Articles Written By: Staff

Letter Box

May 9, 2019  by Staff Comments Off on Letter Box

Revelle and Gore

I read with some dismay your editorial introducing the article about Roger Revelle. While I am glad you appreciate the immense impact that Roger had in his scientific career, you have perpetuated a myth that Roger was “somehow persuaded to lend his name to an article he reportedly had no hand in authoring.” This myth was created and propagated by Al Gore, who was upset that Roger, whom he had heard lecture in Ashok Khosla’s introductory science class that Gore took at Harvard, about carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas, was not supporting Gore’s political position. Gore received a D in that class, one of only two science classes he ever took in college (he received a C– in the other one). Fred Singer was co-author on the referenced paper published by the Cosmos Club in April 1991. I have attached his account of the incident, including the libel suit which he filed successfully against Dr. Justin Lancaster for suggesting, as you have, that Roger was not mentally alert during his last years and that Singer had “used” him.

I am a graduate of Pomona’s Department of Geology, as was Roger. I, like Roger, went into oceanography, and I knew him pretty well both professionally and through geology alumni activities. You can see my website for additional information on my scientific qualifications. I have worked on these ocean-atmosphere systems most of my professional life and believe I have, after a lifetime at sea, gained some understanding of how they work. I can assure you that nothing in nature is as simple as Mr. Gore seems to think it is. He is, after all, a politician, not a scientist. His entire academic background in science amounts to the two required science courses he took at Harvard. He likes to say, in his book and in his movie, that anyone who disagrees with his simplistic assessment of climate change is just like the “scientists” who killed his sister. His sister was a smoker and died of lung cancer, but the “scientists” who denied the connection killed his sister. Never mind that he—and his father before him—gew tobacco for decades in Tennessee. He says that anyone who questions his overly simplistic views about climate change is just like those scientists who killed his sister.

For the record, I still sail to the Arctic, as I have since 1967, and have personally observed that the ice is indeed melting due to the Arctic amplification, which is causing the Arctic to warm four times faster than the rest of the Northern Hemisphere. This does not explain why sea ice in Antarctica is increasing at about the same rate that we are losing ice in the Arctic. Perhaps you or Mr. Gore can explain that and the other myriad examples of complexity in the ocean-atmosphere system. Your quotes from Dr. Lancaster that say, “You had what was an insidious example of what I would call a lack of ethics in science and the use of scientists as hired guns by the industry” would seem to conflict with his statement, dated April 29,1994, which resulted from his losing Dr. Singer’s defamation suit. There he says, “I fully and unequivocally retract and disclaim those statements and their implications about the conduct, character and ethics of Professor Singer…” It was Gore who tried to use Roger as a “hired gun,” not Fred Singer.

—Jim Kelley ’63
Loyalton, CA

EDITOR’S NOTE: I guess in cases like these we all must decide whom to believe. I’ve chosen to believe Roger’s family and close associates. As for the libel settlement, in my experience, lawsuits aren’t a dependable barometer for truth. They’re often won by those with the deepest pockets.

Aspirants, Not Victims

I read the letter titled “Korematsu in Context,” in the Winter 2019 PCM, with deep personal interest.  Four now-young men, former high school students of mine, came over the border “uninvited.” I have been deeply involved with them for eight years.  Two I adopted as adults; the other two are “mine” by affection.

The letter describes people like them as “victims,” but I would not.  They are aspirants.  They all came here for many of the reasons our forefathers came:  for safety and opportunity. The letter’s author would describe them as “illegals.”  Is that how we would describe our forefathers?  (Note: Those seeking asylum are engaged in a legal activity.)

The “crisis” the letter refers to is political theatre. The real crisis is with our values:  Are we no longer a destination of hope, the hope that brought our families here?

—David Lyman, ’66
South Pasadena, CA

No More Plastic, Please

I truly enjoy Pomona College Magazine, but was disheartened to find the latest edition arrived wrapped in plastic. With all of the programs and policies being implemented worldwide to reduce plastic usage, both to reduce fossil fuel use and to reduce plastic pollution, why, oh, why wrap the magazine?  Was this only so that you could enclose the letter asking for monetary support?  Not acceptable.  It would be far better to communicate with the target audience by email, and to make an online-only edition of PCM an option to reduce paper use/waste as well.

But seriously: no more plastic!

—Mary Stanton-Anderson ’75
University Place, WA

Dear PCM Reader

Your “Dear PCM Reader” letter prompted lots of Pomona conversation and reminiscences between my wife (Marilyn Hendrickson ’55) and me. We appreciate your letter’s approach to the reality of cost vs. your mission of connecting and a sense of pride as part of the college family. Your mission succeeded with us—many fond and proud memories.

