Invasion of the towerlets
A hundred years from now, when we look back on the architectural legacy of the first decade of the 21st century, we may point to the towerlet as its crowning achievement — such as it is.
By definition, a towerlet is a modest crowning ornament. It’s not to be confused with a tower, which is a taller and more timeless feature. Towers top the 1860s Bidwell Mansion, the 1920s Senator Theatre, the 1930s Trinity Hall, the 1990s building at the intersection of Mangrove and East First avenues and the main building at Garden Villa on Cohasset Road, which was completed a year ago.
Towerlets didn’t start peeking up above buildings’ rooflines until about 10 years ago. They seem to have been built as a reaction to the unrelenting horizontal lines of contemporary commercial buildings, especially the big box type.
You can see an early version of the towerlet at the entrance to Office Depot on Dr. Martin Luther King Parkway. At this point, it’s little more than a facade adornment.
By the time Tara Plaza, home of the Market Cafe, was built around the turn of the 21st century, the towerlet had become a distinct building appendage.
You can see the 2007 version of the towerlet on the buildings next to Kohl’s department store just north of the Chico Mall.
At the new commercial complex at Mangrove and Vallombrosa avenues, a towerlet is the central feature. It’s so separate from the surrounding buildings that you can walk underneath it.
So far, towerlets show no signs of becoming full-fledged towers. It’s as if their designers have decided they have already done enough to address criticisms about the unrelieved horizontal lines of their buildings.
The only historical precedent for the towerlet can be found in some of achitect Frank Lloyd Wright’s prairie style houses from the early 20th century, which also have a preponderance of horizontal lines.
Look around Chico and you will see a lot of towerlets on newer commercial buildings.
Not all new buildings have softened their horizontal lines. The new Costco building, which has popped up seemingly overnight alongside the existing Costco building, is the most boxy non-industrial building to have gone up in Chico in the first decade of this century.