Land Use Planning Received February 7, 2019 Marti MacGibbon Dear Fatema Crane: I support designating the Symmes Garden at 1440 & 1450 Hawthorne Terrace with Landmark status. I have visited there and really enjoy the garden and its atmosphere. Marion McNiven has given me an account of its history and described the considerable work she and the late Sylvia McLaughlin have done over the years to maintain the character of the place. I also enjoyed talking with Sylvia there and becoming familiar with her conservation work. She was a phenomenal, inspirational person, and I hope her home, especially the outdoor environment, is preserved. One feature particularly stands out to me: the common open expanse of lawn and garden with its accompanying partially covered shared patio area. With its access to both houses, room for tables and chairs and barbecue equipment etc., it is great for ambiance and outdoor meals. I have heard of proposals to put a fence or wall to divide the common area. I would advise against it. It would negatively impact at least one of the houses (1440 Hawthorne Terrace) and reduce the quality of life of its residents. For many decades, Donald McLaughlin and Hugh McNiven, both engineers, had the skills and opportunity to modify the original design of the garden-shared patio. But they decided that the original (current) layout was the highest and best use of the property. To protect the degradation of the property and the reduction of Marion McNiven, Sylvia McLaughlin and Mabel Symmes’ legacies, I urge the board to designate Landmark status on the Symmes Garden at 1440-1450 Hawthorne Terrace. Sincerely, Marti MacGibbon [email protected] 5531 Cannes Way Fair Oaks, CA 95628 P.O. Box 255, Orangevale, CA 95662 T 310 210 4674 W: http://martimacgibbon.com Crane, Fatema From: chris fitzhugh <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, February 07, 2019 10:28 AM To: Crane, Fatema Cc: Landmarks Preservation Commission Subject: Mabel Symmes Garden on Hawthorne Terrace [email protected] Dear Fatema Crane: I am writing to support granting Landmark protection status to the Symmes gardens and exteriors of 1440 and 1450 Hawthorne Terrace (Berkeley). In addition to displaying appropriate respect for the work of Henry H. Gutterson and Mabel Symmes, protecting the properties would preserve the legacy of Marion McNiven and Sylvia McLaughlin, who worked together for sixty years maintaining the vision of the houses’ and garden’s creators. Radically transforming the 1450 landscaping would ruin the character of the common garden. Separating the properties with a barrier would be like introducing a Berlin Wall and would detract from the 1440 property. Given the obvious age and design of the established backyard gardens and the common outdoor seating area of the houses, it should have been obvious to any potential buyer performing due diligence, i.e. simply looking at the manner in which the properties were connected, that proposed radical modifications would be objectionable. Please grant Landmark status to the Symmes garden. Sincerely, Chris Fitzhugh [email protected] P.O. Box 255 Orangevale, CA 95662 1 [44A HAWIIF{OR.NIE 1T]ER.R.,ACIE BIER.KEN.]EY" CA 94VA8 Land Use Planning February 6,2018 Received February 6, 2019 Landmarks Preservation Commission c/o Fatema Crane Senior Planner and Secretary Planning and Development Department 1947 Second Street,2nd Floor Berkeley, CA 94704 Re: Landmarks Designation for Sperry-Mclaughlin House and Gardens Dear Commissioners: I write to augment the excellent report and draft findings prepared by staff with respect to the Speny-Mclaughlin House and Gardens landmark applications and to respond to the January 3I,2019letter from the Dreyfuses's legal counsel. Regarding that letter, the Dreyfuses (through their attorney) now assert that "The gardens and grounds should not be designated either independently as a landmark or as contributing in any way as to the historic significance of the home itself." This is extraordinary because Stacy Kozakavich, the expert for the Dreyfuses who evaluated the landmark application for the 1450 Hawthorne Terrace property, stated (under oath), "My opinion is that any landmark status afforded to this property should include 1450 Hawthorne, 1440 Hawthorne, and the entire garden." (Ex. A.) The property's neighbors and over 6o Berkeley citizens who signed the petitions to preserve the house and gardens likewise believe the gardens are worthy of protection as do the landscape architecture authorities who wrote in support of the landmark designation for the garden designed by Mabel Symmes, including Janet Gracyk, Chris Pattillo, and Profs. Elizabeth Macdonald and Joe McBride. The owners' counsel now contends, erroneously, that the City does not have