the belvedere

Our apartment building in 1921 (courtesy of the Santa Monica Public Library Image Archive):


Our apartment building on a cloudy day last fall:


Through the public library's image archive, we found out that our apartment building was built in 1921 and was originally called the Belvedere Apartments. You can still see the name "Belvedere" imprinted in the sidewalk.

I'm not sure, but it seems like the Belvedere must have originally been a luxury apartment building. In our apartment unit, there is large archway between the living room and bedroom that is now filled in, but must have been open at one time. It makes me wonder if this unit and the one next to it were at one time connected as well. It would make sense, because we live in a historic area of Santa Monica known as Ocean Park. A lot of the little cottages around here used to be vacation homes.

Nowadays, while still a nice building, it is far from luxurious. The biggest problem we have right now is a back deck and stairwell that is falling down on itself. Somewhere along the way some smarty decided to switch out the wooden steps with concrete ones, and the weight is pulling the whole thing down.

On another note, this image archive has a lot of wonderful images and is a great resource both for scholarly researchers and for people just having fun (like me). We're working on a similar digital library at Pepperdine, and someday it will be filled with great, useful images like these. :)

Malibu Eco Home Tour

Jesse and I were offered free tickets to a Malibu Eco Home Tour a couple of weeks ago, and we were very pleased to accept them. I am increasingly interested in environmental issues (living blocks from the ocean, where my swimming conditions are affected by what goes in the street drains, will do that to you). But I have to admit that the prospect of getting an inside look at well-designed multi-million dollar Malibu homes held a teensy bit more of the appeal to going on this tour. Learning something was a bonus of course.

We started the tour at Pepperdine, where they have made sustainability a priority since they moved to Malibu in the 1970s. The campus has a huge impact on the community of Malibu, and they take this responsibility seriously. The focus of this part of the tour was on water conservation...99% of the water used for irrigation on the large, beautiful campus is reclaimed water. Isn't my campus pretty?!

The feature on the second stop was an edible garden, where a family of six grows most of their daily food. It was pretty amazing. They harvest about 25 artichokes a week and grow all sorts of interesting plants. The house (which we did not go inside unfortunately) was pretty stunning from the outside. They obviously have a ridiculous amount of money, but beyond that, this was probably one of the most inspiring stops. I would love to grow a lot of my own food. Of course, the owner asked us if we had a garden and it was hard not to laugh. We don't even have an outdoor area that is safe to step on to. Here are a couple of pics of the garden - lovely strawberries, and fruit trees (maybe?) with California poppies in the background.

The next house was truly amazing. The homeowners are on their way to having the home LEEDs certified, so pretty much everything in the house is efficient, sustainable, recycled, etc., etc. But the design was just as amazing. The entire house opened up on to a courtyard with a pool. Probably my biggest hope for a home someday (given that I still live in a climate like this one) is to have a home that integrates indoor space with outdoor space, and this one did that 100%.

By the last stop, I think the amazing view was just too overpowering for everyone. There was some talk about efficient pool pumps or something??? I figured that it would be so many decades before I'd ever have to worry about pool pumps, that I might as well just wait until new efficient pool pumps come out, and learn about them then. Those poor pool pump salesmen. No one should have to compete with the Pacific Ocean.