Jobs gets OK to tear down historic house

Apple Computer and Pixar CEO Steve Jobs received the green light from local government officials Tuesday to demolish a historic building on his property in Woodside, Calif.

Jobs, who owns an expansive Mission Revival home designed by the late, internationally known architect George Washington Smith, was battling with preservationists, who sought to keep the home intact. The building had fallen into severe disrepair over the years.

The Woodside Town Council held a public hearing Tuesday night to consider the preservationists' appeal of an earlier decision by the town's planning commission in June. In that decision, the commission, noting that there were no historic preservation ordinances on its books, approved the demolition, providing certain contingences were met.

Woodside's council voted 4-to-3 to uphold the planning commission's earlier decision. But Jobs still has several hoops to jump through before he can clear his property of the house, which is in need of costly repairs.

Jobs cannot demolish the house until he receives a permit to do so, which will take until June 16. In the meantime, he's required to share the cost of advertising and promoting the donation of the estate to any organization willing to cart it away, said a town council representative. Jobs will be required to place such ads in historic-preservation magazines and publications.

Other homes designed by Smith have been offered for sale for millions of dollars, but according to various media reports, Jobs has called the building in question--the Jackling Estate--an "abomination."

[brasten]

Whining isn't a solution...

Perhaps if preservationists want to dictate what one can and cannot do with their own property, they should be financially responsible for the costs of their requests.

I'm all for protecting historically significant buildings, but in this case it looks like the owner has bent over backward. He's giving the house away. He just wants it off his lot.

... the preservationists should be happy they have THAT much.

We have one like this...

We own a property like this. A smaller lot and less value to be sure, but it's on the city's historic list. The house is rotted throughout, the roof is caving in, the layout is awful, but we can't do anything to it. It was a make-do farmhouse, built before code, with patchwork additions over the years. Not worth restoring.

We're stuck with quarterly visits from the fire marshal waiting for the day it's condemned so we can plow it over. Meanwhile the city has a disgusting eyesore on one of the three major approaches to downtown.

I'm all for saving beautiful old buildings. Restoring homes is one of my hobbies! But sometimes it's too late, or just a bad idea given the lack of significance. These historic preservation groups should be elected or their decisions should be more open to scrutiny. It's too easy for them to latch onto a property, dig in their heels, and make pack rat decisions that don't differentiate between "old" and "interesting."