The Sunnyvale Sun

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Sunnyvale architect is re-creating history

By Cody Kraatz

Designing a museum that looks like an historic house that was demolished more than 45 years ago is a daunting task.

Joe Gutierrez was not discouraged by that challenge when he designed the 8,000-square-foot, $2.7 million Sunnyvale Heritage Park Museum that is under construction near the Sunnyvale Community Center.

It honors the historic Murphy House, which was built by Martin Murphy Jr. in the 1850s at what is now Murphy Park near downtown.

"A true replica is a duplication and you get the same spaces and everything," he said. This is his first museum.

"The challenge, I think, is in putting a museum in what is essentially a home plan, and creating details that are much bigger than they were originally, while trying to have it look as domestic as possible."

Gutierrez added that the museum required such features as elevators, bathrooms and ramps for public access and needed to be about twice the size of the original home, making it a whole other animal.

Gutierrez, an avid hiker and fan of Rancho San Antonio County Park and Yosemite National Park, walks to and from his firm, Architectural Alliance, at 690 W. Fremont Ave., from his home nearby. He loves his job.

"As long as this works for me as well as it is doing, I have no plans of changing," he said.

A native of El Paso, Texas, he came to Sunnyvale in 1976 after living for about seven years in Santa Clara. Before that he graduated from the University of Southern California in 1964 and then taught and practiced architectural design in the U.S. Navy until 1969 at Port Hueneme, near Oxnard.

He has been involved in Sunnyvale historical preservation efforts since the 1980s, when he jump-started and designed the Orchard Heritage Park and Interpretive Exhibit, an orchard, barn and exhibit celebrating Sunnyvale's agricultural history that opened in 2001.

"He was really the first person we asked, strictly because we like the continuity of the whole site," said Laura Babcock, chair of the project team and a Sunnyvale Historical Society leader.

"He knew the history of Sunnyvale, he was very familiar with the Sunnyvale Historical Society and he knew the great need" for a museum, she said.

Preservation

Gutierrez acknowledged that it would have been much easier for him to design the museum had the Murphy House been preserved, but suggested that the historical society may have gotten more bang for its buck by building from scratch.

"The house was in very bad condition," he said, noting damage to the wood. "I frankly believe that it may have been more expensive to restore and bring up to code an old building, and it would have been smaller than it is today."

In effect, the museum costs half as much per square foot because the house may have cost just as much to restore and the museum is twice its size. Still, he said, the house should have been restored and preserved whether it would have become a museum or not.

The Murphy House was demolished on a Sunday morning in 1961 by the city of Sunnyvale, which contributed $500,000 to build the museum and donated land for its home.

Babcock, chair of the project and a member of the Sunnyvale Historical Society board of directors, said that an outcry and protests by residents could not save it.

"It was a combination of factors," said Babcock, including a minor fire in late 1959 or early 1960, Santa Clara County's desire to build Central Expressway literally in the house's back yard and the challenge of maintaining funding for historical sites.

It was declared a State Historical Landmark in 1958, but the historical society was unable to make it a State Historical Park so the entire area would be protected.

"In good years when the state has money, the state has a budget to maintain parks like that," while in lean years, the burden falls to the cities and counties, said Babcock.

"That happened to be lean years and the city of Sunnyvale did not want the responsibility for the upkeep of the entire thing."

No one can be sure what would have happened if the Murphy House were still around today, but Babcock suspects that times have changed.

"Right now historical preservation is much stronger and there's much more of a community pride in saving historic structures. That's probably nationwide, but definitely it's local," she said.

Museum

The museum construction is right on track to conclude on Feb. 14 and the historical society hopes to begin installing displays and hold a grand opening on Sept. 27.

The landscaping, which includes two large palm trees to echo those that were in front of the Murphy House and remain in Murphy Park, is due to wrap up in January.

The museum is in the process of hiring two firms to design display cases and exhibits for the rotating exhibit spaces, which will likely expand after the museum opens.

Several rooms will be decorated with period furniture and ornamentation that aims to emulate the grandeur that later Murphy House residents sought in what was originally a humbler farmhouse, according to the memory of some Murphy family descendants who stayed there.

The historical society also used several photos taken over 25 years from various angles and a very rough hand-drawing of the floor plan found deep in archives in Sacramento to help piece together the character and layout of the original house.

The building uses such modern materials as fiber cement siding instead of wood and plantation-raised hardwood flooring.

"We're building a very high-end building. If you're going to wait 52 years, you're going to do it right and build something that's going to last another 150 years," said Babcock.

Gutierrez was enthusiastic about putting another historical- interpretation project notch in his belt after the OHPIE opened in 2001 after his many years of efforts.

"For me it's a privilege. I was happy to do it, and the rest is history," said Gutierrez.

Museum organizers are still raising funds, which will go toward exhibits. Visit www.heritageparkmuseum.org for more information.