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I’ve bemoaned the loss of stone and brick as building materials due to earthquakes. We end up with a lot of faux walls where a thin stone veneer is glued to concrete block or even wood framing. This Freestone property has always had one of the most beautiful wooden fences in Sonoma County. They are in the process of adding a stone entrance to the property and we can see the solution for an earthquake resistant stone wall.

If you look carefully at the large image you get from clicking on the thumbnail, you’ll see that the stone being used here is real, and almost half a foot thick. You’ll see the reinforcing steel emerging from the earthquake resistant reinforced concrete block wall that becomes the bond that ties the rock and concrete block together. It’s not cheap to build this way, but it’s the only way to get an authentic stone wall that will pass building codes and remain standing when the next big one rumbles by. I tip my hat to the V bar C folks for doing it right, and for keeping that beautiful fence intact.

One other facet of the changing face of Sonoma County emerged when I was taking a picture of the wooden fence. If you look carefully at the upper right corner of the image (click to enlarge), just past the stump-sliced V bar C sign, you’ll see some of the most westerly grapevines in Sonoma County marching down the hillside. Ten years ago this would have been considered outside the range of grape growing climate. Now it’s home to the lovely Pinot Noir.

Twin Valley, home of the Macmurray Ranch used to have the most wonderful trimmed redwoods. The underside of the trees along the fence line of their western pasture used to be groomed as crisply as a golf course green…just upside down. It was the cows, of course, reaching as high as they could to nibble on the emerging green redwood needles. I’m embarassed to say it, but it took me longer than it should have to see the cause and effect relationship. As I was driving through Freestone today I noticed this willow tree with an equally crisp bottom trim job. Alert observers will see not just the standing cow, but her partner in inverted mowing laying down on the job.

Freestone is a charming hamlet. Osmosis Spa, an inn, a great bakery, a rhododendron nursery across the road, and a classic general store are a few of the businesses here where the road to Occidental intercepts the Bodega Highway. There’s also the world’s most over-built foundation. I’m not sure how this came to be, but I’ve never seen a water tank with such a forest of massive timbers holding it up. It would make an interesting challenge at Berkeley’s school of engineering to see if they could figure out just how much this foundation could hold.

My first significant earthquake came while I was sitting on an under-construction deck in Berkeley. The deck, still unbraced, stood still while the house it was attached to swayed pretty vigorously. It was an interesting demonstration of Newton’s Law that a body at rest tends to stay at rest unless acted on by an outside force. That same earthquake that couldn’t twitch my deck was strong enough to move parts of California a few inches North and knock down stone walls.

Structural engineers have studied earthquakes and their effect on structures and can make just about any building designed today both safe and durable in an earthquake. Sadly, some of our most beautiful building materials are terrible choices for earthquake country. I did a quick walking tour around Railroad Square in Santa Rosa today and was admiring the many older buildings that featured stone and brick. The Hotel La Rose is a beautiful stone building of three stories that was built of locally quarried basalt in 1907, a year after the big quake in San Francisco that also knocked down much of Santa Rosa. Just around the corner from the hotel is the Jacobs building. Lots of tenants have occupied this building and Capri, one of our favorite Italian restaurants, was on the ground floor. We still miss Luigi.

The clinker brick facade of this Railroad Square landmark has a wonderfully authentic color and rustic feel and that isn’t achievable with stucco, wood, or any of the faux masonry products that get glued onto the exteriors of buildings today. So the answer to the question, “Why do earthquakes suck” has to be that they deny us some of the traditional architectural materials that have been around for millenia. It’s still possible to design with brick appearance as the JC parking lot attests, but that’s a public works job with a mega budget. For the average residential and commercial builder, real stone and real brick are expensive ornamentation devoid of any structural significance. Thanks a lot, earthquakes…

I posted recently about two lovely entrances in the Russian River town of Guerneville. I wanted to broaden my rustic selections to include two urban entrances in Healdsburg near the famed Healdsburg Plaza. Both of these are on Center Street half a block down from the Oakville Grocery. The first entry is a classic American white picket fence. The Saggio Hills office features extra detailing on the pickets including a routed groove down the center and well shaped tips. The entrance itself has double swinging gates, usually left open to invite people inside. The gate is tree shaded with a hint of roof feeling, echoing the full arbor we saw on the rustic wooden Guerneville gate. The pickets repeat the vertical railing on the porch as a strong architectural element. If Saggio Hills executes as well on their high end development as they have on their downtown office, it will be a welcome addition to Healdsburg’s resort reputation.

