Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp The
Speaker 1: House Whisper on demand on the iHeart Radio appf I
Speaker 1: AM six forty live streaming in HD everywhere on the
Speaker 1: iHeart Radio app. Hey, welcome home. I'm Dean Sharp the
Speaker 1: House Whisper. I design custom homes, I build custom homes,
Speaker 1: and today and this weekend, most importantly, I am your
Speaker 1: guide to better understanding that place where you live. Today
Speaker 1: on the show, I've been looking forward to this for
Speaker 1: a while. Today on the show, number we have two
Speaker 1: agendas to two objectives. Number one, we're going to take
Speaker 1: calls as we do, and number two, I want to
Speaker 1: share some Southern California. Well it's not all Southern California.
Speaker 1: I'm going to share some design news with you, some
Speaker 1: cool things that have been happening, some interesting things that
Speaker 1: have been happening here in Southern California that I think
Speaker 1: are of interest to would be of interest to anybody,
Speaker 1: no matter where you live. Uh So, just sharing some
Speaker 1: real interesting design news that I've been holding in my
Speaker 1: pocket for a long time, and this morning we're just
Speaker 1: going to take the time to share it with you
Speaker 1: as well. And of course, like I said, your calls
Speaker 1: by the way, phone lines open right now. Producer Richie's
Speaker 1: standing by ready to take your calls. Eight three to
Speaker 1: three two. Ask Dean. That's the number to reach me
Speaker 1: at eight three to three the numeral two, Ask Dean,
Speaker 1: eight three three two. Ask Dean. Just checking to see
Speaker 1: if Tina was awake. Yes, she is, because she laughed
Speaker 1: at that. I have no idea why, but because she does.
Speaker 1: I keep saying it that way. All right, let me
Speaker 1: introduce our awesome team. Sam is on the board wrangling.
Speaker 1: Are not no live studio audience. How you doing? Sam?
Speaker 1: Very good this morning? Dean? How you doing? I am well,
Speaker 1: I am well, You're doing very good.
Speaker 2: No, I had a wonderful evening last night with my
Speaker 2: son and now he's here with me at the station.
Speaker 1: Anytime I can bring him here in this station is
Speaker 1: a good day. See that's awesome. That's awesome, all right.
Speaker 1: As I said, Producer Richie's standing by ready to take
Speaker 1: your calls. Nowhere near a microphone. But he's signing to
Speaker 1: me right now that all is well, and he's waiting
Speaker 1: for your first call. And of course, Eileen Gonzalez at
Speaker 1: the news desk, good morning, Eileen, good morning, Dean. How's
Speaker 1: it going going pretty good? It's going pretty good. I
Speaker 1: got a good night's sleep, and it's the kind of
Speaker 1: morning that I love the best, waking up in the dark,
Speaker 1: it's cold outside. It just it's all working for me today.
Speaker 1: I just want to stand to the blankets on these
Speaker 1: days though.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: But see, that's the thing I was telling some friends
Speaker 1: last week because they were noticing that I was coming
Speaker 1: on that and like the fact that, see when is it?
Speaker 1: Is it early July? Yeah, that's when the trail opened
Speaker 1: In early July. We've got another backpacking trip in the
Speaker 1: Sierra scheduled, and people are like, why would you go
Speaker 1: up so hot? You know, we're going to be up
Speaker 1: like an eleven thousand feet and why would you go
Speaker 1: up so high? It's so cold up there, it's so
Speaker 1: out there, And I'm like, yeah, that's my favorite thing.
Speaker 1: I think one of my favorite things in life is
Speaker 1: being out in inclement or you know, kind of like
Speaker 1: not ideal temperature situations and yet being protected and warm
Speaker 1: at the same time. I think the duality of that.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I totally agree with you. It's in fact,
Speaker 1: you know, this morning I was sitting by the fire
Speaker 1: with a blanket over my leg and you know, just
Speaker 1: getting ready for the show, knowing how cold it is out.
