Post by albion on Apr 19, 2015 at 9:38pm
Just some thoughts
1. The best detail is of the commercial buildings.
2. I see at least three delivery trucks. Going from the top of the page down, label them A, B, and C. For truck A, there has to be a fairly good amount of room behind that strip mall for that truck to back in like that. Truck B seems to have a better dock, but it still would require backing up from the street, which might not get approved by the city. Truck C seems very interesting. For one thing, that would be a very dificult spot to back up a truck. Turning around in the parking lot would take a very skilled driver. And backing in from the street would be equally bad, especially with soccer moms and sports cars buzzing in and out behind you. Adding to the problem, there is another building in the lower right that may or may not have cars parking in front of it.
3. Staying with the loading dock access for truck C, I find it very odd that the drawer of the map would have the delivery trucks passing over a bridge to get to the loading dock. I think that would have been needless extra cost. Additionally, the building to the left of truck C seems to have truck access also. But if you match the scale of truck C with the access, it seems it would block that entire drive when backed up to the building. That would be poor planning wouldnt it? Who would want to lease that building in the bottom right with those type of headaches? I dont think the city would have approved that.
4. A shopping center maximizes retail space, parking space, and walkways. Garden areas and shrubs and trees are nice, but they dont bring in the money. Unless it is a highend space, I dont see why anyone would build it the way it is drawn. And by looking at the residential streets he drew, I tend to think, that according to the scale, that area wasnt highend. Unless the area is very close to something like the beach or a larger lake, then I can't see buyers paying the extra money for the location.
5. On one steet it appears that he drew the driveways. And that they came directly from the street to the front of the homes. I believe this is a sign of smaller, single family homes. Higher priced homes would have the occasional circle drive or the detached garage with the drive on the side of the house.
6. Part of the thought behind the drawing may have been the idea of building the residential areas in three phases, or dividing up the building of the homes for three seperate builders, much like the City of Irvine was built. The cul-de-sacs in the bottom right could have been the third phase, possibly still undecided upon.
7. The long street with the island cul-de-sac does seem to be a defect. He could have avoided the problem by opening it up to the street beyond. I would think more that this idea would lend itself to someone imagining the drawing as he wrote it, rather than someone copying it. It reminds me of Irvine in a way. As a target that area would have been ideal for the reason that if LE responded and drove directly to the address, he could have jumped the back fence and gotten a very good head start. Especially if he parked a car or bicycle on the street behind those few houseson the circle part of the cul-de-sac.
8. I tend to think that in the commercial area, the drawer uses circles to draw the trees and shrubs. Is it possible that the rows of X's in the cul-de-sac area is the representation for some kind protective barrier or possibly some kind of silt fence to limit the amount of soil run off into the planned lake? Or even where the propsed utility easement will be.
9. As for the writing in the lake area, I have been leaning towrd "Lake Sports" and "Take Dogs". Earons would have likely been a fan of both of those.
10. As for the freeway and the offramps, being so close to a major thoroughfare as that would be a great selling point. For anyone who has looked at the propsed plans for developments, artists quite often do not follow scale, but rather try their best to include all the good points of a development. So even though I think the development was planned for somewhere close to the freeway, I dont think it had to necessarily match how it was drawn.
11. The inclusion of the HVAC units on top of the roofs seem interesting as well. I dont think a painter would be interested in the units on the top of the roof. I would think first of a developer, the general contractor, an aspiring architect, HVAC of course, electrician, and a roofer.
12. Back to truck B. Is the building at which it is parked designed to be one business? I see some hazy lines which could be dividing it. The only rear access for the building is where truck B is stopped at the loading dock. If the building was divided, wouldnt this be a problem also? Is the drawer supposing that some of the businesses wouldn't want rear access to their shops? Even if it was on business, would the fire and safety inspectors approve this? I dont think they would. For a real development, I would think they would have had to change this. Depending on what you believe, the idea that the drawer would not have recognized the need for good Fire Dept access to the commercial center might be telling. It might also support the idea that this map wasnt copied from an existing neighborhood.
13. The sharp angular bend in the major road on the left side seems deliberate. The gradual curve in the lateral road on the top seems deliberate also. The areas where a road comes off of another with a solid line at its connection seems to be part of the creative process. As if the main roads were copied or already drawn there and he was imagining what he could place within. The residential road with the small dog leg on the bottom seems to be a defect as well. That would make for an odd entrance into the development, imo.
14. The layout of the land would determine the flow of the water that would fill the lake. I would think that whatever parcel of land this drawing was based on, it would have a small valley in the center of it. I believe that this, along with the proximity to the freeway and the detailed commercial areas, would be a very telling aspect of the true location of the map. Personally, I feel the commercial area would be the high ground, and the area to the right would be the low ground and the drainage for the lake. I also tend to think that, as the map is oriented on the website, north would be to the left, and east would be to the top of the page. I also think this would imply that the notebook was folded back while he drew it, and that the drawer was right handed. I wonder if they can check the page to determine if there is some kind of body oils or smudges on one side of the drawing more so than the other.
For these reasons above, and the fact that it was written on the paper it was, I think it was either a very early sketch of something he was working on, and therefor a great deal of changes may have been made which could make the present area unrecognizable. Or it was a class assignment. If that is the case, and LE distributed this to the teachers in and around the crime areas, I cant understand why some student or teacher doesnt recognize what school or teacher would have given this assignment.
