Resilience on my mind

There are days that I feel like a rubber band – being stretched in so many different directions. Then I snap back. That is resilience.

Climate resilience is such a seductive concept like regeneration that it is one of the primary topics I teach. But not sure if we actually have the political and economic means to pull it off (nor does Andrew Revkin). Check out the video [which refuses to be embeded] of Revkin’s recent appearance at Zócalo Public Square that focused on the topic.

So what am I doing to shift the status quo? Getting stretched in all sorts of ways organizing a symposium for the LA Aqueduct Centennial with folks from UCLA (including Alex Hall and Jon Christensen who are in the video), Woodbury’s Arid Lands Institute, and my mentor Lance Neckar at Pitzer. Target date winter 2014 if we line up the funding. Stay tuned!

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A quick shout out to Dan Hill for a fascinating read about the ‘Urban Intelligence Industrial Complex’ aka the ‘Smart City’ movement…

Aqueduct Futures Workshop – October 15th

The Owens Valley community is invited to a free public design workshop, 6-9pm on October 15th at the Methodist Center, 205 North Fowler Street, Bishop, California 93514.

This workshop will explore designing resilience and adaptation into the landscape of Owens Valley with California State Polytechic University Pomona Landscape Architecture students. The Landscape Architecture students will be visiting Owens Valley on a field trip as they learn about designing large-scale sustainable infrastructure systems as part of the Cal Poly Pomona’s Aqueduct Futures Project.

Please RSVP to help us plan the event: http://owensvalleyfutures.eventbrite.com/

If you wish to participate in the resource fair, please email: blehrman@cpp.edu

Press Release

Los Angeles Aqueduct Centenial Project

Aqueduct Futures

Excited to share news of receiving the word that I’ll be getting a $100,000 grant (thanks to the assistance of Dean Woo) to organize activities to commemorate the November 2013 Centennial of the opening of the Los Angeles Aqueduct at Cal Poly Pomona.

Once the gift is finalized, I reveal the sponsor and details of the project. In the meantime, I’m busy organizing the courses and exhibition that are the core of Aqueduct Futures. Stay tuned!!!!

[Photo bys Jet Lowe for the Historic American Engineering Record]

Other folks working on Aqueduct Centennial Events:

• http://www.kimstringfellow.com/?p=425
• http://agh2o.metabolicstudio.org/

I’ve also heard that CLUI, Occidental College, and Arid Lands Institute are all possibly planning efforts to commemorate the Centennial.  Please let me know if there are other efforts in the works!

• http://articles.latimes.com/2002/feb/28/local/me-water28
• http://www.watercalifornia.org/
• http://places.designobserver.com/feature/the-very-hungry-city/32058/

LA Aqueduct Bibliography 2012

I revisited the LA Aqueduct for a grant proposal related to the upcoming centennial of it’s opening (stay tuned), and started updating my earlier bibliography. My methodology was searching via google scholar, amazon.com and cal poly’s library. Items in bold are seminal books and essential reading about the LA Aqueduct. The links take you to the most recent edition of the book.

(all images by HAER/Library of Congress.)

OWENS RIVER DIVERSION GATES

2012

• Troy, Austin. 2012. ‘Thirsty City’ in The Very Hungry City.Yale University Press Excerpt published 1/23/2012 at Design Observer: Places. places.designobserver.com/feature/the-very-hungry-city/32058/

2011

• Barraclough, Laura R. 2011. Making the San Fernando Valley: Rural Landscapes, Urban Development, and White Privilege. University of Georgia Press.
• deBuys, William. 2011. A Great Aridness: Climate Change and the Future of the American Southwest. Oxford University Press.
• Piper, Karen. 01.24.2011. ‘Dreams, Dust and Birds: The Trashing of Owens Lake’ in Places: Design Observer.
• Prud’homme, Alex. 2011. The Ripple Effect: The Fate of Fresh Water in the Twenty-First Century. Scribner.
• Solomon, Steven. 2011. Water: The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power, and Civilization. Harper Perennial.
• Wanamaker, Marc. 2011. San Fernando Valley (Images of America). Arcadia Publishing.

2010

• Creason, Glen. 2010. Los Angeles in Maps. Rizzoli.
• Cunningham, Laura. 2010. State of Change, A: Forgotten Landscapes of California. Heyday.
• Ostrom, Vincent. 2010. Water & Politics A Study of Water Policies and Administration in the Development of Los Angeles. Martino Press.

