Here’s an interesting view of the intersection of US highway 1… and Los Osos Valley road. Circa 1972. Check out how wide San Luis Creek is in this shot! Parts of Dalidio’s farm are covered on the left of the freeway… and the right hand side of the highway… where the sewer treatment plant is… well that’s basically underwater! The creek is more of a RIVER. If you click on the photo… it will get bigger… there’s more to see when it’s bigger.
and this shot above… well that is san luis creek… you are looking southwest… towards Nipomo st. from mid block… behind the buildings on Higuera where the creekwalk is now. Today that white building in the foreground is “the Burrito wagon” I think… you are looking at the back side of it and Nipomo st. is out front….you can see the railing on the bridge…. the Children’s Museum would be in the upper right of the shot in a photo taken today… behind those bushes and rightmost telephone pole sorta.
This is a shot of Higuera st. taken from near the corner of Higuera and Osos. Looking down Higuera. The B of A on the left is now First Bank. What happened here… is that the creek overwhelmed the tunnel under the downtown… and started spewing out from behind the Firestone Building (now Firestone Grill). So this water then travelled west down to Osos… and splashed up against the B of A… and then made it’s way down Higuera… through the middle of town.
This shot above is Marsh st. I am pretty sure this shot is from Nipomo st… looking west. Directly to the right of where this shot was taken is the Foster’s Freeze. Hazels Pet Shop would be on the left…. except they are out of business now.
A different view taken from the intersection of Higuera and Osos… looking south on Osos. Firestone building on left… Arco in the background is now a big two story bank building on the corner of Marsh and Osos. New Times is now in the basement of the Maino building on the left behind the Firestone Grill. Wouldn’t want to be down there in this shot… totally flooded to the ceiling I imagine.
This shot above is Monterey st… between Johnson and Toro… looking west towards the Fremont Theatre. Westside Auto on the right… Currently Smith Volvo is on the left here… Notice the raft in the water!
This shot above is on Marsh st. near where the Napa Auto Parts store is… roughly Beach st. I guess. Looking west. Budget motel down there on the left. It was a few feet deep down there on mid Higuera. You couldn’t really get down there.
pretty sure this shot is of Oceanaire… just off Madonna Rd. Looking northwest on Oceanaire… just west of Laguna Lake… not positive about this location though.
These shots offer a rare look at a view of San Luis Obispo most folks have never seen. The Public Works Dept has done an ENORMOUS amount of flood control work since 1972… to help alleviate situations like this. This is part of the “your tax dollars at work” that nobody ever sees. Dave Romero was running Public works in this era I think… Yesterday was his last day as Mayor. Thank you Dave… for all your years of service to SLO.
UPDATE… Jan 2012… I’ve discovered that Rudolph Schindler built an A frame house in 1936… So this post is somewhat misleading. Sorry about that. Needless to say… Schindler is probably my favorite architect in the world anyway… here is the post from a year ago below. Click the link just above to see Schindler’s aframe.
In 1949/1950 a fellow by the name of Gerald Rupp built this A-frame home in Morro Bay, CA. It was the first Modernist A Frame house I think. (A fellow by the name of Andrew Geller often gets credit for being the first to re-introduce the A-Frame style though … as his house built on Long Island in NY in 1955 was published in the New York Times in 1957.)
Gerald (Gerry) also built these homes in Morro Bay… a few lots away in the early 1950’s
and this home… next door to the a frame…
here again below (out of focus)…. notice the early fifties addition to the a-frame house in the background
and this house below… across the st…. mid 1950’s…
another shot… this house below was torn down just last month… sad
a view of the a-frame from high on the hill… before some of the other houses… and before the addition to the front… below:
The other side of the A-frame… below… all in all there were 8 neighboring modern houses… and a few a couple more lots away… 10 all together. Gerald sold them to artists, writers, musicians… all early modernists. It was a hotbed of intellectualism and Beat Culture in the 1950’s. Known then by the local fishermen as “Beatnik Hill”. One of the first experiments in building intentional community between like minded individuals. Many Famous beat generation icons stopped through on their way to Big Sur.
neighborhood context 1949 or so I think
The man… Gerry Rupp 1922-2010… with my older brother… circa mid 1950’s:
Look carefully at this wrought iron. Move around the window view bars if you can’t see the whole image. It is a small very small fence on a building in Carmel by the Sea, CA. Awesome work. Such amazing detail at the top…each little dragon head different than the next. It is inspiring to think that somebody cared enough to build this grate … that 80 years later still really makes a huge impact.
This post doesn’t really match up to my stated topic for this blog… so feel free to ignore it and move on…. but my Dad died two weeks ago and I miss him. He was an interesting fellow… a 1940’s and 1950’s Modernist architect… and a real Beatnik. (Although he would hate me calling him that… I think he would prefer philosopher or curmudgeon… or intellectual… or most likely a four letter word said with great emphasis and a big smile). Anyway… I have never really understood about my distant family history very well… and his passing got me thinking.
So I went to the computer and started looking online at the various genealogy links. What I found is that they have me on these links… and my mom on these links… but for some reason… these genealogy links have my mom’s ex husband as my dad… whom she divorced years before I was born. And my dad… is nowhere to be found! Hmmm… who writes this stuff!
so I Googled Eric Meyer… looking to see what other incorrect info I might find. (It turns out there is some internet guru also named Eric Meyer… so I had to refine my search. )
WOW… I found out that “when he was a young surfer dude” (cough) “Eric went to USCB”. This was in “the late eighties and early 1990’s”. I learned that “he also started making his own shoes when he was in college”… and “he made them by hand”… with a hammer and an anvil I suppose… “all by himself”
Hmmm. Didn’t go to USCB… Didn’t go to college in the late 80’s and early 90’s… and didn’t make the first shoes by hand when I was in college…. but this is how I’m carved in history by the internet now…. and with the wrong dad no less.
IN FACT… probably at least 50% of what I found on myself was wrong.
I’m not famous… and I don’t have kids… so I suppose it doesn’t matter really. But it makes me wonder:
Sneaker Freaker Magazine recently interviewed me on my duties as Director of Design for Vision Street Wear (VSW)… back in the late 80’s. We were the first company to design and manufacture clothing for skateboarders. Prior to VSW… skaters mostly just looked like surfers. Today… 25 years later… skate style is well known.
Dr. Matt Ritter… a professor at our local university… and my good buddy… sent me this really clear presentation on the state of education in the world… very clear idea on what we as humans should be focussing on with respect to education.
awesome graphic from the “Societe Anomyme Inc” or effectively…”corporation inc”! (“societe anonyme” is french for “Corporation”) Founded in 1920 by Katherine Dreier, Man Ray, and Marcel Duchamp to sponsor lectures, concerts, publications and exhibitions of or on Modern art.
Such a funny name… and really nice art. Dirty colors are nice.
the Rock surfing crew… Morro Bay… circa 1979! (i’m on the right). This shot totally reminds me of the movie “dazed and confused”. iconic late 1970’s era look. Notable details…flared pants, feathered hair, down jacket, down vest, Birkenstocks. Difficult to discern whether this look is surf… or just stoner. It’s kinda cool again though…. after years in the… holy crap what were they thinking pile.
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!
The first hollow surfboards.. circa 1931 by Tom Blake. My friend Ryk Kluver still builds them this way. Awesome
below is Ryk… and one of his creations…. a particularly long one! If ya want one… he builds and sells them. Most of his boards are in private collections. Ryk built my house.
unlicensed architect, ex-skateboarder, planning commissioner, shoe designer, all around dork
themovement.com 