Speaker 1: So I just love the I love both at the
Speaker 1: same time, right, I'm a definitely a get up in
Speaker 1: the mountains, get in a cabin, light the fire, know
Speaker 1: that it's freezing cold outside, and know that you are
Speaker 1: warm and snugly inside. Yeah, snugly, that's the key word, snugly.
Speaker 1: Speaking of snugly sitting across the table from me, this
Speaker 1: is not relevant to any of you, by the way,
Speaker 1: so just back off. But but my better half, my
Speaker 1: design partner there, she is my best friend in all
Speaker 1: the world. Tina there, she is. Hi, welcome home. I
Speaker 1: beat you too, it we did. And I was also
Speaker 1: hesitating because I thought there might be an elephant. So
Speaker 1: there was an elephant. Yeah, I didn't hear it. I
Speaker 1: didn't hear it. I didn't have my friend. That elephant
Speaker 1: just won't shut up. I have a hoodie on, and
Speaker 1: I actually have the hood on.
Speaker 2: You do you?
Speaker 1: That's why? Okay, your interesting profile there in the darkness.
Speaker 1: You kind of look like the unibomber with them the
Speaker 1: hoodie and those headphones on at the same time. So
Speaker 1: how you doing I'm good, all right, all right, all
Speaker 1: is well? Do this okay. So I'm going to wait
Speaker 1: for calls to show up on the board, and in
Speaker 1: the meantime while we're waiting, when we come back from
Speaker 1: the news, I'm gonna start sharing some items of interest
Speaker 1: to you that I've put together. In fact, let's start
Speaker 1: by talking about Palace Verdes, the peninsula. Not great news
Speaker 1: at all, the Portuguese Bend landslide that's been taking place there,
Speaker 1: and specifically, and I know there are a lot of
Speaker 1: homes that have been affected, but specifically one of the things,
Speaker 1: one of one of my favorite pieces of architecture on
Speaker 1: the planet is over there on the Palas Verdes peninsula
Speaker 1: in the Portuguese Bend area and has been completely affected
Speaker 1: by this. I want to talk about that when we return.
Speaker 1: Plus your calls eight three to three two. Ask Dean
Speaker 1: A three three the numeral two. Ask Dean. You are
Speaker 1: home with Dean Sharp. The house whisper. Can't by Dean
Speaker 1: Sharp the house whisper. Hey, it does not matter whether
Speaker 1: your home is a condo or a cottage or a castle.
Speaker 1: I am here to help you take it to the
Speaker 1: next level. One of the ways we do that is
Speaker 1: by taking calls. There are zero calls on the callboard,
Speaker 1: and usually all I have to do is mention that
Speaker 1: before people are like, oh ho oh, now that's my chance.
Speaker 1: So there you go. The number to reach me eight
Speaker 1: three three two. Ask Dean. Anything you want to talk
Speaker 1: about regarding your home today. I've got some news of
Speaker 1: interest to discuss on the side here, But anything that
Speaker 1: you want to talk about regarding your home, construction, design
Speaker 1: DIY issues, whatever the case may be, give me a call.
Speaker 1: If you want to design a cathedral together, we'll talk
Speaker 1: about that. If you want to uh, if you need
Speaker 1: somebody to help you fix your leaky toilet, we'll talk
Speaker 1: about that. And how about everything in between? Eight three
Speaker 1: three two Ask Dean eight three three the numeral two
Speaker 1: Ask Dean. Traffic is light on the callboard right now.
Speaker 1: If you've tried calling before, now maybe is your chance
Speaker 1: give me a call? All right? Onward in two my
Speaker 1: first topic of the day here, I want to share
Speaker 1: some news and info about what's going on on palas
Speaker 1: Verdi's peninsula. Palasverti's peninsula, by the way, is not sliding
Speaker 1: into the ocean, okay, but a portion of it is unfortunately.
