We are reminded that this year’s Los Gatos historic homes tour is coming up this weekend (Nov 3 & 4, 2007). A $30 ticket (a tax deductible donation to the History Museum of Los Gatos) gets you an all-day (10 am – 4 pm) tour of six outstanding historic houses in Los Gatos’ historic district. If you live in the Bay Area, this is quite a treat; the small and very well maintained historic community may not be well-known outside of the Peninsula, but it should be – this neighborhood has some of the prettiest historic homes in Northern California.
preservation status debated in Decatur
Paul Donsky has an article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on the seemingly endless conflict between preservationists and those who fear that historic status will restrict their ability to alter their own property:
Residents in the Oakhurst section of Decatur are proud of the tidy bungalows that line the neighborhood’s streets.
Run-down homes, many dating to the early 20th century, have been
painstakingly restored, preserving the clean lines and sturdy porches
that typify the Craftsman bungalow style.Some residents say the
modest, boxy houses are such an integral part of the neighborhood’s
character that they must be protected, particularly at a time when
"teardowns" and "McMansions" have become part of the real estate
lexicon.Now, three residents have filed papers asking Decatur’s Historic
Preservation Commission to make part of Oakhurst a historic district,
which would prevent most of the older homes in the area from being
knocked down. Several old homes have already been bulldozed, they say,
and many others are at risk.But others in the neighborhood say the protection would come at too
high a price. They worry that new rules might prevent them from
expanding their homes as their families grow, and they grouse about the
prospect of having to get approval for run-of-the-mill home improvement
projects.“like watching Ann Coulter debate Al Franken”
Neighbors in the Decatur, Georgia neighborhood of Oakhurst are definitely not agreeing to disagree about a proposal to turn their area into an official historic district. Scott Henry fills us in on the story, something that may not be all that hard to imagine for many of you who live in historic districts, whether recognized or not:Threats. Intimidation. Yard signs. Snotty e-mails. Yes, the knives
are out in Oakhurst, where the proposed creation of what would be
Decatur’s largest historic district has resulted in a nasty
neighborhood-wide squabble in which many homeowners have been forced to
choose sides.Terry Michel, a real estate agent who says she supports voluntary
design guidelines rather than city imposed building restrictions, says
she’s stopped discussing the issue with neighbors because the rhetoric
on both sides has become too overheated.“The vitriol is off-putting to me,” Michel explains. “It’s like watching Ann Coulter debate Al Frankin (sic).”
So what is it about a historic district that has so many peoples’ knickers in a wad?
Mainly, the argument comes down to control over one’s own property.
If a house is included in the district, then the owner would need to
get a “certificate of appropriateness” to tear it down, build an
addition or make significant exterior changes. Construction plans that
aren’t seen as keeping within the historic character of the
neighborhood – say, replacing a 1920s Craftsman bungalow with a
modernist stucco triplex – may not be allowed.Tokyo’s Nihon Mingeikan & Mingei’s relationship to Arts & Crafts
Japan’s Daily Yomiuri includes an English-language edition, and a recent issue includes a short article by Robert Reed on Tokyo’s Nihon Mingeikan, a small museum celebrating Mingei crafts and the life and work of Soetsu Yanagi, the founder of the Mingei movement. Mingei is sometimes associated with the Arts & Crafts movement by art historians who note both its chronological proximity to European A&C and its similar philosophical underpinnings (the recent International Arts & Crafts show, which originated at the Victoria & Albert and was at San Francisco’s De Young Museum in the middle of 2006, included a model room based on Mingei crafts and made a strong case for that movement’s inclusion as part of the ‘International Arts & Crafts’ milieu).
From the museum’s website:
Located
in Tokyo, the Mingeikan Museum is housed in a beautiful traditional
Japanese building completed in 1936. Founded in the same year, the
Mingeikan has over 17,000 items in its collection made by anonymous crafts people mainly from Japan, but also from China, Korea, England, Africa, and elsewhere.Yanagi Soetsu
(1889-1961), the first director and founder of the Museum, coined the
term Mingei (folk art) in 1926 to refer to common crafts that had been
brushed aside by the industrial revolution. Yanagi and his lifelong companions,
the potters Bernard Leach, Hamada Shoji, and Kawai Kanjiro, sought to
counteract the desire for cheap mass-produced products by pointing to
the works of ordinary crafts people that spoke to the spiritual and
practical needs of life. The Mingei Movement is responsible for keeping alive many traditions.
