Bay Area Blowout
November was a month of records and reminiscences for The Cultural Landscape Foundation’s (TCLF). The Eighteenth Annual Silent Auction marked its third year of running exclusively online, while attendees of TCLF’s Annual ASLA Excursion toured exceptional residences and vineyards in Sonoma and Napa Valley.
This year’s auction, held from October 31 to November 16, was the largest in recent memory, featuring 100 works created by landscape architects, architects, artists, photographers, and others. The selections on offer attracted a record 594 registered bidders and raised more than $73,000 (a twenty percent increase over 2021). Bidders vied for a diverse selection of works, crafted by TCLF auction favorites such as Lawrence Halprin and Elyn Zimmerman, along with those by first time participants such as Stanley Greenberg and Margie Ruddick.
The auction not only included the annual staples of photographs, paintings, and rare books, but also, for the first-time, tickets to the critically acclaimed sold out Broadway hit Straight Line Crazy, starring Ralph Fiennes as “Powerbroker” Robert Moses. As in past years, a mixed media charcoal drawing by Michael Van Valkenburgh and a Roberto Burle Marx lithograph were bidders’ favorites, with works by Jeffrey Milstein, Millicent Harvey, and auction newcomer Sam Cohen not far behind. This year’s auction also included a specially curated group of works honoring the bicentennial of Fredrick Law Olmsted, Sr.’s birth.
In addition, visitors to the auction website had the opportunity to purchase TCLF’s popular What’s Out There Guidebooks, highlighting myriad cities and regions throughout the United States and Canada. If you missed your chance at the auction, they are available on our website, here.
On November 11, TCLF hosted its fifteenth excursion, which commenced at the iconic Donnell Garden with its signature kidney-shaped swimming pool, the destination of TCLF’s inaugural excursion in 2008. Owners Sandy Donnell and Justin Faggioli greeted attendees with warm remarks, coffee, fresh orange juice, and other beverages, fresh fruit and small treats, and an aromatic smoldering fire in the pool house fireplace. Attendees also explored adjacent pool structures and living quarters replete with their original mid-century furnishings and the most astonishing wallpaper. And despite seasonally cool November temperatures, two TCLF Board Members, Eric Groft and Chris LaGuardia, donned swimming trunks and dove into the unheated pool. No one wanted to leave.
The tour continued at the 200-acre Hudson Ranch and Vineyard, which features wine production, the cultivation of Tuscan olives, seasonal fruits and vegetables, and the raising of heritage breed pigs, lamb and chickens. Over the space of a hour, Hudson CEO Peter Willmert generously provided an extensive and fascinating walking tour that revealed intriguing insights into the site's creation and operations (and a chance to wander through steads of massive hanging gourds currently in season). After an exceptional Mediterranean-inspired multi-course lunch at Sonoma’s Valley Bar & Bottle Shop, the day concluded at Buena Vista Winery, with a tour led by landscape architect James Lord, principal at SurfaceDesign. This exceptional excursion was made possible by generous support from Summerhill Landscapes, Brightview Landscape Development, Vermont Quarries, Vectorworks, Inc., and Maglin Site Furniture, along with TCLF's Season of Events Sponsors.
Proceeds from the auction benefit TCLF’s advocacy and education initiatives. TCLF is grateful for the generous support of auction donors, bidders, and Annual Sponsor and Educational Partner, American Society of Landscape Architects. For an in-depth summary of TCLF’s many accomplishments throughout the past year, please explore the 2022 Year in Review. The auction was made possible by the generous sponsorship of ABC Stone, Lapitec, and Victor Stanley.
If you are interested in donating a work of art to our auction in 2023, contact Aileen Beringer at Aileen@tclf.org.