Speaker 1: So first of all, again the way sometimes news get reported,
Speaker 1: you get the impression, like you know, with the local
Speaker 1: fires here like all of southing all of California is
Speaker 1: on fire. No, California is a very big place, So
Speaker 1: that's not the case. Tragic fires, absolutely devastating, but a
Speaker 1: fraction of the reality of what life here in southern
Speaker 1: California is for most of us. So the same is
Speaker 1: true of the Palace Verdes Peninsula, Palasverdia Peninsula, very very large,
Speaker 1: beautiful peninsula, and for a long long time there are
Speaker 1: some very fortunate people who've been able to have their
Speaker 1: homes on that peninsula. Part of the peninsula obviously faces
Speaker 1: the east, looks over sam Pedro and the Harbor and
Speaker 1: Long Beach, and then a good part of the peninsula
Speaker 1: faces out seaward, and on that western edge of the
Speaker 1: peninsula there is a you know, it's full of kind
Speaker 1: of canyons and ups and downs, but on that western
Speaker 1: edge there's a section known as the Portuguese Bend. The
Speaker 1: Portuguese Bend is, unfortunately, an area where hundreds of people
Speaker 1: have built their homes starting in the early nineteen fifties.
Speaker 1: You know, gravel Road was replaced with paved road part
Speaker 1: of you know, kind of circumnavigating the peninsula, and that
Speaker 1: paved road plus all of the home development in the area,
Speaker 1: hundreds of homes, actually put pressure unknowingly on a what
Speaker 1: we call a deep slip zone. And what that means
Speaker 1: is that when we talk about landslides and earth movement,
Speaker 1: a slip zone is basically where a whole lot of softer,
Speaker 1: looser fill and by loose, I don't mean you know, sand, okay,
Speaker 1: but technically looser phil is resting on top of you know,
Speaker 1: a large area of bedrock okay. And so you can
Speaker 1: imagine if given the right conditions, if enough weight is
Speaker 1: applied to it, or if enough moisture penetrates into that area,
Speaker 1: then the area between the looser soil and the bedrock
Speaker 1: becomes a slip zone. And if it is an uneven
Speaker 1: zone like where if gravity has the opportunity to take hold,
Speaker 1: then you can get an entire area of land sliding,
Speaker 1: you know, ergo land slide. So Portuguese Bend is a
Speaker 1: huge area and the slip zone is very very deep,
Speaker 1: very deep. Nevertheless, it has been a landslide issue since
Speaker 1: Now this is really important that We point this out
Speaker 1: because I don't think you've heard this in a lot
Speaker 1: of news stories about Palace thirty. But Portuguese Bend has
Speaker 1: been moving ever since those initial homes were built and
Speaker 1: the road was built the extra weight and pressure, So
Speaker 1: in other words, Portuguese Bend has been moving since the
Speaker 1: early nineteen fifties. The first recorded movements I think of
Speaker 1: significance were noticed in like nineteen fifty five. Okay, But
Speaker 1: when we'd say movement and recorded movement of interest, we're
Speaker 1: talking about like in the course of a year, like
Speaker 1: a third of an inch, and like, okay, well, all right,
Speaker 1: that has increased significantly, though in an amazing way. And
Speaker 1: with the ongoing slipping throughout the decades, and the ongoing
Speaker 1: pressure of the weight of structures being built and traffic
Speaker 1: on the road, and then after a long extended period
Speaker 1: of drought, the crazy winters that we've had these last
Speaker 1: couple three years, and the amount of moisture that came
Speaker 1: down hard and fast, the slip zone finally decided to
Speaker 1: give way. So we'll talk more about this on the
Speaker 1: other side of the news. But that area of Palace
Speaker 1: Verdes is as far as most geology is concerned irrecoverable
Speaker 1: in terms of permanent structures. It's going to have to
Speaker 1: end up as a usable, accessible, open space. It would
Speaker 1: appear because I can't imagine how we're going to hold
Speaker 1: back that much soil. I'll talk to you about how
Speaker 1: much it is actually moving now. And then the point
Speaker 1: of my story. Here a structure on the Portuguese Bend
Speaker 1: that has been near and dear to my hearts for
Speaker 1: as long as I have been in the architecture business.
Speaker 1: And what's going on with Wayfarer's chapel. All of that
Speaker 1: and more.
