Salton Sea: the beauty of ruins

 My eldest daughter has gone to Salton Sea and took these pictures. Both her and me are moved by the beauty of the ruins. "It's like a ghost town, " she explained to me. I was curious and so I read about the town's history in Wikipedia.org. The link is below to complete the reading.

All pictures by Vera Makianich, please do not reproduce without permission.

 The Salton Sea is a shallow, saline, endorheic rift lake located directly on the San Andreas Fault, predominantly in California's Imperial and Coachella Valleys. The lake occupies the lowest elevations of the Salton Sink in the Colorado Desert of Imperial and Riverside counties in Southern California. Like Death Valley, it is below sea level. Currently, its surface is 226 ft (69 m) below sea level. The deepest point of the sea is 5 ft (1.5 m) higher than the lowest point of Death Valley. The sea is fed by the New, Whitewater, and Alamo rivers, as well as agricultural runoff drainage systems and creeks. The Sea was created by a flood in 1905, in which water from the Colorado River flowed into the area. While it varies in dimensions and area with fluctuations in agricultural runoff and rainfall, the Salton Sea averages 15 mi (24 km) by 35 mi (56 km). With an average area of roughly 525 sq mi (1,360 km2), the Salton Sea is the largest lake in California. Average annual inflow is 1,360,000 acre·ft (1.68 km3), which is enough to maintain a maximum depth of 52 ft (16 m) and a total volume of about 7,500,000 acre·ft (9.3 km3). The lake's salinity, about 44 g/L, is greater than that of the waters of the Pacific Ocean (35 g/L), but less than that of the Great Salt Lake (which ranges from 50 to 270 g/L). The concentration increases by about 1 percent annually. (...) 

Accidental creation of the current Salton Sea

 In 1900, the California Development Company began construction of irrigation canals to divert water from the Colorado River into the Salton Sink, a dry lake bed. After construction of these irrigation canals, the Salton Sink became fertile for a time, allowing farmers to plant crops. Within two years, the Imperial Canal became filled with silt from the Colorado River. Engineers tried to alleviate the blockages to no avail. In 1905, heavy rainfall and snowmelt caused the Colorado River to swell, overrunning a set of headgates for the Alamo Canal. The resulting flood poured down the canal and breached an Imperial Valley dike, eroding two watercourses, the New River in the west, and the Alamo River in the east, each about 60 miles (97 km) long.

Over a period of approximately two years these two newly created rivers sporadically carried the entire volume of the Colorado River into the Salton Sink. The Southern Pacific Railroad attempted to stop the flooding by dumping earth into the canal's headgates area, but the effort was not fast enough, and as the river eroded deeper and deeper into the dry desert sand of the Imperial Valley, a massive waterfall was created that started to cut rapidly upstream along the path of the Alamo Canal that now was occupied by the Colorado. This waterfall was initially 15 feet (4.6 m) high but grew to a height of 80 feet (24 m) before the flow through the breach was finally stopped. It was originally feared that the waterfall would recede upstream to the true main path of the Colorado, attaining a height of up to 100 to 300 feet (30 to 91 m), from where it would be practically impossible to fix the problem. As the basin filled, the town of Salton, a Southern Pacific Railroad siding, and Torres-Martinez Native American land were submerged. The sudden influx of water and the lack of any drainage from the basin resulted in the formation of the Salton Sea.

The continuing intermittent flooding of the Imperial Valley from the Colorado River led to the idea of the need for a dam on the Colorado River for flood control. Eventually, the federal government sponsored survey parties in 1922 that explored the Colorado River for a dam site, ultimately leading to the construction of Hoover Dam in Black Canyon, which was constructed beginning in 1929 and completed in 1935. The dam effectively put an end to the flooding episodes in the Imperial Valley.(...)

Environmental decline

The lack of an outflow means that the Salton Sea is a system of accelerated change. Variations in agricultural runoff cause fluctuations in water level (and flooding of surrounding communities in the 1950s and 1960s), and the relatively high salinity of the inflow feeding the Sea has resulted in ever increasing salinity. By the 1960s it was apparent that the salinity of the Salton Sea was rising, jeopardizing some of the species in it. The Salton Sea has a salinity exceeding 4.0% w/v (saltier than seawater) and many species of fish can no longer survive. It is believed that once the salinity surpasses 4.4% w/v, only the tilapia will survive. Fertilizer runoffs combined with the increasing salinity have resulted in large algal blooms and elevated bacteria levels.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salton_Sea

Selection of architecture posters

 The architecture posters above are my selection from google images. I didn´t add any reference but anybody can send me an email to include the authorship.

The following three are shared from typography served.

