2023.02.21 Callister & Payne Architects, CC 1965-66 (1)

Campus Commons Planned Unit Development, Sacramento, Callister & Payne, Architects-Planners, Tiburon Belvedere, California. 1965-66*

1965.09.23 – SACRAMENTO BEE “Leaders of the Horst Ranch Joint Venture unveiled their plans for developing the old Horst Ranch and adjoining portions of the former Haas ranch – 681 acres of vacant land in the geographic center of metropolitan Sacramento. … the land will be developed as Campus Commons, a carefully landscaped, architecturally consistent community, predominantly residential in character, filled with open, green commons areas and linked to the Sacramento State College campus by a new bridge across the American River.”

“Sculpturing of the now-level land to place residential streets and parking areas several feet below the level the houses… will have the twofold benefit of insulating traffic noise and obscuring cars and traffic behind landscaped green and trees. The suspension bridge… is one of the first items on the list of developments. Callister & Payne of Tiburon Belvedere is handling architecture and planning for Campus Commons. Kenneth R. Anderson Co., Inc. of Roseville is landscape architect. Spink Engineering of Sacramento is the project engineer.”

1965.09.26 SACRAMENTO BEE — “In its field of housing, that of a residential community,” said Richard L. Rathfon, city planning director, “this is the finest project we’ve had come through our office in all the years I’ve been here. I think this is going to be a terrific project.” Rathfon, who has “been here going on 18 years,” is a widely respected planning official whose warm words of praise gain added weight from the fact he unhesitatingly calls a spade a dirty shovel when he sees it that way.

The land remained in rural farming use through all the years when the city’s population was spreading like a flood across the rural landscape. Now, it is a huge island of vacant land lying in the very geographic heart of the Sacramento metropolitan area.

“This is a beautiful and most unusual piece of property,” said Henry M. Moss, one of the spokesmen for the group, called the Horst Ranch Venture, which will develop Campus Commons. “We feel it deserves special treatment. The former owners are to be praised for not selling it years ago to the many subdividers who have wanted it, because now this would be just more of the typical housing you would see around Sacramento. Instead, as announced last week, Campus Commons will be developed as a contoured, carefully landscaped, architecturally consistent community, one of large, open common areas, of carefully screened — even hidden — parking and traffic areas.

Key features of the land use pattern in the new development will be the clustering of homes to provide open land — the “commons” — for recreation and park purposes, the sculpturing of the now level land and the provision of separate but linked residential areas… The streets in Campus Commons will be scooped out to about four feet below the existing ground level. The leftover dirt will be used to build berms lining the streets, thus putting houses several feet above street level. Residents will look out onto tree-lined streets where only the tops of passing cars should be visible.

1966.05.08 SACRAMENTO BEE — Today, Channel 6, 5 PM — NEW TOWNS: CLUSTER VS. SPRAWL. A candid report about Campus Commons, Sacramento’s dramatic new concept in living. Are new towns what the planners hope: The solution for today’s crowded, sprawling cities? Guest: Architect Charles Warren Callister, one of the nation’s most imaginative planners; Richard Rathfon, former city planning director; Henry M. Moss and Robert D. Hurst, co-directors of operations at Campus Commons. Moderator: Elizabeth Kendall Thompson, A.I.A., senior editor, Architectural Record. Another in the “CHALLENGES” series. KVIE — CHANNEL 6.

1966.07.17 SACRAMENTO BEE — Campus Commons, the housing development on the Old Horst Ranch across the American River from Sacramento State College is offering the public its first look at what its architect – planner refers to “as a community within the community”. … Actually, what architect Charles Warren Callister has designed, for the complex… is an urbanized village within the larger context of the metropolitan Sacramento urban area. Callister emphasizes the community idea, de-emphasizing the housing units themselves as architecture. The units themselves may change, he says, the community idea is not to change.

… The townhouses, assembled in clusters, are not condominiums and there is a superficial resemblance to rowhouses. However, each of the houses is a separate unit… and the purchase includes a lot and an undivided proportionate interest in the common recreation and Greenbelt land. This idea is new to Sacramento but not unique in developments. The most visible difference about Campus Commons is the land sculpturing, by which the flat hop ranch land has been changed to provide interesting variations in height. The street levels have been lowered and the building sites raised. The practical result is a measure of separation between automobiles and housing the visual effect is the creation of “canals” which, when the street plantings reach size, will appear to be tree-shaded creeks along which automobiles will travel, with only the tops visible, like rafts. Plantings and open fence screenings further remove houses from traffic.