Speaker 2: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 2: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty live streaming and HD everywhere on
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app. Dean Sharp the house whisper with you
Speaker 1: this morning? Is this the first day of February? Holy cow?
Speaker 1: Where'd January go? Where's my life gone? What is the
Speaker 1: meaning of what's it all about? Tina? All right? Now,
Speaker 1: we're not gonna answer those questions today, but I am
Speaker 1: gonna help you with your home and we're talking about
Speaker 1: some interesting things. And hey, look at that a couple
Speaker 1: of calls on the There you go, you guys, hang tight.
Speaker 1: I'm going to get to you. But you know, I
Speaker 1: was already kind of in the flow talking about the
Speaker 1: Palace Verdes Peninsula. So I want to finish up those
Speaker 1: thoughts as I'm relaying some news and info to you.
Speaker 1: So where was I at? Oh? I think I adequately
Speaker 1: explained what's going on as far as land movement at
Speaker 1: Portuguese Bend in the Palace Vertes, A massive, massive amount
Speaker 1: of movement now taking place. Again a misnomer that it
Speaker 1: just started happening or just the last few years. I
Speaker 1: mean it's been happening since the nineteen fifties. But annual
Speaker 1: ground movement, Tina, if you can imagine this. They thought
Speaker 1: it was bad when things were sliding an inch a year,
Speaker 1: and you think about that if it's your home an
Speaker 1: inch a year, Okay, right now it's over nine inches
Speaker 1: a year, okay, over nine inches per year. That this
Speaker 1: is shifting, and that makes everything uninhabitable. There hundreds of
Speaker 1: homes still standing. It's not that they've fallen into the sea.
Speaker 1: But these homes have had their gas service, their electric
Speaker 1: cutoff because they are dangerous environments for those things breaking
Speaker 1: open anyway, it's a mess. So in the middle of
Speaker 1: this mess is a very very famous, very historic now.
Speaker 1: In fact, it was made a National Historic Architectural Landmark
Speaker 1: just a couple of years ago. Finally, Wayfarer's Chapel, Wayfarer's Chapel,
Speaker 1: or what some people known as the Glass Church, was
Speaker 1: built in nineteen fifty one. It was designed by Lloyd Wright,
Speaker 1: not Frank Lloyd right, Lloyd Wright, his son, who, by
Speaker 1: the way, and this is a whole other show. In
Speaker 1: this designer's opinion, better human being and potentially a better
Speaker 1: architect than even his dad. I know that's sacrilegious to say,
Speaker 1: because everybody in the world has said that Frank Lloyd
Speaker 1: Wright is the greatest American architect of all time. And
Speaker 1: there are reasons for that, for sure. But I'm just
Speaker 1: telling you, and it's hard to grow up, I suppose,
Speaker 1: in the shadow of somebody like that as your father.
Speaker 1: But I'm telling you, Lloyd Wright is responsible for some
Speaker 1: tremendously cutting edge, beautifully well thought out architecture, especially here
Speaker 1: in southern California, and Wayfar's Chapel is one of those things.
Speaker 1: It is near and dear to my heart because ever
Speaker 1: since I can remember being a designer Wayfair's chapel has
Speaker 1: been an example dating all the way back to the
Speaker 1: nineteen fifties, an example of what we would call biophilic design,
Speaker 1: a love of nature and doing things architecturally in the
Speaker 1: nineteen fifties that most people still don't toy with today,
Speaker 1: at a time when it was difficult, incredibly difficult to
Speaker 1: do Wayfar's chapel. If you've never seen it, you should
Speaker 1: look at a picture of it. It's hard to actually
Speaker 1: grasp the feel of that space just by looking at pictures,
Speaker 1: but at least you could understand it was a structure
Speaker 1: made out of glue, lambs, a lambinate wood, old growth redwood.
Speaker 1: I know it was the nineteen fifties, old growth redwood.
Speaker 1: These beautiful kind of geometric slash gothic arch structures, frames,
Speaker 1: and a lot of glass. That's essentially what it comes
Speaker 1: down to. Some steel holding the glass panels in place,
Speaker 1: and these beautiful redwood glue laminate arches and then glass,
Speaker 1: just glass, so that when you were inside this building
Speaker 1: it's still absolutely very much felt like you were outside.