2009

• Black, Maggie and Jannet King. 2009. The Atlas of Water: Mapping the World’s Most Critical Resource. University of California Press.
• Karelius, Brad. 2009. The Spirit in the Desert: Pilgrimages to Sacred Sites in the Owens Valley. Book Surge Publishing.
• Varner, Gary R. 2009. The Owens Valley Paiute – A Cultural History. lulu.com.

2008

• Lehrman, Barry. 2008. “Reconstructing the Void: Owens Lake.” In: The Infrastructural City: Networked Ecologies in Los Angeles, ed. Kazys Varnelis. Barcelona: Los Angeles Forum for Architecture/Columbia Networked Urbanism Lab/ACTAR Press.

Alabama Gates

Eco-Technical Mapping of the Northeastern San Fernando Valley

LA402L Winter 2012 Sublime Infrastructures Mid-Review Videos

SUBLIME (adj): Of such excellence, grandeur, or beauty as to inspire great admiration or awe.

INFRASTRUCTURE (n): 1. An underlying base or foundation especially for an organization or system.

ECO-TECHNICAL SYSTEMS (n): ‘…an unprecedented amalgam of biology and technology… Urban eco-technical systems differ profoundly from nature’s ecosystems in that they are essentially linear systems.  They transcend local ecological boundaries by importing ecological services from elsewhere, using nature as a source of materials as well as a sink for their wastes.” – Herbert Girardet

MAPPING (v):     The act defining the spatial/temporal relationships between different places and systems.

INDEXING (v): The graphic spatial depiction of a system’s (or phenomena’s) influence on a place.

Project 1: Eco-technical Systems Analysis

Each team is to create at least 3 distinct maps or indexes drawn to scale that exploring the political, cultural, spatial, ecological, temporal, or technical fabric of the Valley and their connections to larger systems.  At least one of the maps must explore the temporal development of a system or place, and another must look at ecological systems.

• Research     5 points
• Process         5 points
• Graphics     5 points
• Innovation     5 points

Video 1: Eco-technical Systems

Documents the site and systems around the site, edited together with animation of the maps produced in Project 1 and historic documents.  Video 1 will provide a narrative about place that hints at the sublime.  The readings are expected to inform the content of the video.

• Storyboards/pre-production        2 points
• Script/Narrative                    3 points
• Cinematography/Animation        3 points
• Editing/post-production            2 points

(Student generated videos next)

Call for Jurors & Guests – Winter 2012

For my upcoming 4th year BSLA studio at Cal Poly Pomona, Sublime Infrastructures: Sylmar, I’m seeking Los Angeles based documentary filmmakers (directors, editors, sound folks, cinematographers) and landscape architects with an interest in the city, infrastructure, sustainability, tactical urbanism, and the sublime to be class guests.  Guests will either serve as jurors or assist the students in producing videos that integrate their designs and analysis drawings with footage of the city.

Complete report on construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct (1916)

While researching my 4th year studio for winter quarter 2012, I discovered that the source of some of my favorite drawings of the Los Angeles Aqueduct is now a Google Books: http://books.google.com/books?id=7yIWAAAAYAAJ

Commissioners, Los Angeles (Calif.). Board of Public Service. 1916. Complete report on construction of the Los Angeles aqueduct; with introductory historical sketch; illustrated with maps, drawings and photographs. Los Angeles Department of Public Service.

Reconstructing the Void – the lecture

As part of the #Mammothbooks reading of The Infrastructural City, I am pleased to share the reading of my chapter in my Intro to Environmental Design class at the University of Minnesota on April 27th.

The lecture audio file is ~30 minutes and has not been edited.

w15-1 owens lake v4 of the lecture’s slides – all images are credited or by Barry Lehrman.



Owens Lake & LA Aqueduct Bibliography

To enhance the collective reading of The Infrastructural City organized by Mammoth, here are the highlights of the bibliographic sources from my research into Owens Lake for ‘Reconstructing the Void: Owens Lake’ and my thesis project (circa 2005). Drop me a note if you need help locating any of these sources or find new items that need to be added. #mammothbook

Owens Valley

Bishop Visitors Center; Welcome to Bishop 2003 Press Kit. Bishop California

Center for Land Use Interpretation, ‘California’s Owens Valley’, The Lay of the Land, Summer 2004

Department of Defense; Checklist of Birds, Edwards Air Force Base, California. Department of Defense. Jamestown, ND: Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center Online. (Version 23JUN00)

Ewan, Rebecca Fish; A Land Between – Owens Valley, California. Baltimore, John Hopkins University Press, 2000.

