Caws Radio

first post of 2007: playful modernism.

I didn't do much to ring in the new year. 12:00 came and went, and I was about to fall asleep watching Grand Hotel when Octavio came in and rousted me. So we left to play drums with some hippies and get drunk at a bar. Then I woke up in the afternoon and watched All Quiet on the Western Front. And blew my nose a lot.

On a completely different note, there is a place in California called The Nut Tree. It began as a roadside fruit stand in Vacaville in the 1920s, and over the years it grew into a sort of mini theme park, complete with an airport, giftshop, restaurant, and even a little train to ride around in. In the 1980s the place closed down, but the signs and buildings remained, and we would frequently drive by them during family visits California.



What made the Nut Tree stand out was its incredible retro style. In 1952 the owners hired former art museum curator Don Birrell as design director, and over the next 10 years he and his design team fashioned the park into the whimsically modern wonderland that most people remember today.



The Nut Tree was like a museum itself, a gorgeous exhibition of modernist trends in design during the 1950s. The atmosphere was playful and elegantly sophisticated at the same time. Bright primary colors illuminated toybox-like architecture, and the glass walls and open areas created a space in harmony with the outdoors. Even the restaurant menus had a cool woodcut-style cover. An article outlining the site's history talks more about the importance of design:

'Excellent design became a hallmark of the dining room. Dansk silverware graced the tables, dishware was specially designed for specific dishes, and guests enjoyed their meal while lounging in stylish Charles Eames chairs. Every dish was presented based on a visual template developed by Don.'

'Don and his coworkers traveled around the world, bringing back new ideas. The Nut Tree Plaza of 1961 featured an ice cream pavilion with its fluted roof and twinkling lights, an idea adapted from similar pavilions in the famous Tivoli Gardens of Copenhagen, Denmark.' -Sabine Goerke-Shrode, The Reporter

In 2006 the park was re-made, re-modeled and re-opened. But the Nut Tree for a new generation retains none of the original's stylistic charm. Don Birrell's Nut Tree featured a color coordinated toystore with playful figurative typography spelling out "TOYS" with animals, and vertically arranged boxes displaying chic Eames chairs. Good design side-by-side with implements of play. The new Nut Tree looks like this:



That's right, folks; it's a shiny new outlet mall. The saddest part is that Vacaville's real factory outlet stores are located directly across the freeway. So if Old Navy is closed, you can drive right over to The Gap in the Nut Tree and not miss a beat. Who needs a beautifully constructed ice cream pavilion when you can go to a Cold Stone, plugged in between a Banana Republic and Victoria's Secret? All this while you enjoy dull "Mediterranean colors" and "wide walkways" that lead you back to your store-front parking space, so you can drive your SUV over to the bathrooms.

In all fairness, I'm sure the new Nut Tree Village is a nice place to shop. But it saddens me to see a place so lauded for it's design reborn as something so bland. The original site seemed like its own self-contained world; the look and structure of the place transcended its function as a fruit stand/airport, so that visitors felt excited and relaxed by the unique surroundings alone. The new Nut Tree, in contrast, reminds you of the world you live in, the job you work at, and the products you need. The design is purely functional, a means to an end, that end being your dollar.
...Alright, class dismissed.