AGASC Tour of Ilan-Lael

by Jon Simpson

On September 5th a small group of AGASC members were treated to a personalized tour of Ilan-Lael in Santa Ysabel, CA, by none other than James Hubbell himself. I did not know what I had expected, but I now know that if I had the wisdom and forethought to plan a livable community with art, architecture and sculptural beauty at every turn, Ilan-Lael would be it. Ilan-Lael is an art education foundation founded by James and Anne Hubbell. One of his special projects is an education center on the property, which is nearing completion to be the cornerstone of the foundation. Some of his time is spent planning and building parks on the Pacific Rim using only local materials and resources. As a matter of fact, we were lucky he was home, having just returned from Taiwan where he had built a park.

First you have to know a little about James Hubbell. He is an artist, an architect with no formal training - which he readily admits - a craftsman, a humanitarian, in other words a true renaissance man. But, for all of his accomplishments and there are many, he remains down to earth. When he and his wife Anne started building in the 1950's on the 40 acres in Santa Ysabel, the intent was to create a home that appeared to grow out of the landscape and blend naturally with nature. The houses and studios were built of wood, brick and stucco. They were designed to fit into the landscape, using existing trees and rocks to build around. Some of the buildings were lost in the 2005 Witch Creek fire and had to be rebuilt and are now reinforced with steel.

As we toured each small house and studio we were stunned by the architecture with whimsical arched roofs, some with terracotta statues rising out of the rooftops, others with pointed roofs that looked like witches hats with tall wrought iron sculptures rising from the center. All of the roofs had terracotta tiles on white stucco archways filled with stained glass panels many hand-carved double door entryways. Many of the doors had stained glass panels and several had wrought iron details. The insides of the buildings had glass mosaics everywhere; the floors, the countertops, the walls and even some ceilings. There were stained glass panels in every window. Some houses had stained glass turret-shaped skylights. The buildings were spaced about 100 or 200 feet apart and the courtyards were filled with sculptures of terracotta, stone, wrought iron and bronze. Even a few of the dead trees were left to stand, because of their gnarled beauty. To take it all in was a sensory overload and needless the say, the favorite word of the day was "Wow".

When the tour was completed we gathered for a group picture to remember the day and to present Jim with a check for the Ilan-Lael Foundation as payment for the private tour. For more information about Ilan-Lael Foundation go to http://ilanlaelfoundation.org/.

  for the rest of the pictures of this amazing tour click here!!!!