Home&Real Estate Home Front
TREE WALK ... Arborist Chris Regan will lead a free tree walk through the Southgate neighborhood on Saturday, Oct. 8, 10 a.m. to noon, meeting near the Palo Alto High School parking lot, Churchill at Castilleja avenues, Palo Alto. Information: www.canopy.org or call 650-964-6110
OPEN HOME GUIDE 50
Also online at PaloAltoOnline.com
MATCHING
garden and architecture
LANDSCAPE DESIGNER SHOWS HOW TO EX TEND LIVING SPACE OUTDOORS
HERBS AND GREENS ... Jody Main, who specializes in designing vegetable, herb and berry gardens, will teach an “Herbs and Greens Workshop” on Saturday, Oct. 8, from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Common Ground Education Center, 559 College Ave., Palo Alto. The class includes tasting samples, plant lists and recipes as well as plants and herbs to take home. The cost is $38, plus a $7 supplies fee. Information: 650-493-6072 or www. commongroundinpaloalto.org A COLORFUL FALL ... Mimi Clarke will teach an outdoor class on “Autumn Color Maintenance” on Wednesday, Oct. 12, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Filoli, 86 Cañada Road, Woodside. Clarke will cover good gardening practices, including grooming, selecting and planting bulbs and annuals, pruning, mulching and composting. The cost is $45 for nonmembers, $35 for members. Information: 650364-8300 or www.filoli.org
Send notices of news and events related to real estate, interior design, home improvement and gardening to Home Front, Palo Alto Weekly, P.O. Box 1610, Palo Alto, CA 94302, or email cblitzer@ paweekly.com. Deadline is Thursday at 5 p.m.
by David Ruiz magine a house where no flat-screen TV dominates the living room. Instead, seating faces the sliding-glass doors, looking out on a backyard that is integrated with the home’s open architecture. Allison Olson, of Dreamscapes Landscape Design, will be offering a class at Palo Alto’s Gamble Garden, on Oct. 15, informing homeowners on low-cost design changes to transform and expand their living space. Her lecture will cover mid-century housing and gardening, including Eichler homes. Joseph Eichler, 1950s real estate developer, borrowed from the architectural stylings of Frank Lloyd Wright to bring cohesive, unifying design to the masses. These kinds of design gestures involved atriums, foyers, a closeness to the land and open spaces lacking specific designations from one another. Walls, opaque doors and low barriers are absent in these houses — the user chooses how to occupy the space.
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Allison Olson
Allison Olson
LEADING THE NATION ... Alain Pinel Realtors ranked high in 2010 real estate sales, according to the Wall Street Journal and REAL Trends, Inc. Among the top agents (in the nation) are Mary Gullixson from APR Menlo Park, ranked No. 2 (up from No. 4 last year) with $226 million in sales; Kathy Bridgman and Judy Bogard-Tanigami, both from the APR Los Altos office, ranked No. 47 and No. 122 respectively; and Sherry Bucolo, from APR Palo Alto, ranked No. 221. Top teams included Caitlin and Gloria Darke, from APR Menlo Park, ranked No. 185; and Steve TenBroeck and Jeff Stricker, from the Palo Alto and Los Altos offices, ranked No. 250. Information (and the full list): http://realtrends.com N
Allison Olson
LET THEM EAT GARBAGE ... A water-efficient landscape workshop — “Let Worms Eat Your Garbage” — will be offered Saturday, Oct. 15, from 10 a.m. to noon, by the City of Palo Alto Utilities and the Bay Area Water Supply and Conservation Agency. The free workshop emphasizes soil health and water conservation while reducing waste and preventing pollution. Information (and to register and find out location): 650-496-5910 or www. cityofpaloalto.org/bayfriendly
At top: A sunlit, red atrium draws attention from the eye and invites the user to move forward through the loosely defined space, accented by sliding glass, transparent doors. Above: Low, wooden fences create a designated space outside with a tree as the centerpiece. The outside of the house becomes just as intriguing as the inside. Left: Succulent plants line an outside patio with seating. Visible beyond is the house, complete with floor-to-ceiling glass windows and sliding doors, increasing the relationship between indoor and out.
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