¨This collection of three large format posters was created for a hypothetical lecture series discussing the architectural periods of ancient fortresses and castles. The type structures were all created entirely by hand and leveraged materials which showcased various elements of castle construction.¨

 http://www.typographyserved.com/gallery/Architecture-Posters/4017523

What to do with a building that brings us sad memories?

This blog has a label of ¨collective memories.¨ I´ve always been affected by the subject in relationship with buildings. A public building, a house, a temple, etc, can be converted into a memorial, like ¨The wall of sorrows¨ in East Cleveland.

Last December 4th, 2012, I´ve attended to a conference at the Getty Center, ¨Global, Regional, and Local Efforts in Conserving Modern Architecture.¨ And professor Johannes Widodo, one of the panelists, said that there´s a branch of preservationists that proposes demolition when a building keeps memories that hurt the inhabitants. And his example was ¨Totalitarism.¨

A few days after, I´ve never imagined another example, in Connecticut. ¨Shooting.¨

I´ve just come across with this article by Thomas Peipert and Dan Elliott, which I´m sharing in full, from yahoo news:

Deciding fate of massacre site can help healing

AURORA, Colo. (AP) — As Newtown, Conn., grieves the deadly mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, victims' families and residents will eventually have to decide what to do with the building and how to memorialize the fallen. Will they decide to demolish the school where authorities say Adam Lanza killed 20 children and six adults before killing himself? Or just the parts where he opened fire? Will there be a memorial on school grounds, or in town? Or both? Whatever they choose, it will give them a measure of control over a situation in which they have had very little, said Dr. Louis Kraus, chief of child and adolescent psychiatry at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. "To be able to have some control and say in that process I think is going to be very important" to the healing process, he said. Here's a look at what communities that have faced deadly mass shootings have done: 

— After a white supremacist opened fire in a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wis., in August, killing six people and injuring four, temple officials held a purifying ceremony and removed bloodstained carpeting, repaired shattered windows and painted over gunfire-scarred walls. But they left one reminder of the violence — a dime-size bullet hole in the door jamb leading to the prayer room. The hole is now marked with a small gold plate engraved with "We Are One. 8-5-12." "It frames the wound," Pardeep Kaleka, son of former temple president Satwant Singh Kaleka, who died in the massacre, said recently. "The wound of our community, the wound of our family, the wound of our society." 

— After a gunman killed 12 people at a midnight showing of the Batman movie in Aurora, Colo., more than 70 percent of the 6,300 people who responded to an online survey wanted the theater reopened. A memorial that sprang up near the theater is gone but a new sign offers sympathy to those suffering from the nation's latest mass shooting —"Newtown, CT We feel your pain." —

 In Norway, extensive remodeling is planned on the small island of Utoya, where 69 people, more than half of them teenagers attending summer camp, were killed by a far-right gunman in 2011. Utoya's main building, a cafeteria where 13 of the victims were shot to death, will be torn down and replaced by a cluster of new buildings surrounding a square, creating the feel of a "small village," project manager Joergen Frydnes said. The idea is to bring back the positive atmosphere that characterized Utoya before the tragedy, he said. There was no summer camp this year and it's unclear when the left-wing youth group will be back at Utoya for what used to be its annual highlight. Frydnes said it will happen, eventually.

 — At Virginia Tech, the scene of the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history, a classroom building where a student gunman killed 30 people in April 2007 is now home to the Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention. A dormitory where the two other students were killed has been turned into a residential college. The gunman killed himself. As at many other scenes of mass shootings, a memorial was created on the campus' main lawn recreating the 32 stones — one for each person killed — placed there in the hours after tragedy. 

— In Pennsylvania, an Amish community quickly decided that removing a schoolhouse where five girls were killed and five others were wounded in October 2006 by a gunman would be the best way to help bring resolution, mainly out of sensitivity to their children. Ten days after the shooting, heavy machinery moved in before dawn to demolish the West Nickel Mines Amish School, making the site indistinguishable from the surrounding pasture. New Hope Amish School, its replacement with added security features, was built a few hundred yards away and opened April 2, 2007 — six months to the day after the massacre. 

— After a man killed 16 children and a teacher at a primary school gymnasium in Dunblane, Scotland, before turning the gun on himself, authorities demolished the gym. The site of the gym is now a small garden that includes a plaque with the names of all the victims, most of whom were aged 5. A new gym was built on the school grounds. Two miles from the school, on the outskirts of the town, is a community center built after a vote on how to spend the money donated from well-wishers around the world. 

