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Archive for the ‘architecture’ Category
It’s all about me…
Posted in architecture, san luis obispo, shoe designer nerdiness, Uncategorized, tagged Eric Meyer, fotwear design, remodel, restoration, san luis obispo, shoe design, Simple, simple shoes on October 2, 2015| Leave a Comment »
little known tackiness at Hearst Castle
Posted in architecture, art, california cultural anthropology, tagged floral wallpaper, Hearst Castle, lady gaga, mod, san simeon on March 25, 2014| Leave a Comment »
Tackiness at Hearst Castle is nothing new… here is some lovely 1960’s wall paper wrapping a switch plate cover in the “secret” kitchen… downstairs in one of the guesthouses, behind what looks like just a closet door. WRH probably didn’t see this modification… looks a bit more like the Patty Hearst”era to me. Maybe this is what inspired Lady Gaga in her most recent video filmed at the castle… we’ll never know I suppose.
A creative bike bridge over Monterey St. in San Luis Obispo
Posted in architecture, bicycles, city planning, san luis obispo, tagged bike blvd., bob jones trail, Class one bike path, railroad safety trail, san luis obispo bike path, SLO bike route on February 10, 2014| Leave a Comment »
I have a crazy bike bridge idea…. one that I pitched to some Cal Poly architecture students (and also some planning students) a few years ago. I have recently suggested it to the City of SLO.
THE BACKSTORY: SLO has been planning and building a long class one (off street) bike path that is known as the Railroad Safety Trail for many years now. It extends from Orcutt road in the south up to the Railroad station… and from Cal Poly in the north down to the 101 freeway along California Blvd. The section that is missing is between the 101 freeway and the Railroad station. The City has been attempting to negotiate with the Railroad for an easement… but the Railroad has basically just said NO.
So the City of SLO public works dept has been working on various solutions that would make a safe connecting route for bikes across this middle section of town to each of the already completed sections of the RR safety trail. So far it looks pretty good… except that a portion of the route will be on Pepper st… which includes a relatively steep section between Monterey street and Mill St. Too steep for kids and anyone on a single speed or cruiser type bike.
The idea… is to span the small valley of Monterey st with a 1000 foot long bike bridge… which spans from Higuera st. all the way up to Mill St…. most of which is actually just the roof of two skinny buildings built on half of what is now the east side of Pepper street. Only a short section of this 1000 foot length would be an actual bike bridge…directly over Monterey st… the rest would be built on the roof of commercial space combined with maybe a small apartment or two… whatever. It is a tad difficult to grasp at first… you have to imagine two buildings… one on either side of Monterey st… built on half the width of Pepper street… the roofs of which are at the level of the green line in the photo above… and then the bike path on top of those roofs. The remainder of Pepper becomes an alley of sorts. It is really low traffic usage now. The new bridge would turn the steep hill… into a manageable 4% grade. The new buildings would not block any views that the current railroad track already blocks.
The City would have to either partner up, sell or lease the land to a developer that would then build the buildings and the bike path. There would be an easement for the bike path across the buildings… and some sort of long term maintenance agreement. It would be a tricky negotiation… but in the end it would eliminate the steep section of this portion of the RR safety trail across town.
From the south end of this bridge… the path would continue as per the existing bicycle master plan which I don’t have space enough to go into here as it is fairly complicated… but it is already a plan and it will work. Same goes for the northerly connection… but that section is quicker to describe. Basically to the north.. Pepper continues as a bicycle blvd for two blocks… where there would be a new bike bridge over the RR tracks and the path then continues over to the south corner of the Highway Patrol building property on California… and then northerly between that Highway Patrol building and the RR tracks but on Highway Patrol Property. From the Highway patrol property… the path becomes a “protected two way bike lane actually built on the west side of California blvd. This section is protected by a barrier from the automobile traffic… and it continues across the existing wide automobile bridge over the 101 and connects with the existing RR safety trail just beyond the 101.
Interesting, yes… is it feasible… I dunno… but it would sure be fun to explore.
Studio water/wastewater impact fees lowered 71% in San Luis Obispo!
