Letter to the Editor – Resident urges Yountville to slow, scale down Elementary School project
Dear Editor,
SLOW THIS TRAIN DOWN! Yountville Elementary School design must be appropriately scaled
The YES project as it is currently conceived is very impressive indeed with exciting and attractive elements. It may win urban planning awards. It’s a project perfectly suited—for a town of 50,000. And completely out of scale with the town of Yountville. This project will fundamentally alter the nature of this community. It will dramatically increase the oversight responsibilities and financial burden of the Town, alter the overall aesthetic, and inordinately increase the population.
As someone with a lifelong interest in architecture and planning, art and design, and creativity in general, I well understand the intoxicating allure of realizing a grand vision. Creative expression is a fundamental human need. What an incredible opportunity, to have a blank slate on which to paint one’s architectural dreams, not to mention build a legacy.
No doubt the temptation of newer, bigger, and bolder can be irresistible. After all, it’s inherent in our culture. It leads us to do impressive things, even great things. And after we’ve done them, we gaze upon our creations and feel very good about ourselves. Only later, do we contemplate what we’ve lost and ask why.
The scale of this project should be reconsidered: It should fit Yountville, not fundamentally change it. To be clear, I am not suggesting we derail this project, but that we slow this train down.
We—and by we I do not mean just the council, town manager, and architect, I mean the entire community: residents, veterans, employees, business owners, and tourists (yes, even tourists; if this project does not work well for tourists, it will not work well for Yountville)—need to give ourselves more time to make sure that we are headed in the right direction.
Will Hays
Yountville
Sponsored
Author