The Barn Diva walking entrance features a thick, square-cornered stone wall entry capped by plants flanking either side. Unlike the continuous hedge in the stone wall from the Armstrong Woods area, these accent plants highlight the entry, but don’t block the view of the restaurant or courtyard from passersby. The wall is a comfortable height for seated privacy in the courtyard, but isn’t a visual barrier to the doors and windows of the restaurant. There is an iron gate that is closed in this photo, and the restaurant was closed as well. The gate serves as a convenient way to indicate the availability of service. Menus and hours of operation are posted on the wall along the sidewalk for the convenience of the public.

Farther down the road is a driveway for Barn Diva accented by a taller iron gate, more appropriate to vehicles than people. The gate is set into the same thick stone wall but is large enough to physically block access to people and vehicles. Behind the gate you can see the vertical landscape elements that pick up the vertical siding on the architecturally interesting Barn Diva building.

Both of these entrances serve commercial establishments well. They are open and inviting when required, and closeable, but not intimidating, when their businesses aren’t open. All of the entrances we’ve looked at feature smart planting to emphasize “doorness” in their walls with plant materials that include flowers, hedge materials, and trees. Let me know if you see a great entrance in your neighborhood.

Every property has an entrance. They aren’t always distinctive or even structural, but houses all have a transition between public space and the private space that exists on the other side of the property line. I enjoy wonderfully designed and built structures, so I’m biased in favor of architectural solutions. This fence and gate in Guerneville is a beautiful example of an entrance that’s suited to the surroundings.

The property is surrounded by redwoods and hills. The wisteria and natural wood are perfect materials to accent the green hills and the redwoods that define Guerneville and much of the Russian River area. The wonderfully detailed and carefully constructed arbor over the gate creates an enlosed space that’s a welcome human scale. At the same time, the horizontal elements provide an elevated plant support that will let the wisteria blossoms hang beautifully at eye level in the spring.

This entrance is just a short distance away from the redwood fence and gate and also strongly defines an entrance. The strong horizontal lines of the wall are reinforced by the carefully pruned hedges. The horizontals are emphasized again by the inner hedge that simultaneously screens the house from view and guides the traffic to either side. On either side of the entrance, stone pillars topped with lanterns clearly mark the transition between wall and entry. Stone walls are a classic symbol of permanence and security and we intuitively understand this house is important simply by the existence of the stone walls and carefully maintained hedge.

The entrance is further enhanced by a (edited to hide the number) beautiful bronze house number embedded in the wall. The size and detail speak to pride of ownership and address. The mix of materials in this image reminds me of the elements of dwelling and civilization that date to the earliest of human cities. This wall and entrance could have been built in Mesopotamia, Egypt, or Greece and would have sheltered an important house then as well.

Congratulations to Levi Leipheimer for his third place finish in this year’s Tour de France. Levi’s a home town guy and we’re all proud of his tremendous effort and success in the world’s toughest race. It turns out that Levi rides twice a week on Pine Flat Road east of Healdsburg. Pine Flat runs from near the Jimtown store in the Alexander Valley all the way to the ridge that overlooks the Geyser’s geothermal fields. This riding article compares the climb up Pine Flat Road to Col de la Pierre Saint-Martin, Stage 16, July 25 (8.9 miles, 2,414-foot vertical, 5.2% average). I have never tried a ride like that, so I couldn’t say anything about the difficulty. I could, however, comment on the beautiful views from the top of the mountains near the geysers, and the beautiful scenes in Mayacamas Mountains Audubon Sanctuary, a 1,400 acre preserve.

If you are interested in country property and decide to follow Levi’s path up the hill, there are a couple of interesting parcels that Eric Drew from Healdsburg Sotheby’s Inernational Realty has available today.

