 Local architect Kermit Darrow and landscape architect Roy Rydell were engaged in 1969 to convert several blocks of Pacific Avenue into a semi-pedestrian street named the Pacific Garden Mall.The Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989 destroyed nearly all of the 19th-century buildings in the downtown area.The Pacific Avenue Historic District had been recognized by the National Register of Historic Places; it was delisted in 1991.