Skin and Bones

Santa Rosa Plateau

On Sunday, a hot mid-August day, my wife and I visited the Santa Rosa Plateau. The Santa Rosa Plateau is a 7,000 acre ecological reserve on the eastern slope of the Santa Ana Mountain range in south Riverside County.

The following information about the reserve is from the visitor's guide, "Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Reserve," available at the visitors' center. The reserve is reached by taking Interstate 15 to Murrieta in south Riverside county. Exit Clinton Keith Road. Go west on Clinton Keith Road into the hills, pass the new housing developments. The signs are clear and will direct  you to the visitors' center.

The reserve was created in 1984, when the Nature Conservancy, in San Francisco, purchased 3,100 acres. In 1991, the County of Riverside purchased another 3,825 acres. The reserve is cooperatively managed by The Nature Conservancy, the Riverside County Regional Park and Open-Space District, the California Department of Fish and Game, and other agencies.

I am embarrassed to say that this was our first visit to the reserve. We should have visited it before. It is an extraordinary glimpse of native California habitats. The 3,000 acres of grassland is the largest remaining bunchgrass prairie in California. Other formations include Chaparral and coastal sage scrub. The bird population includes owls and hawks. The mammals include deer and mountain lions.

The reserve ranges over 2,000 feet in elevation. From the hilltops, it is possible to look east, over south Riverside County, and see what California looked like before settlement. Several vistas provide no view of the massive housing developments that sprawl across the County. Staring across reserve, across the valley, to the hills and mountains to the east, I was struck, so suddenly that I gasped, this is what Southern California looked like, 200 years ago.

The County has cut a half dozen trails of varying lengths and hiking difficulty in the reserve. We hiked the easiest trail, Granite Loop, about 2.5 miles of reasonably level ground, a wide trail, and several modest rises. The trail goes through beautiful oak groves, prairie openings, crosses a stream (water below ground at this time of year), and skirts a vernal pool.

The photographs were taken from the Granite Loop. Click on the thumbnails below for a full-size image in a popup window. Panoramas are 400 pixels wide. Portraits are 500 pixels high.

Shrines - Edward-Dean Reflection Pond

Goose Fountain

During the past thirty or so years, the reflection pool at the Edward-Dean Museum in Cherry Valley has been a favorite destination shrine for my daughter and me. We have visited the stone-bound pond perhaps a half dozen times to share a moment of quiet contemplation. The pool has come to be special place for me to realize the gratitude I feel for the unknown forces of cosmic arrangement that brought my lovely daughter to me. The garden also evokes my love of Japanese haiku poetry (though the garden and pond are classical, rather than Asian, in references). On one occasion, when my daughter was a small child, I took my favorite volume of translated haiku to the garden to read and to write.  Today, the pond has koi, whose swimming silently animates the pool. A fountain in the pool provides the quiet music of dripping water.

Over the decades, the Museum, its gardens, and its several open acres have become an increasingly singular refuge, as housing developments have encroached on the nearby fields. Yet, even today, while land developer's grading tractors and carpenter's pneumatic nail guns are within earshot, the grounds provide unobstructed view of the charming mountainside landscape, from the rising escarpments to the North, snow-covered when we visited yesterday, to Riverside County's huge MWD reservoir, Lake Perris, to the South. The small pond in the garden is not a reflecting pool, in the architectural sense of term; but it has been a place of peace and contemplation mirroring the psychic meaning of the word, reflection, and I so use label for this photo-blog.

According to a museum brochure:

"J. Edward Eberle and Dean W. Stout were long-time admirers of European decorative arts and spent much time in England and France touring and admiring the musuems and houses. In the 1950s they decided to purchase a cluster of buildings on beautifully landscaped grounds in Cherry Valley - now the home of the museum.

"In 1964 Edward Eberle and Dean Stout gifted the museum and its property to the county. With this gift a treasure trove of 16th through 19th century decorative arts was passed on for public consumption."

(Images are thumbnails. Click on the images to obtain larger pictures with more detail and better color. Pictures will load in a separate pop-up window.)

