Adventures in Streetcar Suburbia

Long-time urban trekking friend Dave Todd and I ventured out this foggy morning to explore Oak Park, an historic Sacramento streetcar suburb. Dave and I have known each other for almost 20 years, since our days in Fresno. Three or four times a year we get coffee and go walking in an older Sacramento neighborhood, catching up with news and looking at designs.

A century ago Oak Park was one of the capital's first suburbs, connected by streetcar to downtown Sacramento. It still has great old infrastructure from that era. We discovered the wall of this one below, and felt rather like urban archaeologists. The wall paintings reveal the building as the home of Mother's Bread.
This whole wall looks like Gold Rush ruins you see along Highway 49 in the Sierra foothills. Is there anything that says classic like red brick and ivy?



This one below is like a cave painting. We saw "Horse Brand" painted on the wall. No mention of what it was. But here's the logo:



A few blocks down the line we looked up and saw the design embellishments that make these old office or retail buildings such classics. This one is near James McClatchy Park. Dave asked it out loud, the question so many have wondered about for 60 years: "Why could this be done then and not now?"






Across the park we saw the McGeorge School of Law, a division of Stockton's University of the Pacific. Look how this little street scene just invites you to come right on in.



Once more, without that bike route sign.

Baby Golden Gate Bridge

I went to a conference this morning at California State University, Sacramento, and parked in a garage near one of my favorite structures here in the capital. It's a mini-replica of San Francisco's Golden Gate bridge. This is a bike trail and pedestrian bridge across the American River, connecting the campus with the Campus Commons housing development. The bridge opened in 1966 and is one-tenth the size of the iconic original. I don't know the story of how it came to be. But it's sure pretty to look at, a visionary little piece of architecture named after the founding president of CSUS, Guy West.

Nothing So Lovely As Our Trees

The suburb where I live, south of a Sacramento that calls itself "The City of Trees," is rife with ancient Valley Oaks. For all the architects who designed where I live and housing boom builders who made it all happen, nobody has managed to beat what was here first. That these protected, lovely old giants preside undisturbed over our city parks is all the better.

Morning and evening:




Late afternoon, another park nearby:

Hail The California Bungalow

California became home to thousands of Craftsman Bungalows early in the 20th Century - and for my two cents no home design ever beat it. I acknowledge a certain prejudice, having lived in a 1919 model in Fresno from 1988 to 2001. It took our breath away at first look and when we left it to move to Sacramento my wife and I were sure we'd never live again in a house as nice as that bungalow on Huntington Boulevard.

Near the newspaper where I work in Midtown Sacramento there are numerous bungalows at the corner of 26th and Q streets. Here's a handful of my favorites.

Life At The Speed of Walking

I like to walk and look at things. I'm just coming off a week of vacation in which I walked miles on neighborhood trails near my house and miles more on wilder trails through the Consumnes River Preserve, a wild bird sanctuary about a 10-mile drive from home. Last year I bought a hiking pole from REI, and it takes me slowly down the trail (where oncoming people appear initially to think I am blind).

I feel fortunate to live in a time and place when planners are designing more walking into our neighborhoods. Cities throughout Sacramento are big on trails and thankfully, developers bought into it during the housing boom. I've had homebuilders tell me people in adult communities want trails now more than they want golf courses.

Sacramento is extremely proud of its acclaimed American River Trail, which hugs the riverfront for more than 30 miles from Folsom to downtown Sacramento.

I remember as an early 20-something living in Fort Wayne, Indiana, hearing a colleague yearn for the West. He said, "I want to live in a place where people put on hiking boots just to go to the drugstore." That makes me smile 35 years later. I do.

Would You Name a Movie After Today's "Holiday Inn?"

Remember those TV ads in which people said they felt smart because they stayed last night in a Holiday Inn Express?

The guests may be smarter than the architects.

Even as the housing market has crashed here in California, hotel chains are building a slew of new hotels by freeway exits - and much of the design work is hardly soul stirring. From my travels around Sacramento here are just two examples of what the once-legendary Holiday Inn look has come to: "Corporate Architecture."

Below: A new one in Lincoln near Interstate 80.



Below: Another one in Elk Grove near Interstate 5.



I miss the old days: Iconic Holiday Inn image courtesy of Angelstarcreations.com

The Triumphal Arch: How Some Things Never Change

Wherever we look in America we see echoes of our ancient architectural heritage. Something as basic as the California shopping center can be rooted in design concepts dating back thousands of years.

I speak today of the Triumphal Arch , that celebratory architectural icon of conquering emperors, returning victorious armies and foreign booty. Consider below an arch in Tyre, Lebanon, old as the hills. And below that, the classic Paris Arc De Triomphe.







Now look at their historic echo at a shopping center near my house in suburban Sacramento. It speaks of arrivals and welcomes, and possibly triumphant shopping.



It's pleasant, when the weather is good, to drink coffee in its modern shadow.



If by now you are turning up your nose at suburban pretentiousness, I would remind you that things can always be much worse. Consider this triumphal arch from Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Victory Road, it's called.



Back to better taste now in Northern California. Here's a triumphal arch, country-style with antlers. Genuine as it gets.


(Update July 2011) Here below are three more triumphal arches in Imperial Downtown Sacramento - the first two opening the way into Old Sacramento from Westfield Plaza. The third is coming back into downtown. Welcome back, triumphant traveler!

World Photos:
Tyre, Courtesy of David Bjorgen
Paris, Courtesy of Tunliweb.no
Iraq: Courtesy of photos.somd.com