Educationally Speaking -- Gay Geiser-Sandoval

State Sen. Ross Johnson recently proposed legislation to promote

perfect penmanship. He wants schools to put an emphasis on making sure we

can decipher each other’s written communication. I thought of this when

we viewed the special exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. If

the drawings were presented in any type of Rorschach test, an observer

would never guess that they were supposed to be buildings.

The Guggenheim is shaped in a spiral fashion inside, so that we were

able to witness the growth of Santa Monica architect Frank Gehry from the

1970s to the present as we rose to higher elevations. Each project

contained the first early sketch, models at various stages, blueprints

and videos of the finished product. I heard a visitor remark that no

young architect would ever design the same after seeing this exhibition.

Heck, I could be Frank Gehry. I could draw a bunch of squiggles on a

piece of paper that looked like the first sketch of each project. I would

just need the right assistants to turn it into a building that wouldn’t

fall down and would put its mark on the city and the world.

The first time I met Frank Gehry, he wasn’t world-renowned. I was part

of the 1978 Student Bar Assn. at Loyola Law School, and Loyola was

splitting at the seams. A committee of students, faculty and

administration was formed to work with the architect, and I ended up on

the committee. (I was in training for the PTA.)

I figured students were just on the committee for show, and no one

would really care what they had to say. I’m not sure if Frank started

joining my law school friends and I every Thursday for our lunch bunch

just as a respite from the office or to really find out what was wrong

with the buildings from a student’s perspective, but we had a lot of fun.

None of us students had much concept of what an architect did, and

certainly, we didn’t know the guy was famous.

One day, we got to go to his office in Santa Monica. The students

would have gone anywhere for a free lunch, but it was also the unveiling

of the model for the committee. Some of the faculty almost fainted when

they saw some of the less than traditional ideas scheduled for the

campus. The students were thrilled they would have a place to sit out of

the rain. If you get a chance, go visit Loyola Law School or Disney Hall

in L.A., and know that at least one guy with poor penmanship has made his

mark.

***

As you know, the city of Costa Mesa is in the midst of determining

what to do after commissioning a library study. The city of Newport Beach

is contemplating serving coffee in its library. We decided to see what

the ultimate central library was like. The New York City Library is

bordered by two big lions, large rows of stairs and two smaller snack

shops with quiet zones in which to eat, read and commune with nature

(some pigeons). The inside had museum-quality exhibits on some floors and

massive reading and computer rooms on others.

I love the idea of a big central library. All we have to do is get the

rest of Orange County to go along with putting a huge library here, then

hook up the county to reliable, cheap, fast public transportation that

could get kids to it.

Since Orange County has a lot more square footage than Manhattan, I

once again propose that we use our school library sites as satellite city

libraries, available for after-school and evening use. With each student

required to volunteer 40 hours of community service to graduate from high

school, we could put that population to work running the library, helping

with homework and presenting story times. Maybe we could get a concrete

goat or seal to put in front of each library’s door.

* GAY GEISER-SANDOVAL is a Costa Mesa resident. Her column runs

Tuesdays. She may be reached by e-mail at o7 GGSesq1@aol.comf7 .