Speaker 1: And then just outside of all these glass panels in
Speaker 1: this chapel, and it's not large, by the way, it's
Speaker 1: a chapel. It seats one hundred people max. Period. That's it.
Speaker 1: It feels expansive though, why because there's a high, voluminous
Speaker 1: ceiling and because of all the glass. So when you're outside,
Speaker 1: when you're inside Wayfar's Chapel, you have this sense that
Speaker 1: you're still outside, right, kind of like what I Leen
Speaker 1: and I were talking about earlier, the idea that you're inside,
Speaker 1: but you're outside and you've got this connection to the
Speaker 1: nature around you. And it is I mean, it has
Speaker 1: been the favorite place for weddings and special occasions and events,
Speaker 1: and it had it was just open, you would just
Speaker 1: drive by every time. Tina and I are out on
Speaker 1: the peninsula a lot doing design stuff for clients, and
Speaker 1: you know, every time we were anywhere near it, I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: let's just drive by the chapel and let's just park
Speaker 1: and just walk inside. Again. I love being in this
Speaker 1: space because of what it communicates, this reverence, this love
Speaker 1: of nature. Outside. By the way, on the perimeter of
Speaker 1: the chapel, redwood trees that were planted intentionally, like these
Speaker 1: columns of redwood trees, and they really felt like columns
Speaker 1: in a cathedral. Because the space itself was made of glass.
Speaker 1: It is just a beautiful moving space to be in.
Speaker 1: And it has been this example in my heart and mind.
Speaker 1: In fact, you know, I'm doing some writing now on
Speaker 1: my design theories and design process, and Wayfares has been
Speaker 1: one of those jumping off points of inspiration for me
Speaker 1: for what it means to bring the outside in, to
Speaker 1: have enough glass, enough window, enough vista to create and
Speaker 1: own the exterior of your land, your property inside the
Speaker 1: house where you spend most of your time. Wayfares is
Speaker 1: just such a brilliant, brilliant example of that because it's
Speaker 1: almost a transparent chapel and there's just enough structure there
Speaker 1: to remind you that you're inside, and all this glass
Speaker 1: to embrace the outside. It was cutting edge, it was brilliant.
Speaker 1: There was nothing like it on the planet when it
Speaker 1: was created by Lloyd Wright in nineteen fifty one. And
Speaker 1: now I need to share with you it's fate which
Speaker 1: we will talk about. Kaf I, Dean Sharp, the House Whisper,
Speaker 1: Welcome home. Thanks for joining us on the program this morning.
Speaker 1: It looks like it's going to be a lovely cool
Speaker 1: dare I say cold? I don't know. Day here in
Speaker 1: southern California. I hope wherever you are, you are warm
Speaker 1: and comfortable and taking advantage of this first weekend in February.
Speaker 1: We are about to go to the phones, but I
Speaker 1: want to finish up this story. I wanted to bring
Speaker 1: this news. I've been wanting to talk about the landslide
Speaker 1: at Portuguese Bend in Palace Verdes for a while now,
Speaker 1: and specifically this one structure. I know there's hundreds of
Speaker 1: homes devastated, but I wanted to talk about this one
Speaker 1: historic structure there, Wayfarer's Chapel that has been there since
Speaker 1: well completed in nineteen fifty one when it first opened.
Speaker 1: And so yeah, it gave you a little bit of
Speaker 1: a history of what was going on there and with
Speaker 1: the landslides. I got to tell you that the you know,
Speaker 1: I was just trying to go off of memory here
Speaker 1: and I wagh under reported the landslide movement. Let me,
Speaker 1: I've got some accuracy now, so listen to this. In
Speaker 1: the last five years, right the from October twenty first
Speaker 1: to October twenty second, I'm sorry, from October of twenty
Speaker 1: twenty one to October twenty twenty two. From twenty twenty
Speaker 1: one to twenty twenty two, the land was moving there
Speaker 1: at point zero eight inches per week or three inches
Speaker 1: a year, tina three inches a year, okay. Then from
Speaker 1: twenty two to twenty three it started moving ahead half
Speaker 1: an inch a week a week, that's yeah, exactly, okay.
