UCSCVista
UCSC Buries a Building
Note to
Alex Dinardo:
Alex—when I was visiting UCSC in 1969, I couldn't
find a building where I was going to hook up with a friend of mine. I asked a
pretty co-ed and she told me go down the path over 'there'. So I did.
After about 100 metres along a winding path amongst
the redwoods, I came to a canyon filled with trees and nature on a beautiful
afternoon in NoCal; the sun was beginning to set. There was no building to be
seen so I retraced my steps and found Ann Walance again. I figured she was
pulling my leg. So I asked her again: "WHERE
exactly is this place!?"
Nature and Design
"Over there, really, you just have to go down into the valley a bit,
Brucey," said Ann.
Well, the fact was that UCSC buried a four storey building into the side of a cliff so as not to
mar the vista. When you compare that
to the atrocious architecture and urban design of, say, Carleton UniverZity
(sic), you can see what kind of an impact investment in design has on: a) quality
of life and b) ROI.
The improvement in quality of life is obvious but so
is ROI if you stop to think about it for a few minutes. Sure, you can try to
numerically measure ROI the way I did in the Treescapes article,
but anyplace designed so that the teaching staff and students are happier is
bound to have a better ROI anyway from: a) getting larger enrollment, b) attracting
higher caliber staff, c) having higher staff retention rates and so on.
I mean CU's site has to be one of the prettiest on
the planet with a canal and a lake on one side and the river and falls on the
other. But from the design of the campus, you could be on site for four years
and never know it.
CU has one of the most beautiful, most important development
sites in the City of
CU built crappy buildings, oriented inward and then
there are roads separating the campus and its people from water, a big no-no.
Right?
Cheers,
Bruce
Note from
Alex Dinardo:
Bruce—
Thanks for the Treescapes case study—I like that
one.
Good landscaping often improves the value of a
property because it plays to the buyer's impression that the inside of the
house is immaculate; landscaping is usually the last thing to be done.
Tree lined streets also seem rich, which is a great
effect. Funny, I remember the story you
told me in school where you recommended that Rockcliffe residents cull some of
the old growth trees and replace them with younger specimens. They ignored you.
Then the ice storm hit that one year.
I just got back on Monday from a trip to Cuba. We
stayed at Sol Cayo Santa Maria, which is a Spanish resort. With note to the importance
of good landscaping, this resort has been designed to have minimal environmental
impact. Rooms are situated in bungalows, sprawled across a luscious campus. The
paths are sculpted and blend into the landscape. While I also found the
architecture to be of interest, the landscape work truly made the place feel
rich and relaxing.
BFN,
Alex Dinardo
Entrepreneurialist
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