Did you know that Oakland has it’s very own equinox observatory? This article in the Oakland wiki suggests it was planned by several prominent citizens in the early 1900’s.
The Oakland Local Wiki is actually a very interesting site to hunt around in. Check out the 101 Things to love about Oakland article. The cool thing about Wiki’s is that anyone can contribute.
There are no camps I’m willing to send my kid to this year. So I have reduced my work schedule to have one more week day to hangout with him. While it’s okay to visit public spaces I’ll be whisking him away to visit various sites around town. I feel my privilege in being able to do A. work from home most of the time and B. have the ability to adjust my schedule. I’m feeling this privilege even more as I think about the coming school year. Are we really willing to risk the health of our teachers and students just to get childcare?
So anyway, UPS in Oakland is having a covid-19 and crappy equipment related melt down and thusly the shoes I ordered kiddo are not arriving any time soon. He is wearing shoes 2 sizes too small so I MUST get him something. We head to Walnut Creek to get shoes and have our side trip to the Ruth Bancroft Garden. I haven’t been here in several years, in fact, since they have upgrade to have an event space and a nursery.
It looks amazing. The parking lot is even nice and have beautiful Palo Verde trees planted between spaces. At this time, there are strict guidelines in place to stop the spread of Covid-19. Kiddo and I wore masks and kept our hand sanitizer at the ready.
The garden was full of employees/volunteers working, there was a photoshoot/video interview happening, and there were a several other visitors. I was thrilled to find a plant in the nursery that I had been looking for since the beginning of the year, a Eucalyptus cinerea ‘Silver Dollar’. This plant was in a recent landscape design but I ended up having to find a sub and think I ended up using a Chamaecyparis pisifera 'Golden Mop'. This Eucalyptus is great for a cutting garden. You can keep the plants small and shrub formed if you prune it down in it’s second year encouraging multi-branching. Then prune at will to add to flower arrangements.
The Ruth Bancroft Garden has several pamphlets you can pick up at the kiosk. The especially useful ones are the Self Guided Tour and the What’s in Bloom. Oh! Looking at their website just now I see that they have a YouTube channel that gives you a tour of their blooming plants! no need to leave your living room and brave the sweltering heat anymore!
Kiddo and I headed out to Albany Bulb this week to do some exploring. Immediately upon exiting the car I realized I have forgotten my binoculars. Huge mistake! The wetlands were LOUSY with Avocets and other Brown Birds of Medium Size (BBoMS). I’m shocked newly everyday how much my eyesight has deteriorated in the last 5 years and resolve to put my car binocs back in the car where they belong.
Multi-branched tree with a painted trunk and SF and the bay in the background.
I have deep suspicion at this point that my Achilles tendons are royally unhappy but I soldier on and we head out to see what we can see. About halfway in to the Bulb we realize that we need to order Picante for pick up STAT. Thank god we can stop for a sec so I can rest my legs and place our order. In true teenage fashion Kiddo is also more excited about getting a burrito than exploring. :)
Chunk of old concrete nestled in dried grass covered in graffiti. Graffiti says ‘Anxiety’ and also has a picture of a CA poppy with text next to it that says California Poppy.
Why yes this concrete is expressing just how I feel: anxious and excited to look at plants.
At this point I am trying to convince Kiddo that an acceptable summer project would be to think of an art project to do at the Albany Bulb. He is not convinced and continues to be wholesome AF.
Have you been to Albany Bulb? You can read up on it here. The thing I like about the Bulb is all the twisted metal embedded in chunks of concrete. IDK, I just like that kind of thing. Well, I like it up until I start to think on the human race and how it creates massive amounts of construction debris and is ruining the planet.
Now I am trying to convince Kiddo that all this land is manmade and so is Emeryville. I don’t have enough facts at my disposal to be convincing enough, alas. I wander off into a fantasy in which Kiddo writes a high school report on the created and stolen lands of the Bay Area.
On our way back to the car we see some lovely BLM and All Brown Live Matter graffiti. It certainly bears repeating until everyone believes it for real.
Close-up of weathered wood with BLM spray painted in red.
It's a cold and damp here in Oakland. We went for brunch and then took a walk over by Lake Merritt, where we played on the Mid-Century Monster and explored the Mediterranean Garden.
The Mid-Century Monster, recently renovated and repainted green, everyone loves playing on this sculpture and it's so nice to see if back up and accessible. It was originally created for the 1952 California Spring Garden Show. I need to look up pictures of that to see how it was displayed.
I'm such a fan of the Lake Merritt Gardens and have been bringing Jack here since riiiiight before he was born. Here is my TMI story... A month before Jack's due date, and just two days after starting my maternity leave, my water broke unexpectedly. I was freaking out, and the doctor advised me to wait before coming in for some reason! To calm me down, we took a walk at Lake Merritt. I vividly remember wearing a muumuu and Crocs—quite the sight! No amount of walking around in a nice garden and looking at Canada Geese was going to calm me down though.
