HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda Report - June 21, 1995 (74)4` OF
CITY OF LODE COUNCIL COMMUNICATION
AGENDA TITLE: Formation of an American Bungalow Association by East Side Improvement
Committee
MEETING DATE: June 21, 1995
PREPARED BY: City Clerk
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Discussion and appropriate action.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION: The City Clerk's office received a request from the East Side
Improvement Committee to be placed on the agenda of June 21,
1995 to ask for Council concurrence in the formation of an
American Bungalow Association. Please see letter from East
Side Improvement Committee attached. Virginia Snyder will be
present to present the matter on behalf of the committee.
FUNDING:
JILT
Attachment
None required.
APPROVED:
THOMAS A. PETERSON
City Manager
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EASTSIDE IMPROVEMENT COMMITTEE
(.i/izen o unfe¢rd tg find rime, rued, a tQ N:;
P. O. Box 2444 Lodi, Ca. 95241 (209) 36$-80.40
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REPORT TO LODI CITY COUNCIL FOR JUNE 21, 1995 MEETING
FROM: Virginia Snyder
RE: Formation of an American Bungalow Association
In order to help promote the treasure Lodi has in its bungalows, we plan to
facilitate the establishment of an association for bungalow lovers. We believe
this will encourage more home owners to maintain their bungalows, encourage
more prospective buyers to consider an older home, and attract more tourism
and movie production companies to Lodi.
Meetings will deal with how to restore a bungalow, the history of American
housing, and other topics of interest to home owners. As Lodi continues to be
part of a nationwide appreciation for the bungalow, (please see enclosed article
from Sunset Magazine) we are convinced property values will rise and our older
neighborhoods will benefit.
Dan Haynes, Chairman of our newly established Historic Preservation
Committee, will head up this effort. The first meeting is scheduled for
Wednesday, July 12, 7:00 p.m. at the Lodi Library and is open to the public.
We cordially invite all bungalow enthusiasts to attend.
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Modest but memorable. bungalows have deep, shadowy front porches, decorative gable ends, expressive wood joinery, and shingle,
stucco. or board siding. as these examples from Pasadena's Bungalow Heaven neighborhood aemonstrate. Arts and Crafts -inspired
details like eucalvptus leaf-pattemed tiles and amber glass lamps add to a bungalow's distinctive character. Situated between Lake
THE BUNGALOW WAS THE MODEL T OF HO\IE DESIGN. IT TOOK THE COUNTRY BY STORM. USUALLY ONE OR ONE AND A
half stories, with a low-pitched gable roof, wide eaves. a front porch. and an exposed cobblestone or clinker brick
chimney, the bungalow offered craftsmanship and character at an affordable price. During its heyday, between the
i I turn of the century and the Great Depression, it found especially fertile around in California. Pasadena. for exam-
ple. became an architectural incubator where bungalows burgeoned in the city's benign climate and Arts and
Crafts—oriented milieu. A 1911 issue of .Sunset called Pasadena bungalows "those nests of comfort for storm -harried
86 SUNSET
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and Hill avenues north of Orange Grove Boulevard, this neighborhood takes pride in its houses, and was recognized as a landmark
district in 1989. The Bungalow Heaven Neighborhood Association offers an annual home tour on the last Sunday in April. The tour
offers an insice rew of characteristic bungalow features. For tickets and information. call (818) 585-2172.
BUNGAL0
OWS
THESE HUMBLE. PRACTICAL H:USES
WERE BUILT F."R WESTERN LIVING
N�' W:'NDER WE'RE APPRECIATING.
REST'RING, AND REM:'DELING THEM.
MAY 1995
BY
DANIEL
GREGORY
PHOTOGRAPHS
BY
GREY
CRAWFORD
87
BURNISHING A CLASSIC
Pasadena homeowners John and Sally Howell, shown here
in their new family room with children Anna and Sean,
have remodeled their 1915 bungalow with care and
imagination. Stripping paint from the woodwork—the first
stage of their remodeling—took longer than a month, with
John doing a lot of the work himself. The results are self-
evident: the warm vertical grain of the fir stands out on the
built-in desk and the built-in china cabinet in the dining
room ;at oouom rigntl. nays aaoy, i ne secona phase was
making all the windows operable. John had to rehang each one." Then the couple converted a sleeping porch into a family room
(shown top right) by adding built-in cabinetry for the television and VCR under the existing windows. In the kitchen, new cherry
cabinets are treated as furniture, with partially inlaid fronts, even on the refrigerator door. The Howells opened the breakfast area
(visible behind the dining room china cabinet) directly to the rear garden. Los Angeles architect David Semarier did the design.
