The Design of Experience

I came to my ideas on designing experiences after a field trip to the Oregon School for the Blind in Salem in the Winter of 1968.. We met with the faculty and staff and then later with students. I was amazed at how blind children overcame their handicap by developing skills based on sense perceptions other than sight.  Their perception of radiant heat and sound reflections was very acute.  They were able to navigate around the school as easily as the sighted but by using their perception of heat radiating off of various surfaces to give them clues as to where they were.;  The same for the particular.quality of sound that resulted from its reflection off of various surfaces.  After the visit, we designed toys for the blind that gave particular attention to sound, feel, etc.

Then in the Spring term, we were assigned the task of designing a "better" playhouse for a pre-school center operated by the St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Eugene, Oregon. This was to be a contest for the best design, and the professors would select the best one and the class would build it.  Among the requirements of the project was that the house must be able to house the school's riding lawn mower.  The reason was that the children refuse to use the existing story-book style playhouse and it was therefore being used for the lawn mower.; After some protests by the class, the professors dropped the lawn mower storage requirement.

I could not get enthusiastic for the project since I thought that a playhouse was simply a device intended to indoctrinate children into the traditional family system and assumed that little boys and girls would just be delighted to engage in reenactments of hubby coming home from work while wifey would cook and serve him dinner. I found the entire idea repulsive.

So I decided to determine what it is that children really liked to do when they played and the onl;y thing I had to go on was memories of my own childhood and my observations of what other children did. I decided they liked to climb up on things, jump off things, crawl through thing, swing, tight-rope walk on pieces of lumber and a host of other activities -- none having anything to do with "playing house." But, having made my list, I hadn't the slightest idea of how to realize this within the parameters of the "house" project. Then, one afternoon while driving around, I spotted a pile of telephone poles that were being sold cheaply.  These poles are used quite a bit in Oregon for curb stops on gravel parking lots.

I then got the idea of combining my list of play activities into a structure using the telephone poles spanned by bridges as the basic structure.  Soon, the structure almost built itself. but the other students pointed out that the project called for designing a house -- not a collection of bridges. So I reasoned that in that case I would add a little shed to one end of the structure and that would be the "house."

I made a scale model of the structure and held my breath when I presented it to the class in a critique session.  Members of the class, following the assignment  closely had  designed a number of unimaginative houses based on popular architects.  So we had the Frank Lloyd House, the Mies van der Rohe, the California Ranch, the Story-book style and one guy submitted a circus tent. But it was my submission that impressed them the most because of its unique, original design and the thought and analysis that went into it. They selected it as the winner and we went to work building it in the Spring of 1968.

Then  Sunset Magazine got wind of the project and sent their photographer and reporter to do a story on it.  The result was a story in the in March 1970 issue of the magazine. I have copied these photos of the structure from the Sunset Magazine article since I have no pictures of the original.

Figure 1, Detail of the structure. This photo shows the shed I designed  to satisfy the requirement that the project be for a "playhouse./"  It serves no functional or rational purpose except to satisfy the requirement.

Figure 2, picture of the structure from Sunset Magazine. The shingle structure at the rear was from another student's design and was added because the professors were worried that the shed on my design would not be sufficient to satisfy the school authorities.

After publication of the Sunset Magazine article, the design went viral on the West Coast . Then it went viral throughout the world.  Soon commercial interpretations were made of the structure and were being sold by several companies and the structure became standard equipment in virtually all  K through 5 schools in the world.



Unfortunately, life and shifting fortune later resulted in the destruction of the structure and its replacement with one of the commercial versions.  I sort of regret that the original structure was not preserved for its historical value, but I think that the administration of the church 30 years later, did not realize the importance the structure played in revolutionizing playground equipment throughout the world.

Figure 3, the  commercial structure that eventually replaced the original.  What is interesting about all of the structures that followed mine is that the silly shed that I added in a failed attempt to satisfy the assignment, has been preserved in all in all of them even though it is completely redundant.