We walked around through the Mediterranean Garden and I was just struck by all the texture and patterns during this walk-through. Once again reminding me of one of my favorite landscape books From Art to Landscape by W. Gary Smith. That book is one of the things that firs got me thinking about the use of these forms and pattern in actual landscape design. When I was in school for Computer Animation creating textures from photographs was one of my favorite parts of modeling
There are a number of patterns found in nature. Types include repetition, symmetry, drift, serpentine, spiral, branching, radial, and fractals.
Of course many of these are used in any kind of design work.
I like this example of serpentine and repetition. The tall upright palms are repeated all along the serpentine path, both drawing the key farther and farther into the landscape.
I have a decent amount of books centered on play. I tend to pick them up at thrift/used bookstores. This is just a small shelf of them.
In September I went to sketch with the East Bay Sketchers at the garden on top of the Salesforce Transit Center. Two weeks later they discovered cracks in the beams and closed it! I hope they figure out what is happening and reopen it soon.
I did not know that there was a little funicular to get to the top. sadly, it was not open when we got there.
We walked around and looked for good views to draw. Somehow, once again, I seem to have not taken any pictures.
I drew the courtyard area. It was a very lively and colorful space!
I was very interested int eh planting plans. There were some trees that I gave the side-eye as ones that get HUGE. like is this really engineered to deal with a 130 ft.dgf Aurucaia araucana? I’m sure they did think of everything.
I went out with a group to explore and photograph the old 16th Street Station in West Oakland. It is such a cool building with a really cool history and it is sad to see it in such disrepair. We lived over in West Oakland for a long time and I used to go over that way to take trampoline lessons.
old postcard of West Oakland 16th Street Station
The station was operating up until the 1989 earthquake and was the end of the transcontinental railroad. It was built in 1912 by the Southern Pacific Railroad with the architect Jarvis Hunt in the Beaux Arts style. It’s so fancy! I love it. And I love how dilapidated it is now even though it is also sad to see it that way. Like, why is this not a building being used for stuff! It has been used for a few things like I’m pretty sure there was an opera preformed there and some other arty things. I’m assuming it is because of earthquake safety.
This is going to be another image heavy post. It was so much fun to prowl around this building and the grounds!
So much neat graffiti.
And then I love to see nature intruding in all the cracks and crevices. Why is it that humans find post apocalyptic, overgrown old industrial sites so fascinating?
I was also excited to see that the surrounding land was being used by an urban flower form to cultivate cut flowers! It is called Wow Farm Flowers and the I think they got a grant to help prep the site and the Oakland Zoo provided soil. How cool is that!?
in 1906 the earthquake that burned down SF left many people homeless. Tiny ‘earthquake shacks’ were built to house people quickly. There are not that many of them left in SF but my sister happens to live in one of them!
I drew it from Google maps and I will frame it and give it to her for her birthday. I had such fun drawing and painting this!
I’m really loving all these storm water solutions I am seeing in Walnut Creek parking lots. :D I wish there were some regulations in Texas for this kind of thing. Every time I go back there I am so offing appalled by the infrastructure. Or lack thereof, I guess. Have fun with building a whole city in a swamp and then refusing to acknowledge that and have some regulations for infrastructure. Jerks. I hate Texas.
I had a fantastic time at my second APLD Conference. It was wonderful to reconnect with friends from last year and see familiar faces from the Bay Area.
Just outside the hotel was the Santa Fe Railyard Park. The park featured beautiful hardscape and plant designs, a children's play area, and lovely gardens. I particularly admired how the designers incorporated the railroad tracks and other historical railroad elements into the park's design.
Right from the start, I was so excited that the keynote speaker was W. Gary Smith, the author of From Art to Landscape: Unleashing Creativity in Garden Design. I totally fangirled a bit and brought my copy of his book for him to sign. He was super nice and signed my book for me. Gary is an accomplished landscape designer, having won APLD Garden Awards and worked on many renowned gardens. Coming from an art and design background myself, his book really attracted me and I often refer to it.
These are in no particular order. I’m just dumping photos.
Check out these interesting gabions. They are partially filled with glass slag chunks! Neat!
This garden just had a TON of amazing architectural details. I love to fun round pavers, the colors! The whole thing!
I'm just starting to drive around the far East Bay (i.e. Walnut Creek, Pleasant Hill, etc). I drove buy this Rasputin Records Shop the other day and was kind of surprised to see the nice landscaping and green roof! I stopped to snap a few pics and I probably should have run in to ask who did their landscaping. Next time!
Anywho, how cute is this?! Do I see some invasive grasses? Yes. I am trying to ignore them though. :)
During our trip, we had a totally unexpected but amazing moment. We stumbled upon The Boston Society for Architecture's Extraordinary Playscapes exhibit while walking around Boston. As someone obsessed with playscapes, I was thrilled by this discovery!
