One of Sacramento’s most voiciferous advocates of architectural conservation, Steven Ballew, has died at 63. Thank you, Steven, for helping keep Sacramento’s urban neighborhoods beautiful. From the Sacramento Bee:
He was known throughout Sacramento as a committed preservationist.
Whether fighting private citizens who wanted to build garages under
historic bungalows or forcing Kentucky Fried Chicken to conform to
local design guidelines when building a franchise on Alhambra
Boulevard, no battle was too big or too small for Mr. Ballew’s tireless
passion.…
The couple married in 1989 and rented a bungalow on 37th Street, which
spawned an interest in bungalow history and architecture. Mr. Ballew
cringed when he saw similar houses with inappropriate repairs and
modifications.He co-founded the Sacramento Bungalow Heritage Association, whose
members gave lectures and organized field trips to teach people how to
fix up their historic homes. That morphed into the Sacramento
Preservation Round Table, an advocacy group that fights to preserve and
restore historic buildings and neighborhoods.Much of Mr. Ballew’s passion for preservation was fueled by his
appreciation of aesthetics, Susan Ballew said. His eye for order and
perfection extended from his immaculate woodworking shop to the wooden
shingles on the side of his home, whose corners he sanded individually
so they would be slightly rounded.