Photographs of the Reflection Pool

Benches

My Daughter

Venus Statue

View of the reflection pool, looking south with Lake Perris in the distance (in the enlarged picture, the lake is visible as the small silver streak in the center of the image)

Miscellaneous Images of other gardens at the Edward-Dean Museum

Looking through the wedding gazebo to the reflection pool

The San Bernardino mountains to the north, viewed through the wedding pagoda

Statue of a child

Urn with flowers

Two boys, hunters

Photographs of the decorative arts museum

The decorative art objects are housed in a building with several galleries. The permanent collection was selected and arranged by Eberle and Stout in the building of their own design. Since coming into County ownership, the museum administration has devoted one of the rooms to rotating exhibits meeting the broad themes of the Edward-Dean main collection. I was able to photograph some of the objects in the current temporary exhibit, but not any of the permanent collection. The objects collected by Eberle and Stout are too sensitive to light to permit flash photography. I have scanned several pictures of the gallery rooms from the museum brochure. These scanned images are of poor quality, but they serve as references.

(Temporary exhibition)

(Temporary exhibition)

Pine Room permanent gallery

"The spectacular paneling in the Pine Room was originally in the State Bedroom of Cassiobury Park, the home of the Earl of Essex. William Randolph Hearst purchased the paneling and had it installed in a home of Marion Davies. When Mr. Eberle, an admirer of this paneling, learned that Ms. Davies' home was to be demolished, he bought the paneling and had the museum, which was already  under construction, reconfigured to accommodate it."

Picture Gallery (also known as the Music Room)

Photographs of the open landscape setting of the museum

Such views as these, unobstructed by buildings, are now quite rare, even in the inland valleys of Southern California. The first photograph looks south from the museum site toward the Lake Perris reservoir. The second photograph looks north to the snow-capped San Bernardino mountains.

-----

All historical information and quotations are from the Riverside County Development Agency's brochure, "Discover the Edward-Dean Museum & Gardens." The museum is located at 9401 Oak Glen Road, Cherry Valley, California 92223. It is open mainly on weekends. Call 909-845-2626 for information. To visit the museum, take either the I-10 or Freeway 60 in Riverside Country, east toward Palm Springs, to Beaumont. Take the Highway 79 exit, in Beaumont, and go north on Beaumont Avenue, which turns into Oak Glen Road. The Museum is about miles from the freeway.

Shrines - Mt. Rubidoux

Mount Rubidoux

Mount Rubidoux is a small but prominent mountain on the south side of the Santa Ana River around which historic village of Riverside was settled in the late nineteenth century. The mountain was owned by Frank Miller, one of the city's early promoters and builder of the Mission Inn. Miller originally planned to develop the mountain for expensive homes; but this plan failed. Miller transformed the mountain into an inspirational park. He graded a road, circling around the steep hills to the top, where, in 1907, he installed a cross. On April 4, 1909, the American reformer, Jacob Riis, a friend of Miller and a guest at his Inn, proposed that Easter sunrise services be held on the mountain top.  The first ceremony was held a week later, on April 12, and a service has been held each year since.

Over the years, the top of the mountain was developed as an amphitheater with the cross and seating steps at one end and an American flag with more steps for seating at the other. The winding road became a pilgrimage road; and, indeed, offers inspiring glimpses of the cross as the hiker approaches the top.  In the 1920s, Miller added more structures along the road and at the top. Not all of these remain; but the surviving Peace Tower is a moving testament of Miller's nineteenth century faith in internationalism and the abolition of war, similar to Andrew Carnegie's views.

The mountain is now a Riverside City park. The road is no longer open to regular vehicle traffic. The narrow, paved road is a popular jogging path. There are two main routes up the mountain. The route with the least incline is exactly two miles from the park entrance to the top, hence, four miles altogether. Quarter-mile stones mark progress. There is also steeper road that is considerably shorter.  Foot trails drop down the hillsides on several sides, providing good training for athletes. One trail goes through a tunnel under the road. Small wildlife are frequently seen - skunks, rabbits, hawks, coyotes. Dogs are welcome on leashes.

We start our photo tour with view from the road as we walk toward the mountain top, since the historical purpose of the development was to provide a pilgrimage path for an important Christian holiday. Historical plaques are grouped at the bottom of this photoessay.

(The photos here are thumbnails. As usual, click on them for larger images with more detail.)

