It is, by all appearances, and urban utopia. Come this spring, more than 500 people will work there, more than 200 will live there, and thousands more will dine and shop there. Its innovative tenant mix ranges from an insanely popular “doughnuterie” to a gourmet dog food shop and an internet-based boutique where you don’t…

R Street has come a long way. Back when its remaking was merely a twinkle in the eye of developers and city planners, there were competing visions for what this urban corridor, which straddles downtown and midtown from Ninth to 19th streets, ought to be: a succession of traditional office buildings with virtually no signs…

Cavernous and decrepit, the century-old Crystal Ice and Cold Storage plant in midtown Sacramento is a key piece of the city’s efforts to turn the once-gritty industrial corridor of R Street into a thriving arts district. But for the past 20 years, plans to tear the plant down or renovate its buildings, which take up…