Hall, Clarence A., et al- editors; The History of Water: Eastern Sierra Nevada, Owens Valley, White-Inyo Mountains. White Mountain Research Station Symposium, Volume 4. Los Angeles: University of California, 1992.

Hoffman, Abraham; Vision Or Villainy: Origins Of The Owens Valley-Los Angeles Water Controversy. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1981.

James, Greg, Dennis Williams, et al; Green Book for the Long-term Management Plan for the Owens Valley and Inyo County. Bishop, CA: June 1990.

Gary Libecap ‘Chinatown: Transaction Costs in Water Rights Exchanges The Owens Valley Transfer to Los Angeles’, (NSF Grant 0317375). [This paper explodes the myth that Los Angeles ‘stole’ the water from the Owens Valley, and why the farmers were eager to sell.

Olson, Wilma R; Olancha Remembered. Sacramento, CA: W.R. Olson 1997

Putnam, J. & G. Smith, editors; Deepest Valley: A Guide to Owens Valley, Its Roadside and Mountain Trails– 2nd Edition. Palo Alto: Genny Smith Books/Live Oak Press, 1995.

Sharp, Robert & Allen Glazner; Geology Underfoot in Death Valley and Owens Valley. Missoula Montana: Mountain Press Publishing 1997.
Timmer, Kerri L.; Troubled Water of the Sierra, Sierra Nevada Alliance

Varnelis, Kazys; Points of Interest in the Owens River Valley. Culver City, CA: Center for Land Use Interpretation, 2004.

Wood, R. Coke; The Owens Valley and the Los Angeles Water Controversy – Owens Valley as I Knew It. Stockton CA: University of the Pacific, 1973.

Unintended Ecologies

[Found this abandoned snippet of an idea while dredging through the drafts for the upcoming #mammothbook reading of The Infrastructural City. My chapter is the focus of the week of April 26th – so stay tuned! ]

Toxic site, military sites, nuclear sites, abandoned sites: fenced off and isolated from human activities have a more diverse ecosystem then surrounding developed areas – [amazing] robustness of natural systems to reclaim and rebound once [human] pressure is removed. Not all levels of toxic sites are able to support ecologies- tailings/slag/chemical lagoons [are dead zones killing all that comes into contact]. Power line easements become wildlife corridors; military reservations preserve open space (adaptation of fauna to explosions and occasional exercises); hawks nest on transmission towers and tall buildings.

Structures (dams, bridges, towers) interfere with migration and travel- collisions and barriers. Isolation and fragmentation of habitat
Urbanization of wildlife- coyotes inhabiting urban parks; rats, raccoons, pigeons, geese, possums, deer have thrived in suburban and urban areas- sewers, vacant lots, alleyways provide varied terrain, lots of hiding spaces, low traffic areas, isolation in the midst of cities. Suburban sprawl provides lots of open interstitial spaces for habitat of lawns, gardens, garbage dumps, golf courses, and airports.

Fish ladders at dams concentrate and expose the fish that are supposed to be helped to increase predators.

Dumping the Colorado River water into the [Arizona] desert has created a flourishing wetland and ‘natural reserve’ where there never was one in Mexico. EPA preserves any created wetlands even when not intentional.

Issues of restoration or mitigation [of Owens Lake]:

Fixing the lake- dust is a dangerous and unintended, so it must be reduced by engineering. Obligation of Los Angeles as the colonizing power structure is to minimize the impact of extraction. Taking the water back is wrong in that it benefits millions.

As an isolated wetland- the Owens River watershed has a wide ranging area of influence on migrating birds- potential to leverage a significant impact of increased population (stability of such a larger more complex system is ethical desirable) compared to more urbanized and settled areas where human pressures are greater. Historic role as migratory feeding zone has been diminished by reduced size of riparian zones through the flow of water and salinity levels. Pragmatic desire for increased economic generation through non-destructive (non-extractive) methods.

A Solar Farm for Owens Lake

The LATimes recently published a story about a possible new use of the Owens Lake Playa – a 616 acre solar power plant. The Owens Lake Playa is a place that I care about and have dedicated a significant amount of time researching and writing about.

Owens Lake seen from Horseshoe Meadow Road

Here is the Op-Ed I submitted to the LATimes to support the project:

It is important to remember that the Owens Lake Playa is an artificial landscape created by the growth of Los Angeles. While the entire Owens Valley is a sublime landscape, it is not a pristine wilderness. As such, the Owens Valley is an ideal location for locating a large concentrating solar energy facility, especially because the transmission capacity already exists and the potential benefit of further reducing the PM10 dust emissions off the Playa.