A Male Pistachio Tree in Bloom, Village Homes, Davis, California, from the series "Sweet Earth: Experimental Utopias in America"

About this artwork

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Photography and Media

Artist

Joel Sternfeld

Title

A Male Pistachio Tree in Bloom, Village Homes, Davis, California, from the series "Sweet Earth: Experimental Utopias in America"

Place

United States (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Made 2005

Medium

Chromogenic print

Inscriptions

No markings recto or verso One of the first “green” residential developments in America, Village Homes was founded in Davis, California, in 1981 by Michael and Judy Corbett. Its continued success has demonstrated that private residential development can be ecologically sound while providing real community. Village Homes is situated in California’s Central Valley, where temperatures in excess of hundred degrees are common during the long summer season. Automobile roadways in the development are much narrower than those in typical suburban communities and only thirty-two of seventy acres contain houses, therefore the urban heat island effect is significantly reduced. Ambient air temperatures can be as much as fifteen degrees lower than those in nearby conventional neighborhoods; utility bills for air conditioning tend to be fifty percent less. The fight with the city of Davis to approve narrower streets was hard won (succeeding because of European research demonstrating that they were safer), as was the struggle for above-ground water drainage in natural swales. These are earthen embankments that hold and conserve rainwater and return it to the ground. Shortly after they were finally approved and built, the embankments’ worth was demonstrated when Village Homes was one of the few areas in Davis left undamaged by flooding after heavy rainfalls. Every aspect of the development plan of Village Homes was designed to promote community, but none more so than the shared ownership and management of gardens, orchards and vineyards, also known as “edible landscaping.” Signs notify community residents when crops are ripe. Vegetables and fruit from more than thirty varieties of trees can be picked for free. Almonds, an important cash crop, are available for purchase at a fifty percent discount to those who help in their harvest. The community’s success may be measured by a study which shows that the average Village Homes resident knows forty-two of his neighbors, as opposed to seventeen in a standard suburban development. Similarly, a typical Village Homes resident maintains that four of his or her best friends live in the neighborhood, while in a conventional community this figure is 0.4. From the portfolio, Sweet Earth: Experimental Utopias in America, 1982–2005

Dimensions

Image: 26.5 × 33.1 cm (10 7/16 × 13 1/16 in.); Paper: 27.9 × 35.5 cm (11 × 14 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Ralph and Nancy Segall

Reference Number

2009.783

Extended information about this artwork

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