city planning | themovement.com

Archive for the ‘city planning’ Category

upper monterey railroad trestle idea

Posted in city planning, san luis obispo, tagged san luis obispo, san luis obispo railroad on October 2, 2010| Leave a Comment »

my buddy Zazz sent me this mockup of his idea for the upper monterey st. RR trestle in San Luis Obispo, CA. Pretty cool idea. It sure would give that neighborhood some identity!

Read Full Post »

Jeff Shelton is a supergenious!

Posted in architecture, art, california cultural anthropology, city planning, tagged architectural details, architecture, beatnik, California, mexican tile, spanish colonial revival architecture, spanish tile, tile roof on June 20, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Jeff Shelton is my favorite moorish/spanish colonial revival style architect… BY FAR! He makes FUN buildings. Take Gaudi’s assistant Josep Maria Jujol, mix with Dr. Seuss, toss in a bit of MC Escher… and then stir in a bunch of tile… more than a bunch actually. I think Jeff must have some sort of back door arrangement with a a mexican encaustic tile factory somewhere.

Dig around on his site… you will love it… I guarantee it!

Read Full Post »

Nice picket fence in Los Alamos, CA

Posted in architecture, art, city planning, tagged picket fence, victorian details on June 20, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Check out the little spacers on this picket fence. Also the moulding and the base. Together they make this fence totally different than every other picket fence I have seen. I think it is the spacers that really kick this thing to the next level… they are an interesting small detail… that create an ambiance that you can not quickly describe. Somehow this fence feels more authentic…

This is a quality we designers all need to encourage in ourselves.

Read Full Post »

pismo beach, bikers, abalone, and dinosaurs… the connections

Posted in art, california cultural anthropology, city planning, motorcycles, tagged bikers, California, cool architecture, harley, indian motorcycle, pismo beach, roadside attractions on June 2, 2010| 1 Comment »

A nice 1920’s signpost… advertising Pismo Beach… and I am guessing these guys are the masons that built the sign judging by the level and the trowel. Pismo for those of you who don’t know… is home of the Pismo Clam… and they are using Abalone shells as decoration…. odd… so maybe these are oddfellows… rather than masons… anyway… I digress. I suppose they could just be SUPER big clam shells… But I don’t think so.

When I was a kid… there were abalone shells in piles all over San Luis Obispo county… covering the edges of Morro Bay … out in edna valley for some reason… on the side of the road here and there… like trash. The abalone “farmers” would just pile them up in great heaping piles… along with oyster shells. You can always tell the old timer back yards in town… with old rock walls… and fish ponds.. now filled with weeds or some haphazard cactus arrangement… they usually have a few abalone shells in them somewhere.

These days a good abalone shell will set you back about 10 bucks on ebay. and the giant pismo clams… Well when was the last time you saw a 6 inch clam eh.

This signpost was replaced with a Giant cement clamshell sometime after this photo was taken… which is still there. Unfortunately… both the abalone… and the pismo clams… are mostly gone now. Hopefully the giant clam shell sign in Pismo is protected as a cultural landmark. Actually there are two giant concrete clams on the side of the road in Pismo… about three blocks from each other. Evidently one big clam wasn’t enough.

Here are some early bikers on the beach with early motorcycles… a motorcycle gang pre wild bunch era. I would love to talk to this group… and hear their perspective on things.

and howabout this shot… of the ferro-cement dinosaur namesake from “dinosaur caves” in Shell Beach… all that is left today… are a couple of concrete dinosaur eggs put there a few years ago… in some sort of oddball tribute to the fake dino of years ago.

It would be cool to get the real fake dinosaur back… and I would love to see kids climbing all over it.

These and a bunch of other shots of old Pismo were sent to me by my buddy Richard Jeffers in Santa Barbara. He ran an upholstery business in Lompoc for many years… and then moved to Santa Barbara and retired… but still did upholstery for a long time there. He has done a lot of cool hot rods over the years. He did the interior on our Rometsch Beeskow. Thanks Jeffers!

Read Full Post »