In 1967, I moved from Mill Valley to Big Sur and worked as foreman on a job building this house out of bridge timbers. The architect was George Brook-Kothlow. George had purchased all the timbers from a bridge in the town of Duncans Mills on the Russian River. They had torn down the redwood bridge to build one of concrete, and George had bought all the hand-hewn 12 × 12 posts, 16-foot-long 6-by-16s and 16-foot-long 8-by-22s.
I was reading this with great interest thinking about Big Sur long ago and the freedom of that age. But it just occurred to me that I am actually building my own home right now in Baja, I hired a local guy and I work with him everyday. Of course it's reinforced concrete and block as they do here but it's totally off grid with a billion dollar view overlooking the Sea of Cortez and Cerralvo Island. We did hire an architect to draw up professional plans and insure structural integrity but there are no permits or fees involved whatsoever! It will have a giant palapa deck on the top floor with transcendental views in every direction. We've been in Baja long enough that we have almost forgotten how radical a situation this freedom is. You could never do this in California, Big Sur or anywhere else in the USA. I have long looked to you as a mentor and I was just suddenly struck that why yes, I am actually following your example!. Muchas gracias amigo!
From years in Baja, I concluded that shade is the key. When I was contemplating buying a piece of land, I was going to build a pretty small and hopefully impregnable concrete block structure with a steel door, and a large outdoor patio covered with the palapa roof where I would spend most of my time. (This would be the setup for an absentee owner, where I'd come down, open up the little building and set up everything under the shade of the roof.)
I've seen some very simple and inexpensive shade roofs built out of split cariso (the local bamboo), which can be harvested in groves near water.
Great stories. Inspired me to get out my battered copy of Shelter, pour a cup of green tea, and dream about the good old D-A-Z-E down on my late pal Dino’s 300-acre farm in Maryland, reading the Whole Earth Catalog late into the night by the light of a trusty Aladdin kerosene lamp . . .
in the late sixties we young folks would drive down in our VW van from Berkeley late at night to sneek into the baths at Esalen..Lounging in those deep old bathtubs full of hot mineral water was heavenly. The baths were perched on the cliffs overlooking the ocean and the moon would rise into the night sky. eventually they put up guards so we stopped going.
Yes, they obviously got an architect and remodeled the baths and they've lost their soulfulness. There' a parking lot/pullout on the north side of the creek where employees enter and you used to be able to just walk in, but now there's a big cyclone fence. There's about a foot of space underneath the gate which I wiggled through one night and walked down to the hot springs. Tried the same thing the next night, but with a flashlight, and got busted. They have cameras!
Saw Redwoods for the first time last summer. Camped near Grizzly Creek, I believe, and visited the Return of the Jedi area just before jumping in the near by river. Was incredible!
I was reading this with great interest thinking about Big Sur long ago and the freedom of that age. But it just occurred to me that I am actually building my own home right now in Baja, I hired a local guy and I work with him everyday. Of course it's reinforced concrete and block as they do here but it's totally off grid with a billion dollar view overlooking the Sea of Cortez and Cerralvo Island. We did hire an architect to draw up professional plans and insure structural integrity but there are no permits or fees involved whatsoever! It will have a giant palapa deck on the top floor with transcendental views in every direction. We've been in Baja long enough that we have almost forgotten how radical a situation this freedom is. You could never do this in California, Big Sur or anywhere else in the USA. I have long looked to you as a mentor and I was just suddenly struck that why yes, I am actually following your example!. Muchas gracias amigo!
From years in Baja, I concluded that shade is the key. When I was contemplating buying a piece of land, I was going to build a pretty small and hopefully impregnable concrete block structure with a steel door, and a large outdoor patio covered with the palapa roof where I would spend most of my time. (This would be the setup for an absentee owner, where I'd come down, open up the little building and set up everything under the shade of the roof.)
I've seen some very simple and inexpensive shade roofs built out of split cariso (the local bamboo), which can be harvested in groves near water.
Great stories. Inspired me to get out my battered copy of Shelter, pour a cup of green tea, and dream about the good old D-A-Z-E down on my late pal Dino’s 300-acre farm in Maryland, reading the Whole Earth Catalog late into the night by the light of a trusty Aladdin kerosene lamp . . .
in the late sixties we young folks would drive down in our VW van from Berkeley late at night to sneek into the baths at Esalen..Lounging in those deep old bathtubs full of hot mineral water was heavenly. The baths were perched on the cliffs overlooking the ocean and the moon would rise into the night sky. eventually they put up guards so we stopped going.
Yes, they obviously got an architect and remodeled the baths and they've lost their soulfulness. There' a parking lot/pullout on the north side of the creek where employees enter and you used to be able to just walk in, but now there's a big cyclone fence. There's about a foot of space underneath the gate which I wiggled through one night and walked down to the hot springs. Tried the same thing the next night, but with a flashlight, and got busted. They have cameras!
Saw Redwoods for the first time last summer. Camped near Grizzly Creek, I believe, and visited the Return of the Jedi area just before jumping in the near by river. Was incredible!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Chapman-Taylor
New Zealand's hand hewn wood architect. Made some great buildings and interiors mostly with Australian hard wood.
When in doubt turn Jimi to volume 100 😂. Love it!
Oh, man! What beautiful and hard work. What a time. Appreciate this more than I can say.