The Peace Tower

Near the Top, 1

Near the Top, 2

At the Ampitheatre

The Northeastern Side of the Amphitheater

(American flag on the promontory, Peace Tower visible to the right)

Landscape Views from the Mountain

Our next group of photographs are simply snapshots of views of the surrounding river valley and the City of Riverside. Except where noted, all photographs were taken in late morning. Clouds from several days of rain were lifting and breaking. By the time our hike was over, the sun was shining in a partly cloudy sky. The rains of late December 2004 and this week in February 2005 have made the hills as green as Ireland - a refreshing treat.

The Santa Ana River (flowing southwest within flood levees)

Looking North Across the Santa River

(Toward Rubidoux and the Flabob Airport with the white buildings in the center of the photograph)

Looking East to Riverside City

(Downtown and Civic Center, early evening photograph)

(Late morning photograph)

Cactus Gardens

One of the pleasures of a Mt. Rubidoux hike are the large fields of cactus ascending the slopes of the mountain and flowing downward into the backyard gardens of homes at the base of the mountain. We were captivated by the cactus, their insinuation into the rocky landscape, and the graffiti hikers have carved into their sturdy branches and leaves over the years. The following photos are in no particular order and are not individually titled.

Plaques

Plaques are placed around the mountain to memorialize historical and prominent personalities associated with Riverside and the mountain. Here are most of the plaques (in no particular order).

------------

Historical information from Tom Patterson, A Colony for California: Riverside's First Hundred Years (Riverside: Press-Enterprise Company, 1971), pp. 250-260.

After the Rosati Controversy

After the initial public disappointment and controversy over Rosati's "Tripod", the stalwart citizens and City Council assigned their new sculpture to civic purgatory. The sculpture was wrongly located, so that its functions - viewing Civic Mall architecture and memorializing civic aspiration - became obscured. It was placed near public rest rooms, so that the reference to civic aspiration was associated with homeless persons and urine. Landscaping nearby was allowed to grow over it, blocking the views that were the intent of the composition. These treatments achieved their purpose; visitors are unaware of the sculpture's presence. The Rosati sculpture started out as an original, first-rate piece, but it has been sized down to fit the unappreciation and inappropriate embarrassment of the community for whom it was commissioned. Contrast this treatment with the places of honor given to Rosati sculptures by other communities in the U.S. (See the linked examples following the "Triumphal Arches" article; or do a "Google" search on James Rosati sculpture.)

Letter to Editor Re: Rosati

Letter to Riverside Press-Enterprise responding to criticism of the new Rosati sculpture placed next to the recently dedicated Riverside City Hall.

To the editor:

Having viewed and studied the new sculpture by James Rosati at the south end of the Riverside Civic Mall, I understand why it has been impossible for the general public to appreciate the sculpture from the models submitted in the architectural competition and from newspaper photographs of the new installation. In a fundamental sense, Rosati has not created a "sculpture" at all; rather, he has constructed an architectural structure whose primary reference is to the architectural themes of the mall itself. He intended the construction to give the viewer an experience of the essence of the Civic Mall. This objective has been brilliantly achieved, but the achievement cannot be experienced from photographs and models. Nothing less than a leisurely visit to the sculpture and Mall will do.

Given the negative criticism of the sculpture by readers of this newspaper and the unappreciative, faintly sarcastic article by T. E. Backman ("Correction: What's cadmium orange, has 3 legs and has just been unwrapped?", November 17), I would like to explain the sculpture. I do not need to defend the work of the artist. An open-minded examination will find the sculpture defending itself.

Viewers who come to the sculpture expecting to find a traditional monumental or figurative piece will not be able to understand what they do find. Western sculpture through Rodin has been primarily concerned with mass and direct definition of space by matter. Rosati's abstract sculpture deals only indirectly with mass; its references are to the extraordinary buildings that line the mall. Moreover, traditional Western sculpture was intended by most artists to be viewed from the exterior and only from one viewpoint. Rosati's sculpture, while revealing its form from the exterior, reveals its objective only when viewed from the inside, while in motion, seeing the sculpture against the background buildings, especially the new city hall. We would better understand Rosati's work if we think of it as the architectural skeleton of a building that combines architectural features from several nearby buildings. Just like a building, the sculpture is to be walked through and experienced from the inside, with framed views of the outside urbanscape, as well as to be seen - looked into - from the outside.

