Architecture Ransom Notes

A planning commissioner in the Tri Valley, one of the better ones I've seen, remarked in a planning commission hearing a few months ago, that this project was the first project he looked at when he was appointed and now it's the last project he's looking at before he terms out, eight years later. There has been so much tension and fighting between the developer and NIMBYs that it has taken eight years to get this otherwise straightforward project approved. He also remarked that the developers have given huge compromises to the opposition while the opposition hasn't given an inch. The project started off in architecture in 2011, with the intent to build 78 homes between 2300 and 3200 square feet on a slight knoll, overlooking the valley. Immediately, the community in the area came out of the woodwork with complaints. It's too dense! - it's less dense than the surrounding community. We loved walking up the hill to watch the fireworks! - this has always been...

Several years ago, we went to my wife's friend's wedding at Vallco Mall in Cupertino. To our surprise, the parking lot was empty and many of the doors were barred. We finally found an open entrance and walked in. The lights were half on and there were only several people wandering around during a time where nearby Valley Fair Mall was absolutely teeming with people. The sound of a heavy door closing shut somewhere in the mall echoed through the otherwise quiet halls. Only four businesses were open in this giant mall: A large Chinese restaurant where the wedding was held at, a movie theater, a Cold Stone, and a random eyeglasses store. It was downright eerie, like if you walk around Times Square in the late afternoon and you only see five or six people walking around. Did the zombie apocalypse just begin? No, it turns out Vallco was a victim of several anchor stores closing up, turning it into what's known as a ghost mall. Developers had purchased the nearly vacant mall in...

Everyone knows the difference between 2D and 3D. When watching The Simpsons, people can tell when they're seeing 2D Homer vs 3D Homer . Most people can also figure out 2D. People can pull up a map and reasonably figure out where they are in relation to nearby towns and geographic features. Likewise, most people can draw simple maps for others to follow. But when 3D enters the picture, for some reason, some people, even those that have power to deny building projects based on architectural drawings, have difficulty visualizing and presenting unbuilt space in three dimensions. In 3D perspectives, heights drop off with distance. Intuitively, we know this. When we see a building with a flat roof run into the distance, the roof line runs down as if shrinking, even though we know from experience that the roof line is flat. If captured on paper, the lines run down toward what's called "vanishing points" on the horizon. In architecture, we frequently draw building elevati...

The East Bay Times published an article concerning the difficulty of building, using the North 40 project in Los Gatos as a prime example. It goes into some length about how the project has been held up for twenty years in a stalemate fight between the developer and the neighbors. It ultimately ended up in a lawsuit which the developer won, clearly having rights to build on their land. Although I disagree with state directed housing supply mandates (enforcing property rights is a much better approach), it is interesting to see some of the other statistics the article revealed concerning the woeful lack of housing cities have permitted: 97 percent of cities and counties failed to keep pace with housing needs The article also cites research that found it takes on average 17 months to attain approval for projects and that these delays can add 30% to the price of new homes. It's a rarity for me to see California projects go from initial architectural contract to construction d...

People living in single family houses like looking out of their backyard into open space. It's a feature I would love to have for my own house. When someone has had that amenity, like any other luxury, it's tough to let it go. The problem is that someone's right to a view ends where another's property rights begin. That someone likes their view out their backyard does not mean the person who owns the lot behind that person should not be able to build a house on their own property. We designed a small community outside a large gated community in the East Bay and held a few community meetings where we invited neighbors to discuss the development. This land was a horse ranch and was situated alongside the main road into the gated community. On the other side of the road was a row of backyards inside the gated community. The new houses would not have been close to the existing houses so the impact was not significant by any means in context with Bay Area housing. They wou...