If it seems like I am blowing my own horn, you would be completely right.  But my purpose here is to show how important it is in design to concentrate on the kind of experience you wish to create.  When starting from this point of view, a design is almost guaranteed to be, not only unique, but very satisfying and exciting for the user.

A Sense of Place

One of the things that I notice in driving around town and looking at homes is the almost total absence of intelligent, thoughtful design. It appears that when most track housing is sold it is sold with only minimal attention to landscaping or none at all.  This leaves the homeowner free to do whatever he wants. and what emerges is invariably a discombubulated mess of picket fences, pink flamingos, and foundations plantings with one particular bush planted at equal distances around the entire foundation of the house.

River City Commons, on the other hand, has a sense of place. You feel that your are in a particular unique place -- an attribute highly valued by urban planners and architects.  In fact, Donlyn Lyndon, who was head of the Department of Architecture at the University of Oregon was also the editor of Place Magazine, and probably the person who revived Gertrude' Steins now often quoted statement, "The problem with Oakland is that there is no there there" which has become the mantra of urban designers.

Figure 1, a residential street in River City Commons. Notice the absence of trailers, recreation vehicles and boats, which are not permitted in either driveways or on the street.  Also, the neat landscaping. This street has a stong sense of place not found in other neighborhoods where "anything goes."

My own ideas on architecture went a step further -- I believe that an important consideration in architecture and planning is not merely the sense of place but how one experiences the place. Thus, the first question an architect or planner asks is, "What kind of experience do I want to create?"  Then he decides how to create a place that will produce that experience. This idea was independently developed in the software business when software developers first began studying how persons experience their applications.

Figure 2, is a modest home with a strong sense of place and positive experience. The entry gate is wrought iron and allows us to see through while offering privacy and security. When we approach the entry gate we are made curious as to what lies beyond the gate and want to explore it. But, the modest and inviting entry belies what lies in store for us when we finally enter the house to find ourselves in a sky-lit atrium of tropical plants.

Of course, one of the problems of the idea of creating places and experience is that that road leads directly to Las Vegas. In fact, one of the books my first class in architecture design assigned for reading was Tom Wolfe's "Kandy Colored Tangerine Flake Streamline Baby,"  [Amazon Book] Wolfe's first compilation of his essays on pop culture for Esquire magazine.  Among the essays was one entitled "Las Vegas (What?), an essay on Las Vegas signs and the kind of place they created.  Wolfe did not foresee the kind of place Las Vegas would later become, but the essay is as cogent today as when it was written.

Sacramento Foreclosures up 76% in August

September 16, 2011
Last night on the evening news it was reported that Sacramento real estate foreclosures were up 76% over August's rate. The news  anchor speculated that the reason was largely due to Bank of America's financial troubles. Apparently the bank has more to gain from foreclosing than refinancing.  According to the news anchor, speculators have entered the market big time, buying up foreclosed properties at the low prices and then renting them.  The reasoning is that people who are foreclosed on still need a place to live.

I am not sure this is true.  My studies while working in urban planning showed that during hard times when people lost their jobs, there was a lot of doubling up in living arrangements. Children moved back in with their parents. Sometimes relatives moved in with family members, etc.  Also, a lot of people leave town when they cannot get a job.

I currently live in an apartment, and they are offering a discount on rent for their occupants to  refer their friends to them.  Also, I see people at street intersections waving signs advertising apartments for rent.  All these signs suggest that there is actually a lack of demand for rentals, brobably caused by a mass flight of unemployed persons from the area. We will see how it all comes out in the wash,

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Meanwhile, I left a message on Steve Streng's website on Monday afternoon.  He apparently replied within a bout an hour and wanted to set up an appointment for Tuesday morning.  But, because of computer problems and using a new email program, I did not see his message until Tuesday night.  He mentioned that he had house guests coming in from Hawaii and was going to be going to Las Vegas on Friday.  So I called and left a message to get together next week.

