“Steve Jobs’ quest to demolish a Woodside mansion has hit another snag, cheering preservationists who consider the home built for a copper magnate a historical treasure,” Kim Vo reports for The San Jose Mercury News. “San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Marie Weiner has tentatively ruled that the town improperly granted Jobs, chief executive of Apple Computer and Pixar, a demolition permit last year. Jobs’ attorney, Howard Ellman, said he is likely to appeal the decision.”
“Jobs, who bought the 17,000-square foot home in 1984 but hasn’t lived there in more than a decade, has said he wants to build a new, smaller home on the property that would be more suitable for his family. They currently live in Palo Alto,” Vo reports. “His efforts to demolish the existing home have drawn ire from preservationists, who say the house is historical and deserves protection. Architect George Washington Smith, who gave Santa Barbara its distinctive look, designed the Spanish Colonial Revival home for Daniel Jackling, who formed the Utah Copper Co.”
Vo reports, “The Jackling house sits at the end of a narrow, tree-lined road, behind locked gates. The home — surrounded by hills and oaks and olive trees — is built in the Spanish style with adobe-style walls, red tiles and wrought-iron balconies. Jobs is not a fan, as he told the Woodside town council in December 2004. ‘I’ve worked with some of the best architects. I’m a lucky guy,’ he said then. ‘But I don’t think it’s a historic building.’ The town made Jobs offer to give the house away to anyone willing and able to move and restore it. He had to advertise the freebie for a year; no demolition permit would be issued before this month. About 100 people inquired about it after features appeared on TV’s ‘This Old House’ and in the New York Times and local papers, Ellman said. Only one person had the means to actually take on the project, which would cost at least $7.5 million, according to town estimates. But that man’s investor was killed in an accident and it’s uncertain if he will still pursue the house, Ellman said. He would not comment if Jobs now plans to sell the property.”
Full article here.
Why not just make sure nobody’s in there, stick an Xbox in the dump, and let it do its thing?
[Preemptory disclaimer for the humor impaired: We do not condone or promote arson. Arson is a crime. Do not burn down houses or anything else with Xboxes or by any other method.]
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Related articles:
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Sorry, that should read, “200 years from NOW it will be historical because it was built for Jobs : )”
hey, meddler, you sound like the same type of dolts that love lakes but drive terrible polluting speedboats that ruin the ecology of the actual lake. LOL.
have fun off roading and trampling over the land on your speed bike or ATV
now if you were hiking, i have no qualms with you.
typical america like thinking, lol.
hey, Preserve America, you sound like the same type of dolts that love to drive their cars and use electricity, but drive their oil guzzling car to these protests. LOL.
have fun driving up and down the interstates hugging trees that will replenish themselves anyway.
now if you were hiking, i have no qualms with you.
typical america like thinking, lol.
Preserve America,
See how easy that was? It works both ways, get off your high horse and think for yourself.
i drive a prius, jerkwater.
This house is only 80 years old (built in 1926, according to something I found elsewhere). Okay, so yes, that’s relatively “old” in California terms, but still, what’s the big deal? Given today’s Hollywood tendencies, I’m surprised the house hasn’t had 15 facelifts, a tummy tuck and several rounds of implants by now.
I went to the linked story, and found this paragraph that wasn’t mentioned above, which just made my eyes bug out –
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“Older buildings are a part of what makes Woodside such a special place,” said Barbara Wood, a member of the town’s history committee and of Uphold Our Heritage. “In my opinion, a lot of Woodside’s history went on in that house. Parents attended parties, kids swam in the pool.”
Um, that’s history? HUH?!?? How does that make it worth “preserving”? I have a pool at my house. We’ve had “parents” over for parties AND swimming – that kind of “historical activity” hardly qualifies for a “preservation” campaign.
And while I don’t profess to know all the details, I haven’t heard or seen any article anywhere that cries to high heaven that this is the only house of left in the state (or the entire USA, for that matter) that fits the following description: “Spanish style with adobe-style walls, red tiles and wrought-iron balconies” – I’m sure there are plenty of other examples out there of this style of construction – and I’ll need to hear a more compelling reason before I even consider siding with the preservationists.
Oh, you’ve opened a can there, Preserve America – do you drive that Prius on 100% battery all the time? I’m betting not, since that’s rather impossible to do. Or did you convert it to be able to use vegetable oil when not on battery?
PreserveAmerica,
I guess it doesn’t use any gas or use oil to lubricate the engine or use oil to manufacture the tires and all of the plastics used on the body? Yeah right.
Get a grip, you’re just as guilty as the rest of us. You just think that because your vehicle is more fuel efficient than mine that that makes you holier than thou. I don’t think so.
You better stop casting stones in your glass house or you’ll be living in that Prius.
This is insanity. “Parent’s went to parties there” – “Kids swam in the pool”. Big Deal! Times change, move on.
Obviously the land is a gem, which is why Steve is even bothering. Let him put a gem of a house on the property and actually enjoy it.
