Four Houses Four Stories - Flipbook - Page 64
INSPIRATION
VIGNETTE
NUMBER
3
highground
Sacramento is very flat! Mountains are in the horizon and hills sur
round the region but it’s a featureless landscape. Yet, here and there
exist small places that somehow accumulated extra soil in the form of an
alluvial deposit—just high enough to be a gentle “bump” but not to be confused with any definition for a hill. Standing on one of these rare “bumps” is
Sutter’s Fort—one of the regions oldest buildings and home of the Gold Rush.
It was no accident that John Sutter built his fort there as the region was plagued
with epoch floods. Early settlers called it “high ground” and felt safe, secure and
empowered by their slight perch. Invigorated by this almost spiritual observation,
the feeling of “high ground” had to be transferred to the project site. When you
live in such a flat place, the smallest bumps are seen as ripples on a glassy pond.
In a flat
landscape,
the
smallest
bumps are
seen as
ripples on
a glassy
pond.
