's most visible -- and run-down -- properties.
Some development is the source of immense public scrutiny -- the Hyatt Rickey's Hotel and Elk's Lodge in south Palo Alto could both be torn down to make room for housing in coming years. Neighborhood groups are following them closely.
The city itself is hoping to aid the conversion of numerous decrepit properties near the Fry's Electronics Store by naming the area into a redevelopment zone. That would give the city power to help make improvements by diverting tax dollars and using imminent domain.
To capture the landscape before it changes, Palo Alto Weekly Staff Photographer Nicholas Wright used a modified Holga 120S camera.
The small plastic camera was altered to create square images on 120mm film. The images' dark corners and soft focus are due to that alteration, not a creation of the photographer in the post-production process.
None of the locations featured on these pages are guaranteed to be torn down or remade. Developers and landowners frequently change their plans or run into bureaucratic entanglements -- that's one way buildings eventually become dilapidated.
But in a city like Palo Alto, change is the one guaranteed constant. So here are a collection of "Before" images in a city captured in constant transition.
Staff Writer Bill D'Agostino can be e-mailed at bdagostino@paweekly.com
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