Mountain Views News          Saturday, June 19, 2010

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 Mountain Views News Saturday, June 19, 2010

One Of A Kind: Featuring unique homes & gardens and the people who create them Story and Photos By Chris Bertrand


Cal Poly’s Center For Regenerative Studies: Learning and Living Sustainability in Pomona

Perhaps if Cal Poly Pomona’s Center 
for Regenerative Studies were to open 
today, it would be named instead with 
the current buzz phrase, “Sustainable 
Living.” Decades ahead of its time, the 
CRS was the 1970’s brainchild of Sierra 
Madre’s own John Lyle, a landscape 
architecture professor in the College 
of Environmental Design there. Many 
years of idea evolution and fundraising 
followed, and CRS broke ground in 
1992, then took on its first student in 1994. Though Lyle passed 
away in 1998, his work had a far-reaching effect on the university, 
and the center now bears his name.

Cal Poly Pomona president, J. Michael Ortiz, commented on the Lyle 
Center, “John Lyle had a tremendous influence on the underlying 
philosophy of all of the programs in the College of Environmental 
Design. Graduates of the College have had a profound impact on 
the manner in which they approach their discipline with a very 
specific focus on sustainability. He was way ahead of his time, but 
his work continues to influence our efforts to be good stewards of 
the environment and create a carbon neutral campus.”

The Lyle Center is part of the College of Environmental Design, 
one of only three design schools in California that combine 
departments of architecture, landscape architecture, and urban and 
regional planning. The center offers a master degree program and an 
undergraduate minor, centered at sixteen hilltop acres overlooking 
the Pomona campus.

Dr. Kyle D. Brown, now director of the center, said the exciting Lyle 
Center concept actually drew him to Cal Poly, where their mission 
is “To advance … environmentally sustainable living through 
education, research, demonstration and community outreach. 
The term “regenerative” describes processes that restore, renew 
or revitalize their own sources of energy and materials, creating 
sustainable systems that integrate the needs of society with the 
integrity of nature.”

This Cal State “learn by doing” university program translates 
those lofty words into actions with students and faculty studying, 
practicing, building, testing and even living onsite, focusing 
on “low energy architecture, energy production technology, 
water treatment, organic agriculture, ecological restoration and 
sustainable community development,” per their website.

Cal Poly architecture professor, Norberto Nardi and Lyle’s wife, 
Harriett, accompanied me on my tour of the center in May. Turns 
out Nardi, whom I wrote about in April, and Professor Lyle had 
adjacent offices for years, and worked together in a couple of 
professional commissions quite connected at that 
time with concepts of sustainability. The tour was an 
opportunity for Nardi to meet his old friend’s wife 
and reminisce a bit.

Of the CRS and John Lyle, Professor Nardi 
reflects,” I always have been amazed how well John 
understood the concept of sustainability as the result 
of the appropriate dialog between the human race, 
common sense and nature. His intuition regarding 
control and respect to the environment was beyond 
that of today’s excessive use of gadgets and over-
sophisticated technologies.”

My tour showed me low tech to cutting edge 
sustainable living solutions. Simple things can make 
a big difference in utility costs as well as comfort. By 
using passive solar design, the winter sun can have 
the maximum warming effect during the season it’s 
needed most, by using vine trellises and carefully 
placing deciduous vegetation that’s leafless in the 
winter.

When summer comes, deciduous vegetation shields buildings from 
sun, keeping them cool. In the same design, high clerestory windows 
allow a convection effect, where hot air is drawn up and out during 
the summer. Dr. Brown indicated that just these two factors keep 
the buildings comfortable until the outside temperature rises to 
about 100 degrees. 

More involved concepts included water cooling from ponds 
extending under CRS buildings, straw bales used for inexpensive 
insulation; vehicle fuel derived from used cooking oil and roof 
shingles incorporating solar energy production.

On the topic of solar production, CRS has long proudly used a 
variety of solar arrays on the site. Dr. Brown was pleased to share 
that a new tracking concentrated solar array has just been donated, 
and all look forward to the next generation of study with this new 
technology.

Very simple housing prototypes for the impoverished were 
constructed onsite, with a concrete and newspaper mixture plus 
wood gleaned from pallets, a readily available commodity. Options 
for major lifestyle improvements to these simple structures at very 
minimal cost are demonstrated here. For instance, an old, retired 
water heater was painted black and placed uphill from the dwelling. 
Gravity could force the water down a pipe, delivering warm water 
for bathing. Another idea, costing only $1 each, were clear glass 
plates from IKEA used as windows.

Yet another idea for homes without electricity was repurposing an 
old car radio with a battery pack for access to news and music. Cal 
Poly partners with a non-profit group to build and improve homes 
in Baja Mexico based on these technologies. Again, learning by 
doing. The need for this type of housing in places of extreme need 
like post-earthquake Haiti has recently been all over the media.

CRS takes their ideas for sustainable living on the road for regular 
demonstrations throughout LA and beyond. Dr. Brown adds 
that they are always looking for new business partners to further 
research and experiments in real life living. For more information, 
please visit www.csupomona.edu/~crs or call them directly at 909-
869-5155.


Chris Bertrand


Organic gardens and ponds sit beside solar technology.


Many retirees are facing 
dwindling incomes from their 
battered investments, which 
explains why applications for 
"reverse mortgages" have risen 
nearly 50% in the last two 
years. It sounds like a great 
option: a lender essentially 
gives you a cash advance on 
your home's equity, which 
doesn't have to be paid back 
until you either move or "move 
on." 

There are drawbacks hidden in 
the details, however. Although 
recent legislation has raised 
maximum allowable home values, the formula for determining how much you'll get includes other 
factors like your age and current interest rates. Your current mortgage balance and the loan's fees 
are then subtracted from that number. 

Although loan origination fees have been capped at $6,000, the monthly mortgage insurance 
premiums and service charges could push the total cost of the loan up to twice that much. If you 
think you might move anytime soon, this just doesn't make sense. 

While anyone 62 or older may qualify, it's the youngest who run the biggest risk with a reverse 
mortgage, because you may very well outlive the life of your payments. When that happens, the 
equity you would have fallen back on has disappeared. 

It's best to seek other alternatives first, with your best option being to make your move now and 
downsize to a smaller home, pocketing the equity from your sale for the future.

Luther Tsinoglou has just been named the top producing sales agent in Dickson Podley Realtor's 
Sierra Madre office for 2009, making the top 10% at the company overall. Luther has been licensed 
and practicing real estate since 1992. He specializes in residential and income property in Southern 
California. Luther can be reached at his direct line (626) 695-8650 or at luther@tsinoglou.com. 


Arcadia 

by Tom Stoppard 

Directed by Barbara Schofield 

June 18 – July 31

Winner: 1994 Olivier Award and 1995 New 
York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best 
Play

A brilliant romantic-mystery set on an 
elegant English country estate. Love, 
literature, science and art converge in 
passionate events surrounding young 
Lady Thomasina and her eccentric family 
in 1809, and present day descendants, 
researching a possible 1809 scandal on 
the estate involving Lord Byron.

For reservations by phone, call 626-355-
4318 or go to www.sierramadreplayhouse.
org