Skip to main content

  • HOME
  • CURRENT CONTENT
  • ALL CONTENT
  • SUBMIT
  • ABOUT
    • Journal
    • Editorial
  • INFO FOR
    • Librarians
    • Authors
    • Reprints and Permissions
    • Advertisers
    • Subscriptions and Single Issues
  • MORE
    • Alerts
    • Contact Us

  • Login

  • Advanced search

  • Login
Advanced Search
  • HOME
  • CURRENT CONTENT
  • ALL CONTENT
  • SUBMIT
  • ABOUT
    • Journal
    • Editorial
  • INFO FOR
    • Librarians
    • Authors
    • Reprints and Permissions
    • Advertisers
    • Subscriptions and Single Issues
  • MORE
    • Alerts
    • Contact Us
Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians

  • Article
The Bateson Building, Sacramento, California, 1977–81, and the Design of a New Age State
Simon Sadler
Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 75 No. 4, December 2016; (pp. 469-489) DOI: 10.1525/jsah.2016.75.4.469
Simon Sadler
University of California, Davis
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Search for this author on this site
  • View author's works on this site
  • Article
  • Figures & Data
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF
PreviousNext
Loading

Abstract

The Bateson Building, Sacramento, California, 1977–81, and the Design of a New Age State explores an origin of architectural sustainability in the 1970s California governmental programs of Governor Jerry Brown and the circle around Brown and his consultant Stewart Brand, a countercultural entrepreneur. Focusing on the Bateson Building, designed by State Architect Sim Van der Ryn and his team to be the world's first large energy-saving, climate-modulating building, Simon Sadler traces the ambition of the first Brown administration to reinvent the state as a unified ecology founded on New Age principles, notably those drawn from the second-order cybernetics of anthropologist Gregory Bateson, who served as an adviser to the governor. Drawing on archival and published sources from government, environmental policy, cybernetics, and architecture, Sadler recounts an ambitious ecological agenda that included the new Office of Appropriate Technology, a projected space program, and a water atlas for the state of California. Sadler argues for a reconsideration of the history of sustainable and postmodern architecture alike.

  • © 2016 by the Society of Architectural Historians. All rights reserved. Please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce article content through the University of California Press's Reprints and Permissions web page, http://www.ucpress.edu/journals.php?p=reprints, or via email: jpermissions{at}ucpress.edu.
View Full Text

SAH Member Access

Instead of logging in here, SAH Members obtain access by first logging in to the SAH website, then visiting the JSAH Online page and clicking the link to return to this site with access.

Log in using your username and password

Forgot your user name or password?

Log in through your institution

You may be able to gain access using your login credentials for your institution. Contact your library if you do not have a username and password.

Purchase access

PreviousNext
Back to top

Vol. 75 No. 4, December 2016

Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians: 75 (4)
  • Table of Contents
  • Table of Contents (PDF)
  • Cover (PDF)
  • Back Matter (PDF)
  • Front Matter (PDF)
eTOC Alert

RSSRSS Icon

Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
The Bateson Building, Sacramento, California, 1977–81, and the Design of a New Age State
(Your Name) has sent you a message from Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians web site.
Print
Alerts
Sign In to Email Alerts with your Email Address
Citation Tools
The Bateson Building, Sacramento, California, 1977–81, and the Design of a New Age State
Simon Sadler
Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 75 No. 4, December 2016; (pp. 469-489) DOI: 10.1525/jsah.2016.75.4.469
Simon Sadler
University of California, Davis
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Search for this author on this site
  • View author's works on this site

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Request Permissions
Share
The Bateson Building, Sacramento, California, 1977–81, and the Design of a New Age State
Simon Sadler
Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 75 No. 4, December 2016; (pp. 469-489) DOI: 10.1525/jsah.2016.75.4.469
Simon Sadler
University of California, Davis
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Search for this author on this site
  • View author's works on this site
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Technorati logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
View Full Page PDF
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One
  • Top
  • Article
    • Abstract
    • The Bateson Building as an Ecology: Energy Efficiency, Social Interaction, and System
    • The Bateson Building as an Envoy of the New Age State
    • The Technical, Aesthetic, and Ideological “Disappearance” of the Bateson Building
    • Conclusion
    • Notes
  • Figures & Data
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF

Related Articles

Cited By...

More in this TOC Section

  • The First Concrete Auto Factory
  • Nalanda
  • Notre-Dame du Raincy and the Great War
Show more Article

Similar Articles

FIND US Facebook Account LinkRSS Feeds LinkTwitter Account LinkInstagram Account LinkLinkedin Account LinkYoutube Account LinkEmail Link

Customer Service

  • Reprints and Permissions
  • Contact

UC Press

  • About UC Press

Navigate

  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • Editorial
  • Contact

Content

  • Current Issue
  • All Content

Info For

  • Librarians
  • Authors
  • Advertisers
  • Subscriptions and Single Issues

Copyright © 2019 by the Society of Architectural Historians   Privacy   Accessibility