the authority to designate areas outside the public view as landmarks. Here, the gardens at issue - particularly the gardens of 1450 Hawthome Terrace -- ure generally visible from the public streets, namely Hawthorne Terrace and Vine Lane. The front yard and front arbor, for example, are fully visible from the public sidewalks on Hawthorne Terrace. Even if the garden was not visible to the public, the LPC has the authority to protect areas of architectural, historic and cultural merit. Counsel's th reliance on Francis Martin ttt v. Ctty and County of San Francisco (2005), 135 Cal.App. 392, is misplaced. That case arose out of San Francisco's attempt to preserve a V/illis Polk designed room with redwood paneling. The court of appeals held that the city could not dictate to property owners what they could do to interior rooms, and as such has nothing whatsoever to do with the authority of a city to designate grounds and landscapes as landmarks. Significantly the relevant Page2 of 4 state statute authorizing local landmarking, California Government Code $ 37361(b), contains no such restriction. In short, they do not have a leg to stand on. Their late-breaking contention that the garden is not worthy of preservation is based upon the faulty premise that a female landscape architect who practiced in the early 20th Century is somehow less worthy than better known male practitioners. That misconception was addressed in my last missive to the Commission and has been soundly rebutted by eminent landscape architecture historians such as Professor Thaisa Way, author of Unbounded Practice: Women and Landscape Architecture in the Early Twentieth Century (2009), and Janet Gracyk who personally inspected the garden and authored the HALs designation for the White House grounds. Notwithstanding the attempts to portray Mabel Symmes as insignificant, she is not; her garden design for Blake House has influenced generations of students and her other masterwork, the garden of the Charles Menill House in Orinda, has been recognized on the national register of historic sites by the US Park Service. The Hawthorne Terrace garden under consideration by the LPC is in substantially the same condition as it was when originally designed by Symmes. As the landscape architectural experts, including the owners' own expert, agree, the gardens have integrity and are worthy oi preservation. As Prof. McBride states, "It is a model of early 20th Century design that should be preserved for future students of landscape architecture and others interested in the design history of Berkeley and the Bay Area." Ignoring the importance of the landscaping to the overall design of the property would be a disservice to the citizens of Berkeley as well as Sylvia Mclaughlin who loved and preserved the garden that Symmes designed. V/ith respect to the Draft Findings, we agree with findings#2,3 and 4, and respectfully recommend as follows: o Finding #2be revised to reflect that Sylvia Mclaughlin lived at 1450 Hawthorne Terrace (the Speny-Mclaughlin House) from 1955 until her death in20l6; o Finding #2 be revised to reflect that meetings of the UC Board of Regents took place at the 1450 House during the 1960s (Free Speech Movement); o The last sentence of Finding #3 be revised as follows: ". , within a family compound setting that was integrated with a designed landscape by Henrv Gutterson and landscape architect Mabel Svmmes." (underlined text to be added) The Report should also be revised to reflect that the pond and fountain on the 1450 property were original features designed by Gutterson and Symmes as reflected on the blueprints. The frieze of Sylvia and her brothers dates from approximately l92I (when Sylvia was 5 years old). Prior to being mounted in the patio area of the 1450 Hawthome Terrace home circa 1960, it resided at Sylvia's parents'home ("Cramner House") at200 Cheny Street in Denver, Colorado, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. With respect to the "Features to Be Preserved" listed in Staff s draft findings, we write to request that the following clarifications and revisions be made: o The description after the numeral 1 appears to reference the Sperry-Mclaughlin House and a portion of the "sperry Marsh House." As written the scope is confusing, which is further compounded by the fact that the bulleted list includes numerous hardscaping features. The recommendation should be revised as Page 3 of4 follows: "The designation shall apply to the building and hardscape features of the subject property ("the Speny Mclaughlin House and Gardens") and the distinguishing features thereof, namely (a) the primary residential building on the 1450 Hawthorne Terrace property, (b) that portion of the adjacent garage structure sitting on the 1450