Anacapa Architect

Architect Ross Anderson CdeP 1969 and his dog Bella made an extended visit this spring, the former as an Anacapa Visiting Scholar, the latter as his constant sidekick. His term-long course focused on how nature and man intersect. (See below for description.) "It's about place-making," says Ross. "We are viewing the landscape and learning about architecture, design and perception in the process." Eleven juniors and seniors benefitted from a career that has taken Ross all over the world to design commercial and residential structures in harmony with their surroundings.

While researching the people native to the region, Ross learned that preceding the Chumash Indians were neolithic wandering tribes. He discovered that, in the 1970s, a group of archaeologists found 3,000-4,000 artifacts in the Ojai Valley related to these tribes, including shells, jewelry, arrowheads, baskets, pottery, and a black granite stone effigy that has been deemed 7,000 years old - one of the oldest pieces found in North America. Located in the Ojai Valley Museum, this effigy closely resembles a toad, with bulging eyes and a wide slit for a mouth. Excited about the effigy and its history, Ross is looking into the possibility of making digital replicas available to Thacher Toads, to remind us of the long-term history of that amphibian in this area.

Taking this time-out to teach, Ross has the opportunity to distill and convey the principles that have guided his work as an architect, "cherry-picking the cool stuff to chew on for awhile." Sharing the importance of observation and perception, students in Ross' class have the opportunity to work on individual and group projects, take field trips to explore the history and geography of the Ojai Valley, study current land-related issues, such as access to potable water, participate in group dialogue, and connect to the subtleties so vital to understanding the local environment. (They also worked in a night-time poetry slam, the Outdoor Theatre lit by small fires tended behind cairns made amid the “house” boulders by Ross’s students.) For a final project, each student created a personal monument designed to last at least ten years at Casa de Piedra.

When it came time for farewells, seniors Zoey Poll and Derek Gülick-Stutz came to the front of Assembly to speak for all those in the course, saying, "You changed forever how we will see the landscape around us. Thank you."

Through reading, road trips, walking (biking, perhaps?) and studio work we will study the Ojai Valley from the coast and the oilfields through the small towns and the orange groves to Thacher and the Los Padres National Forest. We will try to reach an understanding of why things look the way they do and arrive at a definition of what a “landscape” really is:

“The cultural landscape is fashioned from a natural landscape by a

culture group. Culture is the agent; the natural area is the medium,

the cultural landscape the result.”

—Cultural Geographer Carl O. Sauer, 1925

We will undertake various studio projects that will range from one day to several weeks that will be both individual and group. These may involve photography, drawing, painting, model building, sketching, collage and sculpture. Looking at something, abstracting or translating it into a new medium, and looking at it again will be just one aspect of these explorations. Group discussion, the reading list, and your involvement will help guide this seminar into areas that are particularly relevant and eye-opening.