Posted in architecture, city planning, san luis obispo, tagged apartment san luis obispo, City of SLO water impact fees, rental unit san luis obispo, rentals san luis obispo, san luis obispo construction, san luis obispo contractors, san luis obispo housing prices, san luis obispo impact fees, san luis obispo real estate, san luis obispo wastewater impact fees, san luis obispo water fee, studio apartment san luis obispo on August 21, 2013| Leave a Comment »
Last night the San Luis Obispo City Council voted to lower the base water impact fees charged to developers of new residential units. The new Water Development Impact Fee for a studio of 450 sq. feet or less is now $3232. This is down from the previous fee amount of $12,735 . This is a big change. Fees for larger homes are also lower but not quite as much… multi family homes are $7542 (down from $12,735) and single family water impact fees are $10,775 (down from $15,919)
In addition the base wastewater development fees (for a studio) have dropped to $1119 from a previous rate of between $3079 to $3849. Muliti family wastewater fees are 2610 and single family wastewater fees are 3729. Depending on where the unit is located there may still be some additional fees based on lift station (catchment area basin) issues etc.
So if you are wanting to build a separate studio apartment on your lot… the water and wastewater development fees have dropped from $15,079 down to $4351! 29% of what it used to be! Previous to this Studio development was penalized as there was no separate smaller ratio reserved for tiny units.
Over the past decade or so there have been almost NO small studio’s built in the City of SLO because of this price issue. I think the new fee structure will mean that folks with “detached bedrooms” will now be able to legally convert them to secondary dwelling unit studios without the huge fees. Hopefully this will mean a bunch of affordable studio sized rental housing gets created. We do really need this type of small housing here.
NEW FEES:
Water fees Wastewater fees Total
$3232 $1119 $4351 Studio
$7542 $2610 $10,152 Multi Family
$10,775 $3729 $14,504 Single Family
OLD FEES:
$12,735 $3079 $15,814 Studio
$12,735 $3079 $15,814 Multi Family
$15,919 $3849 $19,768 Single Family
“Walkable City” by Jeff Speck
Posted in architecture, city planning, happiness, san luis obispo, tagged best place to live, bicycle advocacy, bike culture, bike infrastructure, bike paths, bike route, city planning, downtown, jeff speck, pedestrian, walkable, walkable city on December 28, 2012| Leave a Comment »
“Walkable City” is a fantastic new book by Jeff Speck on creating great cities and overcoming dated planning ideas. For anyone interested in making more pedestrian, bicycle and transit oriented spaces it is a must read. It is also a must read for anyone interested in what it takes to make your city “feel” better… or making places a better place to live. Jeff Speck was a co-author of “suburban Nation” a few years back… also a great book. I recommend this book to city council’s, bike/ped advocates, and city planners.
For more info: http://jeffspeck.com
Hippie modernist lighting
Posted in architecture, tagged budget modern, budget modernism, do it yourself lighting, hippie architecture, make magazine, todd stoutenborough, todd stoutenborough architect on February 21, 2012| 1 Comment »
I’ll admit it… I am usually not a big fan of can lighting. But I take exception in this case. This is an old coffee can… opened on both ends and then spray painted blue. It is screwed to the wood… surrounding a galvanized exterior light socket. The astute amongst you will have noted that the wiring is actually speaker wire. ( I don’t recommend this) This lamp was built circa 1967 by a Cal Poly Architecture student named Todd Stoutenborough. (now he designs colleges and office parks… I wonder if he misses building lights out of scrap). I’m gonna call this style “hippie minimalist”. Most hippie architecture is just scrappy… but this particular piece was actually pretty cool back in the day. Now however… 44 years later… it is looking a tad saggy and rusty around the edges. Probably time to get a new can at least.. and maybe some regular wire.
You can build this yourself…The can is free… the wire you can swipe from something else probably…. and the galvanized bits are probably less than 12 bucks at the hardware store. Spray paint is around 6 bucks. I can visualize this project in an old issue of popular mechanics back in the day… but today I suppose it would be in “make” magazine.