QUARTERLY MEETING

February 12, 2008 | Flora Grubb Gardens, San Francisco

Minutes:

1. Tour of Flora Grubb Nursery

   Our host gave a brief talk on the history and current status of the Flora Grubb Nursery, which specializes in drought tolerant plants from Australia, Africa and Mediterranean climates. They have a wonderful collection of specimen plants, large pots and custom furnishings.

2. List of Historic and Cultural Sites

   Cate Bainton passed out copies of and reported on her progress made to identify, list and organize basic date for historic and cultural sites in Northern California. Cate is creating a database for each county. For each site there is a place to record the following information:

   • Site Name
   • Location: State, county, city and street address. A separate column will permit sorting by zip code.
   • Landmark/National Register status
   • Documentation status, i.e. Whether the site has been documented by HALS, HABS or HAER and to what level.
   • Owner name, address, web address

   When known the data for each site is being entered into an Excel spreadsheet (database) that is intended to keep the information in a standard format, enable sorting by column headings, and can be easily updated as new information is obtained. Having this information for each site will facilitate the preparation of HALS short form documentation (Level III documentation).

   Cate asked for members to review the data for a county to first, verify that the site listed does in fact include a historic or cultural landscape with sufficient integrity to be included on the list, and second, to add any additional sites that the reviewer is familiar with. If you are interested in reviewing the information available for a particular county please contact Cate

3. Olompali Status Report

   Diane Einstein reported on recent archaeological work completed at the site. Archaeologist, Breck Parkman used a soil probe to verify the locations of the original garden paths at twelve locations. The assumed locations had been drawn based on historic photographs. All test pits confirmed the accuracy of the path layout as shown on the plans. Parkman was assisted by two Sonoma State graduate students Chris Lloyd and Ben Elliott. The test probes also confirmed that the original paths were topped with decomposed granite in the 1990s. Multiple test probes were done at each path location to verify that the typical path widths were 8 to 9 feet. Samples of the material removed by the probes were passed around.

   Tom Brown asked about the use of ground radar to locate pre-existing features. Diane noted that the site was heavily graded in order to construct the garden, so it is unlikely that anything would be found in situ.

   Cathy Garrett reported on progress made on the restoration plans. The design development documents for the garden restoration have been completed and submitted to the client and state parks for review.

   Diane reported that there is a graduate student who has expressed interest in taking on the written component for the HALS documentation, and that photographer, Paul Engel has volunteered to do additional photography.

   Volunteers have taken cuttings and are propagating the Sago Palm, the Cupressus and the pomegranate hedge. This material will be used for the garden planting. Tom Brown suggested that The Olompali People apply for a mini grant for this work.

4. Piedmont Way Status Report

   Cathy reported that the design development plans for the rehabilitation of Piedmont Way have been completed and submitted to the City of Berkeley for review. At present, the Friends of Piedmont Way have approximately 10% of the total project construction budget secured. This should be enough to complete the work in the medians.

   Fortunately, we have a copy of a twenty-two page report written by Olmsted in 1866 that describes in detail his design intent for the planting. Instead of the existing high-water use turf, the rehabilitation plans call for low water use ornamental grasses, shrubs and trees including many species native to California in keeping with Olmsted's design intent.

   We have a good set of photographs of the street taken in 1908 within the period of significance of 1865-1930, and some records from Charles Huggins who was the city engineer during this period.

   The project schedule shows having the phase one documents out for bid by June 30, 2008.

5. Web Site Committee Report

   Steve Cancien was unable to attend the meeting so Tom Brown reported that the committee met on December 12th and since then has made good progress. JC Miller, RHAA Landscape Architects has joined the committee and his office has offered to take the lead in setting up the web page. Thank you RHAA and JC. After some discussion we agreed to apply for the following URL address: www:HALSca.org. We agreed to drop "ncc" (northern California) because we believe we are the only established HALS group in California and to avoid confusion with North Carolina.

   Tom was charged with developing a list of related URLs that will link to our site. Cate said she would forward a list of sites she has discovered while preparing the list of historic sites.

   JC and Keith from RHAA are working on ways to simplify what goes on the web site.

6. Kaiser Roof Garden Status

   Marlea was unable to attend the meeting because she was the featured speaker at another venue, but reported that she plans to have a draft of the written component of the HALS documentation complete for our next meeting. No progress was made on the drawings during the past quarter and the photography has not been done, but Brian has confirmed his commitment to do so.

7. Other Reports
   1. Carola Ashford and Shelagh Fritz from the Garden Conservancy gave a report on the progress made in restoring the gardens on Alcatraz. To date two of the five garden areas have been completed. Weeds and overgrown shrubs have been cleared, the soil has been amended and new planting has been done by volunteers. Bricks in a path have been re-set, a new wood handrail installed, and a small hot house that had fallen into disrepair has been rebuilt. They are now working on the rose garden. Rose cuttings taken in 1989 have been propagated and are ready for planting.

      Chris Pattillo posed the question, "Has anyone talked about doing a HALS documentation for Alcatraz?" Carola said they do have a cultural landscape inventory (CLI) for the garden that was done in 2005, and now need to prepare a cultural landscape report (CLR). She thinks some of the volunteers might be interested in taking on the HALS documentation.

   2. Estates Reservoir: Chris reported that East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) is planning to eliminate two reservoirs in the Montclair neighborhood of Oakland. Both reservoirs are covered and one has a fountain. The landscape at the reservoirs was designed by Robert Royston whose firm has been retained by EBMUD to study alternative uses for the sites after the reservoirs are removed. There is a very active neighborhood group monitoring this development. Some neighbors value the open space, landscape design and fountain and do not want to lose those amenities. JC Miller suggested that HALS documentation be done by EBMUD as part of the project.

      Update from Michelle Blackwell of EBMUD: Ribera & Sue designed the landscape and Hardison & Komatsu the roof for Piedmont Reservoir. Royston, Hanamoto, Mayes, & Beck designed the landscape for Estates Drive Reservoir.

   3. Cathy gave a status report on Park Merced, the 1950s apartment project designed by Thomas Church -- his largest public landscape design. There are multiple entities proposing substantial changes to the site and they are promoting the redevelopment as sustainable design. The development advocates are justifying the removal of Church's open expanses of lawn by proposing a large scale bioswale that would cut through the site. Staff from the National Trust for Historic Preservation are advocating for some level of documentation and possibly a National Register nomination.

   4. Tom Brown announced that Charles Birnbaum will be in the Bay Area in May.

8. Next Meeting

   Our next meeting is scheduled for May 13th at the Eugene O'Neill National Historic Site, Danville. Make a note on your calendar.