Easterners, those lures to the romantic."
and concluded that "the bungalowner"
could live almost like a millionaire be-
cause he would not have to spend any-
thing on health or fuel bills.
The rose -covered Pasadena, or Califor-
nia, bungalow quickly became a mar-
ketable symbol of affordable Western ro-
mance. Versions of it appeared in such
diverse locations as Hanover, New
Hampshire, and Sydney, Australia. You
could buy a prefabricated model called
The Hollywood from Sears. And the
bungalow cropped up in postcards and
even popular songs, like the one archi-
tectural. historian and Pasadena bunga-
low owner Robert Winter croons in a
rich bourbon -throated baritone to his
�s
colle,>e classes. Titled "In the Land of
the Bungalow." this 1929 tune about Los
Angeles tells of a man pining for his girl
"in the land of fruit and honey, where it
does not take much money, to own a lit-
tle bungalow."
Now a new chorus is chiming in, and
though it takes a lot more money to own
one—a two-bedroom Pasadena bunga-
low that cost about $2,000 to build in the
1910s and 1920s sells for around
$350,000 today—a bungalow apprecia-
tion movement is under way. Two new
books on bungalows are due out later
this year, adding to a rising publishing
tide that includes reprinted plan books
like California Bungulows of the Twen-
ties, by Henry L. Wilson (Dover Publica-
tions, 1993; $8.95), and exhibition cata-
logs such as The Arts and Crafts Move-
ment in California: Living the Good Life
(the Oakland Museum and Abbeville
Press, 1993; $35). The movement started
slowly, with historian Winter's ground-
breaking book The California Bungalow
(Hennessey & Ingalls, 1980; $14.95),
and has been nourished in Pasadena by
annual house tours and by the museum
honoring the city's most famous high -art
version of the bungalow aesthetic, the
landmark Gamble House, designed by
architects Charles and Henry Greene.
There is also a magazine called Amer-
ican Bungalow, founded in 1990, which
is written expressly for bungalow own-
ers and enthusiasts and produced out of
MAY 1995 89
r i!.1� ■: Ili! � II .. 3A�
AN INN' VATiVE EXPANSIVN
Th!s tiny cottage caught the attention of Santa Monica, California, architect John Ruble for its remodeling potential. He proceeded to
reinvent it as a contemporary bungalow with allusions to grandeur. The new master suite is upstairs at the back, to be less visible from
the street. Resembling an enlarged attic, it includes the bedroom itself (on opposite page), a library alcove at the top of the stairway,
and a dressing area and bathroom above the kitchen. Ruble rebuilt the ground floor with more distinctive bungalow features, such as
V. e broadly gabled front porch with latticework eaves, and a new dining alcove separated from the main living space by 10 -inch
suaare Pillars, which match the porch pillars and the pillars forming the stair hall. A dramatic pyramidal skylight works with the front
window bay to flood the area with daylight. Ruble is shown above with his wife, architect Cecily Young, and his son, Jordan.
a bungalow in Sierra Madre, California.
Its founder and publisher, John Brink -
mann. told us: "The economy has forced
people to look at older and smaller
homes. They look at these bungalows
and say. 'This is real wood and real
stone!' There is a whole generation of
people who are looking for genuineness.
Their reaction is, 'We just love this
house: it's so simple. warm, and woody.'
They're looking for the house their
grandparents grew up in." Bungalow
restoration expert Ken Miedema agrees:
"You get so much more for your invest-
ment. In my house, the original quarter -
sawn oak floor is itself a treasure."
Bungalow rediscovery is happening
elsewhere in the West as well. Seattle
architects Mary and Ray Johnston are
remodeling a lot of bungalows for young
professionals who might have been able
to afford bigger houses in an earlier era.
According to Ray, these people appreci-
ate the bungalow's quality. Remodeling
to add a master bedroom or to update the
kitchen is done as sensitively as possi-
ble. and often the clients do some of the
work themselves. As with any remodel
or restoration. there are special chal-
len,,es. Bungalow foundations often
need work, especially if you are plan-
ning to add a floor. Dry rot around
chimneys and on porches or other areas
exposed to the weather can be extensive.
And some bungalows may be visibly out
of plumb.
But, Brinkmann says, "Bungalow
owners are do-it-yourselfers." One bun-
galow owner told me, simply, "It be-
comes a labor of love." Or, as it says in
the "Bungal-Ode," written in 1909:
And I know h4 hungalogic
That is all mY hungulown
That a little hungalotion
Mendeth every mortal moan! ■
MAY 1995 91