“I like ruins because what remains is not the total design, but the clarity of thought, the naked structure, the spirit of the thing,” said Japanese architect Tadao Ando. 

Look around the Capital Region and you’re sure to see some “ruins,” but you’ll also see historic buildings that have been given new life in the form of lofts, hotels and breweries that have been given new life through restoration.

These old buildings are textured in both their history and aesthetics. And not only are they striking to behold, they teach us a lesson in working with what we’ve got. Our cities’ housing supply can be increased, for example, through the conversion of large estate homes into multi-unit buildings. Such ingenuity and adaptive reuse upholds the historical structure as well as promotes green building practices.

But historic resources can also be overlooked, making them vulnerable to demolition. To maintain the city’s cultural identity, these assets require intentional protection. Their defenders have come in the form of historians and architects dedicated to historic preservation. Learn how a legion of forces have united to do just that in Laurie Lauletta-Boshart’s story, Safeguarding Sacramento’s Historic Architecture.

Here’s the latest Capital Region Rundown:

A hedge fund founder returns to game design with a new combat roleplaying game that allows players to own and sell assets; an artist and Sacramento City College professor finds she’s changed her mind about remote teaching; historic building preservation becomes part of the climate change conversation as well as that of a city’s cultural identity; Sacramento butchers carve out a space for themselves amid the international culinary landscape; we get excited for music festival season on our podcast; and Visit Sacramento’s content director reflects on how the city’s changed over his decade with the destination marketing organization. 

Recommendations from our editors:

In this section we editors share what we’re reading, listening to, watching or even eating. Here’s what we’re consuming this week:

Vanessa: I’m a big fan of the “Longform” podcast, which interviews writers, journalists and storytellers of all kinds about their work, and this week they interviewed architecture and design critic Alexandra Lange. Lange shared her thoughts on inclusive and functional design and promoted her new book, “Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall.” I learned some new design terms and expanded my view of what makes a building worthy of attention.

Judy: A few years ago my Orangetheory workout group had a summer meetup in Old Fair Oaks Village for their summer concert series. I’d never been before and was pleasantly surprised how nice it was with people enjoying the music relaxing on blankets and beach chairs, sometimes packing a picnic dinner or snack. Since then, I’ve been going to summer concerts at the Orangevale Grange the second Friday night of the summer months plus the Orangevale Farmers Market which debuted concerts and a beer and wine garden this year on Thursdays from 5-9 pm. There’s also the Twilight Concerts Series Thursday nights in historic Old Folsom. These small concerts occur in just about every community. Just a reminder for this upcoming July 4th weekend that there’s a slice of Americana in your own backyard. Go out and enjoy!

Jennifer: It’s the 100th anniversary of the publication of James Joyce’s “Ulysses,” the surreal, modernist novel that redefined what the English language could do. Celebrations are taking place all over Joyce’s native Ireland, and BBC Radio 4 got into the action with an epic, five-hour radio drama adaptation. I listened to it in one sitting in the middle of the night, which is probably the best mode of consumption. 

Odds and ends

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