Calls and News of Interest | Hour 1

agendas to two objectives. Number one, we're going to take calls as we do, and number two, I want to share some Southern California. Well it's not all Southern California. I'm going to share some design news with you, some cool things that have been happening, some interesting things that have been happening here in Southern California that I think are of interest to would be of interest to anybody,

no matter where you live. Uh So, just sharing some real interesting design news that I've been holding in my pocket for a long time, and this morning we're just going to take the time to share it with you as well. And of course, like I said, your calls by the way, phone lines open right now. Producer Richie's standing by ready to take your calls. Eight three to three two. Ask Dean. That's the number to reach me at eight three to three the numeral two, Ask Dean,

eight three three two. Ask Dean. Just checking to see if Tina was awake. Yes, she is, because she laughed at that. I have no idea why, but because she does. I keep saying it that way. All right, let me introduce our awesome team. Sam is on the board wrangling. Are not no live studio audience. How you doing? Sam? Very good this morning? Dean? How you doing? I am well, I am well, You're doing very good.

it going going pretty good? It's going pretty good. I got a good night's sleep, and it's the kind of morning that I love the best, waking up in the dark, it's cold outside. It just it's all working for me today. I just want to stand to the blankets on these days though.

up so high? It's so cold up there, it's so out there, And I'm like, yeah, that's my favorite thing. I think one of my favorite things in life is being out in inclement or you know, kind of like not ideal temperature situations and yet being protected and warm at the same time. I think the duality of that.

So yeah, I totally agree with you. It's in fact, you know, this morning I was sitting by the fire with a blanket over my leg and you know, just getting ready for the show, knowing how cold it is out. So I just love the I love both at the same time, right, I'm a definitely a get up in the mountains, get in a cabin, light the fire, know that it's freezing cold outside, and know that you are warm and snugly inside. Yeah, snugly, that's the key word, snugly.

Speaking of snugly sitting across the table from me, this is not relevant to any of you, by the way, so just back off. But but my better half, my design partner there, she is my best friend in all the world. Tina there, she is. Hi, welcome home. I beat you too, it we did. And I was also hesitating because I thought there might be an elephant. So there was an elephant. Yeah, I didn't hear it. I didn't hear it. I didn't have my friend. That elephant

just won't shut up. I have a hoodie on, and I actually have the hood on.

by talking about Palace Verdes, the peninsula. Not great news at all, the Portuguese Bend landslide that's been taking place there, and specifically, and I know there are a lot of homes that have been affected, but specifically one of the things, one of one of my favorite pieces of architecture on the planet is over there on the Palas Verdes peninsula in the Portuguese Bend area and has been completely affected by this. I want to talk about that when we return.

Plus your calls eight three to three two. Ask Dean A three three the numeral two. Ask Dean. You are home with Dean Sharp. The house whisper. Can't by Dean Sharp the house whisper. Hey, it does not matter whether your home is a condo or a cottage or a castle. I am here to help you take it to the next level. One of the ways we do that is by taking calls. There are zero calls on the callboard, and usually all I have to do is mention that before people are like, oh ho oh, now that's my chance.

So there you go. The number to reach me eight three three two. Ask Dean. Anything you want to talk about regarding your home today. I've got some news of interest to discuss on the side here, But anything that you want to talk about regarding your home, construction, design DIY issues, whatever the case may be, give me a call. If you want to design a cathedral together, we'll talk about that. If you want to uh, if you need somebody to help you fix your leaky toilet, we'll talk

about that. And how about everything in between? Eight three three two Ask Dean eight three three the numeral two Ask Dean. Traffic is light on the callboard right now. If you've tried calling before, now maybe is your chance give me a call? All right? Onward in two my first topic of the day here, I want to share some news and info about what's going on on palas Verdi's peninsula. Palasverti's peninsula, by the way, is not sliding into the ocean, okay, but a portion of it is unfortunately.

So first of all, again the way sometimes news get reported, you get the impression, like you know, with the local fires here like all of southing all of California is on fire. No, California is a very big place, So that's not the case. Tragic fires, absolutely devastating, but a fraction of the reality of what life here in southern

California is for most of us. So the same is true of the Palace Verdes Peninsula, Palasverdia Peninsula, very very large, beautiful peninsula, and for a long long time there are some very fortunate people who've been able to have their

homes on that peninsula. Part of the peninsula obviously faces the east, looks over sam Pedro and the Harbor and Long Beach, and then a good part of the peninsula faces out seaward, and on that western edge of the peninsula there is a you know, it's full of kind of canyons and ups and downs, but on that western edge there's a section known as the Portuguese Bend. The Portuguese Bend is, unfortunately, an area where hundreds of people have built their homes starting in the early nineteen fifties.

