An ashen sky smothered Lakeside’s Blue Sky Ranch with choking smoke and blazing fear that early morning in October 2003.
Ingrid Coffin, owner of the ranch, received that 1:30 a.m. phone call no homeowner wants to get. Yards away the Cedar Fire was racing toward her home. She grabbed her animals, jumped in the car and met up with a group from the community in a safe area. They noticed a home on fire that was salvageable and extinguished the fire with dirt.
Coffin was not so lucky. More than 200,000 acres burned under a 40-foot wall of 1,800-degree flames, destroying more than 2,000 homes. Coffin’s home at Blue Sky Ranch was reduced to a blackened landscape.
Before spring rains began to work their redemptive magic, Southwestern College architect instructor Jerry Selah and his students were already on the job. Selah helped them build and create a sustainable and fire-resistant plan using green technology such as recyclable and re-usable products.
Ivan Sanchez, one of Selah’s architect students, volunteers on the project and works with his three companions on Earthline Works in Chula Vista. For the project materials they asked small business for donations.
“Ingrid’s story was really moving,” said Sanchez. “I knew immediately that I wanted to be a part of this.”
Blue Sky Ranch was founded in January 1990 with utopian dreams. Gradually the land was inhabited, with 1,800 fruit trees and idealistic neighbors. Residents do their own organic gardening and sell their goods to local restaurants in San Diego.
“The purpose of the community is to facilitate the finest life possible for its members,” said Coffin. “They help each other get what they are trying to accomplish in life.”
She said she wants the ranch to be positive community that honors the environment and a quieter way to live.
“I haven’t been to a mall in years,” said Coffin, “not because I don’t like malls, but I prefer this lifestyle.”
Selah and his crew also want to be environmental stewards through visionary architecture. Learning opportunities abound.
“It’s not a student project anymore,” he said. “You’re producing a product that has to be professional and so you have to pay strict attention to detail. There were some slips here and there, but that’s all part of the learning process and that’s why I wanted them to do this. When they do it again they can take what they learned here and apply it to their next project. Experience is the best teacher.”
Architecture student Marcos Sanchez said he was pleased to be volunteering for a good cause. Students Arely Franco, Kristina Umali and Marcos Sanchez are on board as members of Earthline Works.
“We really believe that by changing our lifestyle through architecture, we can eliminate rent or mortgage by building with recycled, free, and indigenous materials,” said Marcos Sanchez.
Umaili said the experience has been rich with learning.
“This is the reality,” she said. “You need to be able to get along with people and be dedicated outside of class.”
Their Blue Sky Ranch experience is the ultimate team project, Sanchez said.
“In order to accomplish Blue Sky Ranch, we redesigned our alliance to focus on research and not just building,” he said. “We want to focus on all aspects of housing including sustainable living, and not just the home but towards the lifestyle as well.”
In other words, the students hope to bring the blue sky back to the Blue Sky Ranch.