In the interim, I checked out a house that he mentioned in his email that I was unaware of. From the street, it looks like a very good buy.  It is the same style as the one in the first picture I posted on my opening page, "What is this all about?". . So I am waiting breathlessly.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Last Friday, I got a letter from the VA Hospital setting me up for an appointment at the Thoracic Surgery Clinic.I may as well have been dropped from the tenth floor. Thoracic surgery is almost always lung cancer and I had smoked for 28 years before stopping in 1981. The appointment was prompted by something that showed up on a recent CAT scan.  So I left a message for Steve Streng explaining the situation and saying I would have to put off any further house-hunting until I see how things sort.

Today, I showed up fully expecting to begin making arrangements for admission to the hospital. But it turned out that the Thoracic surgeon is also one of the general surgeon's who evaluate for other conditions.  Fortunately, it was for another much less alarming condition and not one in particular need of treatment at this time. So I can now proceed as planned to start looking seriously at the River City Commons homes on the market.

My situation is not too different from other  people who had chosen not to buy homes during the bubble. CBS had a story on the evening news this evening about the housing crash in Chicago. It featured a guy who thought he would never be able to afford a home and now finds that he can buy the home of his dreams for a mortgage  payment less than his current rent. That is exactly the situation with me.  I hate to think, however, that my own good fortune comes on the back of other's bad fortune.  But that is just part of the vicissitudes of life and shifting fortune. vThis is certainly the time for people who have secure jobs to be buying.

Moving on

Friday, September 9, 2011
I met with my VA Loan Officer at the bank this morning and got my prequalification letter. So I  am all set  to contact a realtor and start shopping. I decided to contact him Monday and in the interim to do a little more research.

 I wanted to go to Home Depot and get an idea of materials and landscape costs so that I have a better idea of what I am getting into when it comes to improvements.

I was surprised at the material costs.  They are a lot less than I imagined. 
But I am afraid that the labor costs will be a major limitation.

Monday, September 12, 2011
Contacted Steve Streng by email from his website to employ him as my representative. I also drove by River City Commons to check on the latest activity.  The home on the cul-de-sac that was my second favorite no longer had the for sale sign out and there was a car parked in the driveway.  It appears it has been sold. Being a stand-a-lone house, it was probably more in demand -- at least by the taste snobs who have not yet been been disembourgeoised. :-)

Below is a photo of the entrance to the house that is first on my list showing the general configuration and the landscaping problem.

I like the fact that the landscaping is absent  or extremely sparse rather than having mature plants and structures that have to be removed.  It is a lot less expensive and one does not suffer from guilt from having to remove the well-intended but completely inappropriate landscaping of the victims of the bourgeois cultural hegemony. (I hope you don't think that landscaping has nothing to do with class struggle.)

There is also a problem with the gate to the back yard  being so close to the entry since it is impossible to relocate the house number to a better position below the light.  So I am thinking that the best solution is to set the gate back about three feet

Getting a start on the purchase

September 3rd I got my Certificate of Qualification from the VA.  This means simply that I am qualified to buy a home that is insured by the Veterans Administration. VA loans require no down payment and usually restrict the closing costs. Other than that it is up to the lender to determine the amount you can borrow and the interest rate. I had already talked to the VA loan officer at my bank and gotten his oral pre-qualification.  Now that I have my Certificate of Qualification from the VA, he has set up a meeting for tomorrow to complete the paperwork.  Then I will be in a position to contact a realtor and begin the process of choosing a home and going through the processes for the final purchase.

River city Commons has approximately eight houses that are being sold as foreclosures or on short sales. And I have already looked over all of them from the outside and peaked in the windows. Since I don't have a realtor yet, I haven't seen the inside of any of them except to peak through the windows. So my initial evaluation is based on the general appearance, landscaping, and the size and configuration of the back yards.  I also downloaded the documents including Architectural Review Standards from the River City Commons Website.

One of the houses stands head and shoulders above the others and I suspect that it is the one I will finally buy.  But I am holding my judgment until I have seen more. While looking at the house, Michael, the assistant director of the homeowners association came by with his dog and we got into a conversation.  His partner studied architect under Mies van der Rohe at the Illinios Institute of Technology. 