5745 Pine Flat Rd is just a few minutes from Jim Town Store near the beginning of Pine Flat Road. It is a 52 ac home site for $1.45M (with water and perc) with a storage/workshop and an abandoned olive orchard. For a big photo gallery, please go to http://picasaweb.google.com/ericdrew/5745PineFlatRd

The second intriguing land value is just under a square mile of property near the end of Levi’s training ride. It’s 620 acres on Pine Flat Rd about 25 minutes from Jim Town Store and about 30 min to Healdsburg. This very large parcel made up of seven separate AP numbers is priced at $1,595,000. It includes a hunting cabin, good springs, and electricity supplied by the Geysers. I’ve got a nice 4 MB pdf file about this property that I’m happy to send if you drop me an email. The thing to keep in mind about this land is the spectacular views and privacy. It takes a good half an hour to get here, but the road is paved all the way. This is remote, but not inaccessible.

I also want to let you know that for Healdsburg’s 150th birthday celebration a few weeks ago, Daniel Drew reprinted a historic book about a trip to the Geysers in around 1870. It’s a fascinating account of the times and the Geysers when they were one of the natural wonders of the world. I’ll be happy to send you a copy if you ask for one.

Healdsburg has a great collection of Victorians downtown. Matheson St, a main artery to the Healdsburg plaza, has both modest and large examples of what are often called painted ladies. Martin Humphrey’s current listing is an interesting opportunity since it includes not just a Victorian with classically good bones, but five extra units on the .43 acre lot. I want to talk about TIC (Tenants in Common) in a future posting, but Martin has some ideas about how this property could be structured for either multiple ownership, or a single owner who fixes the Victorian to live in and uses the five other units for rental income. In any case, have a look at the show and give me a call if you’d like to see this gem.

Real estate along the Russian River ranges from classic vacation getaways to long stretches of riparian vegetation that borders the miles of vineyards in the Russian River Valley and Alexander Valley. Public access is spotty at best with Johnson’s Beach in Guerneville, Steelhead Beach in Forestville, and Memorial Beach in Healdsburg as the best spots for a family to get to the water safely and legally. There are neighborhood beaches, of course, but in practice they belong to the people that live nearby. There are a few opportunities in Guerneville and Rio Nido to acquire river front property today.

Today Charles Brown from CPS showed me around this Guerneville listing on River Road. It’s got almost 750 feet of river frontage and some land in each of LC and K zoning. This large parcel (3+ acres) has most of the land in the flood way and the rest of it in the flood plain. The technical difference is that the flood way has actively moving water that would tend to knock down a building. You can’t build there. The flood plain has standing water which will damage unprotected wood, but doesn’t carry the same risk of impact damage. You can build in those areas if you elevate your home above the 100 year floods. This property would be great for a campground or other recreational activity.

I was looking for a multi-unit building for sale on Morgan Street in Santa Rosa last week when I came across a beautiful round porch. If you’re new to my blog you probably don’t realize that I’m a lover of architectural details in general and round porches in particular. Round porches represent a powerful expression of carpenter art and talent that isn’t matched by many other details. This porch includes a wonderfully constructed curved wall pictured here. Sonoma County real estate includes many round porches, particularly in Healdsburg. Next time you’re walking in your neighborhood, see if you can spot any curved porches or other sweet architectural details. I’d love to hear from you if you find something you love.

Bungalow is an interesting term. Real estate people use it for almost anything small, but it actually comes from Bangalore in India where the colonial English started using it as a term to refer to the residences built for them based on traditional architecture. The key features are single story construction with a wide verandah. There are many more key details that help define the bungalow style.

Bungalows were first built in the late 1800’s and the style remained extremely popular in the first part of the twentieth century. Bungalows in America were a residential expression of the Arts and Crafts movement which in turn was strongly influenced by the Craftsman movement. California set the pace and bungalows became almost synonymous with California.

Most of the cities in Sonoma County have great examples of bungalows. Click on View Listings to see one bungalow for sale in Santa Rosa and three bungalows for sale in Petaluma that I pulled from the MLS today. There were quite a few more listed, but they lacked the “bungalow essence” I wanted to show you. Let me know if you are interested in any of these. I’d be happy to show them to you.