Speaker 1: From twenty three to twenty four, two and a third
Speaker 1: inches per week, all right, And in from March just
Speaker 1: to April of twenty twenty four seven inches a week
Speaker 1: per week. Okay. That's three hundred and sixty four inches
Speaker 1: a year of movement. Okay. So yeah, the slide is moving, Okay,
Speaker 1: it's moving. And Wayfarer's Chapel got caught in it, like
Speaker 1: so many structures there, and so first glass panels started shattering. Second,
Speaker 1: some of the glue lambs started tweaking some of the
Speaker 1: and so the decision was made. And by the way,
Speaker 1: by the way, you know, the Swedenborgian Church which is
Speaker 1: a part of is there in palasfurd Is. You know,
Speaker 1: they're not of gold Mine, and so it's a very kind,
Speaker 1: very open organization. You know, they make money from donations
Speaker 1: and from weddings and events and whatever. But the entire
Speaker 1: grounds there, the buildings have been essentially abandoned and condemned
Speaker 1: because they can't be. But the decision was made, Okay,
Speaker 1: we've got to get some high level architectural help here.
Speaker 1: And then the decision was made to preserve this historic
Speaker 1: structure by disassembling it. So full restorative disassemblage has taken
Speaker 1: place of Wayfarer's chapel. And now what's happening is very
Speaker 1: very carefully removing all of those things. It will be
Speaker 1: a process of restoring obviously the glass, restoring any of
Speaker 1: the the damaged steel that holds the glass, and then
Speaker 1: I'm not exactly sure what all the pl I'm not
Speaker 1: sure if they've lost any of the redwood glue lambs
Speaker 1: or whether they've I know they were starting to be torqued.
Speaker 1: Even the foundation stone that was laid in nineteen forties
Speaker 1: has a long linear crack through at the cornerstone. So
Speaker 1: the point is this, They are now looking for a
Speaker 1: new site to Yeah, it's like put it in our backyard. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure that's going to work for them. They're
Speaker 1: looking for a new location that will adequately you know,
Speaker 1: they're looking for the right place for it, and the
Speaker 1: goal is that Wayfarers will be rebuilt, and it will
Speaker 1: be restored and it will be standing once again for
Speaker 1: people to come enjoy and see the magnificence of But
Speaker 1: the reality is right now, full restorative disassembly, and that's
Speaker 1: where it's at. That's where it's at, that's the status
Speaker 1: of things there. It is going to be moved to
Speaker 1: a new location. I'm sure they're going to find something
Speaker 1: just as stunning for it to look out over, hopefully
Speaker 1: on the peninsula, but where there is no land movement
Speaker 1: on the peninsula. We'll just have to wait and see. Anyway.
Speaker 1: Such a meaningful thing to me as a designer, because
Speaker 1: the very first time I walked into it, I was
Speaker 1: so overwhelmed with how a structure can make you feel
Speaker 1: in regards to nature. Just this reverence and this beauty,
Speaker 1: and how a small and here's the thing, how it
Speaker 1: applies to your home. How a relatively small structure. It's
Speaker 1: not a big structure at all. How a relatively small
Speaker 1: structure feels so large. Why because of its glass vistas
Speaker 1: to everything that's around it. Therefore it owns I realized
Speaker 1: that very first day, Oh my gosh, if there's enough
Speaker 1: view out of enough window, even a small, small area
Speaker 1: can own all of the land around it, because everything
Speaker 1: you see from inside a building belongs to you in
Speaker 1: that room, no matter how small that room is. Lesson learned. Okay,
Speaker 1: when we come back, we got calls on the board.
Speaker 1: We're going to the phones. Your Home with Dean Sharp,
Speaker 1: the House Whisper on KFI.
Speaker 2: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 2: KFI AM six forty