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SONIC QUALITIES
<br />Yes, even a study in what we hear. The sonic qualities of this place. For instance, I was impressed with
<br />the quietness. Quietness was a sound. It was absence of sound. It was beautiful. And there was the
<br />sound of the river, increasing as I became nearer and nearer. What a delightful purling sound. As
<br />refreshing as clean scent was the sound of moving water en masse. Can you dream in your design and
<br />revisions how to embrace, encourage, and fortify these sounds, and minimize obnoxious human-generated
<br />noises? Can you make it a reality? Start by studying it. Nothing will happen to further sound-
<br />pleasantness unless you study it.
<br />FRESHNESS/PERFUME
<br />Scent is also a study that should be done. Without any cost to me, given freely, a beautiful gift, were the
<br />lovely bouquets of fragrance that wafted about. First of all, on the walk through the quaint wooden gate,
<br />down a soil path, was the lovely perfume of California Incense Cedar - those tall old trees, a piquant
<br />resinous sweet odor. Very centering and attention-getting, though subliminal. And then, crossing the
<br />threshold of the hummocks down onto the bike path and right to the edge of the furious fall-rain-fed river,
<br />that most wonderful smell of duff. Whatever it is, Cottonwood sap, falling Bigleaf Maple leaves,
<br />saturated clay soil, they all conspired to make that delicately sweet smell that intoxicates, in your internal
<br />person, that cotton candy sweetness that is the singing of the trees to your nose. You might say, what the
<br />hell does that have to do with houses?!!! You might think nothing. I think everything. Houses should
<br />not get in the way of that dance. I don't believe any of the existing houses are fighting too badly with it.
<br />I have reservations that a dam of tall impassable buildings could indeed block the flow. Go to sleep and
<br />dream. Stop thinking about money. Stop thinking about density. Stop thinking about formula-driven
<br />code and regulation. Put that all aside. Become a child again. Give yourself the freedom to be free, to
<br />play, to let your spirit have joy. Go down there, in dream, in reality. Open your mind. Open your nose.
<br />Come back to the design studio and revise accordingly. I aim sure you will come up with some profound
<br />revelations.
<br />BIRDSONG
<br />I could have put this with sonic qualities, but I didn't. I don't want to. It is different. It is not so much
<br />sonic, and it is not so much a study of birds. But what we need to ask ourselves is, will the birds want to
<br />live here? I mean, will they want to live in or near the houses that are proposed to be built? Will they
<br />choose to associate with the residents? You know they're smarter and more intuitive and social than we
<br />give them credit. Their presence or absence is telling to what they think of us. Do we need to wait until
<br />it's all built to find out the verdict? I don't think so. I believe we have the capacity to know if they'll be
<br />attracted or repelled, their propensity to engage and be part of our world as long as we do our part to
<br />respect them, at the very least. We respect them when we think about them, are conscious of them, listen
<br />to their conversations and song, consider them our equals and not better than them. Most of this more
<br />than likely is subconscious, but we must will in our conscious to honor them, before the subconscious
<br />follows into reality.
<br />If you don't think the birds are as important a consideration as the pressure per square foot of finished
<br />concrete is, then your design is not going to be right. Feed the birds, tuppence a bag. Turn your talker off
<br />and your ears on. Go out and spend some time in the hinterland of that backyard meadow and riparian
<br />forest. You will soon hear chickadee-dee-dee and later, peee-yerrrrr and later, kak kak kak kak kak, then
<br />later to your surprise, overhead, ho-onk ho-onk ho-onk, ho-onk. You might start understanding it. Your
<br />spirit certainly will start comprehending. I am sure you will come back to the drawing board with some
<br />amazing design ideas. Your friends are waiting for you.
<br />ACROSS RIVER STUDY
<br />What about the aesthetics happening the other side of the river? Those high-rise apartments going up?
<br />Those vertical walls of plywood? The scale, the height? The clabbering noise of the hammers and
<br />construction? What do you think of it? Does it set well with you? Does it blend? Is it in scale spatially,
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