2909 17-Mile Drive © 2000 by Leo Poppoff

Pebble Beach, CA 93953

\(831\) 375-3302

November 23, 2000

Basin Watch

by

Leo Poppoff

CABINS FLOATING IN EMERALD BAY?

A grand lake like Tahoe inspires grand plans. The earliest of those
plans were inspired by the 41 trillion gallons (more or less) of clear
blue water glittering in the lake. And, beautiful vistas inspired
grandiose plans for residential development.

In the 1860s, a Russian engineer with a mostly German name, Colonel
Alexis Waldemar von Schmidt, acquired a half-section of land surrounding
the Truckee River outlet and the right to appropriate 500 cubic feet per
second of Tahoe water. He then formed the Lake Tahoe and San Francisco
Water Company to export Tahoe water to San Francisco.

By 1870, the Colonel had already built a dam near Tahoe City to impound
additional water. In 1875, this imaginative engineer added a diversion
dam near Squaw Valley, and was planning to tunnel under Donner Summit
for the next phase of his delivery system. But irate Nevadans weren't
about to let that happen.

As we know, Nevadans built a six-foot high dam at the lake's outlet to
implement their own grand plans for electrical power and agriculture and
city building. Nevadans actually had grander plans. They had a
twelve-foot high dam in mind, but settled for the current version.

Tunnels to the Washoe Valley were proposed near the turn of the century,
and as late as the thirties. The idea was to tap the Lake for
hydroelectric power generation, irrigation, and domestic use. It\'s
rumored that the famous Los Angeles water developer, William Mulholland,
also wanted to tunnel into the lake to slake Southern California's
insatiable thirst. Luckily, no tunnels were ever bored.

In 1923, according to the Library of Congress Web Site, Frank Lloyd
Wright\'s architectural business wasn't doing well. So, he tried to chum
up business by proposing several interesting developments in the west.
One of these was a plan for a Lake Tahoe Summer Colony. The proposed
site was some 200 acres at the head of Emerald Bay.

Wright attempted to interest the owner of the property \-- a woman of
means by the name of Jessie Armstrong. Her family had owned the
property, including Fanette Island, for some 40 years. Wright's vision
for the property was rather fantastic.

According to the Library of Congress, Wright proposed that an inn, on
Fanette Island would be the focal point of the colony. The inn, to be
accessed by a floating bridge, would be on a sort of elaborate jetty.
"He conceived floating cabins, whose changeable positions on the water
would intensify the visual impact of the bay . . . mobility was
fundamental to Wright\'s concept, not the mobility of the automobile and
integrated roadways but that of the houses themselves."

"The floating cabins, like houseboats, were to be moved about the bay,
thus bringing the lake itself into special play. Their names reflect
specific qualities: Catamaran, Fallen Leaf, Family Type, Barge for Two.
Except for the Catamaran, all floating cabins incorporated angled
geometries, most notably in their prows. The 'Barge for Two' records
Wright\'s first known use of a fully hexagonal module. Not only its bays
but the spaces throughout are so shaped, resulting in a fully hexagonal
plan. It was a device he would explore in later years with extraordinary
results."

Along the shore and on nearby mountain slopes, Wright proposed a series
of individual cabins. "No site plan survives to locate these exactly,
and probably none was ever drawn; he had conceived prototypes that could
be varied to meet specific demands. He gave them names evocative of
appearance or location: Lodge, Wigwam, Fir Tree, Shore Type."

Because of the steep terrain, high retaining walls would be built to
provide platforms for the cabins. Concrete blocks for the walls were to
be made of Tahoe\'s white sand. "The upper levels of the cabins were to
be of stained boards. The steep roofs were of copper, with standing
seams aligned to emphasize crystalline patterns." As Wright described it
later, in 1933, "good form arising out of the nature of materials,
circumstances, and site . . . the Tahoe designs were tent-like and
terraced - and belonged with the big trees round about them."

There's no record of how Wright would have handled services to the
colony. It's up to your imagination to picture how waste might've been
handled, for instance. However, Wright did aesthetically incorporate
radio antennas into the picturesque roofs.

Mrs. Armstrong was impressed with Wright as a person, but remained
reserved regarding his work, according to Library of Congress notes. His
ideas for Lake Tahoe were unrealized, and the site is now a state park.
Imagine what Emerald Bay might've looked like if Mrs. Armstrong had been
swayed by Wright's proposal. Instead, she sold the property to Mrs. Lora
Knight, whose vision for the site was Vikingsholm. Apparently, Mrs.
Knight made an offer that Mrs. Armstrong couldn't refuse \-- \$250,000
for the gorgeous 200 acre parcel.