Lawrence Lackey & Associates
HILLSIDE DEVELOPMENT Analytical Studies for the City of Saratoga, California, c. 1960
21 pp.; spiral bound, with photographically-printed illustrations.
10 x 14 inches overall.
Further images
An interesting and seemingly-unrecorded report analyzing the potential for hillside home development in Saratoga, CA. After the Second World War, the town of Saratoga quickly urbanized and incorporated in 1956,...
An interesting and seemingly-unrecorded report analyzing the potential for hillside home development in Saratoga, CA.
After the Second World War, the town of Saratoga quickly urbanized and incorporated in 1956, in part to avoid being annexed by nearby San Jose.The present report was created a few years later, around 1960, and speaks to the town’s rapid, postwar growth. It begins by noting, “the urbanization of land in the San Francisco Bay metropolitan area has in many locations over-run the readily buildable flat land and is encroaching steadily upon the hillside areas.” The solution, it argues, “is to persuade land developers, builders, and home-owners to abandon their insistence upon the ‘level lot,’ and to adapt their attitudes and operations to hillside conditions.” And that, “the study is an effort by the City of Saratoga, and the consultants, to illustrate techniques that could assist developers in formulating proposals that would accomplish the City’s objectives in preserving the character and beauty of the Saratoga foothills.”
This introduction is followed by a layout of the proposed site, a “Planned Community District” in the Saratoga Foothills, bounded by Surrey Lane on one side and Pierce Road on another. There are also illustrations showing maps of the site, a contour-grading study, a subdivision study, density diagrams, and a PC schematic development plan study.
After the Second World War, the town of Saratoga quickly urbanized and incorporated in 1956, in part to avoid being annexed by nearby San Jose.The present report was created a few years later, around 1960, and speaks to the town’s rapid, postwar growth. It begins by noting, “the urbanization of land in the San Francisco Bay metropolitan area has in many locations over-run the readily buildable flat land and is encroaching steadily upon the hillside areas.” The solution, it argues, “is to persuade land developers, builders, and home-owners to abandon their insistence upon the ‘level lot,’ and to adapt their attitudes and operations to hillside conditions.” And that, “the study is an effort by the City of Saratoga, and the consultants, to illustrate techniques that could assist developers in formulating proposals that would accomplish the City’s objectives in preserving the character and beauty of the Saratoga foothills.”
This introduction is followed by a layout of the proposed site, a “Planned Community District” in the Saratoga Foothills, bounded by Surrey Lane on one side and Pierce Road on another. There are also illustrations showing maps of the site, a contour-grading study, a subdivision study, density diagrams, and a PC schematic development plan study.