#WFH Vacation Architecture w/ Earl Parson

Earl Parson, Architect in front of his Headquarter's Hut

Sooo...  I have been at home a lot lately.... not just from #WFH but from the present living situation that I am in.  And frankly, I needed a break, and I do not have a vacation home to get away to. A couple years ago now, I think, I found Earl Parson's Quompound on Instagram and EntreArchitect Facebook.  In fact, I think it was more from Facebook that I got to know him because he was talking about a subject which I hold near and dear to my heart (and mind) and that is the whole, 

"Should I (We) really leave Los Angeles?"

Now, for  those who have never lived in California, much less Los Angeles, it doesn't seem like it is a real inward struggle to make that decision.  In fact, if you only go by what people have told you 

"the traffic is horrible"

or what you have experienced yourself:

the traffic is horrible.

You might not know what the big deal is.  

BUT

If you have lived there, if you have worked there, 

if you have survived the four seasons of

riots, wildfires, earthquakes and mudslides

you can probably make it anywhere.  I know it is a common phrase, a well known song lyric

"If you can make it here you'll make it anywhere, it's up to you New York, New York"

But even Frank Sinatra moved to Los Angeles , along with the other famous Franks

Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Gehry

Frank Israel

My husband Frank (his name is not really Frank, it's Steve, but Bernard Zimmerman used to call him Frank because we think that he had him confused with Frank Clementi, who we went to architecture school with.  And he also used to call me Stefanie because my friend in architecture school that we used to hang around with was named Stefanie and his wife was named Stefanie, well one of them) It was only when he produced a business card that Bernard realized his mistake but he still said, 

"you're name isn't Frank?"

So, we lived in Los Angeles, more specifically the Westside, more specifically and now zip code popular Venice, 90291.  Where we lived in a cute little old courtyard vacation bungalow that was 1604 Riviera (which is where this LA Story begins) and then we moved next door to 1608 Riviera and then after a second child and some inheritance money we made the big decision to move where we could afford to buy a house and send our kids to a public school where the principal would not tell us, 

"you will not be happy here" 

and that was not in Los Angeles. 

And so when I saw Earl Parson questioning himself, along with most people who make the decision to leave, I said, 

"You can leave LA and it will be ok."

The Workshop

The Video of the Workshop Handcrafted Door Opening

Juniper and Pinon Pines in the background, Lava Rock formation with Lichen in foreground

Main House

Earl in front of Main House

Sunset from Main House Doors

Eric's Mathematical Mind and Plumbing and Electrical Organizaiton

Astronomy: Sky over Flagstaff, AZ

So, when I contacted Architect Earl Parson and asked him if he would like to do an interview with me for my blog, he said yes, (thankfully) and we met at the AIA CRAN Symposium in Scottsdale, AZ this past September for what we both thought was the first time, (Listen to the interview for the big reveal) and it has been several months and finally I was like, 

"Can I just come over there and interview you at the Quompound?  (Socially distancing, of course)

And so I drove 9 hours there, got there in the evening, we waked the property and looked at the Quonsets, drank good wine, including St. Francis Cabernet Sauvignon, ate a dinner of grilled chicken over spinach and tomatoes, gazed at the Milky Way, Saturn, Jupiter and Scorpio and numerous falling stars and comet trails, stayed overnight, drank a lot of coffee, did the interview and went property exploring (that is the biggest wonderful surprise of moving outside of the state, the affordability factor), and still answered work emails and of course hailed and bemoaned the whole sole proprietor thing: 

Should I grow bigger? 

Do I want to grow bigger? 

Is bigger always better?

Earl Parson is an architect practicing in northern Arizona, from his home base in Prescott and also the property he's developing near the Grand Canyon, outside the town of Williams.

Earl attended Washington University school of architecture in St Louis and then SCI-Arc in the early '90s after which he practiced in Los Angeles for 20 years before relocating to Arizona about two years ago. He specializes in Quonset hut homes.

Parson Architecture | Clever Moderns

Custom Residential Architecture & Design

Quonset House & Prefab Specialist

www.parsonarchitecture.com 

www.clevermoderns.com 

Interview with Earl Parson, Architect, click here

Earl's Three Classic Buildings:

The Pantheon

The Schindler House (MAK Center) photo credit: Joshua White

What is this?

 

The Outdoor Shower!!!

We took a tour of a development that never got developed!!!  For $2 mil, you get acres and acres for housing or quonsets!!!

Leaving the Quompound....

I figured that I shouldn't leave without going through Williams first, to see the train that goes to the Grand Canyon which I had seen in many AAA Westways magazines and Earl had great history on that too, so I encourage you all to look that up.  

So, I had a long drive before me and I had a truck and when I saw the sign for Arcosanti, I had to stop because I need to go there when it is no less than !00 degrees.  Yes, I am one of these people who actually goes to Arizona in the summer while they flock to California, I go east.  And little known fact, I do not like air conditioning! One summer I went to Taliesin West to teach middle schoolers about architecture for a couple days and that is when I realized that nobody is out in the middle of the day in Scottsdale. You look around and there is nobody around.  But anyways, I went in and bought a bigger bell to thank my friend who helped do the tile and didn't have a heart attack while he was doing it.  And I bought a small bell for us that sounds nicer to hang in our olive tree

I think that is a squished bug on the windshield in the middle of those beautiful clouds...

So, I think Arcosanti is one of those places where bigger wasn't neccesarily better, in all of the arc history classes Arcosanti was always depicted as it was in the model that is at Arcosanti, that of the dream of Solari, a huge self-sustaining commune that climbed up the side of a cliff and was to me, always a megastructure. In reality, the Arcosanti that is built is at a much smaller scale and actually seems more of a livable intimate community than it was proposed to be.  Now that it will be the living laboratory of the architecture school from Taliesin, we shall see how it thrives.  

And I think that you can see that moving out of LA (or anywhere) and when you listen to the interview that sometimes moving out of your comfort zone is more than OK, it is a decision that furthers your career and more importantly, your life and it isn't always easy, in fact, it isn't ever easy. sometimes you just have to make that decision that is best for you.  It means accepting things the way that they really are, and not admitting failure, but seeing that change is good for everyone involved. There are different paths that you will take on this adventure called life and sometimes where you end up is not a composition that you ever heard played before, because you wrote it yourself, listened to it and it made you happier and that is what life is about, the good, the bad, the happy the sad.  

Hope you are making the best of a #WFH situation. Peace.