Goleta Preservationists ‘Thrilled’ by Plans to Restore Barnsdall-Rio Grande Gas Station as Café

Goleta’s Historic Preservation Commission was “thrilled” with the drawings they saw and details they heard on Monday evening about restoring the Barnsdall-Rio Grande service station and turning it into a “quick stop” café. Vice Chair Fermina Murray, an architectural historian, said the restoration team was observing the Secretary of the Interior’s historic standards such as not attaching anything to a building that is unique in California and possibly the country. Preserving such an “exquisite expression of Moorish architecture,” she said, citing the blue and white tilework, wooden windows, tower, and cupola, “is one of the components of how we fall in love with these buildings and how they shape our lives.”

The lovefest emanated from an introduction to the new plans for the site by a team from Ty Warner Hotels and Resorts that included architect Barry Winick — who participated in the restoration of the Coral Casino and the Santa Barbara County Courthouse — architectural historian firm Post and Hazeltine, and the reclusive Warner’s longtime representative Bill Medel. The thrills continued as several people present recalled the building from when they were children and teenagers, while Janet Cox of the Santa Barbara Model A Ford Club expressed her members’ fervent desire to hold a 100-year celebration of the iconic car at the newly restored building.

The only less-enthusiastic comments came from those concerned it might be too popular, given the Class IV bike trail to be built to the site, 14 spots of parking, and great enthusiasm already apparent. People will come from Santa Barbara to get a snack, go picnic on the Ellwood Bluffs, and leave their car in the parking lot, one neighbor foresaw. The butterfly preserve and the golf course parking lot were both not far away, another neighbor reassured.

As well, commissioner Luke Roberts noted the former gas station grounds likely contained toxins. Would they be cleaned up? Winick replied they had environmental specialists on the project, and “everything we do will be done in the proper manner.”

Winick and company otherwise had little persuading to do as they described the café project, which is part of an overall revamping of Sandpiper Golf Club. The golf course is among Warner’s holdings, though less controversial than his Biltmore hotel in Montecito, which closed during the pandemic, evolved into a fight between Warner and Four Seasons over management, and left longtime employees in the dust to this day. Warner also owns the San Ysidro Ranch hotel and the Montecito Club, where he spent $119 million renovating the fairways and club in 2019, the latter of which sports a colorful Moorish-themed interior. Warner made his billions creating Beanie Babies in the 1990s and was convicted of tax evasion in 2014.

The redo at Sandpiper includes an ask for changes to three sensitive habitat locations on the course. One is the pipe that Devereux Creek flows through, which Commissioner Mark Preston observed might regain its flow if the city can get Union Pacific’s cooperation in a cleanup. A hearing on the habitat changes will be at City Council this Tuesday evening.

Winick noted the old building’s small square footage made it better suited as a teeny museum building, with a few spots of café seating and many photographs and signs on the history of the 1929 building. The interior would be exposed to the second-floor ceiling, stairway, and chandelier, but the upper floor would be unused. Hours would be 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The powerlines will be placed underground, Winick said, and the landscape of trees and an oval wall toward the golf course would remain. The S-tiles on the roof would be restored, while the café would feature a flip-up garage-style door and solar panels on the roof. Historian Tim Hazeltine noted of the two piers at either end of the front wall: “One was for water, while the other was for air,” he said.

The Warner group is in full charm mode, making a similar presentation to Goleta’s historical society earlier. Monday’s presentation was to gain feedback from the city’s commission and the public on the historic part of the project, said Steve Welton of Suzanne Elledge Planners, with the full environmental and historic reports to come as hearings take place in the future. To those concerned about the lavish costs compared to the small return from a snack and coffee shop, Winick stated he had a very committed client: “Ty Warner Hotels and Resorts stands behind this project.”