ATTACHMENT 7 Correspondence
ATTACHMENT 7 TO CITY COUNCIL STAFF REPORT
CORRESPONDENCE
1111 Broadway, 24th Floor T: 510-834-6600 www.wendel.com Oakland, CA 94607-4036 F: 510-808-4751 [email protected]
September 1, 2017
Chair Owen and Members of the Historic Preservation Committee City of Belvedere 450 San Rafael Avenue Belvedere, CA 94920
Re: 1 Belvedere Avenue
Dear Chair Owen and Members of the Committee:
Our firm represents Susan and Justin Kelly (“Clients”) in connection with land use entitlements associated with the construction of a new single-family residence at 1 Belvedere Avenue in Belvedere (the “Project”). At a meeting of the Belvedere Planning Commission on August 15, 2017, the Commission unanimously approved the following: 1) a finding of No Historical or Tribal Cultural Resource pursuant to the California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”); 2) a Demolition Permit to demolish the existing single-family dwelling and detached carport; 3) design review for the property; 4) an exception to the total floor area allowed on the parcel; 5) a variance allowing 12 foot retaining walls within the front yard setback; and 6) recommended approval of a revocable license for improvements within the public street right- of-way.
On Monday, August 28, 2017, Daniel Ruark (“Appellant”) filed an appeal of the Planning Commission’s decision. Please accept this correspondence submitted on behalf of our Clients in support of the Planning Commission’s determination, that 1 Belvedere Avenue is not an historic resource.
The Belvedere City Council is scheduled to consider the Appellant’s appeal on Monday, September 11. Staff has requested the Historic Preservation Committee (“HPC”) review and provide a recommendation to the Council regarding whether 1 Belvedere Avenue is a “historic resource” as defined by the California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”).
For the reasons set forth in the Memorandum from staff to the HPC, as well as for the reasons set forth in the entire administrative record on this issue, we contend the structure located at 1 Belvedere Avenue is not a “historic resource” for purposes of CEQA. We further assert there is substantial evidence to support a finding the structure is not a historical resource.
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City’s Documentation Regarding Historic Significance.
Appellant contends the City’s documentation regarding the historic significance of 1 Belvedere Avenue is insufficient. We disagree.
As the 300-page Memorandum to the HPC explains, there is substantial evidence in the record to support a finding the structure is not historic. In addition to the information contained in the Memorandum, we request the HPC direct its attention to the most recent and up-to-date Historic Resource Evaluation of 1 Belvedere Avenue prepared by Mark Hulbert, dated August 29. That report, which applies relevant criteria from the California Register, concludes the following:
• Aaron Green is not identified in any current, objective analysis as a “master architect” as defined by the U.S. Department of the Interior/National Park Service guidance;
• The structure at 1 Belvedere Avenue is not a distinctive example of the Second Bay Tradition style of architecture;
• The structure at 1 Belvedere Avenue does not represent the residential architecture identified as “Organic” since the structure’s current condition is entirely lacking in interior integrity and overall historic integrity; and
• The structure has little to no public exposure, has no associated events of any historical importance and its family of origin are not identifiable as persons of importance to local or regional history.
Public Resources Code Section 21084.1 defines “historical resource” to include all resources listed in, or determined eligible for listing in, the California Register of Historical Resources. This section identifies three categories of historical resources: i) mandatory historical resources (those that have been formally listed in or determined eligible for listing in the California Register of Historical Resources); ii) presumptive historical resources (those officially designated in a local register of historic resources); and iii) property that may be found to be historical in the lead agency’s discretion.
The structure at 1 Belvedere Avenue has not been formally listed or determined eligible for listing the California Register nor the structure has not been officially designated in a local register. Significantly, the Planning Commission has determined upon extensive information and testimony in the context of two separate land use applications (in November of 2012 and again on August 15, 2017) that the structure is not historic.
Historic Preservation Committee Purview
In his appeal, the Appellant urges the City Council to disregard the Historic Preservation Committee (“HPC”) input and opinion as “irrelevant”. Appellant argues the HPC was not
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qualified or prepared to address the question of whether the structure was historic when the HPC first considered the question in 2012. We disagree.
While the City’s Historic Preservation Ordinance contemplates only owner-initiated applications for historic designation, the Ordinance sets forth specific criteria for consideration by the Committee as to eligibility for designation, as stated above. As to the present issue— whether the structure at 1 Belvedere Avenue can be considered a historic resource—it is inconceivable that the City’s appointed committee could not, or should not, opine on the structure’s qualification for such designation.
