I think this is readable.
tomi.
LETTERS TO EDITOR published in The Times of Montebello
From Tomi Harman, (703) 684-7070, harmansm@verizon.net
Bdg.2-911
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May 2008
Design Committee
I ask the Board to create an ad-hoc Design Committee to ensure that all residents can be part of this critical aspect of our Montebello life.
At the April 8th Board Meeting our Treasurer pointed out we’ll have funds for a Design Master Plan in the 2009 Budget.
The Design Master Plan will have multiple goals:
· Establish a visual identity to the Montebello campus.
· Connect the woods, landscaped areas, community center, lobbies, elevators, corridors into a continuum of consistent, clean design.
· Inform the residents on good design as a main component of our quality of life.
· Align today’s needs/actions/purchases with the long-term vision.
For the process leading to a Master Plan we can find inspiration in the brilliant work done recently by the ad-hoc Woodlands Committee. A similar Design Master Plan Committee could start preparing right now by:
· Inviting all interested residents to participate on some level.
· Disseminating to the community all information as it occurs.
· Identifying top-tier firms willing to get acquainted with our community and propose a vision for our environment.
Time is short because major projects (elevators) are fast approaching and routine (ceiling fan) or replacement items (barstools) are being purchased without the benefit of an agreed-on road map.
I volunteer to help.
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July 2008
Why a Comprehensive Design Plan?
Elevator (replacement) is inevitable and getting closer. Work on elevators will in turn trigger work on adjacent areas (lobbies, corridors), and esthetic considerations are unavoidable. How should we sort through the many choices we face? Addressing pieces of these projects in isolation will result in visual inconsistency and higher costs.
In the Community Center we also must treat the many components as a visual whole. Indeed, a comprehensive approach to the entire 34 Montebello acres will make all those (single) decisions easier. It will also make it possible to implement the various projects and sub-projects as we can afford them, knowing they will fit in the larger picture.
Consider signage: guidelines would prescribe graphic treatment, font style and size, material, finish, positioning in context, lighting, when, where and how many signs are necessary, so that from the front gate to the Community Center to the rest of the public areas signs effectively inform and delight rather than challenge the eye. Similarly, all other furnishings in the common spaces should be necessary, of sound, clean design, conveying a Montebello character throughout.
A consistent design approach to all components will result in more than the sum of the parts. It would elevate our Sense of Place.
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August 2008
Décor, or Design?
As we contemplate a long term Master Plan to guide us through the decisions that visually impact Montebello, the choice of the preceding word is especially revealing.
Each one of us has engaged in Décor, and Design on occasion.
Decorating is a joyful endeavor, usually for a temporary purpose, usually dealing with surface.
When we engage in Design, we examine the subject in its entirety, with consideration of the larger context and the long-term implications.
This is not to diminish decorating. One can seriously and creatively decorate say, a tree, even as that task is secondary to determining what type of tree is required in this room, this year.
To decorate is to adorn, embellish. After over 25 years, Montebello needs much more. Design goes to the essence of its subject, examining its identity. Proper Design for our complex will include an assessment of the entire property, and a dialog with the community.
The original marketing of Montebello was expressly directed to empty nesters. We have now achieved, and aspire to ever greater diversity. What better opportunity to redirect Montebello’s allure than through a Design Master Plan?
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September 2008
Yes, Vision.
Montebello was designed - literally - on the drawing board. Most design firms didn’t start using computers till mid-eighties and nineties. Today, almost 30 years later, CAD (computer aided design) is the indispensable tool of design professionals. Few younger professionals would be able to replicate the original Montebello plans on the drawing board. Such are the trade-offs of progress.
The greater original vision remains intact: “...towers on a hilltop, protected by forest”; views of landmarks recognized throughout the world. Sound construction. The enduring sense of comfort and privacy, and in large part the ability to manage this complex effectively, are owed to original foresight.
With the creation of a design committee it is now time to extend that clarity and foresight to all our public spaces. Expect the ultimately selected designer to use the best tools of the trade, but also to express consistently an upbeat Montebello character. Whether on drawing board or computer screen, capable professionals will summon the hard-to-define yet not uncommon ingredient: inspiration. In a community of our size and caliber, a stroll through the entire complex should be an integral, uplifting visual experience.
