skip to main |
skip to sidebar
So what is climate change about? I'm taking this opportunity on Blog Action Day to join up with more than 13,000 other keypad-enabled folks all over the globe to pitch in my 2 centavos. We're ramping up to the UN Climate Change Conference in December, in Copenhagen, where the international community will agree on some essentials, if things go well.
Getting the arms around this issue (and I don't mean the military ones) involves quantified information as well as a means of calculating carbon footprint, which is the crux of this whole issue. Having done that, the strategy involves solving the problem by changing lifestyles and behavior.
But what does this mean, really, to humanity on this earth? To me, sitting here in the USA which is famously a first-world power with incredible global reach and also historically the biggest producer of CO2 and pollution on earth by far, it means asking the question, "When is enough plenty?"
We just hoover it in and spit it out. More, more more. UBS, AIG, Goldman. While planetary life dies from this. The greed of it is rapacious and unending, the piles of money and stuff that matters to no one at the end of a lifetime yet leaves a legacy of waste. We've lost the quality of immersion in life, the ability to honor the simple and sacred, for the sake of speed and superficiality. Where is the real? I think it will find us in a way that we don't want.
Unless we change the climate of our minds.
The best laid plans - in this case, no plans are laid at all. Peter Gleick poses excellent musings on the realities of population versus diminishing resources, and the inability of local governments to foresee the impacts of their policies and decisions. Megaregion planning is something that is emerging in some of the more dense clusters, but the limits to growth are not being examined. America 2050 tries to project into the future for some of the larger trends.
Data on infrastructure and planning is on our State government website, along with an admission that decisions are being made in a disjointed fashion, and asks for a consolidated planning organization. Which apparently SCAG is gunning for, but with a completely wrong old-boy agenda. The presented example of a good plan is the SANDAG diagram. It's strictly logistical and growth-oriented.
This site lays the groundwork for land use and transportation to guide all planning, but does not include any consideration of natural capital or social capital, which are crucial elements of the entire picture. So it's very one-dimensional and isn't supportable, and fosters destructive bubbles like we've seen with banking and real estate in the last year. What's happening is that this view only sees government and commerce, with the underground economy and its impacts in the shadows. So of course its solutions are incomplete and ultimately don't work.
A regenerative approach is necessary, as I've laid out before, and will involve the processes of a values-driven culture and a recognition of the larger aspects of the impact of human habitation.
Here's the rest of the 1414 Fair Oaks Building story. In 1982, a very swingin' bash was put on by Whit, Wayne and Bob to say farewell to all that had transpired in the 24 years of its history. Herb designed the invitation. Whit played sax in a barbershop quartet - so he WAS the entertainment - and we all showed up for a last party there. The facility was sold, and underwent some modifications. Subsequently it had a close call with the wrecking ball, but it was rescued from that fate (tip of the hat to Ray Girvigian, FAIA, who also had an office here) and later purchased by a private buyer for professional office use.
So there was another party and reunion in June of 2005, with South Pasadena Heritage attending, along with the new owners who continue to use the structure today. The community was very pleased with the outcome, and the Chamber of Commerce staged their own gathering of luminaries here to set this structure off on its new course. As of today, the immediately adjacent lot is being cleared for new construction, but this hallmark of an era and the imprint of uniquely influential design practice in the City of South Pasadena remains!
Whitney Smith, FAIA, was a prolific architect of the postwar period. I went to work for him after Smith and Williams relocated out of 1414 Fair Oaks to Culver City in 1982, and worked on some of the Westridge School campus projects. Here's a little doodle he did of himself. Whit passed away in 2002 after moving up to Oregon.
Three significant buildings on the Westridge Quad were designed by Whit: the Seeley G. Mudd Science Building, with three fully-equipped Upper School laboratories and a computer technology center, the Laurie and Susan Frank Art Studio and the Hoffman Gymnasium. An earlier structure, Ranney House, and parking lot expansion was completed in 1985.
His work spanned the entire spectrum from whimsical work to serious industrial facilities, to theme parks and fairs, campuses, commercial buildings, and medical office structures. He and Wayne worked with Julius Shulman who photographed, among other things, the Mobil Gas Station. His work was unique, always took a different view of a building's program and gave it a special twist that changed its standard typology to something special. His early career started with working in the office of Harwell Hamilton Harris, where he became involved with the Case Study project designs.
The Neighborhood Church campus is still partially intact, the Sanctuary has been remodeled somewhat - the wistaria trellis is gone - and some outbuildings were demolished for a large structure. But the original vision of the campus as a totemic and austere wooded grove remains, reflecting the essence of Emerson and Thoreau that grounds the church philosophy. It still retains the original Cole House by Greene and Greene at the heart of the campus, at the minister's request; that's an interesting story.
His most radical work remains unbuilt, with A. Quincy Jones in 1945 for the Case Study homes: unbuilt Case Study #5 and unbuilt Case Study #12. As an example of the principle that no good deed goes unpunished, his Crestwood Hills home design was destroyed in 2007 to make room for paving. This nearly happened to the 1414 Fair Oaks Office Building, before the community and our Smith and Williams "alumni group" intervened.
Obie Bowman has done a very interesting interview with Whit in 1992, download it here.
Postscript 10/15/09: Look what just turned up. Here's a picture of Whit and Lee Hershberger back in their salad days. Taken in 1961.
Wayne Williams FAIA passed away in November of 2007, a uniquely creative and engaging person who had a major impact on regional design and architecture here in South Pasadena, centered in the 1414 Fair Oaks complex that was the nexus of a very accomplished group, as well as many others of us who worked there over the years. His philosophy was a highly collaborative, process-oriented design approach grounded in science and an integration of the environment that mirrored the early modern influence of asian sensibilities.
