Distinguishing (Re)Marks
At public meetings since his May arrival on the third floor of City Hall, the equally distinctive and equally distinguished Mr. Blumenfeld has staked out the opposite pole.
His replies to the City Council members have been as crisp as the vanishing frost on an early spring morning, as unmistakable as a punch in the nose.
In Mr. Blumenfelds considerable career, it is unlikely even the most disconnected listener ever has wondered, What did he say? or What did he mean?
Opening Impressions
At recent public meetings where two controversial redevelopment proposals have triggered bitter protests, the professionally unassailable neutrality of Mr. Blumenfeld has been a lighthouse on a foggy ocean of emotion.
Apologizing for his newness, Mr. Blumenfeld has fired back decisive, succinct responses to both hazy questions and urgent inquiries.
Since externals attract the initial attention, it should be noted that Culver Citys last two Community Development Directors imprint striking impressions upon their colleagues.
Visiting Hair
Start with the top of the handsome head in both cases.
Ms. Evans was noticed for her tall blonde hair. Tall and slender with deep-set eyes, Mr. Blumenfeld pleasantly invokes a long ago era by stylishly dividing his hair in the center aisle.
At a glance, he also bears a striking resemblance to the entertainer Robin Williams.
In his first interview with thefrontpageonline.com, however, Mr. Blumenfelds thoughtful, pristine tones probably would have prompted Mr. Williams to say that it is he who resembles the Culver City Community Development Director.
So Much for Expressions
Given the tools of erudition on Mr. Blumenfelds academically oriented workbench, it may seem a shame to mention his permanently sad-eyed expression.
When Mr. Blumenfeld steps behind the rhetorical wheel, this is quickly forgotten.
He steers a conversational course through his learned and cherished principles of building and redevelopment, his away-from-work pursuits and his notions about the rebuild projects that have burned into smoldering debates for the community.
Philosophically Asail
His introduction to the community begins with the philosophy that defines his professional personality.
Mr. Blumenfeld is as reflective as an academic which he is rather than one who delivers responses trigger-fast.
The underlying philosophy I bring to each division of my job is a belief in sustainability and smart growth, he says. Those ideas animate a lot of my thinking.
The Learning Years
A Westside native who did his undergraduate work at Berkeley, he learned his profession from the best.
I studied city planning at the University of Pennsylvania, and one of the leaders in a kind of planning called suitability analysis was Ian McHarg.
[A Glasgow native, Mr. McHarg was a pioneer modern-day environmentalist. He said that Earth Day 1970 was one of the happiest days of his life, a defining moment in elevating Americas consciousness about being stewards of the environment.]
He had profound notions about how to plan a project and leave the smallest imprint on the landscape that you could, Mr. Blumenfeld said.
He was a landscape architect. Now I studied city planning and urban design at the University of Pennsylvania. But I was so inspired by him that I went back and got a second degree in landscape architecture.
I currently teach a class in suitability analysis at UCLA in their Landscape Architecture program.
An Early Love
Mr. Blumenfeld has been wed to the lure of the romantic adventure of building for much of his varied, intellectually underpinned life.
I did studies in architecture in undergraduate school. I have built several homes, I have worked in construction, and I did construction management. I have always had an interest in architecture, building and urbanism.
But when I went to the University of Pennsylvania to get a masters degree, I was exposed to the work of Ian McHarg and suitability analysis. I was so caught by it, it helped formulate a lot of my ideas about how we ought to organize and use urban space.
As I said, I am very much interested in sustainability and smart growth. I am not interested just because they are important buzzwords today. They have a real tradition in planning that goes back a good 30 to 40 years, to the time of Mr. McHarg.
[In an aside, Mr. Blumenfeld recommended the beautiful (biographical) prose of Mr. McHarg (1920-2001) in what is called his seminal 1967 work, Design With Nature. He is remembered for questioning mans dominion over the earth. Amidst the recollections in his book about growing up in Scotland, serving in World War II and coming to America in his mid-30s in 1954, Mr. McHarg presents the then-novel notion of environmental concerns that he believed should influence landscape architecture. He says his boyhood in Scotland in the 1920s and 30s shaped his beliefs about how people ought to live.]
Of his teacher Prof. McHarg and his penchant for pedantry, the scholarly Mr. Blumenfeld says:
I can talk about Ian McHarg all day every day. He came up with a way to analyze land use based on physical features of the land. What he did was, he organized the system for looking at land use through a series of overlays.
Step by Careful Step
He would take a site this is the class I teach he would take a site, and he would map the area drainage. You would literally see, through mapping, how an area drained.
Then he would map where wildlife occurred. He would do a geological map, showing where there were hazardous soils areas or soils that werent good to build on.
And he would map climatic features. There were micro-climates that might occur, and he also would show where the prevailing winds were coming from.
He also would map contextual information, what was going on outside of the site.
Method Yields Right Answers
Through these series of map overlays would surface areas that were most benign to work in.
His overlay analyses would show the areas that were most developable from an environmentally suitable standpoint.
For a few moments, Mr. Blumenfelds morning-of-fresh-squeezed-orange-juice, sun-splashed, upper-story office was transformed into a university classroom.
A Remedy for What Ails Culver City?
His intense, brilliantly truncated summary of Prof. McHargs philosophy of a sensitive life-with-the-land may be a pocket-sized version of what Culver City needs to quell the popular uprising against redevelopment while bringing order and balance to the struggle among developers, planners, politicians and the public.
[To be concluded on Monday.]
