San Joaquin Valley Regionalism Architecture
San Joaquin Valley Regionalism Architecture
or
A call to return to a California Reional style
by Curtis Neil
(This is the Article which I wrote and appeared in the Village News, 1998
I still believe a return to a regional style Architecture.)
What is Regionalism Architecture?
Regionalism is a style of architecture that, if not native to a region, is so adapted by way of it’s adaptation to the area’s climate, use of local and readily available materials and labor skills, that it appears to be native. It may also be influenced by the roots of early settlers to an area.
Many people say that Kern County is missing or absent of a regional style. Not true, I tell them, we had a very clear regional style until the 1952 earthquake.
It is a style adapted particularly well to Kern County, made of native materials and designed to moderate the climate. Elements of sun, blistering dry heat, wind, dust, and cold damp fog are forces that need to addressed in the design. Thick walls with white paint to keep the heat out, curtains over the south and west facing doors,ridge vents to let the heat escape from the attic,tall windows and in line doors to capture the breeze all mitigate the harsh climatic conditions of the central valley. A kitchen was often built out back to keep the heat out of the house . Often it was topped by a tile or tin roof for it’s ability to withstand summer’s onslaught of drying rays and still shed water.
Some people then responded, “ We don’t want to look like Santa Barbara”. It did not and will not , it does have heavy Spanish Colonial roots, Italian, Basque and Western Ranch as well.
Exploration and first settlement. (1830’s to 1865)
1834 Adobe built by miners around Frazier Park,
1842 Adobe built by vaqueros on the San Emigdio ranch,
1854 Adobe house built on greenhorn mountain, still standing
Many more... Ones we might remember are the Sebastian Indian Reservation,and Fort Tejon,
Pioneer (1868-1874)
George Chester’s Store, 1871 at what is now called S.W. corner of 19th and Chester.
Many of the buildings in Bakersfield prior to the arrival of the railroad in 1874 were of adobe construction.
(1874-1910)
New supplies from the east arrived by rail. Adobe as well as log, dub and wattle and canvas tents are out of favor , a stick built or brick building is all the rage for those who can afford it. Adobes are still built on farms and by the poor.
(1887-1915)
Mission Revival , seems to have little effect on Kern County. Few remain. The Santa Fe depot was a good example.
(1910-1941)
Revival styles became popular. In the west, a romanticism is started with the Spanish Colonial Revival, particularly after the 1915 Panama-California Exposition in San Diego done in the Spanish Churrigueesque mode.
Local Architect Clarence Culimore designed many of them in Bakersfield. Also represented are the Government Service Building on M street, The Fox Theater, the Tejon Hotel on Chester and Truxtun, the Bakersfield Inn, the Padre Hotel, the Kern County Board of Trade bldg.{ now the K.C.Museum} many more.
(1952-) Bakersfield’s earthquake
Many buildings of all types fell or were damaged, many more were cosmetically altered to “Modernize” them. International style became the predominant style of new commercial and government buildings.
What will a resurgence of a Regional style mean?
Regional style has a since of the past and a since of place. It would make Bakersfield and Kern County as recognizable place, by it’s style, It will reconnect Bakersfield and Kern County to the larger west. Many of the design features make for a lower maintenance, more comfortable, more economical in the long run. They are easy to incorporate to new buildings. Your next house may not be built out of adobe brick but it can certainly have large overhangs, shaded porches, tall windows and covered with low maintenance materials.
By the 1920’s a “California school” or style of architecture, was clearly reconized and admiered nationaly.
“.....but it remained for California to group and combine these(Italian), with reminisceces of missions, into a style lovely, easy and perfectly adapted to the climate conditions of California.”
“....California may be said to have “found itself” architecturally, a thaing not yet true of the East.”
Aymar Embury II, March 1923 #38. Architectural Forum.
“It has been said that there are no houses in Spaine so Spanish as those that are built in America.” a {sentament repeated by King Alfoso of Spain on his visit to California in the 1970’s.} “We have developed an architecture which is the quintessence of the Andualusian type.”
Henry Humphrey,jr., Country Life,#49, January 1926
What we have done is develope a unique California style based on Spanish and Italian roots.
A return to a Californian Reional style will allow Kern county to contribute to the regional quality of Southern California, and at the same time allow Kern to emerge with its own distinct personlity.
Spanish Colonial Revival: or maby we should say California Revival for that is what this is. Spanish Colonial Revival is a style developed in California, for California.
It is scalable, that is it can be used on small apartments as well as grand houses and large office complexs.
It is adaptive, that is it can
It is Eclective: It allows for a common canvas for archetects to be creative, what other style alows one to use parts of Moorish, Tuscan, Medevile Spanish, Gothic, Romanesque, Italian, Rococo, Baroque, Craftsman, Arts and Crafts, Art Delco.... and tie it all together in a form that works.
Advantages for:
Local Architechets. With the resurges with a regional style local architects will have a advantage of being familiar with the styles vocabulary and resource. With a increasing local interest and knowledge of design, clients will look more for architects rather than just a draftsman to design buildings.
Local builders. Local builders familiar with local taste and craftsmen will have a advantage in bidding projects.
Interior designers and various craftsmen. As an increased awarenas of facility that surround us and and increasing awarenas of our environments, an increasing interest in having professionally design and decorating.
