OLD ENCINA POWER STATION CHIMNEY PRESERVATION
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Take a look at the links above to see the success of preservation groups all over the world. Industrial smokestacks have repeatedly been reclaimed by their communities as powerful symbols with a myriad of purposes. Many smokestacks once called "eyesores" by huge portions of the community are now celebrated by not only locals, but all those who visit, and in some cases are tourist destinations in their own right.
"Should the preservation effort prevail, it would hardly be the first time an industrial structure found a second life as a city’s cultural icon." Phil Diehl, San Diego Union Tribune. Sept. 8, 2019


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​​Protesters fight to keep Carlsbad landmark upright

By Jeff McAdam   Sept. 10, 2019

CARLSBAD, Calif. – If you’ve driven through or lived in Carlsbad at any point in the last 50 years, you’ve seen the towering smokestack.
“It’s a beacon for me,” said Anne Estes with the City’s Historic Preservation Commission Monday night’s meeting. “I look for it and I’d miss it if it were gone.”

“Paris has the Eiffel Tower, London has Big Ben, Seattle has the Space Needle and we have the Carlsbad Power Plant,” another woman said.
She was joined by a handful of others to protest the decision to tear down the stack at some point in the next two years.

A few years ago, the company that owns the stack, NRG, needed to make updates to their property. Mainly, they weren’t allowed to use ocean water for their practices. So the company wanted to build new equipment. In a sign of good faith and partnership, they reached out to the City of Carlsbad to get their thoughts and approval. The city suggested that if they were going to make improvements, they tear down the old 400-foot smokestack in the process.

In a statement to FOX 5, a spokesperson for the company wrote in part:

“... NRG is contractually bound by the City of Carlsbad and the California Energy Commission to demolish the old power plant.”
That’s what brought the protesters to the meeting, hoping for a landmark designation or a stay of execution on the tower. They argued, why tear it down when you can transform it into something else?

“I have an idea of what could go there,” said Bill Bowman, a supporter of the preserving the tower.

He brought sketches to the meeting displaying a design to morph the tower into a bird of paradise-like design, hoping to make the whole property into a venue.
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“We would also have parking there, a small amphitheater with maybe 3,000 seats," Bowman said.

Forever Carlsbad.
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"Even though I am not a Californian, I hope the Carlsbad CA, smokestack stays, for it is an iconic historical landmark, for Carlsbad CA, and it can be seen from sea, land, and air. It is also a testimony to the past, of the hard work, that past generations built, in American architecture heritage. We cannot lose old architecture heritage, for future unborn generations, need to see, what America has built, in the past, whether it be cars, houses, that smokestack, and so on. As a West Texan, who proudly lives in Carlsbad, Texas, our smokestack (which is a smaller smokestack, leveling out at 110 to 130 ft) has been in place, since the 1920s at the San Angelo State Supported Living Center, mental health facility, in Carlsbad, Texas. Our stack is an icon, and when I see our smokestack from Hwy 87, or from the sky, I know home is close by, and that is a good feeling. Keep fighting for your/our American architecture heritage."
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Sincerely/Respectfully, JD

Carlsbad, Texas
  • Home
  • A Storied History
    • Historical Landmark Status
  • Worldwide Chimney Preservation
    • Tate Modern
    • The Toffee Factory
    • Haffenreffer Chimney Restoration
    • Chemintz Smokestack
    • Spartanburg Mills
    • Tulip Tower, Mt. Vernon
    • The Forks
    • Turku Power Station
  • Endless Possibilities
  • How To Help
  • Share Your Thoughts For the Future: Our Blog