Michael also mentioned that there were two women who were partners down at the corner lot and said something about another gay male couple. I am sure he did not overlook the stickers on my car bumper of the Human Rights Campaign and the rainbow flag.  So it does look like I will be among friends and hopefully my dream for a gay gentrification of the area will proceed on schedule.

Gay men are put in the marketing category of "DINKs."  That means double-income, no kids -- the marketer's dream unless you are selling diapers. Below is a picture of the house I am most in love with at the time.

 

It is a sub-plex on a corner lot across from a park housing the neighborhood community center and branch library. The garage side of the house, which faces the park, is in pretty good condition. The landscaping is quite simple, yet elegant with three mature birch trees.  The side of the house where the entry is, has more landscape problems. The fence is stained from irrigation and has no plantings between the fence and sidewalk. The landscaping at the entry is nonexistent and the bushes are totally inappropriate to mid-century modernist principles. So my first task will be to clear and grub all landscape elements on this side of the house and start with a new design that is in keeping with the style of  mid-century modernism.

The house is a Freddie Mac foreclosure and has had work done by Freddie Mac to the roof as well as repairs and repainting of  the facia. The outside appearance, as with most modernist homes, belies the magnificent interior spaces. The entrance opens on an atrium with 6' square foot skylight.  Beyond is a 22' X 28' living space with fireplace and sliding glass doors opening onto a shaded patio and large back yard. It is three bedrooms with walk-in closets,  central air and heating through a heat pump on the roof,  two baths, also with skylights, new cabinets and counter in the kitchen and a laundry room.

 Above is my second choice.  It is a detached, stand alone home on a short cul-de-sac. The back yard is smaller, but it has a nice wide, shaded side yard on the right that goes back to the entry and has the potential of being developed  into a great entry court and shaded dining area. Also the side yard on the left side of the house will make a great utility court. I also like the configuration of the atrium with the door set in about three feet and the atrium wrapping around it. This house appeals to me primarily because of its location on a cul-de-sac with less traffic and the nice landscaping that needs no work.   With its simple landscaping and hidden entry, it  reminds me most of the homes I used to see in Sunset Magazine back in the 50's and 60's.

I am looking forward to getting my qualification letter from the bank tomorrow and contact the realtor.  The realtor I have decided on is Steve Streng, the son of one of the original developers. He specializes in handling sales of all of the more than 1,000 Streng homes that were developed in Sacramento and nearby towns.

What is Mid-Century Modernism?

I got my bachelor's degree in art during the height of the modernist period in 1960.  The abstract expressionists, like Jackson Pollack below, were the poster boys of the New York Gallery scene.

At the same time mid-century modernism -- a uniquely American  style with its roots in Frank Lloyd Wright, Cliff May (pioneer of the California Ranch House),  Los Angeles architect, Richard Neutra  and Japanese architecture -- became the darling of modern residential architecture..

 Figure 1, Frank Lloyd Wright, Falling Water

Figure 2, Cliff May ranch house

 Figure 3, Richard Neutra, home at Palm Springs

In the 1950s, Joseph Eichler, a prominent Los Angeles/San Francisco Bay home builder, after living in one of Frank Lloyd's "Usnian" houses hired some of the leading modern architects of the time to design modern homes that would be affordable to the average home buyer of the time.  His subdivisions are to be found in many cities in California and his homes have become icons of the mid-century modernist movement, with many communities sponsoring home tours every year.

Figure 5, Two homes developed by Joseph Eichler

More about Eichler homes and mid-century modernism: The Eichler Network

In the late 1960's, after serving for nearly seven years in the Army, I decided to leave the Army and get a degree in architecture at the University of Oregon.  The modernist movement was still influential at that time. but had advanced from the mid-century modernist style and the closely related Second Bay Area Tradition, founded by William Wurster to the Third Bay Area Tradition, founded by Joseph Esherick.