On the night of the Newtown shooting, some people came to the center and lit candles, said Stewart Prodger, a trustee of the charity that runs the center. — After two students went on a deadly rampage at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., in April 1999, students finished the year at another school. Columbine reopened in time for the following school year after extensive repairs. "The intent of the school district is to put this back as a high school," Jack Swanzy, lead architect on the refurbishing project, said at the time. "We don't want to make it a shrine to the tragedy." School district officials originally considered remodeling and reopening the second-floor library, where most of the students were killed, but parents objected and asked that it be demolished and replaced. The district eventually agreed and the old library, which sat above the school cafeteria, was removed and the space converted into an atrium. A memorial to those killed — 12 students and a teacher — opened years later on a hill above the school. The broad oval sunken into the rolling terrain still attracts people. 

On Friday, after the Newtown shooting, Amber Essman, 24, made her first visit. She was in grade school at the time of the shooting and had been hesitant to visit before because of the emotions it would bring up. She wanted to pay belated respects to those killed at Columbine and provide some comfort to their families. "They need comfort and peace today in addition to the families in Connecticut that have been affected," she said.

Holiday lights in the cities

Brussels, Belgium Photograph by Thierry Roge, Reuters/Corbis During Plaisirs d’Hiver, dramatically lit buildings and piped-in music lift spirits in the historic Grand Place. At the Christmas market, 240 chalets serve Belgian waffles and conical cuberdon candies. November 25-January 11.

Vienna, Austria Photograph by Sandra Raccanello, SIME Advent brings out Vienna’s romantic side: Garlands of bulbs glisten over thoroughfares and shops are decorated with pine branches and silk ribbons (November 26-December 31). Giant chandeliers lead to St. Stephen's Cathedral, and daily Advent concerts take place at Schönbrunn Palace.

Gothenburg, Sweden Photograph by Roberto Rinaldi, SIME The aroma of toasted almonds and glogg heralds the arrival of Saint Lucia to this charming river town illuminated all season long. Five million lights glitter on the buildings and on the 700 Christmas trees at Liseberg Amusement Park’s Christmas Market (Scandinavia’s largest, open November 18). Choirs sing and sweethearts smooch along a three-kilometer Lane of Light leading to the harbor beginning December 9.

Hong Kong, China Photograph by Francisco Martinez, Alamy It’s an over-the-top Christmas in Hong Kong, where lights twinkle along Main Street in Disneyland, the city’s malls try to outdo each other in awesomeness (Roppongi Hills Galleria created a ground-level Milky Way galaxy of lights one year), and the downtown skyline dances with colorful lights and piped-in music. The city center, crowned by a giant Swarovski crystal tree, bustles with carolers, and Victoria Harbour is fantastically illuminated. Stick around for Chinese New Year festivities—China’s traditional family holiday—for more fireworks and action. November 25–January 1.

REFERENCE:

These are the pictures I liked most from the Holiday lights at National Geographic.com. See them all:

http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/top-10/holiday-lights-photos/

School shootings and modular classrooms

Needless to say how bad I feel about the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. 

Yesterday, we picked up our youngest girl from the High school and she told us her version of the shooting, which was explained by professors as soon as they learnt about it.

My daughter made a point about security; her school has approximately 3000 students. How to control them all? I remember the old times in our Faculty, the last months of the Junta Militar, when the police opened our bags, one by one, at the entrance. Only one entrance was open. 

Of course, this is a different case.

And sometimes the shooting is provoked by somebody who has direct access to the school, it could be anybody. It usually doesn´t happen in a compact building, the schools I´ve attended at the city of Buenos Aires, are designed with cloisters and there´s one main entrance, that´s it. A worker called ¨portero¨ is in charge to open the door, and a stranger, a parent, relative, friend, can never walk farther than the hall. Until the portero finds out if somebody is waiting for him/her. 

In extended cities in USA we have this layout of open schools. See the picture above that I´ve downloaded from The Wall Street Journal.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323297104578179271453737596.html#project%3DCONSHOOTsub1215

The kinder is isolated and, without ever being there, I can tell you that this building has multiple doors.

The next picture is from Harbor View Elementary School, in Huntington Beach. I know it very well, my daughter has attended this school.

And for one or two years, she was at the side construction, the one you see at the right. You can access these ¨modular rooms¨ from the street, from the avenue, from the park. I´ve done it myself, many times.

Teachers and student inside free standing modular rooms on campus are isolated.

I was asking my daughter about metal detectors at school and she answered, how do you think they can add them with so many doors?

I understand, a metal detector is not a final solution, shootings could happen even at the street. And we are not under military control.

Today, I´m scared and I´m wondering what the authorities will do to protect our children. Please keep in mind that it is too easy to acquire a gun in USA and something has to be done about it and -even worst- the illegal purchases of guns and similar weapons.

My condolences for the loss of so many, it´s so sad...

