The Austin Val Verde Estate and Foundation...
Gail Jansen, Executive Director-Secretary
P.O. Box 5519
Santa Barbara, CA 93150-5519
(805) 452-5743
(805) 969-2687, (805) 969-9852
gail@austinvalverdefoundation.com
"Meaning comes from individuals interacting with each other. We have to make space for it. It doesn't happen by accident; it's a commitment." Gail Jansen, Executive Director of the Austin Val Verde Foundation.
(Montecito, CA) Gail Jansen Assoc. A. I. A., awarded the prestigious "Excellence in Stewardship" in 2003 by the Cultural Landscape Foundation for her work at the Austin Val Verde Foundation, is continuing to contribute to the national trends in architecture and preservation. As the Executive Director of the Austin Val Verde Foundation in Montecito, California, Jansen is devoted to preserving not only the majestic estate's stunning physical appearance but also its original design intent. Hosting vibrant, cutting-edge intellectual, artistic and technological exchange was and is the design purpose behind the historic "Val Verde". Traditionally, America's Golden Age Estates (1890-1930) were social spaces shared by the people that shaped the world's future. Jansen is participating in that same vision by helping to establish a precedent of preserving the designers' original "design intent" as part of the defined historic cultural landscape. Austin Val Verde was designed to provide space for people and their ideas to meet, mingle and synergize. Preserving the cultural landscape means continuing to encourage people to use the architectural space for learning, discovery, and discourse. Austin Val Verde Foundation's (AVVF) mission fosters this intent, just as former owners, Dr. and Mrs. Warren Austin, did during their lifetimes. Granting global access to this beautiful place via advanced interactive web technology ensures ideas are exchanged among students and professionals that impact the future of our planet. This defines Jansen's beliefs and her organic model for managing the Austin Val Verde Foundation.
"The cutting edge for preservation and architecture is preserving original design intent because this provides a logical means to include change," explains Jansen who became involved with Austin Val Verde when she was hired by the Austins to restore the fire-damaged north wing of the house in 1988. She speaks with respect of the Austins' commitment-feelings of social responsibility-to use Austin Val Verde as a meeting place for the most fertile minds of the age. When Mrs. Austin died in 1991, Jansen worked with Dr. Austin to define and start the foundation. She began in 1992 to intensely research the design history of the estate to prepare for National Register nomination and State Landmarking, and started work on what would become her scholarly books. Lockwood DeForest, Jr., A Master Revealed was released in 2003 as a video in an effort to get scholarly information into the hands of those who asked "Why was Lockwood DeForest Jr. the leading west coast landscape architect at the turn of the century and why is it important that Austin Val Verde is his greatest work?".
Jansen points out that, at Austin Val Verde, "It's not just about buildings and grounds." She encourages people to experience the original design intent of Austin Val Verde's architect and landscape architect. "These designers specifically created beauty for the enrichment of people to meet and mix-intellectuals, artists, writers, scientists-these were 20th Century technology-friendly people thinking about the future. Austin Val Verde was designed to host people who think about the future, and that is what the foundation is committed to doing here."
"Austin Val Verde is revealed as a place unlike any other because of the way the foundation team members choose to look at it and help others discover it," Jansen explains. AVVF team members are intellectual leaders in their respective fields and in the community. At AVVF, normally unrelated subjects such as education, social sciences, art, math, computer sciences, architecture and physics are mixed together to create new ways of learning. By combining these unique mixtures of educational disciplines with newly created, patented interactive streaming video, Jansen and her team make the vision of sharing Austin Val Verde with the world possible. These new technological innovations are used to encourage public participation in informal educational forums and intellectual discourse, science projects, and artistic studies. For example, virtual science forum participants will be able to conduct studies on native steelhead trout, observing them via video streamed to their computers from the Austin Val Verde grounds.
When Jansen talks about preserving a historical site, she points out that change and the future are interchangeable words. As a preservationist, "Change is often regarded as a threat to the authenticity of the historic fabric. You cannot deal with change (the future) unless the design intent, the living energy of a place, is also preserved. Then, you can plan for the future as a logical outgrowth of the historic past. We look at Austin Val Verde and we ask, 'Why did they design it this way? Why did they make it? And these inquiries make it come alive."
Before Jansen found her work at Austin Val Verde, she became interested in architecture as an academic discipline and got a Master's degree in Architecture at UCLA, she was already deeply involved in preservation. She worked on civic projects involving Victorian architectural preservation in Denver Colorado for 18 years.
"I love drywall, plaster, and the smell of cut wood. I love working with wood and fabrics, working with the paint, stripping wood, and restoring staircases. There were no home improvement shows then; we had to figure out how to do everything from scratch," says Jansen, who innovates when others just scratch their heads. She has a passion for materials and processes; she found cast-plasterers in their eighties and studied their mold making techniques in order to preserve the elaborate decorations in Denver's Victorian houses. "There was an architectural technology from the Victorian period, a habit and practice that is a valuable and irreplaceable part of our culture today" she says. Environmental design professors often brought classes to see her works in progress.