You know, gravel Road was replaced with paved road part of you know, kind of circumnavigating the peninsula, and that paved road plus all of the home development in the area, hundreds of homes, actually put pressure unknowingly on a what

we call a deep slip zone. And what that means is that when we talk about landslides and earth movement, a slip zone is basically where a whole lot of softer, looser fill and by loose, I don't mean you know, sand, okay, but technically looser phil is resting on top of you know, a large area of bedrock okay. And so you can imagine if given the right conditions, if enough weight is applied to it, or if enough moisture penetrates into that area, then the area between the looser soil and the bedrock

becomes a slip zone. And if it is an uneven zone like where if gravity has the opportunity to take hold, then you can get an entire area of land sliding, you know, ergo land slide. So Portuguese Bend is a huge area and the slip zone is very very deep, very deep. Nevertheless, it has been a landslide issue since Now this is really important that We point this out because I don't think you've heard this in a lot

of news stories about Palace thirty. But Portuguese Bend has been moving ever since those initial homes were built and the road was built the extra weight and pressure, So in other words, Portuguese Bend has been moving since the early nineteen fifties. The first recorded movements I think of

significance were noticed in like nineteen fifty five. Okay, But when we'd say movement and recorded movement of interest, we're talking about like in the course of a year, like a third of an inch, and like, okay, well, all right,

that has increased significantly, though in an amazing way. And with the ongoing slipping throughout the decades, and the ongoing pressure of the weight of structures being built and traffic on the road, and then after a long extended period of drought, the crazy winters that we've had these last couple three years, and the amount of moisture that came down hard and fast, the slip zone finally decided to give way. So we'll talk more about this on the

other side of the news. But that area of Palace Verdes is as far as most geology is concerned irrecoverable in terms of permanent structures. It's going to have to end up as a usable, accessible, open space. It would appear because I can't imagine how we're going to hold back that much soil. I'll talk to you about how much it is actually moving now. And then the point

of my story. Here a structure on the Portuguese Bend that has been near and dear to my hearts for as long as I have been in the architecture business. And what's going on with Wayfarer's chapel. All of that and more.

I'm going to get to you. But you know, I was already kind of in the flow talking about the Palace Verdes Peninsula. So I want to finish up those thoughts as I'm relaying some news and info to you. So where was I at? Oh? I think I adequately explained what's going on as far as land movement at Portuguese Bend in the Palace Vertes, A massive, massive amount of movement now taking place. Again a misnomer that it just started happening or just the last few years. I

mean it's been happening since the nineteen fifties. But annual ground movement, Tina, if you can imagine this. They thought it was bad when things were sliding an inch a year, and you think about that if it's your home an inch a year, Okay, right now it's over nine inches a year, okay, over nine inches per year. That this is shifting, and that makes everything uninhabitable. There hundreds of homes still standing. It's not that they've fallen into the sea.

But these homes have had their gas service, their electric cutoff because they are dangerous environments for those things breaking open anyway, it's a mess. So in the middle of this mess is a very very famous, very historic now. In fact, it was made a National Historic Architectural Landmark just a couple of years ago. Finally, Wayfarer's Chapel, Wayfarer's Chapel, or what some people known as the Glass Church, was

built in nineteen fifty one. It was designed by Lloyd Wright, not Frank Lloyd right, Lloyd Wright, his son, who, by the way, and this is a whole other show. In this designer's opinion, better human being and potentially a better architect than even his dad. I know that's sacrilegious to say, because everybody in the world has said that Frank Lloyd Wright is the greatest American architect of all time. And

there are reasons for that, for sure. But I'm just telling you, and it's hard to grow up, I suppose, in the shadow of somebody like that as your father. But I'm telling you, Lloyd Wright is responsible for some tremendously cutting edge, beautifully well thought out architecture, especially here in southern California, and Wayfar's Chapel is one of those things.

It is near and dear to my heart because ever since I can remember being a designer Wayfair's chapel has been an example dating all the way back to the nineteen fifties, an example of what we would call biophilic design, a love of nature and doing things architecturally in the nineteen fifties that most people still don't toy with today, at a time when it was difficult, incredibly difficult to do Wayfar's chapel. If you've never seen it, you should

look at a picture of it. It's hard to actually grasp the feel of that space just by looking at pictures, but at least you could understand it was a structure made out of glue, lambs, a lambinate wood, old growth redwood. I know it was the nineteen fifties, old growth redwood. These beautiful kind of geometric slash gothic arch structures, frames, and a lot of glass. That's essentially what it comes

down to. Some steel holding the glass panels in place, and these beautiful redwood glue laminate arches and then glass, just glass, so that when you were inside this building it's still absolutely very much felt like you were outside. And then just outside of all these glass panels in this chapel, and it's not large, by the way, it's a chapel. It seats one hundred people max. Period. That's it. It feels expansive though, why because there's a high, voluminous

ceiling and because of all the glass. So when you're outside, when you're inside Wayfar's Chapel, you have this sense that you're still outside, right, kind of like what I Leen and I were talking about earlier, the idea that you're inside, but you're outside and you've got this connection to the nature around you. And it is I mean, it has been the favorite place for weddings and special occasions and events, and it had it was just open, you would just

drive by every time. Tina and I are out on the peninsula a lot doing design stuff for clients, and you know, every time we were anywhere near it, I'm like, oh, let's just drive by the chapel and let's just park and just walk inside. Again. I love being in this space because of what it communicates, this reverence, this love

of nature. Outside. By the way, on the perimeter of the chapel, redwood trees that were planted intentionally, like these columns of redwood trees, and they really felt like columns in a cathedral. Because the space itself was made of glass. It is just a beautiful moving space to be in. And it has been this example in my heart and mind.