Furthermore, Section 21.16.010(F) of the BMC specifically authorizes the HPC “to review applications to the Planning Commission for construction, alteration or demolition of designated structures and make a written report to the Planning Commission of the Committee’s findings. Therefore, the HPC has the jurisdiction to make recommendations to the City Council in connection with the appeal of the Planning Commission’s approval of the Demolition Permit.
Conclusion
For the reasons set forth in the Memorandum addressed to the HPC and the entire record before it, we urge the HPC to confirm the conclusion it reached in 2012 and find the structure at 1 Belvedere Avenue to not qualify as a “historic resource.”
Very truly yours,
WENDEL, ROSEN, BLACK & DEAN LLP
Amara L. Morrison
ALM/ALM cc: Client Jeff Jungsten
022233.0001\4838051.1 From: Esther Riley
Dear Members of the Belvedere City Council:
Please register my opposition to the proposed plans for 1 Belvedere Ave. Here are my reasons:
- It is clear from the architect's rendering of the proposed 7,233-square-foot-house, that it is completely out of scale with the other homes in that neighborhood and thus a visual eyesore.
- It would be necessary to cut down many precious trees to build such an enormous house. This would be bad for the environment.
- The house designed by Aaron Green is beautiful. It deserves to be preserved because of its unique design and aesthetics, whether or not it is worthy of being on the California Register of Historical Resources.
- The Aaron house certainly looks better than the monstrosity that would replace it.
- We in Marin County have a special obligation to honor Aaron Green because of his work on completing our stunning Marin County Civic Center. We should honor him by preserving the house that he designed for 1 Belvedere Ave, truly a gem of a house.
Sincerely,
Esther Riley Marin County resident
1 From: Alan Hess
Sept. 5, 2017
To: Belvedere City Council From: Alan Hess, Architect
RE: public hearing regarding regarding Demolition, New House Plans and Variance Requests at One Belvedere Avenue, Belvedere, California
To the City Council:
A key question in the decision to landmark One Belvedere Avenue is architect Aaron Green’s status as a Master Architect. Does solid evidence exist to support this conclusion? Yes.
First, my standing to offer an opinion on this. I am writing pro bono as an independent scholar. I am an architect, architectural historian, and author of nineteen books, mostly about twentieth century Modern architecture and California in particular. I curated the exhibit on Aaron Green earlier this year at the Palos Verdes Art Center, and wrote the introduction to the book on Green to be published next month (Aaron G. Green: Organic Architecture Beyond Frank Lloyd Wright, by Randolph Henning, Oro Editions.) I have also successfully helped to landmark several Modern buildings at both local and national levels, and so am familiar with the relevant definitions. I have been the architecture critic of the San Jose Mercury News, a contributor to The Architects Newspaper, a grant recipient from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, and a National Arts Journalism Program Fellow. I have received several awards, including the Honor Award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Docomomo/US's Award of Excellence, and the President’s Award from the Los Angeles Conservancy. Because of these experiences, I am able to provide the full context in which Green’s work must be evaluated.
Second, some background is useful on how architectural reputations come to be established in the history books. Reputations are, unfortunately, often determined initially by fashion or taste. It often takes time for the facts to emerge so that we can get a balanced sense of an architects’ position. For example, three of California’s most significant architects suffered neglect for decades because of changing fashions, until their rediscovery: Charles and Henry Greene were largely forgotten and their Craftsman buildings were being demolished at the time they died in the 1950s; similarly Rudolph Schindler was forgotten and considered insignificant when he died in 1953. It was only in 1960 when historian Esther McCoy published their work in her major book Five California Architects (Reinhold Books, New York) that the Greene brothers and Schindler became among California architecture’s most highly regarded architects.
Aaron Green has been treated similarly. He was widely published and respected in the mid twentieth century, but was neglected by many historians in the latter part of the century as trends moved in other directions. Nonetheless, Green’s importance continued to be recognized by well-regarded observers. In 1976 Roger Montgomery, former dean of the University of California, Berkeley's College of Environmental Design, grouped Green with other Master Architects including “such luminaries as Vernon DeMars, John Carl Warnecke, and the Frank Lloyd Wright-trained Aaron Green.” (Bay Area Houses, edited by Sally Woodbridge, Oxford University Press, New York 1976, p 238.)
San Francisco Chronicle Architecture Critic Allan Temko (a Pulitzer Prize winner) described Green in his 2001 obituary as “in his own right a designer of striking originality and grace….Mr. Green’s own independent practice — clearly discernible from Frank Lloyd Wight’s, although they shared the same design principles — was also remarkably diverse and rich. It ranged from churches and schools to an array of handsome houses and multiple dwellings, which in low-rent housing in Marin City and Hunters Point were considerable achievements of social art.”
