Folks I Admire, post #1

From 1962 (or 1966, depending on the source) to 1980 the only black female licensed architect in California was Norma Sklarek. She was born in New York, educated at Barnard College and Columbia. In 1954 she took the entire seven-part architecture exam in 4 days and passed on the first try. She worked for the Dept. of Public Works, Skidmore Owings & Merrill, moved to LA to work at Gruen & Assoc. She worked there for 20 years, becoming their first female and first black director. In 1985 she was elected a fellow of the AIA and she co-founded the first all-female architect firm - Siegel, Sklarek & Diamond. She retired in 1992 and was appointed to the California Architects Board where, among other things, she was a juror for the CA Architect Exam.

Today there are only about 400 black women architects.  This is such a tiny fraction of the industry, it is sad. Detroit's Tiffany Brown wants to change this through recruitment and mentoring. Check out her Urban Arts Collective, and Hip-Hop Architecture camps! Having grown up just outside of Detroit with a dad who taught Urban Planning, I heartily support Brown's approach to recruiting change-makers and architectural designers from the people who live there.

Resources

Biography.com editors (2014) "Norma Sklarek Biography

https://www.biography.com/people/norma-sklarek-7326

Morton, Patricia "Pioneering Women of American Architecture"

https://pioneeringwomen.bwaf.org/norma-merrick-sklarek/

NCARB (2018) "The Distinguished Career of Norma Sklarek
https://www.ncarb.org/blog/the-distinguished-career-of-norma-sklarek

Sisson, Patrick (2017) "400 Forward wants to train the next generation of black women architects" Curbed. https://www.curbed.com/2017/10/26/16551576/architecture-diversity-400-forward-tiffany-brown

Quick Book Repair

I am not a professional book conservator. This is just a quick look at a simple repair for minor rips to paperback books that have been loved to pieces. The book above is one example. It has been read so much the back cover came off, with a few pages still clinging to it.

Do not use masking tape, Scotch tape, duct tape, painter's tape, electrical tape or washi tape. These all have chemicals that will off-gas and make the paper even more fragile than it already is. If you want to pass this beloved favorite to future generations, use the tape shown below.

Now, I found this box buried in the back of desk drawer that I inherited along with my current job. I have no idea how old it is. However, I do know where to get it. Here or here are two good places. I bet if you look hard enough you can find others.

The tricky part about this tape comes from how thin it is. Threading it through the separator is annoying, but will help in the long run. Trust me.

Hard to see - since I was using a white table - but there is a piece of archival tape cut to size and placed half on the back of the book.

I realigned the cover and pressed the tape down firmly. I also run my fingernail or a bone folder over the tape to be certain it holds.

I added a second piece to the inside seam.

Then to be sure it holds tight, I added two more pieces to the outer cover. One overlaps the first piece, holding it on to the spine better. The last one overlaps that and reinforces the front cover. The front had not fallen off, but on a well-loved volume like this, it can't hurt to prepare for the worst.

There are some cool tutorials of more complex repairs on youtube. You may also be able to find someone near you who can fix trickier wear & tear. Happy reading! 

Library Fun Fact #5

This weekend marks the 10th anniversary of the removal of the Berkeley Tree sitters. For 21 months, the longest urban tree-sit, a group of concerned citizens literally took to the trees. A grove of coast live oak, pine, and other trees were slated for demolition to make room for an expansion of the University of California, Berkeley athletic stadium. I remember driving underneath them, past the police cars and the shouting. I remember the road getting narrower as first one fence, and then a second was erected around the grove. In this case, fences did not make good neighbors.

According to Berkeley City law, it is unlawful to remove coast live oaks. The University, however, is state-owned land and a judicial exception was made. Most of the tree-sitters either tied themselves to the trunk of the tree they were in or lived on a 6'x6' platform nailed to branches. Food and other necessities were provided by the ground help and transported by buckets. This, to me, is no way to live in a tree. 

Charlie Greenwood would agree. A retired Silicon Valley engineer,  Greenwood revolutionized treehouse building with his invention of the GL bolt. A 6" long, nearly 2" thick bolt sticks out of the tree like a new limb and is strong enough to hold 9,000 pounds. This allows for treehouses to be built in the space between two or more trees, dividing the weight more evenly. He has even gone so far as to write up building code specifications for treehouses. 

Spend your next vacation reliving your childhood dream of escaping into the trees:  http://treehouses.com/joomla/index.php/treesort/accommodations 

References

Dalton, Melissa (2016) "The Architects of the Treehouse Movement" 1859 Oregon's Magazine  https://1859oregonmagazine.com/think-oregon/art-culture/architects-avant-garde-tree-house-movement/

Jolin, Amy (2008?) All About Treehouses https://www.mondopub.com/Pages/articles/Days_9-12_All_About_Treehouses_p14-23.pdf

Nelson, Pete (2004) Treehouses of the World New York: Abrams.

Peacemaker Treehouses (2008) So You Want to Install a Garnier Limb?  https://peacemakertreehouses.wordpress.com/tag/greenwood/

treehouseengineering.com - Greenwood's website, complete with proposed treehouse building code.

Wikipedia links
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_California,_Berkeley_oak_grove_controversy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treehouse_attachment_bolt