The Terms-of-Reference will not likely mention vision or inspiration. But before members of the Design committee are appointed, ask them: are we too small for inspired Design?
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May 2009
Not About Money.
During the Lobby Forums and otherwise, the hard-working members of the Design Committee got an earful from some residents who are against any expenditures on our public spaces and some who like the spaces just as they are.
The Design Committee doesn’t spend money. Every year, the Association spends significant funds on items that are necessary and also impact our appearance. For the Association to spend that money without considering visual impact is not only a missed opportunity, but a less-then-optimal use of funds. The main task of the Design Committee is to develop a Master Plan to guide those purchase decisions and help Montebello achieve visual consistency over time.
Another Committee task is to select top firms to develop specific designs. The Board, with residents’ input, will decide whether and at what pace to implement the design plan. I’m sure the community will proceed prudently, with a long view.
If you like the public spaces as they are, remember that left alone those spaces naturally age, wear and deteriorate. As spaces degrade, should our standards also diminish?
For those of us who think our public spaces can be much, much better, the fundamental problem is not so much the age of our surroundings but rather the cacophony of disparate elements resulting from unrelated, unplanned decisions over many years.
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July, 2009
Colors of Montebello.
There are fewer people able to perfectly match/reproduce color than there are musicians with perfect pitch, and good colorists are always in demand.
Luckily, computers make color matching and memorializing much easier.
Paint manufacturers occasionally change their standard color lines, making off-the-shelf purchase unreliable in the long term. Yet most vendors offer a match from just a tiny sample. They will also reproduce a color by a number –representing a formula - even a competitor’s number.
Montebello is old enough to know its concrete’s color number. And when we (with professional guidance) change it, or change the unit doors’ color, let’s consistently use the new number.
Similarly, we should have clear specs for other recurring items. During the recent safety emergency involving 2 paths through the grass, we could have just looked up the specs for the aggregate surface gracing the area under the porte-cocheres, rather than introduce an entirely new style of pavers.
Much of this should be remedied by the coming Design Master Plan and the professionals hired to work on it. But even under the best circumstances, there will remain some visually discordant situations. Correcting them will require sustained attention to the details that affect our surroundings. For now, let’s not add to the backlog of non-conforming items.
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November 2009
Good Condition
In recent Montebello public meetings one could frequently hear references to Curb Appeal, a term meant to stand for general appearance or just for endearing features of our complex. If the intention is to promote improvement, the term is counterproductive.
Curb Appeal is Real Estate shorthand for the attraction exercised by a property on a driver or passer-by. Our concerns go deeper than that.
I suggest we talk broadly about Condition. Our Financial, Visual and Physical state are inseparable when a resident – present or future – evaluates Montebello’s over-all Condition.
We will always have to prioritize, but there is no permanent divide between absolute necessity and the merely useful, and no dichotomy between good repair and good aesthetics.
It is possible for a well designed, aging complex to stay in top condition. Yet implicit in Condition is the recognition that it is much easier to maintain and improve it, than to reverse its decline. Too often good condition deferred becomes good condition denied.
Let us save Curb Appeal for the area surrounding the front gate, and persist in steadily, visibly improving the Montebello Condition.
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December 2009
Ramp.
I used to doubt the wisdom of building ramps in the lobbies of our residential towers. They would cost, reportedly, a quarter of a million dollars each! Visually, they would be depressing, one more discordant appendage, a monument to afterthought. Yes, residents and visitors with mobility problems would benefit, but they probably accept going through the basement. Stairs chipped by suitcases/carts can always be repatched.
The Scope of Work for the Concept Design, - drafted by the Design Committee and approved by the Board - called for “no structural changes”, and contained no express requirement for a ramp. In practice, that meant: no ramp for the foreseeable future.
Enter the professionals. Each design firm determined independently that a solution to accessibility must be part of making the lobbies current. Two firms proposed ramps; one proposed a lift. In either case, the cost would be a fraction of the number we (including the Finance Committee) have been contemplating. Neither solution would constitute a structural change.
And the visual reward: examining the presentations, one can see that handled properly the ramp needn’t be an add-on to avert your eyes from. In a comprehensive approach the ramp would join in rationalizing, clarifying the entire space. I am now convinced that a ramp will be a valuable asset both as access and as visual component.