QUARTERLY MEETING

November 13, 2007 | Rosie the Riveter National Historic Park, Richmond

Minutes:

1. Introductions and Welcome

   Prior to the meeting, while it was still light outside, our host Lucy Lawliss led a tour of the Rosie the Riveter site in Richmond. She pointed out the existing components of the site and described what will be added in the future. Lucy gave a thorough overview of the status of the park and answered questions. The museum which will be housed in the Louis Kahn designed industrial building on the waterfront, and is planned to open in 2008.

   When we convened in our meeting room Lucy passed around a flyer from the National Association of Olmsted Parks and noted that the Olmsted firm is known to have been involved in some 3000 sites in California alone, including our East Bay Regional Park System and planning for Yosemite National Park.

2. ASLA Convention Report

   Chris Pattillo and Cathy Garrett reported on the ASLA Convention held in San Francisco in October 2007. The education session on HALS was attended by 75 people. Speakers included Lucy Lawliss representing NPS, Roxane Blackwell, ASLA Washington DC, and David Draipsa from Florida who was involved with creating the HALS documentation guidelines, Alan Alana from Wisconsin who works with students from the University to do documentation, and Chris Pattillo who presented what our chapter has been doing.

   Chris and chapter member Margaret Mori assumed the position of co-chairs of the Historic Preservation Profession Practice Network (HP PPN) for ASLA national and Chris reported on chairing that committee meeting as well as attending the HALS Liaison meeting. More information on the HP PPN can be found on the asla.org website.

   As a reminder, Chris summarized what we are charged with doing for HALS as follows, and noted that our committee has been doing most of these things:

   • Lobby for funding for HALS with federal legislators.
   • Compile and prioritize a list of local examples of historic landscapes.
   • Compile a comprehensive inventory of possible HALS study sites for California.
   • Identify one or more sites that merit complete documentation.
   • Coordinate HALS activities with the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO).
   • Advise on historic preservation laws and standards.
   • Educate government agencies and others about the use of HALS for compliance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act, Section 4(f) of the Transportation Department Act of 1966, and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
   • Promote public awareness of HALS.
   • Encourage donations from local philanthropists to support HALS.

3. Olompali Status Report

   Diane Einstein passed out copies of The Silver Sixpence Newsletter of the Olompali People that features progress made on the Mary Burdell garden. She reported that the existing conditions plan, the site analysis and assessment of integrity have been completed under the California Cultural & Historic Endowment grant. Three period plans show the site as it existed in 1874 when initially constructed, in 1911, and as it exists today. Carol Roland presented the results of her historic research which notes that the Victorian-era garden qualifies for listing on the National Register of Historic Places on its own merit. The treatment plan, based on the historic photographs, is also complete. Diane agreed to make copies of Carol Roland's report available to our members after it has been reviewed and accepted. She also noted that the Burdells were the single largest land owners in Marin County at the time owning some 8800 acres at Olompali.

   Soon, archaeologist Christopher Lloyd from Sonoma State will undertake an investigation and attempt to find physical evidence of the exact location of garden features, based on the existing conditions plans that have been prepared.

   On Thursday, November 15th The Olompali People and State Parks will host a public meeting where attendees will learn about the current plans and be able to ask questions. (Note: During the meeting Cathy led a tour of the garden pointing out the historic elements and discussed what was learned from the historic photographs.)

4. Piedmont Way Status Report

   Fredrica Drotos reported that Brian Grogan from the National Park Service completed the photography for our Piedmont Way HALS submittal. Two additional grants of $75,000 each have been secured to complete the contract documents and start the replanting per the approved treatment plan. A planting day is planned for fall 2008. Tom Brown suggested contacting the California Landscape Contractors Associates for potential contributions to support the planting effort.

   Friends of Piedmont Way still need to complete the historic research and start the written portion of the HALS documentation. Elvinia Slowsson funds were suggested as a potential source of support for this effort.

5. Kaiser Roof Garden Status

   Marlea Graham had intended to give a report but was not in attendance. Chris said that she has a new plan for soliciting funding from the Kaiser Foundation to support our work and will continue to pursue that avenue. Brian Grogan intends to photograph the Kaiser site in the future.