One of the earliest urbanization: Provadia-Solnitsata (5500-4200 BC)

In a Bulgarian mound, archaeologists have found perhaps Europe's earliest massive fortifications. Photograph by V. Nikolov, Bulgarian National Institute of Archaeology/EPA

Researchers announced last week (beginning of November 2012)  they'd discovered 10-foot-tall (3-meter-tall), 6-foot-thick (1.8-meter-thick) stone walls around the settlement. The find is among the evidence for Solnitsata's oldest-town status—and further proof of an advanced Copper Age Balkan trade network, according to dig leader Vasil Nikolov, a Bulgarian archaeologist.

Long before the first wheel rolled through Europe, precious goods were likely crisscrossing the Balkans on pack animals and possibly in carts with sledlike bottoms. Salt, essential for preserving meats, joined gold and copper among the most prized cargo. And with its rare and coveted brine springs, Solnitsata, near present-day Provadiya, was a key producer, boiling off the salt and baking it into ready-to-trade blocks to supply its region with the essential mineral.

Salt wealth might explain those heavy-duty walls, which archaeologist David Anthony called "quite unusual."

"You can find evidence of fortification at many sites of this period, but they tend to be timber palisade walls. [Solnitsata] had a much more substantial, permanent, and unburnable stone wall," said Anthony, of Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York, who did not participate in the excavation.

Trees would have been plentiful in the region at the time, so the decision by Solnitsata's inhabitants to build a wall using stone is revealing, Anthony added.

"It tells you something about the level of hostilities of communities at the time," he said—and about Solnitsata's wealth.

Europe's Oldest Town?

Pottery remains at Solnitsata have been dated to 4,700 to 4,200 B.C., about a thousand years before the beginning of the Greek civilization. The site's age, its prehistoric population of about 350, and its Copper Age status as an agricultural, military, and ideological center help make Solnitsata the oldest known town in Europe, says Nikolov, whose conclusions appear in a recentpaper released by Bulgaria's National Institute of Archaeology (PDF).

But archaeologist John Chapman thinks Solnitsata housed only about 150 people. The idea that it was a town—let alone Europe's oldest town—is, in Chapman's words, "hyperbole."

Solnitsata "isn't really that different from hundreds of other Bulgarian tells [archaeological mounds created by building new structures atop older ones] that I know quite well," said Chapman, of Durham University in the U.K.

"These are not town-sized using any sort of objective criteria at all," added Chapman, who was not involved in Nikolov's study.

Anthony, of Hartwick College, also thinks the oldest-town claim is an exaggeration.

"Heck, when I was a graduate student, I worked on a ... site in what is now Serbia that covered a larger area" and was dated to an earlier time, Anthony said.

For his part, dig leader Nikolov—who could not be reached for comment—seemed to downplay his own claim last week, telling the AFP news service, "We are not talking about a town like the Greek city-states, ancient Rome, or medieval settlements but about what archaeologists agree constituted a town in the fifth millennium B.C."

EXCERPT FROM

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/11/121107-europe-oldest-town-bulgaria-walls-science/

Read the paper´s abstract by Vassil Nikolov:

http://naim.bg/contentFiles/ARH_2012_1_res1.pdf

Huntington Harbor by Vera Makianich

These pictures were taken by my daughter, Vera Makianich, at Huntington Beach Harbor.

The houses are decorated with Christmas lights, also the ships. Every year there´s a contest for the best Christmas decor. This is part of our city, Huntington Beach, in Southern CA.

Please do not reproduce without her permission.

Huntington Harbor by Vera Makianich by Vera Makianich is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

BONUS:

Derricks extract petroleum from wells drilled out under the sea on Huntington Beach in California, January 1945.

PHOTOGRAPH BY B. ANTHONY STEWART, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
http://natgeofound.tumblr.com/?source=hp_125_found_tumblr_20130806

Future homesites: landscape art or the image of a decaying economy?

Future Homesites of “The Falls” at Lake Las Vegas, Henderson, Nevada (2011). [Photo by Michael Light]

Photographer Michael Light has spent the past decade exploring the development of the American West from the perspective of helicopters and light airplanes. On recent flights above half-built resort communities outside Las Vegas, he observed a more literal connection between mining and land development:

[This was] something I’d long suspected abstractly: that the extraction industries and the habitation industries are two sides of the same coin. Seeing entire mountains graded into building pads for gated luxury homes and ‘purpose-built communities,’ only to be left to slowly revert to sagebrush in bankruptcy, was the most naked and skeletal revelation of the speculative habitation machine I’d yet seen.

Indeed, in his photographs of these sites it is sometimes difficult to discern whether you are looking at an abandoned mining operation or an aborted housing development. Only the iconic shape of a cul-de-sac tips you off.

EXCERPT FROM 

http://places.designobserver.com/feature/lake-las-vegas-photographs/37566/