I had studied architecture under Donlyn Lyndon at the University of Oregon. Lyndon was a partner of Charles Moore in the firm of MLTW which developed Sea Ranch, a prize winning second home development on the northern California coast. Lyndon and Moore were the progeny of the Third Bay Area Tradition founded by Joseph Esherick. this style later pervaded the Pacific Northwest and, at the University of Oregon was often referred to as "Splinter Modern"  because of its generous use of rough, re-sawn Douglas Fir and cedar.

The California Modernist style had also incorporated many elements of a uniquely Bay Area style that originated with William Wurster, former head of the Department of Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley..

He had a great influence on Joseph Eichler, advocating the development of small houses that offered the livability of those of greater scale, and he influenced the building of affordable mass-produced housing. His designs embodied principles of simplicity and economy, yet incorporated complex human needs.  See his book , An Everyday Moidernism on Amazon.

While at the University of Oregon, my design class took a field trip to San Francisco and Berkeley where we visited the offices of Esherick  and William Callister, another leading practitioner, and I was able to meet both of them.  We also toured the UC California Department of Architecture and some of the buildings in the San Francisco area that gave rise to the two movements as well as the First Bay Area Tradition, founded by Bernard Maybeck.

One aspect of West Coast modern architecture is its emphasis on the client's needs dating to the work of Richard Neutra. Neutra would spend endless hours having his clients fill out forms regarding how they lived and worked in their homes. And through interviews he would construct a program of the user's needs that would serve as a guide for the design. That was the model we followed at the University of Oregon, and it results in very user-friendly homes. That "user-friendly" philosophy was later employed in the design of software.

Before I leave this subject, I would like to address some common misconceptions that the California mid-century modernist grew out of the Bau Haus in Germany. and the work of Mies van der Rohe.   Actually, the opposite is true. While Mies van der Rohe had been a disciple of Walter Gropuis, the founder of the Bau Haus, he drew much of his inspiration from Frank Lloyd Wright as a result of a book, The Wasmuth Portfolio, a collection of photographs of Frank Lloyd Wright's Prairie School homes. Le Corbusier had also viewed the Wasmuth Portfolio and was enthralled by Wrights open space planning. The portfolio has also been implicated in the move to Los Angeles of Austrian architect Richard Neutra, who later became a central figure in California Modernism.

Figure 5, Mies van der Rohe, Farnsworth House, Plano, Illinois.

Although this house is horizontal and has large areas of glass, it shares nothing else with American mid-century modernism.  It is a completely European modern house in that it does not even give lip-service to the user's needs.  It makes a good party pavilion  but is basically considered to be unlivable because of its sacrifice of function to pure formal design. This tendency of European Modernism to give primary consideration of formalism above other considerations has been given as the excuse for the development of post-modernism. But post-modernism is more concerned with marketing and fashion  than with livability. And its "rebellion" against modernism is merely a marketing ploy intended to lend legitimacy to and disguise the profit-motive that took over the art world in the 1960's. It has since dominated the arts in order to soak the new crop of shiftless trust-fund babies created by the Reagan tax policies in the Late Capitalist Period.. I may discuss this   preposterous movement later since one of the most important tasks facing the world today is to smash post-modernism and the savage capitalism whose boots it licks.

What is this all about?

This blog is about one man's quest for a mid-century modernist residential paradise in a period of crashing housing prices, massive unemployment and uncertainty. More specifically, it is a diary of a limited income, retired man's quest to secure the home of his dreams with a VA home loan.

Ever since moving to the South Natomas neighborhood in Sacramento, I have always thought that if I ever bought a house it would be in the River City Commons development -- an area I pass by frequently on my daily walks.  River City Commons is a planned unit development of mid-century modernist homes developed by the Streng Brothers in the late 1970's and designed by Carter Sparks, who designed the homes Eichler built in the Sacramento area.