Rosati's purpose has been to synthesize into a single form the main architectural themes of the entire mall, from the Mission Inn to the City Hall. These themes are the column and arch, the arch alone, the flying buttress, the cantilever overhang, and the arcade. Rosati has even woven these themes together in a way that resembles Riverside's famous Indian rain symbol.

The sculpture is composed of three independent column-and-arches, each of which touches the mall floor. The tops of two column-and-arches bow onto the third to create a tripod. Rosati has subtly hinted at his intention of unifying juxtaposed architecture by having the three columns only touch one another, rather than interlock. The resulting figure is stable by itself and suggests the artist's opinion of the stability of the architecture of the Mall. These columns and arches mimic the main theme of Riverside's Spanish revival architecture dominating the old downtown, implied in the style of University of California, Riverside, and treated in numerous private buildings and homes. Indeed, they hint at the ubiquitous Spanish-style tile roofing. The roofing is alternatively inverted little arches. The theme of the arch alone is repeated rhythmically throughout the sculpture, both upright and upside-down. Rosati has carefully designed these arches as shallow curves to follow the form of the arches in the City Hall.

The western column is drawn out and slanted strongly to become a flying buttress. The buttress is a traditional element of European architecture, with structural purpose in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris and a decorative purpose in the Mission Inn. The building against which the flying buttress presses is not present in the sculpture, of course, but is implied by the effort of the shaft. This is what I mean by saying that the primary reference of the sculpture is to mass not actually present in the sculpture itself: the mass of the mall buildings. By putting a buttress in the sculpture, Rosati reminds us of the Mission Inn at the other end of the mall, and so brings together in one form and one moment of perception both ends of the mall. The buttress as a form is itself a variation on the column-and-arch, so Rosati has shown us how such apparently different forms as the city hall and the Inn are really variations on a theme.

The cantilever overhang appears in the sculpture as the east wind of the buttress column. This cantilever mimics one main design feature of the city hall, whose exterior walls are supported by cantilevers over the support columns of the building. Rosati has gracefully integrated the structural function of the cantilever with the flow of the shallow arches (by placing an upside-down arch at the top of the sculpture), and thereby shows us the unity of the architectural forms in the city hall.

The arcade is structurally and dynamically revealed by the openness of the sculpture. To walk inside the sculpture is to walk beneath columns and arches, just like walking through the Spanish-style arcades in the downtown and the arcade along each floor of the City Hall. Moreover, the openness of the sculpture to pedestrian traffic references the plaza level of the City Hall, which we can now understand as a broadened version of the arcade design.

The cadmium orange color (which does not carry the heavy black pigment of true red) further unifies the sculpture and exemplifies the principles of the Mall. Not only is it in the tonal range of the City Hall facade, but it is the same color as the Spanish roof tile.

Finally, Rosati has composed these themes so as to remind us of the Indian rain symbol, the city's official symbol. The three column-and-arches bend together to shape the three crosses, somewhat askew, of the rain symbol. This design is a final gesture indicating the unity of the symbol.

It is the arcade-design of the sculpture that announces the artist's intention most clearly. Rosati invites the viewer to walk in his sculpture and turn around and around, to see the design of his composition reflect the architectural features of the mall and the city hall in the background. This dynamic experience is the meaning of the sculpture. Rosati wants us to understand that our old downtown mall is not simply a place or a setting. It is an experience, a moment of consciousness of the uniqueness of our city's heart. As Rosati was quoted as saying by T. E. Foreman, the mall is "quiet and serene, a place where people can gather." As an artist, no doubt he would be happy to have people gather and converse by his sculpture, their experiences focussed at it, just as it focuses our experience of the Mall.

We should be pleased with Rosati's effort on behalf of Riverside. It was a true measure of the stature of this celebrated artist to take his commission seriously. He came to Riverside. In a brief visit, he was able to perceive the architectural unity at the heart of the city. It is likewise a measure of his capability as an artist that he was able to synthesize the architectural themes into a simple, interesting, and provocative form.

Is the sculpture "great"? I don't believe this question is important. The sculpture exemplifies the distinctiveness of Riverside, unifies its central civic plaza, and intentionally defines an experience of the city for its citizens. This sculpture would not fit anywhere else in the world. In so reminding us of what is important and unique in the city, the sculpture is worth far more than the city paid for it. It is, as the city is, priceless.