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Sights & Sounds

My Magazinelayout

---Shaun

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Sights & Sounds

Central

Californian

the

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ocated roughly midway between Los Angeles and San Francisco on the Central Coast. Founded in 1772

by Spanish Fr. Junipero Serra, San Luis Obispo is one of California’s oldest communities. The city, locally re-ferred to as San Luis, SLO, or SLO Town (as its county is also referred to as SLO) is the county seat of San Luis Obispo County and is adjacent to California Polytechnic State University. -----> --Wikipedia

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Californian

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Sights & Sounds

Yosemite National Park is a United States National Park spanning eastern portions of Tuolumne, Mariposa and Madera counties in the central eastern portion of California, United States.The park covers an area of 761,268 acres (3,080.74 km2)[2] and reaches across the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain chain.

Over 3.7 million people visit Yosem-ite each year: most spend their time in the seven square miles (18 km2) of Yosemite Valley.Designated a World Heritage Site in 1984, Yosemite is in-ternationally recognized for its spec-tacular granite cliffs, waterfalls, clear streams, Giant Sequoia groves, and biological diversity.

Almost 95% of the park is designated wilderness Yosemite was central to the development of the national park idea, largely owing to the work of peo-ple like Galen Clark and John Muir in getting the Yosemite Grant passed by congress and signed by President Lin-coln, paving the way for the United States national park system.

Yosemite is one of the largest and least fragmented habitat blocks in the Sierra Nevada, and the park supports a diversity of plants and animals. The park has an elevation range from 2,127 to 13,114 feet (648 to 3,997 m) and contains five major vegetation zones.

Of California’s 7,000 plant species, about 50% occur in the Sierra Ne-vada and more than 20% within Yosemite. There is suitable habitat or documentation for more than 160 rare plants in the park, with rare local geologic formations and unique soils characterizing the restricted ranges many of these plants occupy.

The geology of the Yosemite area is characterized by granitic rocks and remnants of older rock. About 10 million years ago, the Sierra Ne-vada was uplifted and then tilted to form its relatively gentle western slopes and the more dramatic east-ern slopes. -- Wikipedia

About 1 million years ago, snow and ice accumulated, forming glaciers at the higher alpine meadows that moved down the river valleys. Ice thickness

in Yosemite Valley may have reached 4,000 feet (1,200 m) during the early glacial episode.-- Wikipedia

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The peaks of “El Capitan,” a rock formation at Yosemite National Park. Courtesy of Photopedia.

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Sights & Sounds

I would like to build something upon the hill at San Simeon... something that would be a little more comfortable.

William Randolph Hearst

The famous fountain at Hearst Castle, located on the centra coast. Photo from Cynic.org

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Hearst Castle is located near the unincorporated community of San Simeon, California, approxi-mately 250 miles (400 km) from both Los Ange-les and San Francisco, and 43 miles (69 km) from San Luis Obispo at the northern end of San Luis Obispo County.

The region is sparsely populated because the Santa Lucia Range abuts the Pacific Ocean, which provides dramatic seaside vistas but few opportu-nities for development and hampered transpor-tation. The surrounding countryside visible from the mansion remains largely undeveloped. I

Hearst first approached American architect Ju-lia Morgan with ideas for a new project in April 1915, shortly after he took ownership. Hearst’s original idea was to build a bungalow, accord-ing to a draftsman who worked in Morgan’s office who recounted Hearst’s words from the initial meeting:

I would like to build something upon the hill at San Simeon. I get tired of going up there and camping in tents. I’m getting a little too old for that. I’d like to get something that would be a little more comfortable. After approximately one month of discussion, Hearst’s original idea for a modest dwelling swelled to grand proportions. Discussion for the exterior style switched from initial ideas of Japanese and Korean themes to the Spanish Revival that was gaining popularity and that Morgan had furthered with her work on the Los Angeles Herald Examiner headquarters in 1915.

Hearst was fond of Spanish Revival, but dis-satisfied with the crudeness of the colonial structures in California. Mexican colonial architecture had more sophistication but he objected to its profusion of ornamentation. Turning to the Iberian Peninsula for inspira-tion, he found Renaissance and Baroque ex-amples in southern Spain more to his tastes.

Hearst particularly admired a church in Ron-da and asked Morgan to pattern the Main Building towers after it. The Panama-Califor-nia Exposition of 1915 in San Diego held the closest approaches in California to the look Hearst desired.

One highlight of the estate is the outdoor Nep-tune Pool, located near the edge of the hilltop, which offers an expansive vista of the moun-tains, ocean and the main house. The Neptune Pool patio features an ancient Roman temple front, transported wholesale from Europe and reconstructed at the site.

Hearst was an inveterate tinkerer, and would tear down structures and rebuild them at a whim. For example, the Neptune Pool was re-built three times before Hearst was satisfied. As a consequence of Hearst’s persistent design changes, the estate was never completed in his lifetime.

-- Wikipedia

On Hearst CastleNearest city: San Simeon, California, USAArea: More than 90,000 sq ft (8,400 m2)Built: 1919[3]Architect: William Randolph Hearst; Julia MorganArchitectural style: Mediterranean Revival, other late 19th and 20th century RevivalsGoverning body: State

--Wikipedia