I think with new building materials coming out, there will be a lot more tear downs in the future. Get used to it people!
I grew up in an “historical” house – and I can tell you it is not all it’s cracked up to be. Unless you like high heating bills and constant drafts.
why is it that owning a prius allows people to be jerks? Remember when owning a cadillac used to mean you could drive in the fast lane on the freeway as slow as you want? Now owning a prius means that you get to rant and judge and be as much of a jerk as you like, sitting on the highest horsey in the land, the ecological horsey.
fsking pukeboy….. just shut up and drive your stupid little car and keep your dumarsed ecoterrorist opinions to yourself.
Schmutz:
Where does Jobs own an island?
http://www.friendsofthejacklinghouse.org/
Just for more info and some pics. Honestly this is a difficult call considering the homes condition and the lack of parties interested in moving the house at a cost of 7.5 million.
I live in Chicago where archetecture is a passion. I have seen both sides to where this can go you have run down buildings that have some historical significance that in there place a new archetectural statement is made also you have situations such as soldier field where the end product looks like a space age pooper.
I know jobs just hopes that 20 years from now he can take his glass cube from the New York store and plop it down on this beautiful property.
Ohhh, ferchrissakes — TEAR IT DOWN and put up a Shakey’s.
Steve could announce that he is going to put in an animal testing laboratory doing pain research and watch as ELF nutters torch the place. Or perhaps he could sponsor a Crips and Bloods “forgive and forget” gathering — free booze included. There are all sorts of ways.
Saying you can’t buy historical buildings and do with them what you want in America is just silly.
Bill Gates bought the White House didn’t he?
Then again, perhaps he just leased it for 8 years. American politics confuses me.
Baron von Stankenstein,
I never dreamt that the PowerMacs had such powerful fans! How irresponsible of me!
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Just build a smaller house inside the bigger one.
Yeah, but what the article doesn’t mention is that the walls bleed, flies gather around the inside of windows and the toilet spews profanities in Portuguese. Oh yeah, one more thing. The security system runs on NT. AAAAAUUUUUUUGGGGGHHHHH ! ! ! ! Head for the hills!
The Prius owner was DEFENDING himself. Some a-hole put him down as “the same type of dolts that love to drive their cars and use electricity, but drive their oil guzzling car to these protests.”
The guy responded that he drove a Prius. Check – Mate. Of course the come back only made the a-hole crazy and he told the guy to get off his high horse. Hey we all should be bowing to the people who drive Hybrid cars and protect OUR environment!
However, I still think Steve should be allowed to tear down the house and build his own.
I think this is nothing more than snobbery by the “old” money in Woodside not liking that the “new” money now can tear down their old “shacks” and build better houses than they can afford.
Bury that murdering piece of turd Tookie underneath the living room floor. No wait … a better idea. In the toilet, then the urinal can be his headstone.
Hm. USA is certainly a difficult place. A historical house from 1926? Well, you never know what it will become, of course, but because parents had parents and children swam in the pool?
They have found the remnants of Roman walls here where I live in Portugal and have built a vault with a glass roof over it so when can look down at it from the street which passes over it today. Looking at it, one must admire those who constructed that wall and I would have liked to see the whole building. The remnants alsmot look modern.
On the other side, in Finland where I lived earlier, they have lots of famous architects but looking at some of their cities and townships makes one wonder if the wars they fought against the Soviet happened in the 60s or 70s which forced them to hastily rebuild them. Concrete boxes galore. A breed between Soviet-style and mid-Western USA, perhaps? The main and only street, half a dozen concrete blocks, a mall, a church, the petrol station and not so much more.
They could have had use for some houses from 1926 there, indeed.
I looked at the house and it doesn’t look that bad. Not an architectonic milestone and some disharmonies in the façade, but it is hard to say how valuable it is when you don’t see what else there is around. Hardly any Roman walls but if it is like a typical mid-Finnish town, I’d say preserve, preserve, for Chrissake!
Meanwhile, people were looking for news about Mac OS and the like of it…
“.. because parents had parties”, of course…
… and all the other typos. Oh well. Let us move on, shall we?
Ask any number of people in the area if they want the house preserved and they say “yes!”…ask these same people if they want to help foot the bill for it and you get a very different answer…Best i can suggest is that if i were the judge i would allow Steve Jobs to tear the house down on one condition…before tearing it down he must first document the house: have photos and video taken and have complete blueprints drawn up so that the house can be “re-created” at some point if/when anyone wants to do it. It’s worth mentioning though, that from what i hear, a cheesy remodel was done to the house in the ’70s, so there might not be as much left to preserve as some people think…
zupchuck-
“I never dreamt that the PowerMacs had such powerful fans! How irresponsible of me!”
well, it was YOUR suggestion and you’re dang right it was irresponsible! could have done some serious damage with those PowerMac fans… especially if the power supplies went critical.