Category: California
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A Tale of Two Houses
Architectural tourism is big business in Palm Springs. Whether its organized tours, exhibits, or just a traveler with a map, Palm Springs is well-trampled by those looking for a peak at an icon. Sometimes the icon is the architecture, and sometimes, the occupant was an icon. Occasionally, it’s both. Near…
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35 Years In San Francisco
At the end of June, I retired from Architectural practice. It has been 40 years since I started my first job as an intern in Colorado. I moved to San Francisco in 1989, and the time since has been split equally between San Francisco and Berkeley/Oakland. But San Francisco was…
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Life On The Rocks
On the north end of Palm Springs, before one exits the vast Coachella Valley and heads east towards Los Angeles, one passes beneath mighty Mount San Jacinto. At 10,834 feet , it towers over Palm Springs, and along with Mount San Gorgonio, forms a formidable pass , one that spawns…
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We Are All From Somewhere Else- A Walk Through West Berkeley
I moved to the Bay Area in 1988, securing a job with an Architectural firm in San Francisco. The firm of 50 was probably 90% Asian, and for the first time in my life, I was the minority. Every Friday, a large group of co-workers would head to lunch in…
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“The Doom Loop “- Walking Through Downtown San Francisco
Downtown San Francisco, we are told, is in a “doom loop”. You probably have heard. Everyday, the San Francisco Chronicle, publishes the latest report on employers leaving downtown, retailers closing their doors, wasted public money on poorly managed programs (2 million dollar toilets!), the latest staggering statistics on homelessness, and…
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Neighborhood Stories- 3 Houses
At some point every day, I go for a walk in my neighborhood in Berkeley. It is a modest neighborhood of mostly one-story bungalows , an occasional apartment building, and a scrappy commercial district . But every few blocks, there is a larger house or building that isn’t part of…
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100 Years of Houses- Walking Panoramic Hill
One of the conundrums of life during the pandemic has been getting meaningful exercise, something more than a neighborhood walk. Fortunately, in Berkeley, there are some very steep hills, and these walks have provided the necessary heart rate elevation. In fact, one in particular, at Claremont Canyon, is so steep…
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Cruising The Avenue
10 years ago, after many years residing in San Francisco, we moved to Berkeley, across the Bay. After years of regarding Berkeley and the East Bay as being closer to Europe than just across the bridge, we quickly changed our tune as we discovered the joys of the place. Berkeley…
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Walking Across Berkeley- 12 Stops During A Pandemic
For some time, I wanted to write a post about walking all the way across Berkeley. Essentially, the walk would be a cross section, starting at the Bay , winding through our flatland neighborhoods, and then on up to the campus and the hills. And I finally got around to…