In fact, you know, I'm doing some writing now on my design theories and design process, and Wayfares has been one of those jumping off points of inspiration for me for what it means to bring the outside in, to have enough glass, enough window, enough vista to create and own the exterior of your land, your property inside the

house where you spend most of your time. Wayfares is just such a brilliant, brilliant example of that because it's almost a transparent chapel and there's just enough structure there to remind you that you're inside, and all this glass to embrace the outside. It was cutting edge, it was brilliant. There was nothing like it on the planet when it was created by Lloyd Wright in nineteen fifty one. And now I need to share with you it's fate which

we will talk about. Kaf I, Dean Sharp, the House Whisper, Welcome home. Thanks for joining us on the program this morning. It looks like it's going to be a lovely cool dare I say cold? I don't know. Day here in southern California. I hope wherever you are, you are warm and comfortable and taking advantage of this first weekend in February. We are about to go to the phones, but I want to finish up this story. I wanted to bring

this news. I've been wanting to talk about the landslide at Portuguese Bend in Palace Verdes for a while now, and specifically this one structure. I know there's hundreds of homes devastated, but I wanted to talk about this one historic structure there, Wayfarer's Chapel that has been there since well completed in nineteen fifty one when it first opened. And so yeah, it gave you a little bit of a history of what was going on there and with

the landslides. I got to tell you that the you know, I was just trying to go off of memory here and I wagh under reported the landslide movement. Let me, I've got some accuracy now, so listen to this. In the last five years, right the from October twenty first to October twenty second, I'm sorry, from October of twenty twenty one to October twenty twenty two. From twenty twenty one to twenty twenty two, the land was moving there at point zero eight inches per week or three inches

a year, tina three inches a year, okay. Then from twenty two to twenty three it started moving ahead half an inch a week a week, that's yeah, exactly, okay. From twenty three to twenty four, two and a third inches per week, all right, And in from March just to April of twenty twenty four seven inches a week per week. Okay. That's three hundred and sixty four inches a year of movement. Okay. So yeah, the slide is moving, Okay, it's moving. And Wayfarer's Chapel got caught in it, like

so many structures there, and so first glass panels started shattering. Second, some of the glue lambs started tweaking some of the and so the decision was made. And by the way, by the way, you know, the Swedenborgian Church which is a part of is there in palasfurd Is. You know, they're not of gold Mine, and so it's a very kind, very open organization. You know, they make money from donations

and from weddings and events and whatever. But the entire grounds there, the buildings have been essentially abandoned and condemned because they can't be. But the decision was made, Okay, we've got to get some high level architectural help here. And then the decision was made to preserve this historic structure by disassembling it. So full restorative disassemblage has taken place of Wayfarer's chapel. And now what's happening is very

very carefully removing all of those things. It will be a process of restoring obviously the glass, restoring any of the the damaged steel that holds the glass, and then I'm not exactly sure what all the pl I'm not sure if they've lost any of the redwood glue lambs or whether they've I know they were starting to be torqued. Even the foundation stone that was laid in nineteen forties has a long linear crack through at the cornerstone. So the point is this, They are now looking for a

new site to Yeah, it's like put it in our backyard. Yeah, I'm not sure that's going to work for them. They're looking for a new location that will adequately you know, they're looking for the right place for it, and the goal is that Wayfarers will be rebuilt, and it will be restored and it will be standing once again for people to come enjoy and see the magnificence of But the reality is right now, full restorative disassembly, and that's where it's at. That's where it's at, that's the status

of things there. It is going to be moved to a new location. I'm sure they're going to find something just as stunning for it to look out over, hopefully on the peninsula, but where there is no land movement on the peninsula. We'll just have to wait and see. Anyway. Such a meaningful thing to me as a designer, because the very first time I walked into it, I was so overwhelmed with how a structure can make you feel

in regards to nature. Just this reverence and this beauty, and how a small and here's the thing, how it applies to your home. How a relatively small structure. It's not a big structure at all. How a relatively small structure feels so large. Why because of its glass vistas

to everything that's around it. Therefore it owns I realized that very first day, Oh my gosh, if there's enough view out of enough window, even a small, small area can own all of the land around it, because everything you see from inside a building belongs to you in that room, no matter how small that room is. Lesson learned. Okay, when we come back, we got calls on the board. We're going to the phones. Your Home with Dean Sharp, the House Whisper on KFI.