Callister has recognized what some planners — especially theorists but some public practitioners — have not: the automobile is here to stay. He has provided 2 off-street parking spaces for every living unit. In the townhome clusters, this takes the form of depressed central parking areas covered and backed by extra storage space. … Callister does not favor, … the complete separation of autos and people. “The car is a garment,” he remarked, “which we put on and take off as we wish”. Therefore, there is a certain mixing of pedestrian and vehicular traffic, especially in the shopping areas and on the village’s main street, University Avenue, which Callister views as “a promenade, where people will go to be seen and to see.”

…”Community vitality is a strange thing. It is necessary — and we are trying to plan for it — but it comes about through those who are in the community. It cannot be imposed.

The development must be seen from street level if one is to appreciate what Callister has accomplished through the grade level changes. These changes will vary from area to area, smoothing out to near invisibility in some places, deepening in others. Since the house levels start above the usual eye level of car riders, the sense of height is increased. Their pyramidal roofs, varied by steep pitched roofs, give a distinctly hilly effect. But the grade changes actually are not great and are traversed by ramps paths and steps. The structures also contribute to this sense of hills with their muted earth color exteriors and roofs like outcroppings of granite. The pyramidal roofs loom like buttes seen at a distance. Vertical elements of these buildings are emphasized. The end result, whether one travels by car or foot, is a distinct skyline unusual in Sacramento.

The landscaping, so far as one can judge from the beginning made by landscape architect Kenneth R. Anderson, promises to provide semi-rural setting for a sophisticated urban community. The buildings are a variation on traditional architecture. But the traditions have been summed up, not just put together. As one moves among the buildings, their aspects change as do the vistas and the near scene. There is no monotony here, but neither is there any artificial effect — no prettiness for the sake of prettiness. There is no clutter, but there is no regimented tidiness either.

The concept is interesting, provocative and has been started on a quality basis. If this can be continued, and if Sacramento accepts the concept, Campus Commons can develop into the most exciting community in this urban area.

1966.11.13 SACRAMENTO BEE — CAMPUS COMMON’S FIRST YEAR GROWTH — 80,000 square feet of mature sod has been laid in Campus Commons, in addition to acres containing grass grown from seed. More than 10,000 annuals, shrubs and trees have been planted.

1977.08.07 SACRAMENTO BEE — ERA DRAWING TO AN END — The 1977 tour of homes will also usher out the end of an era. One of Sacramento’s most famous and popular adult neighborhoods, Campus Commons will be offering its last phase of homes for sale during this year’s tour. The luxurious two, three and four bedroom cluster homes represent some of the most successful plans ever built in Sacramento. According to Bob Cassano, vice president of the Robert C. Powell organization, “There will never be another Campus Commons. There is no more ground like it with its ideal location. Even though it’s been in development for over 10 years the end is rapidly drawing close. We really encourage people to come out and see Campus Commons during the tour,” concluded Cassano. “After all, it’s not every day that you can pay tribute to the end of a very successful era in the building industry.”

1985.05.09 SACRAMENTO BEE — HOMES SPROUT FROM HOP FIELDS — For decades, farmhands worked the endless hop fields just miles from the growing city. By the late 1950s, however, the Haas and Horst hop ranches were two of the last remaining agricultural properties in metropolitan Sacramento, nestled between the city, US Hwy. 50 and the burgeoning suburbs.

… On a Sunday morning in May 1967, Hornet cheerleaders waved their pompoms as the Guy A. West bridge was dedicated. West, the university’s first president, looked on. Designed after bridges over the Rhine river, the 1144 foot suspension bridge linked the growing college and community. “We built the bridge in an effort to merge the community and campus. We wanted a marriage of sorts between the campus environment and community, that’s why we named it Campus Commons.” said Moss.

… In the late 1960s, Moss sold most of the development to local land developer Robert Powell. Robert Powell Companies continued to develop the area in much the same way that Moss had. In May 1971, Powell sold his first 29 Campus Commons townhomes on Hartnell place. “It was a bit overwhelming. The homes were to go on sale Sunday and people began lining up on Saturday.

All of the homes were sold by noon Sunday,” said Bob Cassano, who sold the homes for Powell. “We had people sleeping on the floors in the model homes and ordered a beef stroganoff dinner for them. It turned out to be quite a lot of fun,” Cassano said.

*Note: 2023.02.21 Curated and compiled by Roger Hackney for the Park Corporation’s Ad Hoc LC