You’ll want to see this downtown Fresno landmark at night. Cafe previews building’s new look

The Fresno Water Tower is perhaps the most iconic — if not historic — piece of architecture in the city.

See the publicity poster for the 1986 “Fresno” miniseries if there’s any doubt.

Originally built in 1894 for water storage, the tower ceased operations in the 1960s but managed to keep its historical significance. It was used as a visitors’ center through the 2000s and recently the building housed the Fresno Arts Council’s gift shop and art gallery before being closed by the pandemic.

Currently, the tower is in the midst of a $1.2 million renovation project that is expected to reopen the visitors’ center, along with the coffee shop Frida Cafe, in spring or summer 2022. Just this week, the city upgraded the tower’s interior and outdoor lighting systems and installed a series of color-changing LEDs.

Albee Sanchez shared photos and a video of the newly illuminated tower on the Frida Cafe Facebook page.

“There she is in all her glory,” Sanchez says in the video, as the camera pans to show the tower, lit in a purple hue.

“It seems like every car that’s driving by just like kind of stops to look at it,” he says.

Changing the downtown Fresno skyline

The Lumascape lighting system allows for reduced energy costs to the tune of 50% to 70% percent, Sanchez says, which will be huge during the winter months. More than that, it features color-changing programs and schedules that allow the building to become a literal beacon in downtown Fresno, he says.

“Years ago, I realized that Fresno being the big city that it is, we don’t have any buildings that change color,” Sanchez said.

“Well, that’s changed. It literally changed the skyline.”

Sanchez has become a champion for the Water Tower and also a bit of a historian, since announcing in May his intention to expand his cafe into the building.

Using the cafe’s social media, Sanchez shares updates on the progress of the project, along with some of the Water Tower’s unique history — the architect originally envisioned it to house the Fresno County library, an example he took from Chicago, where he worked alongside Frank Lloyd Wright.

Inspiration for the tower also came from an almost identical tower that had been built a few years before in Worm, Germany, Sanchez said.

Sanchez had hoped Frida Cafe, which pays tribute to Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, would be able to quickly reopen in the Water Tower, after the shop outgrew its spot inside Los Panchos Mexican Restaurant on Fulton Street.

What’s on the horizon for the Water Tower?

That did not happen.

What did happen was the city dedicated itself to bringing the historic access back to life, District 3 councilmember Miguel Arias told The Bee. The project was included in the budget passed by the city council in June and represents the biggest investment the city has made in the Water Tower since it was renovated 25 years ago.

And the lighting was the easy part.

The city also has plans to repaint the building and do exterior renovations to fix some of the iron and woodwork at top of the tower. It will also build a matching iron fence along the perimeter of the tower to deter crime and also act as a barrier during special events that need liquor licenses and the like. The city is also upgrading the restrooms adjacent to the tower to make them ADA compliant and open to the public. That in itself is a major positive step for downtown and the city, Arias said.

The whole project demonstrates that the city has turned a corner with how it appreciates historic assets, Arias said.

To do that correctly takes time, he said, much longer than even he anticipated.

The lights aren’t on full display yet, but the city hopes to have a grand unveiling once a lease agreement with Sanchez and Frida Cafe is signed, Arias said. He expects that to happen by the end of this year or in early 2022.

“It’s going to be really neat when it’s all done.”