6. Status of Photography for 3 Sites

   Cathy Garrett elaborated on Fredrica's and Chris' reports on the HALS photography being provided by NPS. Cathy met Paul Dolinsky, head of HALS for the National Park Service (NPS) while serving on a panel and it was through that connection that Paul offered to provide Brian's services for our three sites. For each site Brian produces two complete sets of black and white images. One set has been given to Paul. Currently, Fredrica has the set for Piedmont Way and Cathy has Olompali. We had a brief discussion of where these images should ultimately reside and tentatively agreed that they should be given to the Environmental Design Archive at UC Berkeley.

   Cathy reported that Brian had commented on the difficulty of capturing the sense of the garden at Olompali because so much native vegetation had invaded and filled the space, blocking views and casting shadows.

   While in California to photograph our sites Brian also documented what remains of a historic Japanese wholesale nursery in Richmond. Cathy and Chris had the opportunity to see these images as well. Lucy suggested that this site might be considered as one of our future candidates for HALS documentation.

7. HALS Website Report

   Steve asked for one more volunteer to work with his committee to draft the content for our website. Both Tom Brown and JC Miller agreed to help. They set the second week in December as a good time to meet. If anyone reading this is interested in helping please contact Steve.

8. The HALS Challenge

   Chris reported that she has backed off from issuing The Challenge, which was going to ask each state to prepare one HALS inventory form for each Electoral College vote their state has. The Challenge would have meant that California would need to produce 55 inventory forms. Instead, the HALS Liaisons and HP PPN members are being asked to focus on preparing HALS fact sheets. One sheet featuring one or more historic sites is needed for each state for the federal lobbying effort that will happen in February 2008. California completed its fact sheet last year.

   Chris feels it is important that we complete these simple 3-page forms and encouraged our membership to fill them out for sites you are working on. If you have the information available, it should take only a few minutes to fill the form out online. Anyone doing a form should let Chris know so she can keep track of who is doing what to avoid duplication. A PDF of the HALS inventory form is attached.

   We discussed how to keep track of this work and agreed that once our web site is up the information will be posted there. Ideally, Paul Dolinsky head of HALS at NPS would keep track of everything for the country. Chris has also approached ASLA national about being the recipient of the data. Until this is resolved we need to keep track of what we are doing. (Note: since the meeting Chris has created an Excel database to track our HALS work. The draft is currently being circulated for review and input.)

9. Park Merced Site Visit

   Elaine Stiles from the National Trust organized a site tour of Park Merced in San Francisco. The purpose of the meeting was to inform persons in the landscape preservation community of current plans that could impact Park Merced. Aeron Goodman led the tour with commentary from several others. Park Merced was designed by Leonard Schultz & Associates, FAIA, Architect and Thomas Church did the landscape design. It is one of very few Church designs that is publically accessible; most of Church's work was for private gardens. The complex provides over 3000 rental units and has been well maintained. Both the architecture and landscape architecture retain their original integrity, with minor worrisome exceptions.

   Currently, several proposed developments pose a threat to Park Merced including proposed new high density housing, new retail buildings in the central open space, a large-scale bioswale, and plant species changes. Residents are monitoring these proposals and speaking at public hearings.

10. Preserving El Granada

    San Mateo County designed by Daniel Burnham in 1906, and built in 1907 by the Ocean Side Railroad. The town was designed to reflect the City Beautiful principles of beaux arts design with radial components and landscaped boulevards. It is currently threatened by proposed development. Gael and the Midcoast Parklands board are interested in pursuing National Historic Landmark status. It was suggested that we schedule a site visit and tour for our HALS group.

11. ASLA Initiatives Grant Program

    The Chair reminded the group that the ASLA initiatives grant program is a potential source of funds to support what we are doing with HALS. She suggested that Steve submit a request for money to pay for someone's time to help with our website. Applications are due March 14, 2008.

12. Comprehensive List of Historic and Cultural Sites in California

    The chair asked how we are progressing on creating a comprehensive List of Historic and Cultural Sites in California and was advised that the committee is waiting for the website to get active. The intent is to post the list on the website. (Note: since the meeting Cate Bainton, a new member of our committee, volunteered to start working on the list. The plan is to use the Excel database for this list.)

13. Next Meeting

    JC Miller offered to arrange for us to meet at the Fay Garden in San Francisco for our next meeting: February 12, 2008 4PM Fay Garden, San Francisco