Such notable opinions by Allan Temko and Roger Montgomery are not referenced or evaluated in the Historic Architectural Evaluation of Aug 29, 2017, nor in the July 31, 2017 letter by Preservation Architect Mark Hulbert, though he asserts the “record does not draw any clear conclusion.”
The recognition of Green’s work continues today with the exhibit and the book mentioned above. Both exhibit and book are based on extensive original research, including in the Aaron Green archives. To explain Green’s unique position, I write in the exhibit text:
1 “As Modern architecture evolved through the mid-twentieth century, architects practicing Organic Modernism as pioneered by Frank Lloyd Wright offered a vibrant alternative to the pared-down “glass box” architecture favored by International Style Modernism. Among the many devotees of Organic design, Aaron G. Green stands out both for his own work and his close association with Frank Lloyd Wright during that master’s last fruitful decade.”
“All Modern design sought fresh responses to the new conditions of life, technology, and materials introduced during the twentieth century. Organic Modernism is distinguished by its conscious integration of Nature with architecture. Following Wright’s Organic precepts, Aaron G. Green conceived his buildings as unified designs made up of articulated parts, just as a tree is a unified whole even though its trunk, branches, and leaves taking different forms to serve their specific purposes.”
For more analysis of Green’s architectural concepts, see: http://aaronggreen.org/aaron-g-green-and-california-organic-architecture/
For an analysis of his career, see: http://aaronggreen.org/aaron-g-green-faia-1917-2001/
In the book on Green’s career to be published this October, my introduction states:
“The history of Organic architecture is dominated by the titanic figure of Frank Lloyd Wright….Yet just as Organic architecture had a history before Wright in the work of Frank Furness and Louis Sullivan, so it had a dynamic life beyond Wright in the buildings of a host of excellent architects. Among these Aaron Green stands as a central figure.”
After describing many of Green’s contemporaries for historical context, I continue: “In this notable group, Aaron Green is unique. He alone worked as Wright's business and building associate in their joint office, in San Francisco, imagining and building some of Wright's greatest accomplishments in the last decade of his life. Yet at the same time Green also had his own thriving architecture practice where he demonstrated his independent creative abilities. These dual aspects of his career prove why this study of Aaron Green's career is important. He contributed to Organic architecture at both the macro and micro scale. At the broadest scale, Green addressed the major issues of the period through the lens of Organic ideas in a wide range of projects: public housing, high rise towers, schools, religious buildings, landscape, commercial buildings in growing suburbs, civic centers, mausoleums, and of course the single-family home. And at the scale of the individual building, Green's personal interpretation of Organic concepts lead to his own distinctive approach to design….[In a fertile period for design] Green’s work bears comparison with the best of them….[though] far from the universal space and minimalist details of International Style Modernism; Green expanded on Organic ideas to solve new problems, to articulate new spaces.”
“As more architectural archives are opened for study, the full panorama of Modern architecture in the mid-twentieth century is becoming ever more impressive. It is now clear that Organic design was a major force in that period with a wide ranging spectrum of design ideas and buildings, and that Aaron Green played a major role in this through his long career.”
It would be extremely unfortunate if Green’s buildings were lost just at the point where his significance has been established.
Another issue raised in the Historical Architectural Evaluation (Aug 29, 2017) regards the fitness of One Belvedere as an example of Organic architecture and the Second Bay Tradition. Though the HAE cites my book Forgotten Modern in defining Organic architecture, I would like to state that the HAE’s interpretation is incorrect in saying that One Belvedere is not a good example. Organic architecture is identified by several considerations of the relationship between building and nature. This can be reflected in many aspects of the design, including siting, the relationship of structure to detail, the geometries of plan and space, and/or the use of natural materials. Each of these is relevant to One Belvedere as an excellent example of Organic architecture. These include the relationship of interior spaces to exterior patios and decks visible through extensive glass windows, all still intact; the multi-level house is united with its steep site and its views to the bay; the notable twin-columned wood posts are unmistakeable features that serve as both structure and ornament as seen inside and outside; the angular balcony and roof geometries; and the wood and shingle exterior finishes highlighted in a distinctive board and batten method.
Belvedere would be making a serious mistake if it allows this building to be demolished on the basis of incomplete information. The clear trend of scholarly evidence recognizes Green’s importance as a Master Architect.