The Streng Brothers homes are designed for the temperature extremes in the Central Valley and do not have all the pizazz of many of Eichler's homes, but nevertheless reflect the same design philosophy design philosophy with its origins in the  modern and Japanese architecture in general. A philosophy that "form follows function"  that "less is more." But modernism found a unique expression on the West Coast where the mild climate led to the idea that the modern home should "bring the outside in." So, most West Coast modern architecture is oriented to the landscape around it and usually has generous floor to ceiling windows and wide sliding glass doors that open onto patios.

They also share the Scandinavian tradition, now exemplified in IKEA, that design should not only be good and functional, but affordable. Indeed, most of the mid-century modernist architecture was motivated by the New Deal programs of the Great Depression and the post World War II era to create affordable housing. So, if IKEA ever decided to go into home-building, they most certainly would develop mid-century modernist homes like Eichler and the Streng Brothers but make them easy for the customer to assemble.

In a certain sense, one can think of mid-century modernism  as a kind of snobbery of taste rather than a snobbery of wealth. Eichler's son, in Eichler Homes: Design for Living: states that Eichler homes were built for persons with "upper middle-class taste and lower middle-class incomes."

I am spending some time on this taste business because it explains what I think is the trend in ownership for River City Commons -- it seems to be in the process of  being taken over by the gays! In the marketing world, gay male couples are known as DINKs for "Double income, no kids." That translates to more discretionary income for travel, entertainment and home improvement. Thus, there are certain ramifications of gay gentrification, not the least of which is the overall improvement of the neighborhood and rising housing values but with the downside of increased doggie-poo in planter strips along the walkways, as happened with the gay gentrification of West Hollywood.

The current home sales situation is restricted by certain important factors. River City Commons is controlled by a homeowners association with protective covenants, architectural controls and enforced maintenance standards. Two years ago the homeowners association adopted an ordinance restricting the number of units that could be rented to 25%.  Since 35% are currently rented, as each unit comes on the housing market, it can only be purchased by someone who intends to make it their primary residence. This eliminates all speculators, discourages flippers and diminishes the overall demand creating an increase in competition among sellers. A recipe for low prices. And the data certainly verifies that.

Sacramento is, along with nearby Stockton and Modesto, California, an area that has been particularly hard hit by foreclosures and short sales. The result is that median asking prices for houses have plummeted from $385,000 in 2007 to about $160,000 at the present time. These prices are for detached, single-family homes with 3+ bedrooms, 2+ baths and double-car garages.

Most units in River City Commons are sub-plexes -- that means they occupy their own lot, but share a common "party wall."  In short, they are owner occupied duplexes. These, of course, have prices more in keeping with condominiums but usually with smaller homeowner's fees since fees are assessed only for maintenance of public facilities like the swimming pools, tennis courts, and visitor parking and not for yard or structural maintenance.

An article on the Eichler Network website tells a little more about the history of the development.  Apparently, many of the homes had been  taken over in the 1990s by persons with no appreciation for the style who had made a number of tacky "improvements" that ruined the neighborhood's integrity. Then, around 2004,  a group of concerned residents began a movement for more strict architectural review and the neighborhood began improving. With the adoption in 2008 of a change in the CC&Rs, rentals in the area, which had given rise to poor maintenance,  were limited.

The article was written prior to the bursting of the housing bubble and states that the homes were selling then for around $250,000 to $325,000.  Today the homes are selling between  $75,000 and $100,000. However, even at that price, they are not in great demand because of the overall condition in the Sacramento housing market. A major problem with the sale of mid-century modernist homes is that they look "funny" to the unwashed masses who prefer something that will allow them to have fantasies of living in chateaus or villas. Even in the hay-day of their development, they did not sell well and their purchasers have generally been artists, designers and intellectuals of one sort or another.  Since there are  plenty of  tacky villas to more than satisfy the extremely limited demand for housing and because River City Commons' CC&Rs  restrict sales to owner-occupants, many of these homes will sit there for months before moving while the unwashed masses buy homes without architectural controls where they can put up white picket fences  and plant as many pink flamingos  in the front yard as they want. . Bless their little hearts.