Jansen once witnessed bulldozers level thirteen Victorian opera houses on one Denver avenue. The resultant parking lots buried the cultural dreams of miners turned millionaires, aspiring artists and enthralled audiences, forever canceling any possible educational opportunities those places might have fostered. Jansen has seen development exact a price from the future by destroying experiential spaces built in the past.
A stretch in politics as the Colorado State and ERAmerica's national campaign manager during the fight for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment taught Jansen, in her words, "Ways to get things done and ways that end in failed attempts." With each challenge, Jansen grew more adept at integrating ideas and models from disparate disciplines and forging new solutions-new models-to solve "impossible" problems. Now management abilities are her hallmark and supporting people as they explore critical thinking is her goal.
Jansen's creative, critical, strategic thinking has saved Austin Val Verde from threatened development and controversy after Dr. Austin died in 1999. For the next five years (1999-2004), the staff of the Austin Val Verde Foundation consisted only of Jansen and the four phenomenal gardeners whose family tended the grounds for three generations. Jansen found herself in one of the most legally charged situations in Santa Barbara County's history, one without resolution as far as the preservation of the estates important history is concerned. Her task became the daily gathering of material for the lawyers, stabilization of the buildings and grounds, attending to the staff's concerns, receiving the steady stream of visitors with their requests, and finally seeking an answer to how to serve the public without "public access". But just like flowers follow the rain and mud of winter, new solutions come from real world problems. Jansen began crafting a foundation built upon "cultural landscapes" instead of a "historic site", preservation of intent rather than artifacts, and the latest technology as a front door rather than the street address.
"What makes the soul sing is beauty. Beauty is at the core of Austin Val Verde," says Jansen. "Beauty has a value unto itself-this has too often been lost. In architecture, beauty has been replaced by function, economy and durability. We do a lot of things here just so they are beautiful and that makes spending time here special for anyone." Jansen intends to reach academics, intellectuals and whole groups of people who are entrepreneurial, highly creative and mindfully curious. From elementary school students to single working parents to physicists, business people and professors, Jansen hopes programs at Austin Val Verde will bring people from all parts of the global community together -- people who would not normally interact -- to exchange ideas. She believes that this is how people can strive for a beautiful society and meaningful futures. "Meaning comes from individuals interacting with each other," she says. "We have to make space for it. It doesn't happen by accident; it's a commitment."
Jansen's faith lies in people, not systems. She describes her approach to administering the foundation as "organic" and "open-handed," saying, "This institution is kept alive by people who come and invest themselves." What is Jansen's biggest challenge? Her surprising answer is, "insuring that the people who come to work here grow and realize their dreams." Her logic is characteristically clear and refreshing- and touched with beauty. "Austin Val Verde survives through people's commitments; that's what sees it through. If people have a chance to realize their dreams, they will stick with it." What dream does Jansen and her team embrace? The dream of using Austin Val Verde as it was intended is to host and promote cultural exchange across sections of society, to allow people to experience the international, connected lifestyle that Austin Val Verde fosters, to educate and promote critical thinking, to employ the most advanced technology to involve the most people, and to inspire future generations with cultural growth and discovery.
This is no pipedream; it has happened here before. "Austin Val Verde has a history of this; it comes together and happens," Jansen says with energy. "It is important to give people this."
Jansen has already begun to share her successful new models for mapping out and defining identity for cultural institutions with administrators of other historical sites globally. As with the new styles of informal education, Jansen finds that informal sharing among people in educational environments leads to a freer exchange of ideas. Many major historical sites in the world face the same tough challenges as the Austin Val Verde Foundation. They include future development of high value property, questions of public access, and impact on the environment.
Jansen is excited about sharing her discoveries, saying, "We have developed ways that cultural institutions can overcome obstacles. Informal discourse allows people to simply discuss common problems without the limitations of formal institutional protocol. Protocol and etiquette do play important roles in society; it's a matter of achieving progress by using informal approaches when they are appropriate."
The same balance of sensitivities allows Austin Val Verde to be at once a gentle place of reflection and a place of cutting-edge future realization. When asked about the balance that permeates the foundation's work-the seeming contrast between salon-style international discussion and the development of hi-tech hardware, Jansen answered, "The ability to open Austin Val Verde's door and connect people is limitless because of that technology, and promoting technological innovation is part of Austin Val Verde's intent." She had put all the creative pieces in place again. How does she do it? "That's my job!" she responds.
The Board and team at the Austin Val Verde Foundation are excited about keeping the Austin commitment to share with the public. The Foundation is a 501c non-profit organization that exists primarily on public donations and government grants.
For more information about Gail Jensen or the Austin Val Verde Foundation, call 805-969-9852.
