Tag: photo tour

Categories : Clovis Housing Parks RetailTags : 4 Comments

Clovis Infill – A Photo Update

On By jamesinclair

It feels a little odd talking about infill in Clovis. It doesn’t quite roll off the tongue, as the city is known for its endless subdivisions. And yet in 2017, Old Town Clovis appears to have almost as much infill construction as Downtown Fresno going on.

I reported on two of these projects in July 2015, but I’ve added a few other ones here.

  • Centennial Plaza
  • La Quinta Inn
  • Rail-Trail Housing
  • New Library
  • Sierra Meadows Park
  • Clovis Community Hospital

Centennial Plaza

Let’s start with the big one: Centennial Plaza. This is the heart of Old Town on Pollasky, and I last took a look in May 2016 when the new plaza was finished. That update was focused on the street improvements, but now new buildings are rising up to frame the plaza. Click to read more!

Categories : Fresno RetailTags : 10 Comments

Fresno Fulton Mall January 2017 Deconstruction Photo Tour

On By jamesinclair

It’s been eight months since I last looked at the Fulton Mall. Back then, major construction had started in most parts, with fences everywhere. Concrete had already been poured on the parking areas at the southern end. I assumed it would be mostly done by now, but not even close. Let’s take a look at the current status (current as of last week).

Note: Pictures taken on New Years Day, so most businesses closed for the holiday, but if you look closely you’ll note many have been run out of business thanks to the abysmal construction staging. Also, please let me know if you have trouble viewing the image. As google has killed Picassa, which was integrated with Blogger, I have moved to Flickr.  Click to read more!

Categories : Fresno Housing Parks RetailTags : 8 Comments

A quick update on downtown Fresno construction projects

On By jamesinclair

It’s been a few months since I’ve been able to post photos of what has been changing in downtown Fresno. Unfortunately, I haven’t had the chance to explore the area and take photos, so I present to you a different type of update. Here are some photos I took in May, along with a look at what those projects look like this week, with photos sourced from friendly people around the web. It’s amazing how much (and how little!) can change in 3 months.

Tuolumne Bridge – High Speed Rail Project 

 When I last visited this project, it looked like this:

And now it looks like this: Click to read more!

Categories : Fresno High Speed RailTags : 8 Comments

A quick look at the reconstruction of the Tuolumne bridge for HSR

On By jamesinclair

One of the most obvious signs of High Speed’s Rail’s (HSR) coming arrival to downtown Fresno has been the demolition – and now reconstruction – of the Tuolumne street bridge. The bridge was two lanes wide and carried traffic eastbound over the Union Pacific right of way. It was paired with the Stanislaus Street bridge which carries two lanes westbound.  

Both bridges will be demolished and replaced by a single bridge carrying traffic in both directions. The bridge will feature wider sidewalks as well. The reason is that aside from being 50 years old (or more?), the current structure of the bridge does not allow enough room for the new High Speed Rail tracks to fit. Once the new bridge is in place, and the Stanislaus Street bridge has been demolished, more serious work can be done downtown to create the new tracks and station. Click to read more!

Categories : Retail UncategorizedTags : 12 Comments

This is what the destruction of Fresno’s Fulton Mall looks like

On By jamesinclair

Fresno’s pedestrian mall, one of the first in the country, is no more. A multi-year campaign by the city to remove the pedestrian and bicycle mall it and replace it with a street for cars has been successful, as (de)construction is well underway.

I took a walk down the entire length last week and took too many pictures. This post, from August, has some reference pictures as to what it looked like a year ago. Be warned, this post is long.

The north part has totally been removed. The center part looks disconcerting, with plenty of mall left but lots of destruction. The southern end has already progressed to the point that concrete is being laid for the parking areas. Click to read more!

Categories : Amtrak Fresno TransitTags : 11 Comments

A look at Greyhound’s New Downtown Fresno Station

On By jamesinclair

I’ve mentioned a few times in this blog that as part of the High Speed Rail (HSR) project, Gryehound has moved from their old location to the Amtrak station. For a couple of years, the old station will be used by HSR personnel, and then it will be demolished when it is time to build the new rail station in that very spot. Presumably, Greyhound will then move back.

Let’s start by taking a look at the old station.

Here we see the station with the baseball stadium in the background. 

The iconic bus signs.

The portion on the right used to be a cafeteria I have no idea how many years that side of the complex has been abandoned. Click to read more!

Categories : Fresno High Speed Rail Housing RetailTags : 5 Comments

An overhead look at downtown Fresno before high speed rail changes everything

On By jamesinclair

About a month ago, I went out and took hundreds of pictures around downtown Fresno. The intention was to post them quickly, but that obviously didn’t happen. My post about the changes at Fresno State took a few days to put together, and then I was away from the internet for a week due to a planned surgery.

This set of pictures was originally intended to show the current state of High Speed Rail (HSR) construction in Fresno. However, a lot has happened in a month, so they’re no longer current in regards to construction activity on the project itself. Instead, they will serve as a benchmark of what downtown Fresno looked like right before serious construction started in earnest, and before private investors started taking note of the prime empty lots. Click to read more!

Categories : Fresno High Speed RailTags : 3 Comments

An Attempted Look at High Speed Rail Construction in North Fresno

On By jamesinclair

Is 2016 finally the year for High Speed Rail (HSR) in California? Construction has been underway on the boring part for over a year now – relocation of utilities, and demolishing of abandoned buildings. However, for most people, that type of invisible work doesn’t count. It’s hard to tell if a hole being dug in a street is for HSR or one of 200 other possible reasons, after all.

We want to see real construction – that means bridges, tracks, tunnels, etc.

And so a couple of weekends ago, I decided to tour the High Speed Rail construction sites in Fresno to take a close up look at the real progress. I’ve done this tour before, for about three years now, and each time came up with a big pile of nothing. Was the January 2016 edition any better? Click to read more!

Categories : UncategorizedTags : 10 Comments

A look at the Fulton Mall (de)construction diagrams

On By jamesinclair

If you haven’t been paying attention, Fresno last year approved the removal of the 50-year old pedestrian mall in favor of a street for cars.

Well in under two weeks the construction bids are due. What that means is that the design has been completed (or is at least at 90%) and we can take a look at what will actually be built. I say actually being built because what we have seen previously were simply pretty renders. While renders capture the concept and some detail, they are subject to much change; what you see is rarely what you get.

These diagrams are dated July 1st, 2015, and were prepared by:
Landscape Architecture: RHAA Landscape Architects, of San Francisco
Civil: Provost & Pritchard, of Fresno
Structural and Electrical: Teter Engineers, of Fresno
Traffic: Peters Engineering Group, of Clovis
Fountains: Pacific Water Art, of Sunnyvale
Geotechnical: BSK Associates, of Fresno
Transportation: NelsonNygard, of San Francisco
Art: Architectural Resources Group, of San Francisco
Arborist: Hortscience, of Pleasanton
PR: Shared Spaces, of Los Angeles
Programming: MJM Management Group, of San Francisco Click to read more!

Categories : UncategorizedTags : 10 Comments

Droge Building construction almost done (photo tour)

On By jamesinclair

The last time this blog visited the site of the Droge Building, on the corner of Van Ness and Inyo, it was June 2014 and the wooden frame was up. A couple of weeks ago, I stopped by to see what is almost the final product. Exterior anyway, the interior won’t be done until this summer.

Unlike every other residential project downtown, this one stands at 4 stories, and you can really feel the difference from the 2-3 that GV Urban builds. The extra height really makes the corner feel more urban. Also, as this project was done by the Fresno Housing Authority, we get a unique facade, and not the recycled one used by GV. Click to read more!