QUARTERLY MEETING

August 8, 2006 | Schilling Garden, Oakland

Minutes:

1. SCHILLING GARDEN

   Our host, Michael Bowman showed us the Schilling garden from his 4th floor venue and introduced Antonio May with whom he is collaborating to try to save the garden from a proposed 42 story residential tower. Michael pointed out the "hanging garden" structure that dominates the 19th Street side of the garden and explained that originally it was draped in Wisteria and other vines. Originally owned by August Schilling, co-founder of the spice, tea and coffee firm, it was later owned by the Bechtel family who employed 6 full time gardeners. The Bechtels left it to the University of California, Berkeley who sold it. Developer David O'Keefe, who with a cadre of influential investors, hopes to develop the property, currently owns the property. Residents of the adjacent Regillus, other neighborhood residents, Oakland Heritage Alliance and others are leading a campaign to save the garden, which originally was open to the public. A land swap has been proposed and public hearings are scheduled.

   Michael Crowe noted that Lake Merritt is a designated National Landmark and the neighborhood is a local historic district thus this garden deserves our attention. Tom Brown urged that documentation of the garden should begin immediately.

   Those in attendance agreed to support this effort and to encourage our individual members to write letters on behalf of the organizations they represent. If you are interested in being kept informed send your name and e-mail address to Mike Bowman: mikebow AT hughes DOT net

   The chair will also send out notices of hearings via our e-group inviting your participation.

2. Bay Area Research and Extension Center (BAREC)

   Kathryn Mathewson representing Friends of BAREC and SaveBAREC.org spoke to us about the grassroots effort to save a 17-acre agriculturally zoned piece of land on Winchester Boulevard in San Jose that is currently owned by the State of California. Their goal is to prevent the sale and development of this site and instead create an urban agricultural demonstration and educational facility.

   The site has a long history of serving feeble children 1860-1920, Civil War veterans' families 1920-1950 and agricultural research since the 1920s. Bob Raabe, Doug Hamilton, Harry Butterfield, Rob Thayer, Ali Harivandi and other leaders in agricultural research conducted many significant research projects at this site. This well organized group has strong support and many ideas of how to make the site self-supporting.

   Michael Crowe suggested that Public Law 5024 is intended to protect sites such as this by requiring the state to survey historic properties and evaluate the impact of selling them. He also encouraged Kathryn to contact the State Historic Preservation Office for guidance. Tom Brown agreed to draft a letter of support on our behalf. Other letters are needed. For details, contact info AT savebarec DOT org

3. PIEDMONT WAY

   Fredrica Drotos modestly reported another tremendous success for Friends of Piedmont Way (Friends) who won a Chancellor's Fund Grant to prepare a rehabilitation plan for the site. The current conditions survey is complete as is the site photography to HALS standards, which she passed around.

   Fredrica showed historic and current photos of a small section of an Oak grove, some of which appears to be extant from before Olmsted's era. Historic photos indicate the Palmer family, who owned two lots in this area, took care to retain these trees. They were again retained when they were incorporated into the stadium landscape in 1923. Portions of this grove are threatened by a proposed underground athletic facility. It was suggested that UC's forestry department might be of assistance in aging the oaks.

   Next steps include scanning more historic photographs, preparing the narrative for the HALS submission and preparing historic period plans. Three plans are needed: 1865 when Olmsted is associated with the site; 1911 when Charles Huggins formalized the road's alignment; and current. Sections are also needed. For more information contact: Fredrica at fredrica DOT drotos AT sbcglobal DOT net

4. KAISER ROOF GARDEN

   Measured Drawings
   Chris Pattillo reported that PGAdesign is slowing progressing towards completing a base drawing that will be used for the historic period plans.

   Photography
   Tom Fox with the SWA Group has completed photographing the site. Chris passed around a contact sheet with 185 color images.

   Research and Writing
   Marlea Graham and Chris interviewed David Arbegast regarding his role in designing the Kaiser roof garden. They learned that David served as project manager and had primary responsibility for developing some 20 design alternatives for the garden until Mr. Ordway approved one. David told us that William Penn Mott, who went to UC Berkeley with Edgar Kaiser, initiated the idea of the garden.

   Chris was particularly surprised to learn that her first employer, John Sue assisted David. John was responsible for working out load capacities for various areas of the roof with the building's structural engineer, for developing the soil plant mix with Soil and Plant Lab and for the planting design. Osmundson's partner John Staley oversaw the garden's construction.

   David explained that originally the roof was planned as a showroom for the Kaiser-Frasier automobile. A geodesic dome, illustrated in a news article, was planned as the showroom and the structure in one corner, that currently houses mechanical systems, was to be an elevator that would deliver cars to the roof.

   Deborah Lindsey offered to assist with the research and writing and Mark Treib and Charles Birnbaum were suggested as others who might want to contribute or review the HALS narrative. Please contact Marlea if you have time to help: maggie94553 AT earthlink DOT net

   Chris noted that during the interview they learned that neither David's nor his wife's (Mai Arbegast, Landscape Architect) papers have been given to the UC Archives. Chris contacted Waverly Lowell at the archives, who is in communication with David now. Margaret Mori suggested that an article be prepared for the ASLA news reminding members that they should donate their papers to the archive for future generations.

5. WEB PAGE COMMITTEE REPORT

   Steve Rasmussen Cancien announced another success. His sub-committee has won a $5000 grant from LEAP to pay for a HALS Webmaster for one year. The goal is to have the position filled by mid-September. The web page committee has created a mock-up of the site that was distributed for comment.

   For more information or to join the web page committee, contact Steve at canciansteve AT hotmail DOT com

6. HALS NATIONAL

   Cathy Garrett summarized a conference call with representatives from 38 states who amazingly had a well-organized and productive telephone conference call. Scott Kovarovics who led the discussion urged participants to focus efforts on a congressional outreach to inform their representatives about HALS. Cathy suggested that we compose a list of threatened historic landscapes consisting of a couple of sentences and photos of threatened or at risk sites as described in her handout (e-mail with the meeting agenda).

   If you know of a threatened property please write a short descriptive narrative and send it to Cathy at garrett AT PGAdesign DOT com. The deadline for submittals is September 1, 2006 Margaret Mori suggested that an article on this topic should be sent in to ASLA.

7. STATE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE COMMISSION

   Cathy also reported that she and Kimball Koch attended the Cultural Landscape Committee meeting that advises the State Historical Resources Commission. This group, of which Cathy and Kimball are both members, is charged with reviewing cultural landscape issues before they go to the State Historic Resources Commission, which makes decisions on what properties should be designated as State landmarks.

8. NEXT MEETING

   Our next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday November 14th, 2006 4:00 PM at a TBD location