AN ORGY OF ARCHITECTS: I admit it: Architects make me twitchy. They’re a breed apart. To be an architect in Santa Barbara — but probably anywhere — you’d better bring the predatory cool of a street hustler, the visionary authority of a high priest, and the power to blow prettier purple smoke than the most accomplished beat poet. And, of course, to be able to draw the prettiest of pictures — excuse me, “vignettes” — each more bewitching and besotting than the next. All architects are starving Michelangelos hungry for their next blank canvas. In case you hadn’t figured it out, that canvas is you.
My biases were confirmed Monday evening, March 18, as eight Santa Barbara architects — having generously donated hundreds of hours of their professional time — sought to stop 17 members of the State Street Master Plan committee from hurling themselves out the nearest first-story window.
The process of creating a master plan was hatched, I think, 17 months ago, though it’s taken so long that even committee members aren’t sure anymore. Their aim is to conjure forth a long-term vision for what Santa Barbara wants its downtown to become. The existing 10-year-old model is threadbare in the extreme unless your idea of urban vibrancy is chalk drawings on the street.