People Saving Places Through Preservation
2020 Award of Merit Recipient
The Gordon Building award for Category 1, Restoration/Preservation and Category 2, Rehabilitation/Adaptive Reuse, was presented by NCL Board Director, Shari Kamimori. Her remarks, “Napa County Landmarks would like to present the Award of Merit for restoration and preservation to the Historic Gordon Building.
Located on the northeast corner of First and Coombs Street in Downtown Napa, Samuel Gordon constructed and completed the Gordon building in 1929. The Spanish Colonial Revival-Style building is notable for its terra cotta siding and ornate floral details. Along with the former Merrill’s Building, also a Gordon construction, these are the only two terra cotta buildings in downtown Napa. In 1985, the Gordon Building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The historic Gordon Building was acquired by Zapolski Real Estate in November 2013, and in 2019 the building had undergone a full historic rehabilitation, after the 2014 South Napa Earthquake, to include: restoration of the historic facade, lobby and structural interior elements.
An interior shoring system was placed to support the building while the unreinforced masonry walls were removed and repaired. After careful removal of the interior iron, 35% of the building with original finishes from 1929 were put back. This included duplicating plaster crown molding for re-installation as well as recreating the original plaster finishes on the wall and rebuilding historical mezzanines to their original appearances.
Project team consisted of:
Wright Contracting Company,
Rainbow Waterproofing,
Napa Design Partners and
ZFA Structural Engineers.