Sincerely, Alan Hess
Alan Hess architect 4991 Corkwood Lane Irvine, CA 92612 949 551 5343 alanhess.net
2 From: William K. Swank
City of Belvedere City Council
City Hall
450 San Rafael Avenue
Belvedere, CA 94920
cc: [email protected] ; [email protected]; [email protected] ; [email protected]
Dear Council Members:
We lived in an Aaron Green designed home in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, for over 20 years. The home sits on 3 acres which extend down a hillside to the ocean. Like the Eldred house, Aaron designed this home to compliment the surroundings and to nestle into the hillside to take full advantage of the expansive ocean views and the more intimate view of Abalone Cove. Despite its open and dramatic setting, the home still provides a sense of security as you look through the windows to the ocean or into private gardens in a Japanese style. Again like the Eldred house, the house has been featured in several magazines and books about modern architecture and Aaron Green.
1 My family knew the original owners of the home, and when they decided to sell the home, we were able to purchase it. Over the years, and through the course of what Aaron Green termed a series of “sensitive remodels” we modernized the home and gained a deep appreciation for Aaron’s subtle genius,
The organic materials, the play of light and shadow, the placement and reflected views in the windows, and the open and ambiguous spaces create deep feelings of calm, well being, and joy. Certainly, these are qualities to be cherished today just as much as they were when these homes were first built. Homes that evoke such emotions are rare indeed, and an architect who can evoke them time after time even rarer—a master architect in fact.
As recognition of Aaron’s standing, when he was unable to help with a pool renovation because he was designing a college in Georgia, Eric Lloyd Wright stepped in to design the landscaping because he recognized the importance of the house, the architect, and the need to honor the aesthetic of both his grandfather, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Aaron Green. Eric does not usually do pools. One well known architect honoring the work of a master.
If I could vote on the issue before you, I would vote to preserve the home in question because I believe Aaron to be a master architect for the reasons above. I do not think such a vote causes the new owners a hardship because, based on my own experience, the existing home can be remodeled in a way that will be far superior to anything they will build anew as it has qualities they will not create in a new home. Those qualities will not only enhance their lives, but will be reflected in the value of the home when they sell it—there are discriminating buyers who will pay for the qualities in Aaron’s homes. There are many large homes, there are very few extraordinary ones.
Respectfully,
Lynn and Bill Swank
Kamuela, Hawaii
2 From: Robert Pogue Harrison
Dear Councilwoman Rebecca Markwick,
I am a professor at Stanford University who a few years ago purchased an Aaron Green house on the Stanford campus, built in 1954 (553 GERONA RD, Stanford). I have recently learned that there’s a chance that the house Green designed at 1 Belvedere will be demolished and replaced with a new house (with a five car auto court and carport, no less!). In my view, this would amount to a truly unfortunate loss of a historic site by one of America’s finest postwar architects (whoever came to the conclusion that Green is not a “master architect” is either ignorant or spurious ‐‐ again, in my humble opinion).
Green designed relatively few family residences in his lifetime, and each one of them is a sui generis gem of splendid architecture. My house is one of the more modest ones, yet every year I agree to open it up for tours to our local Historical Society, and to architecture classes taught at Stanford’s School of Design. Those in the know are always eager to visit my house, if only because of the reputation of its designer, and they are never disappointed. I wish that you, Planning Director Irene Borba, and City Clerk Alison Foulis, could attend one of these tours and hear what the architectural experts say about the house’s design as they analyze countless subtle features that make it a wonder for those who have an educated eye and know hot to appreciate the harmonies and complexities of the design. If you would like, I can put you in touchwith one of the teachers who has brought his students on tours in the past couple of years, and he will confirm that of all the tours he conducts over the course of the school year, the students are most enthused about their visit to the "Paul/Harrison house,” as my property is known (Mr Paul was the previous owner).
I urge you not to permit 1 Belvedere to be demolished. By allowing the demolition, you would be pleasing a very small group of individuals (the new owners and those who stand to profit from building their new residence). By declaring the house a historical site, you will be preserving its unique aesthetic achievement for future generations to marvel at, learn from, and help keep alive the legacy of a truly great American architect.
Warm regards, Robert Pogue Harrison Professor, Stanford University Chevalier de la République française tel. 650 804‐8164
1 From: Nicholas L. Bates To: Rebecca Markwick- Associate Planner Subject: One Belvedere Avenue Date: Wednesday, September 06, 2017 8:39:06 PM
Dear Historic Preservation Committee
The residence at One Belvedere Avenue in Belvedere is being considered for demolition. As a fifth generation Belvederian,and having lived in Belvedere for over 40 years, spent endless years visiting this beautiful work of art, I believe this would be a travesty of the first order.
It is my conclusion that this home, designed by one the great 20th century architects, Mr. Aaron G Green, a student and protege of Frank Lloyd Wright, should be saved at all cost.
Please recommend to the Planning Commission that they reverse their shortsighted decision and conclude that this home should be preserved.
Respectfully submitted,
Nicholas L Bates