Building to Embody History September 2006

by U. Birkmayer
Photos by Russell Byrne

A truly authentic housing development, commercial site, or office complex should be designed to take its place within the cultural milieu of its surroundings.

If John Marsh had been a little more accurate with his cannonball the history of East County would have been altered forever. In 1823 Marsh tried to knock the brains out of a professor whose classroom conduct he disagreed with by attempting to drop a cannonball on the professor’s head from a second-story window. The projectile fortunately missed its target, but left a crack on the pavement that is still being pointed out to people today.

Since Marsh failed in his attempt to kill his professor, he was merely kicked out of Harvard University rather than being imprisoned or executed for murder. Because of that fortunate miss and expulsion he moved west and ultimately became the first European resident of Contra Costa County. Marsh eventually developed into a powerful figure and created a legacy that has shaped our East County culture.

We can keep alive our memories of this important person, as well as the other parts of our local history, not just by dusty records in some library but by building memories into the very design of area developments.

Facing up to the Problem
We’re working to counteract an American trend towards inauthentic development. America is in danger of losing its soul because it has grown too fast. The dizzying pace of development has produced the unusual phenomenon of physical structures being built without any reference to the historical context of the region in which the buildings are located. These are often plastic and chrome eyesores. But in other cases they are beautiful but spiritually empty palaces. Such places are cold. They are heart-less even when they are expensive. They are erected by people who know the cost of their materials but not the worth of their shared humanity. Living and working in one of these disconnected structures can be jarring and uncomfortable. We’re still growing too fast and the temptation remains to continue developing shopping centers and subdivisions in this same chaotic and ersatz fashion.

A truly authentic housing development, commercial site, or office complex should be designed to take its place within the cultural milieu of its surroundings. Ever since Frank Lloyd Wright in the early 20th century popularized the idea of creating buildings that were contextualized to their environment, leading architects and designers have been trying, with varying degrees of success, to meld construction projects to the surroundings in which the buildings are located.

Our goal should be to design Brentwood communities that John Marsh would approve of. We should build neighborhoods and commercial areas that provide the illusion of being structures that the unique history and culture of the area might have produced through processes of natural development, rather than simply be dropped upon the land in cavalier acts of dominance and replacement.

A Better Way
I was born in Germany and lived the first quarter of my life there followed by the life of a sojourner in places throughout the world, including eight years in Asia before moving to America six years ago. I witnessed how local culture influences people’s behaviors in many ways – from whether shoes may be worn in a home to how closely people stand to each other during a conversation. The fine mix of influences as diverse as religion, environment, food, wellness, natural resources, population density, and especially history creates culture. Ceremony, ritual, play, education, style, and class also come together as elements to make up the character and story of a people.

Culture-based learning experiences that make a real difference occur when we do such things as live among nationals in Africa. We immerse ourselves in the physical culture of the location. We feel, taste, hear, and smell the place.

In the same way, I believe, we can immerse people in their East County culture and history. We can involve all the senses as people feel, see, hear, taste, and even smell the objects, art, music, and products of their particular place and time.

We’re working with Shea Homes’ Trilogy Development Team for the Vineyards at Marsh Creek project to insure that the development takes into account not only the visual aspects of the Far East County region but incorporates social, cultural, and historical aspects, as well. Trilogy is leading the way in using our insights for regionally appropriate development as it designs and builds the gardens, clubhouse, spa, fitness center, restaurant, ballroom, sales center, and 1,500 residences on the site. I’m working with the designers and architects to provide the project with an authentic cultural context.

To that end I’ve become an expert on the local history of the area, learning from Harvard Researchers, the specialists at the Contra Costa Historical Society, and from other East County historical sources. I’ve been conducting extensive research through publications and, of course, the Internet. We’re designing contextual authenticity into the project rather than just adding it on after the essential design process is complete.

We regard the process of localization as though we were putting on a stage play. I’m collecting material and writing a script. The architecture is a stage but what will the play be? We’re working with questions such as, “If this project had developed over many decades, what would be the unique cultural touch points?”