Curtis Neil
San Joaquin Valley Regionalism Architecture
or
A call to return to a California Reional style
by Curtis Neil
(This is the Article which I wrote and appeared in the Village News, 1998
I still believe a return to a regional style Architecture.)
or
A call to return to a California Reional style
by Curtis Neil
(This is the Article which I wrote and appeared in the Village News, 1998
I still believe a return to a regional style Architecture.)
What is Regionalism Architecture?
Regionalism is a style of architecture that, if not native to a region, is so adapted by way of it’s adaptation to the area’s climate, use of local and readily available materials and labor skills, that it appears to be native. It may also be influenced by the roots of early settlers to an area.
Many people say that Kern County is missing or absent of a regional style. Not true, I tell them, we had a very clear regional style until the 1952 earthquake.
It is a style adapted particularly well to Kern County, made of native materials and designed to moderate the climate. Elements of sun, blistering dry heat, wind, dust, and cold damp fog are forces that need to addressed in the design. Thick walls with white paint to keep the heat out, curtains over the south and west facing doors,ridge vents to let the heat escape from the attic,tall windows and in line doors to capture the breeze all mitigate the harsh climatic conditions of the central valley. A kitchen was often built out back to keep the heat out of the house . Often it was topped by a tile or tin roof for it’s ability to withstand summer’s onslaught of drying rays and still shed water.
Some people then responded, “ We don’t want to look like Santa Barbara”. It did not and will not , it does have heavy Spanish Colonial roots, Italian, Basque and Western Ranch as well.
Exploration and first settlement. (1830’s to 1865)
1834 Adobe built by miners around Frazier Park,
1842 Adobe built by vaqueros on the San Emigdio ranch,
1854 Adobe house built on greenhorn mountain, still standing
Many more... Ones we might remember are the Sebastian Indian Reservation,and Fort Tejon,
Pioneer (1868-1874)
George Chester’s Store, 1871 at what is now called S.W. corner of 19th and Chester.
Many of the buildings in Bakersfield prior to the arrival of the railroad in 1874 were of adobe construction.
(1874-1910)
New supplies from the east arrived by rail. Adobe as well as log, dub and wattle and canvas tents are out of favor , a stick built or brick building is all the rage for those who can afford it. Adobes are still built on farms and by the poor.
(1887-1915)
Mission Revival , seems to have little effect on Kern County. Few remain. The Santa Fe depot was a good example.
(1910-1941)
Revival styles became popular. In the west, a romanticism is started with the Spanish Colonial Revival, particularly after the 1915 Panama-California Exposition in San Diego done in the Spanish Churrigueesque mode.
Local Architect Clarence Culimore designed many of them in Bakersfield. Also represented are the Government Service Building on M street, The Fox Theater, the Tejon Hotel on Chester and Truxtun, the Bakersfield Inn, the Padre Hotel, the Kern County Board of Trade bldg.{ now the K.C.Museum} many more.
(1952-) Bakersfield’s earthquake
Many buildings of all types fell or were damaged, many more were cosmetically altered to “Modernize” them. International style became the predominant style of new commercial and government buildings.
What will a resurgence of a Regional style mean?
Regional style has a since of the past and a since of place. It would make Bakersfield and Kern County as recognizable place, by it’s style, It will reconnect Bakersfield and Kern County to the larger west. Many of the design features make for a lower maintenance, more comfortable, more economical in the long run. They are easy to incorporate to new buildings. Your next house may not be built out of adobe brick but it can certainly have large overhangs, shaded porches, tall windows and covered with low maintenance materials.
By the 1920’s a “California school” or style of architecture, was clearly reconized and admiered nationaly.
“.....but it remained for California to group and combine these(Italian), with reminisceces of missions, into a style lovely, easy and perfectly adapted to the climate conditions of California.”
“....California may be said to have “found itself” architecturally, a thaing not yet true of the East.”
Aymar Embury II, March 1923 #38. Architectural Forum.
“It has been said that there are no houses in Spaine so Spanish as those that are built in America.” a {sentament repeated by King Alfoso of Spain on his visit to California in the 1970’s.} “We have developed an architecture which is the quintessence of the Andualusian type.”
Henry Humphrey,jr., Country Life,#49, January 1926
What we have done is develope a unique California style based on Spanish and Italian roots.
A return to a Californian Reional style will allow Kern county to contribute to the regional quality of Southern California, and at the same time allow Kern to emerge with its own distinct personlity.
Spanish Colonial Revival: or maby we should say California Revival for that is what this is. Spanish Colonial Revival is a style developed in California, for California.
It is scalable, that is it can be used on small apartments as well as grand houses and large office complexs.
It is adaptive, that is it can
It is Eclective: It allows for a common canvas for archetects to be creative, what other style alows one to use parts of Moorish, Tuscan, Medevile Spanish, Gothic, Romanesque, Italian, Rococo, Baroque, Craftsman, Arts and Crafts, Art Delco.... and tie it all together in a form that works.
Advantages for:
Local Architechets. With the resurges with a regional style local architects will have a advantage of being familiar with the styles vocabulary and resource. With a increasing local interest and knowledge of design, clients will look more for architects rather than just a draftsman to design buildings.
Local builders. Local builders familiar with local taste and craftsmen will have a advantage in bidding projects.
Interior designers and various craftsmen. As an increased awarenas of facility that surround us and and increasing awarenas of our environments, an increasing interest in having professionally design and decorating.
Curtis Neil
San Joaquin Valley Regionalism Architecture
or
A call to return to a California Reional style
by Curtis Neil
(This is the Article which I wrote and appeared in the Village News, 1998
I still believe a return to a regional style Architecture.)
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