Re: 2023
Winter
9 Ways appeared. Elizabeth and I helped David Baker, Daniel Simons, and Amanda Loper get it off the ground. Jeremy Mende designed it and Kira Gould did the PR.
Kathy went east to visit Alison, Ross, Caroline, and Sarah (above) in Richmond.
I wrote a novella trilogy, begun in the summer of 2022. This is Piranesi, then in its fifth edit. I finished Argentina later in 2023, and await Modena for one more edit.
Spring
Peter Winkelstein died. He was my client in the 1980s and a friend at SPUR long thereafter. He lived in Ansel Adams' old house in San Francisco, which Kathy visited as a kid when someone else owned it. We went to an early music concert there that Peter hosted - love of music was another of his sterling qualities.
I had dinner with my friend and neighbor Peiting Li at Corso, joined by our friend Rocky Hanish, visiting from Phoenix. We have what we call Sketch Calls every month to explore the intersection of texts and images in our work.
I wrote my third Visiting Scholar paper on the role of transit in the 15-minute city. My title riffs on Ivan Illich's contention that 15 mph is as fast as we need to go.
Summer
Emily Marthinsen (left) and I visited the artist and writer Sue Bender, widow of my late writing partner Richard Bender, at her apartment near Lake Merritt in Oakland. Laurie Snowden and I also saw her. Sue turned 90 in 2023.
My friend Vickie Wang published an op-ed about #metoo in Taiwan in the NYT. Here it is, taped to the wall of the barn as a sign of my admiration.
Peter Steiger, a friend of Richard Bender's since the 1950s and my friend starting in the mid-1990s, died in Zurich. I have a copy of his summary book, in German, wrapping up a remarkable life in architecture, city-making, and music-making.
Ray Lifchez, with whom I collaborated in the 1970s on a book on design for the disabled, died in Berkeley. We were "long acquainted," but occasional moments of friendship surfaced. He was much valued by Thomas Gordon Smith, another friend of longstanding. who died before him.
Autumn
The wedding of my nephew Liam Smith and SheNing Li, our neighbors in Berkeley, took us to Waikiki and then to Oahu's north shore, our first trip since the pandemic. Elizabeth and Ross joined us, as did Kathy's sister Lenore, whose older son Charles and his family stayed up the road. Our oldest son Michael and his family were with us in Waikiki, but Conor, now a high-school senior, had to get back.
Then Kathy and I went to Sicily and Malta, a slightly vexing tour that ended well.
We hosted two dinners, one on Christmas Eve and the next on Christmas, for family in these parts. Elizabeth and Chris Norton made clam pasta for the first dinner, which was delicious, and then Kathy and Laurie made turkey, purée, and pies.
In Tokyo on 14 December, Japanese friends of my late writing partner Richard Bender gathered to celebrate his long involvement with urban development in that city. Many are my friends, too, and I contributed a talk recorded by Waseda University Professor Tetsuya Yaguchi, who I saw in Berkeley in the summer.
In England's West Midlands, our second son John played Father Christmas at the Wolverhampton Youth Center. Here he is (above) greeting the mayor.
Elizabeth's Pallas Gallery is a sought-for party venue as well as a launchpad for new art. Opened in August 2021, it has steadily gained traction and buzz.
It was good to get back on the road in 2023, and good to be home again. It's winter - not my favorite season - and the portents for the year ahead are definitely mixed. Despite this, we're hopeful it will turn out okay. Stay sane! Happy New Year!
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