Exporting Irvine
I found this via A Joshua Tree In Every Pot via Boing Boing. (For those of you who don’t have a login to the NY Times, grab one at Bugmenot.) China has recreated Orange County using houses that are “designed by Southern California architects, with model homes decorated by Los Angeles interior designers. The basement pool tables are American. The appliances are imported. The tiles, wood siding and wall sconces are from the United States, too.” (Yes, I know, we don’t actually have basements in Orange County, but we can’t expect them to know that.)
Maybe this will mean Orange County can be exported to other places, there is a ton of empty land up near Lancaster, that seems to be a perfect place for another OC. Whatever makes it so fewer people want to come here.
Why don’t we have basements in SoCal?
I mean, I kind of have one in my current house, but it was built in 1920 … is there some sort of building code that makes it hard to create basements or is the the earthquake building codes or is it that we don’t need someplace to hide during tornadoes?