Why tear down the old to build the new to look like the old?

By Dan Barber

The other day I was a bit concerned about being embarrassed with an out of control freaking out because of my claustrophobia, while being locked down and pushed through an MRI machine. The nice person at the Radiology Department check in desk even asked me if I thought that I needed to be sedated… I thought about it but decided that since I drove myself to the appointment, I’d better, suck it up and pass on being drugged to avoid being held against my will. After all, the purpose of the MRI was to have my head examined… I didn’t want to give them any excuses for detaining me!

To calm my nerves I picked up an architectural magazine in the waiting room where I was instantly drawn to a story about a developer who was building “retro” farm house homes.

“Retro” a modern word for making new stuff look like old stuff… It makes sense if people like to live in houses in Southern California that look like the old-fashioned ski-huts in the Bavarian Alps and they want all of the houses in their development to fit with the make believe ambience. My family and I once lived in a house in San Diego that had upturned roof eaves in an attempt to make our house look like we lived in Japan, but the mood was ruined with the hodgepodge architectural styles of the neighborhood.

My first home with my wife, Diane, was basically a screened in porch perched atop a platform about ten feet off the ground. Because the place was also nestled in with some trees we referred to it as a tree-house. We had no need for windows because we were living in Hawaii, but we did sometimes get chilled when the temp dropped down to 72 degrees with the gentle breeze off the ocean. The place was on a small farm owned by an old Japanese couple and just across the highway was a beach that sometimes in past years was washed over by tsunami waves… ergo the purpose of living 10 feet off the ground. Everything about this place made perfect sense… it was on the beach in Hawaii, and Diane was a surfer, so no need to put on airs. Today, the sensible planning commission in Hawaii would probably not approve a “Retro” re-production of this perfect place.

But it also makes sense that community planners wouldn’t allow a large chain hotel to build a large building in our desert community that would look more at home in a New England village… Retro Spanish made more sense for our Southwest Desert Community of Twentynine Palms, but of course a large military Quonset hut would also blend in well out here.

Retro can be applied to a lot of things… Now that my wife and I are retired we combine our many medical appointments with shopping trips and dining out in the Coachella Valley on a regular basis. After one such outing the other day we had lunch at a Retro Diner at a shopping mall that was considered modern back in the good old days of the ‘70s and ‘80s.

I suppose Retro is comforting because it takes us back to those “good old days” when life was simple and made sense on a warm Hawaiian beach.

But if this rambling doesn’t make sense, then maybe having my head examined does. At our next medical/shopping/dining out trip in Palm Springs I’ll find out and let you know.