For example, can we communicate cultural values and find ways to evoke the past in the manner in which we serve food? What kind of host would John Marsh be? Or in the way we treat people in the spa? What smells can we incorporate to give a sense of place? What unique building materials, fixtures, and textures can we use that will make the buildings appear to have grown out of the land?

We’re finding answers. The area’s Native American Miwoks, vineyards, and John Marsh, himself, are unique threads that we are weaving into a new and authentic culture – one that could preserve the signature technical and functional elements of a Trilogy product.

Creating an Authentic Context
My family lived at various times in Germany, UK, and in the States. I loved international travel. My entire family is composed of scientists and research engineers. I wanted to have a career that would let me travel and learn about other cultures. During my Masters Degree I studied international management and learned Japanese. I lived in Japan for five years learning to provide people with experiences that could be measured by memory and that provided international expatriates with gateways into the local culture.

I learned not to compete on technical and functional levels but to uncover a unique authentic core story that nobody could reproduce or copy. I learned to search for elements about the area that could become the basis for future learning and experience. That’s the vision that we’re working out for Trilogy. The Trilogy facility is a stage. We help the staff to tell stories. We let them find their own way – not as actors but as storytellers. The whole team of consultants and designers work together to become creative within the same story and together develop an amazing experience.

We are designing the spa at the Vineyards to resonate with John Marsh’s interest in the Native American Miwok people who surrounded his home. For example, Marsh added local native knowledge about healing herbs and medicines to the Western learning he had received in Harvard. Marsh’s wife, Abby, visited the Miwok camp regularly and invited the native people into her kitchen for afternoon tea every day.

We learned that Miwoks used water and heated rocks for healing. What kind of unique spa concept could we create from the themes of rocks, warmth, and water? It turns out that people appreciate a warm rock on their chest in a way that we couldn’t have imagined a couple decades ago.

We will create the basis for a more authentic experience than we ever could have achieved by, for example, copying an Asian spa philosophy that, however great it works in Kobe, becomes a foreign entity when merely transplanted without its soul to Brentwood. We can create a facility that connects us with our own land. We’ll design a spa such that that if John Marsh or one of those ancient Miwoks should drop in they would feel a connection to our shared culture that underlies and invests the spa’s modern conveniences. The spa would seem amazing to the time travelers but not foreign.

The main focus of our activities is on residents who will be moving in. Whatever stage people might be at, we’ll help them make the most of their life. We’ll serve people in a concierge-type function in everything we do by providing them with resources for developing their own lives to the fullest. The ultimate purpose is in providing resources for wellness, learning, and for developing a meaningful lifestyle community with a spirit of adventure. We’ll direct residents towards a sense of being on a mental, physical, and spiritual expedition – in other words towards a life that most people only dream of.

Residents will arrive to the smell of bread baking – with Marsh’s brand, woven in the Miwok Indian fashion, made from sourdough starter that was brought over the Oregon Trail in 1847. They will walk into the John Marsh Library and read by the fireplace. They’ll sit beside his camphor wood chest surrounded by books that he knew and loved. They’ll be able to find small intimate spaces in one of the 12 gardens. Things growing in the ground provide an authentic element of every community, and people will be finding those things in our community. They’ll pick mints for tea in the Abby Marsh Warm Rock Tea Garden or rejuvenate in Abby’s Alder Spa Garden under an actual alder tree, just as Abby loved to relax beneath one when she was alive. Many little places will tell stories, and be designed to be perfectly usable by today’s standards.

Because Marsh missed with that cannonball he was able to move into Contra Costa County and to change the course of our history. Marsh’s love for Native-American culture coupled with his near renaissance-man knowledge of the science and technology of his day combined to stir up powerful waves that continue to move our culture until today.

Never before has anyone set out to design and build to embody history and culture as we’re trying to do with the Trilogy project. In that sense we’re pioneers and path-makers just as John Marsh was before us. Perhaps we’ve inherited something of his spirit as we build upon the legacy that he left.