Wayne's career is particularly highlighted by his interest in and accomplishment in the areas of city planning and recreation, which is evidenced in his 1963 nomination to the Fellowship of the American Institute of Architects:
“…it is in the wider aspects of city planning and the coordination of buildings, non-buildings and open spaces into a human scaled, unified entity that Mr. Williams deserves special attention.”
Mr. Williams was instrumental in forming ‘Community Facilities Planners,’ an association of consultants which makes possible professional collaboration on complex planning projects.
Mr. William’s special interest is recreation, not only in its usual sense and definition, but in an attitude toward life, which might very well fuse our work and play together so that they are indistinguishable.”
The aesthetic environment that Wayne Williams, Whit Smith, and Garrett Eckbo created out of steel, stucco, wood, glass, plants and water in 1958 at 1414 Fair Oaks in South Pasadena became a creative crucible for interdisciplinary approaches to community design and planning. The chief designer was Bob Thorguson and the project director was Shig Eddow. The garden court office building was a virtual creative cloister for architects, engineers, city planners and interior, landscape and graphic designers. The building was considered a very progressive and important example of contemporary Modern design and collected an impressive array of awards.
Projects developed by the firm of Smith & Williams also include the 1965 Friend Paper Co. on Green Street in Pasadena, a mid-century modern building recently adapted for mixed use, and their 1956 Mobil gas station on Harbor Boulevard in Anaheim. Community Master Plan designs were a key component of their practice, such as suburban layouts for Mission Bay Park in San Diego and California City in Kern County.
In retrospect, Williams noted: “ The…idea was to surround ourselves with the best and the brightest from other disciplines that we could learn from and enjoy working with: Garrett Eckbo, Simon Eisner, John Kariotis, Edgardo Contini, A. Quincy Jones and many others. Some moved in, while others continued to collaborate while maintaining offices elsewhere.”
The Los Angeles Times noted last week that the more recent architecture and designs of the "Early Modern" period are now eligible for historic designation, as are most of the boomers that lived that era. Many of them are the Case Study homes built from designs by Buff and Hensman, Smith and Williams, Cal Straub, Richard Neutra, Pierre Konig and A.Quincy Jones, mostly fellas from the USC architecture school who practiced in the post-war era. These were documented by Esther McCoy in her tome, "Blueprints for Modern Living" Others from the USC group include Lyman Ennis and James Pulliam. They were a very integrated group that worked in concert with each other on many occasions, sharing a value system of streamlined international interpretation at the small scale. For example, Whitney Smith worked for Harwell Hamilton Harris, and later teamed up with Wayne Williams, a student of his at USC, for a productive career in residential, industrial and small commercial projects. Their design archives are here in Wonderland.
A subgenre of early modern in Los Angeles is Googie architecture, a wonderfully "flip" commercial design style that borders on cheap flash. Nothing reserved about this style! This was famously used in family restaurants and coffee shops, and of course the Theme Building at LAX. It was a slightly later period that is now hitting the 50-year mark to the delight of Jetson fans all over the country, since these buildings are now eligible for the historic designation that brings tax breaks and renovation crews. This style was a celebration of the loopy, modern spaceship meme that permeated the advertising slant of this kind of design; a very animated and out-of-the-box public display of 60's optimism, along with those big car fins and Schwinn Radio Flyer bikes.
With the preservation and adaptive reuse of the best of these structures, there's a hope of retaining the vitality, character and scale of the urban fabric established during this era.
The “dead peasant insurance” recently exposed in Michael Moore's movie has been around for decades, in a different form, known as COLI. In 2006, it was supposedly amended to require knowledge and consent of the insured. To quote:
Notice and Consent Requirements. The Employee must :
1. Be notified in writing that the employer intends to insure the employee’s life and the maximum face amount for which the employee could be insured at the time the contract is issued.
2. Provide written consent to be insured under the contract during and after active employment.
3. Be informed in writing that the employer will be the beneficiary of any death benefits.
What we're seeing now is Wall Street's move to collateralize and make a profit on COLI bundled policies, the exact same fiscal nuclear waste typology that created the mortgage meltdown in this country and abroad. In order to feed it, same thing, the companies are vastly increasing their use of this to all levels of employees, no longer just in the executive suite. So investors are waiting for workers to die, which apparently the health insurance industry doesn't seem to mind facilitating through their withdrawals, denials and their recission policies.
Given that our entire financial system is being run by folks who've hit the jackpot and use all means to continue to scale the great wealth divide, it's time to fully hold corporations accountable in their acts against not only most of the citizens of this country and the globe, but also force accountability for the environmental impacts of their behavior. The abuse of a small "privileged" group of the far larger population has led to disastrous events of chaos throughout history, and it's now leading to the unraveling of natural systems and processes as well. No pulling up the drawbridge on this issue, there's no place to run.
So guess what the revolution's going to be about.
Causes of the French Revolution include the following (substitute "environmentalism" for "Enlightenment Ideals")
A poor economic situation and an unmanageable national debt were both caused and exacerbated by the burden of a grossly inequitable system of taxation, the massive spending of Louis XVI and the many wars of the 18th century;
A resentment of royal absolutism;
An aspiration for liberty and republicanism;
A resentment of manorialism (seigneurialism) by peasants, wage-earners, and, to a lesser extent, the bourgeoisie;
The rise of Enlightenment ideals;
Food scarcity in the months immediately before the revolution;
High unemployment and high bread prices resulting in the inability to purchase food;
A resentment of noble privilege and dominance in public life by the ambitious professional classes;
A resentment of religious intolerance;
The failure of Louis XVI to deal effectively with these problems.
Posts
