QUARTERLY MEETING

May 9, 2006 | Western Regional Office, National Park Service, Oakland

Minutes:

1. INTRODUCTIONS

   Kimball Koch welcomed us to the Western Regional office of the National Park Service and described the sort of projects he and his staff do, including: cultural landscape inventories and reports, emergency stabilization plans and design guidelines for historic sites.

   Kimball introduced Joel Simmons and Gary Harris who described the park service's indefinite quantities (IDIQ) contracting procedures. They issue IDIQ contracts for $25,000 - $5 million. Interested firms should check Federal Business Opportunities online. Submissions are made via 330 Forms.

2. OLOMPALI

   Diane Einstein gave a brief history of the Olompali historic site with photos explaining that the original land grant was 8800 acres. The site is known to have had 8000 years of continuous use starting with Native Americans. Mary Black and Galen Burdell settled on the land and created a Victorian estate with a 2.5 acre garden.

   Friends of Olompali are moving ahead with the preparation of contract drawings to restore the gardens, funded by a $100k CCHE grant (read more below). Volunteers are currently focusing on getting the garden built and doing research to insure that it is historically accurate. This research material will be used for their HALS documentation. In 1977, the site became a state park and includes 760 acres. RHAA Landscape Architects prepared the planning study that is guiding these efforts.

3. WEB PAGE COMMITTEE REPORT

   Steve Cancian Rasmussen handed out copies of the proposal he submitted to UC Berkeley Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning (LEAP) to form a partnership between our committee and LAEP. Steve alerted us that in about two weeks he will be contacting individuals and asking us to write pieces of the narrative that will explain the components of the site. For more information or to join the web page committee, contact Steve at canciansteve AT hotmail DOT com

4. PIEDMONT WAY

   Fredrica Drotos reported that Friends of Piedmont Way (Friends) have completed the drawings that show current conditions. Cathy Garrett of PGAdesign described her and Karen Krowlewski's efforts to apply the HALS guidelines to this site. The effort involved several readings of the guidelines, but in the end Cathy noted that, "There is nothing in the guidelines that we can't live with. There is no fatal flaw in the guidelines; it's a good document." -- I hope this report will make it into the national newsletter so that those who toiled over the creation of the guidelines will know their efforts are appreciated.

   Friends are making arrangements to have the HALS photography completed and will be preparing additional drawings. At this point there was discussion of the criteria for photography and for printing -- ink and paper types for the final products.

   Fredrica and Michael Kelley also reported that they had participated in an International Historic Roads Conference where they gave a talk on Piedmont Way. Other speakers spoke on Route 66, Olmsted's parkways, and Pasadena's Arroyo Seco. Delightfully, the national transportation agency, AASHTO, is developing guidelines that enable context sensitive design solutions that meet current highway construction standards. For more information contact Fredrica at fredrica DOT drotos AT sbcglobal DOT net

5. KAISER ROOF GARDEN

   Measured Drawings
   Chris Pattillo reported that Deborah Lindsay acquired a copy of Ted Osmundson's original planting plan to share with PGA. They are currently in the process of preparing the first of three measured drawings. At least two additional drawings will depict current conditions and how the garden looked as it was constructed.

   Photography
   Thanks to Margaret Mori, Tom Fox with the SWA Group offered to do the HALS photography for the Kaiser site. After a bit of a misstep gaining permission from the current building owner to do the photography, Mr. Fox started photographing the same day as our meeting.

   Research and Writing
   Marlea Graham reported her progress on researching written material about the garden. She visited the Oakland main library and transcribed relevant information from a series of newspaper articles, and created a chronological timeline that summarized events.

   Marlea distributed a thirteen-page summary that includes text and historic photographs.

   There is much more to do and Marlea welcomes volunteers. Her goal is to develop an outline of what needs to be done and then ask other members to take on specific assignments. Please contact Marlea at: maggie94553 AT earthlink DOT net

6. CALIFORNIA CULTURAL AND HISTORIC ENDOWMENT (CCHE) GRANTS

   Diane Einstein reported on the recently awarded California Cultural and Historical Endowment Grants. There were 14 grants: 3 for planning and 11 for projects. The list of recipients is attached. Congratulations to Olompali for receiving a CCHE project award!!

7. NATIONAL FORUM

   Cathy Garrett, our official representative for HALS at the national level, reported on a recent conference call that included representatives from 24 states. Currently 37 states have designated representatives, but 13 states have no HALS reps. California has two (Cathy & Noel Vernon). The call host stated the agenda and facilitated the conference with various representatives injecting points throughout the call. Much of the discussion focused on how to increase the visibility of HALS and get funding to do the work.

8. NEXT MEETING

   Our next meeting is scheduled for August 8th, 2006 4:00 PM at the Presidio