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How I Became an Architectural Tour Guide - Article and Drawings by Lucia Bogatay

OWA Mentorship Program - Guidelines - Cynthia Wang

February's Meeting - Universal Design - Mimi Malayan

DATE
Tuesday, 11 April 2006

SPEAKER
Lucia Bogatay; founding OWA member and practicing architect in San Francisco.

TIME
5:30 PM: A field trip to the construction site at Lucia and Tom's house will be offered. Those interested will meet at 3533 19th St and walk around the block to 3676 20th Street.
6:00 PM: Snacks and wine
6:30 PM: Presentation

PLACE
Home of Lucia Bogatay and Tom Wickens
3533 19th St (between Valencia and Guerrero)
San Francisco, CA

RSVP owa_us@yahoo.com

How many of you are familiar with Andrea Palladio's work? How many have actually seen any of his buildings first hand? If you have seen them, you can probably guess why I was so delighted to become a tour guide, even though I have NO previous background doing it! The upcoming presentation will focus on my experience of becoming a guide for a tour of the Renaissance Italian architect Andrea Palladio's Villas and churches.

A bit about Andrea Palladio and his Importance

Andrea Palladio, who was without a doubt the most imitated architect of all time, began life in more humble circumstances. He was born as Andrea di Pietro in Padua in 1508, the son of Pietro della Gondola, a miller or perhaps a purveyor of mill stones. All we know about his mother is that she was lame.

He moved as a young boy to the nearby town of Vicenza where he was apprenticed as a stone mason. The position was ideal for moving up through the building trades, and Vicenza was a town where much building was going on. A local aristocrat, GianGiorgio Trissino introduced him to local Humanist circles (and gave him the name Palladio), and took him on several trips to Rome. In the late 1530's Palladio started designing buildings and, following his trip to Rome in 1540, moved quickly to introduce a classical style. In 1546, beating out many more famous and better established architects, he received his first public commission. It was Vicenza's principal civic building, the crumbling gothic Palazzo della Ragione. In these years he also designed several villas and palazzi. However, much of his influence stems from his immensely successful and influential Four Books of Architecture, published in 1570. It describes his work and his practical and restrained approach to design and construction. It includes wonderful illustrations of much of his work (including plans, sections, elevations and dimensions) and practical advice from the architectural principles (how to size an attractive room) and down to earth advice on construction (how to keep out the damp). It was widely translated and spread his influence throughout Europe and America.

We recognize Palladio's work largely from his country villas. The lands around Vicenza had been badly damaged in the war of the League of Cambrai in the early part of the century. In the peace that followed the Venetian hinterland including Vicenza was developed. Land was drained for agriculture, new crops, such as corn and rice, were introduced, and of course new buildings were needed. Although the villas were tied to farms, they were not farmhouses, for the owners lived largely in town and visited their land only periodically: in Spring to plant and prune, in Summer to escape the heat, and in Fall to receive the harvest. The rooms were multipurpose, with portable furniture, to be occupied as the season dictated. In addition, the villa needed to convey the owner's status and power. The Vicentine aristocrats competed with each other, as they did with the Venetian aristocrats who at this time begin to move onto the terrafirma. So the villas were highly visible and usually approached along an axis. From Roman temple architecture, Palladio adapted the columned front, making it, for the first time, part of the private building.

Palladio was apparently a charming man, as well as an incredibly talented and dedicated architect. This affability undoubtedly allowed him to negotiate the greater conflicts of Catholicism and Protestantism and the lesser shoals of Vincentine and Venetian politics. It is fascinating to read about the broad spectrum of his clients and to infer something about them from the design of their villas.

Palladio's career spanned 50 years, during which time he designed several hundred projects, a remarkable number of which survive today (there are still about 20 extant villas) In the early years his work was in Vicenza or the areas of the Veneto close around it. As he became better known, he received more commissions from Venice. It was there, at the end of his career, and as economic circumstances worsened, that he received his religious commissions: the facade of San Francesco della Vigna, the Convent of La Carita, and his two great churches: the imposing monastic church of San Giorgio Maggiore, and the beautiful votive church of Il Redentore (or Church of the Redeemer). He never did get to rebuild the Ducal Palace, however, although he had plans for the project. Through all this, he never lost contact culture of the times, the history, the theory of proportion, and interesting variety of his clients.

Our February 21st meeting drew a crowd of over 40 at Hafele's SF showroom. The speakers were our own Gilda Puente-Peters and her friend and colleague, Richard Skaff. Gilda and Richard provided an update of accessibility regulations, as well as common accessibility problems and resolutions, and a case study. It's always such a pleasure to feature a presenter from OWA.

Gilda Puente-Peters is principal of Gilda Puente-Peters, Architects. She has 25 years of broadly diversified experience in the architectural field, and has specialized for the last 18 years in accessibility and universal design planning, education, design, and construction. She has prepared numerous self-evaluation and transition plans for public and private entities, with an emphasis in cities, counties, educational facilities, commercial and correctional facilities throughout California. Gilda has assisted public entities with long range planning, development of policies and procedures to insure accessibility and usability of their facilities, programs and services by all people including persons with disabilities.

Ms. Puente-Peters has consulted, designed and built many accessible and barrier free environments that incorporate the concepts of Universal Design. She believes in Universal Design, that is that the built environment should be accessible to all members of the community. Currently she is a member of the California Division of the State Architect's Subject Matter Experts Committee to advice in the creation of the State's Access Specialist Program.

Richard Skaff has a 25-year background creating environments accessible to people with disabilities, and is currently the executive director of a new non-profit organization, Designing Accessible Communities.

He started his career in this field when, in 1978, he became the founding Executive Director of the Marin Center for Independent Living. He has served as a Chief Building Inspector for the San Francisco Bureau of Building Inspection. For 9 years he was the ADA Coordinator for the San Francisco Department of Public Works. In 1999, Richard was appointed the Deputy Director of the newly created Mayor's Office on Disability, which he helped develop and from which he retired in 2005.

Mr. Skaff has the unique experience of effectively implementing accessibility regulations in public entities. His responsibilities included overseeing the development of access code training for all City departments, development of citywide access policies, project design review and approval and resolution of public complaints regarding physical accessibility within City facilities.

Mr. Skaff has participated as a member on State and Federal code committees, including the United States Architectural Transportation Barriers Compliance Board's Recreation, Passenger Vessel Access Committee; the Access Board's Right-of Way Access Advisory Committee and currently is a member of the California Division of the State Architect's Quality Assurance/ Universal Design Committee.

Photos By Brad Borne