The Science of Play
The exhibit was extensive, filled with information mostly about commercial play spaces but also delving into the reasons for play and how play spaces influence child development. There were interactive exhibits, outdoor installations that I couldn’t visit, and plenty of beautiful drawings, plans, and models.
We spent a lot of time at the "Imagination Playground" exhibit by David Rockwell. This featured large blue foam blocks that you could manipulate. Much like small-scale building blocks, these large ones allowed you to create your own world and build your space. I loved how these blocks enabled people (kids and adults) to interact in various ways. Whether you’re a builder, a zoomer, or a quiet hider, you could use these blocks to play for hours.
I just love plan view drawings. They are one of the reasons I was attracted to the career. :D.
Nature play is near and dear to my heart. Not only did I create a forest pre school for my kid but I also worked on the play environment at his k-8 school. I also have a whole workshop I have taught at the Mothership Hackermoms in Berkeley.
Here is a link with exhibit info:
https://www.architects.org/exhibitions/extraordinary-playscapes
https://www.architects.org/about/bsa-space/visit
I'm working on lists for various landscape resources. Online and local to the Bay Area, CA.Here we have some fountain and pot resources.
I spent all my summers growing up in Narragansett, Rhode Island. I still have family there, and my parents often rent a beach house for a couple of weeks, graciously letting me join them and take over their vacation time. The beach is my happy place.
One of my favorite landmarks is an old water tower just a street over from my grandparents' house. I always found it enchanting, with a fairy tale-esque and mysterious charm. One day, my grandfather took me there with my sketchpad and favorite Ebony Pencil while he brought along a folding lawn chair. He sat and watched as I drew the tower. At the time, I was a bit put out—did I really want to sit and draw while he watched me? But looking back, I realize he was nurturing my natural inclination to draw, even after years of trying to get me to throw a ball with him. I still have that drawing somewhere and plan to dig it out someday.
On my recent visit, I sat awkwardly in my car and sketched the tower in my sketchbook again. It brought back a lot of memories.
A quick shout-out to Ebony Pencils: they're perfect for sketching with their rich, dark lines. If you haven't tried one, I highly recommend it! I absolutely loved these things when I was a kid!
While Googling the tower, I found a fascinating photo on the Library of Congress website (link: Library of Congress). It's amazing how different it looked back then!
According to Wikipedia, the Earl's Court Historic District is a residential historic area in Narragansett, Rhode Island. It centers on Earles Court, between Gibson Avenue and Noble Street, and includes several properties on adjacent streets. The district features nine residential properties developed in the 1880s and 1890s, during the height of Narragansett Pier's popularity as a summer resort. Most buildings are in the Shingle Style, designed by well-known architects. Notably, the Sherry Cottages on Gibson Avenue were designed by McKim, Mead & White, who also designed The Towers. The development on Earles Court, designed by D. J. Jardine and Constable Brothers for New York lawyer Edward Earle, features a stone water tower as its central focus.
This beautiful old water tower is a testament to the rich history and architectural beauty of Narragansett. It’s fascinating to think about how it once stood proudly as part of a bustling resort community and continues to capture the imagination today.
During our East Coast visit, we spent some time on the MIT campus. It was really lovely to see where T** went to school and to show J*** around. The campus is beautiful. T** shared a fantastic story about dropping thousands of super balls from the ceiling of one of the buildings. We’ll leave out the environmental impact of that little adventure!
This might be the building he was talking about.
We came across signage for a rainwater harvesting project that was quite impressive. It’s great to see these types of initiatives on a college campus, inspiring young minds. This project features a 50,000-gallon cistern, and all the collected water is used for flushing toilets and landscaping irrigation around the building. Here isn article from 2009 about it.
Rainwater Harvesting at The Strata Center
We came across signage for a rainwater harvesting project that was quite impressive. It’s great to see these types of initiatives on a college campus, inspiring young minds. This project features a 50,000-gallon cistern, and all the collected water is used for flushing toilets and landscaping irrigation around the building. Here isn article from 2009 about it.
We also admired a rock wall memorial, complete with a water feature and seating area. I like how the rock retaining wall follows the form of the built up soil behind it.
The campus had some gabions in use as well. For those who are unfamiliar, a gabion is a wire container filled with rocks, which can be construction waste like broken concrete or other large rocks. They can serve as seating if you add a nice cap, and as retaining walls if you include a barrier on the retaining side. My feelings about gabions are mixed. While they’re an excellent way to keep broken concrete out of landfills, they need to be filled with pieces that fit well and look nice, which can add time and labor to a project. Moreover, there’s the concern about little fingers getting caught or small rodents and spiders making homes in them. However, with the right client willing to cover the extra effort, they can be a sustainable and attractive option.
The weather was incredibly humid, something I'm not used to anymore! I do love the East Coast though. Later we will meet up with some old friends and then we are off to RI, one of my favorite places!