Thank you for reminding us of the many good things Pomona College has contributed to our lives, both in the past and continuing today. The Winter 2019 issue was impressive and especially connected with us, since we are Southern California natives and lived in fire-prone Ventura three times and in the Sierra foothills for about 20 years.

—Dave Holton ’53
Pleasanton, CA

Kudos for PCM

I just want to thank you for this magazine [PCM Winter 2019]. I love geology! About 30 years ago I wrote a fictional story about the Cambrian and the Burgess Shale incident—for children and their parents and grandparents. I never got around to publishing it, but my family are now anxious to visit the exhibit in B.C.

—Barbara J. Sanders ’54
Santa Barbara, CA

PCM is an outstanding magazine, and the “Fire and Water” issue was an ideal fundraiser.

—Helena Zinkham ’75
Arlington, VA

Bravo, PCM Winter edition. The cover should be framed on a wall at MOMA.

—Marshall Hutchason ’52
Glen Head, NY

Alumni, parents and friends are invited to email letters to pcm@pomona.edu or “snail-mail” them to Pomona College Magazine, 550 North College Ave., Claremont, CA 91711. Letters may be edited for length, style and clarity.

New Museum, New Name: The Benton

May 9, 2019  by Staff Comments Off on New Museum, New Name: The Benton

The BentonThe Pomona College Museum of Art has a new building under construction, and now it also has a new name, in honor of Janet Inskeep Benton ’79, whose lead gift of $15 million is helping to fund the new structure.

Opening in fall 2020, Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College or, more simply, The Benton, will provide a space for some of SoCal’s most compelling and experimental exhibitions. The 33,000-square-foot facility is under construction where the campus meets the lively Claremont Village and the city’s civic center.

For decades, Pomona College has played a key part in shaping innovative artists on the edge of L.A., including Helen Pashgian ’56, James Turrell ’65, Peter Shelton ’73, the late Marcia Hafif ’51 and the late Chris Burden ’69. The Benton’s collection will include pieces from all of these alumni, and future exhibitions will carry forward the College’s emphasis on cutting-edge art in the Los Angeles region.

“The Benton will be a rewarding visit for all who seek to venture beyond the expected and to explore the diversity of California,” said Pomona College President G. Gabrielle Starr. “This new museum will benefit our students, our community and the SoCal art scene in which our campus has long played an important role.”

Designed by Machado Silvetti Associates and Gensler, the new structure with cast-in-place concrete walls is accented with wood, glass and a distinctive sloping roofline. Built to LEED gold standards of sustainability, the U-shaped museum will define a central courtyard, with a pavilion for events.

Construction of the $44 million facility, located on the west side of College Avenue between Bonita Avenue and Second Street in Claremont, is set to be completed by fall 2019, launching the yearlong process of moving the museum’s extensive collection to the new facility and installing opening exhibitions.

The new building replaces the existing Pomona College Museum of Art. Housed in a ’50s-era facility, PCMA continues to operate across the street from the ongoing construction. Exhibitions there will continue through May 2020, with the new museum set to open later that same year.

The Benton will continue the current museum’s Project Series, focused on contemporary SoCal artists, which has included exhibitions from Andrea Bowers, Mark Bradford, Charles Gaines, Ken Gonzales-Day, Amanda Ross-Ho and many others. The museum also has been part of the Getty Foundation’s celebrated Pacific Standard Time projects in collaboration with institutions across Los Angeles.

Built on three levels, the new building is conceived and designed as a teaching museum, fostering instruction within collection areas and exhibition spaces, creating opportunities for active encounters with original works of art.The Benton will provide state-of-the-art storage and ease of access for a growing permanent collection of over 14,000 objects.

“Pomona College has long been at the center of artistic excellence and experimentation for Southern California,” said Museum Director and Professor of Art Kathleen Howe. “The Benton continues our commitment to presenting vibrant contemporary art, intimately engaged with the issues of our day, while bringing the art of the past into an ongoing dialogue with the present.”

The Benton will house an extraordinary collection of Native American art; the Kress Collection of Renaissance panel paintings; significant collections of photographs, prints and drawings; and a growing contemporary collection. Four complete series of etchings by Francisco Goya, as well as works by historically important regional and international artists such as Karl Benjamin, Rico Lebrun and José Clemente Orozco, are included in the collection.

A longtime supporter of the museum’s programming, Janet Inskeep Benton is also a member of the Pomona College Board of Trustees. A history major at Pomona, Benton went on to earn an M.B.A. at Harvard Business School. After working in product management at General Foods Corporation in the mid-1980s, she left the workforce to raise her family and serve on various not-for-profit boards in her Westchester County, New York, community.

She is currently board chair of the Jacob Burns Film Center, a not-for-profit art-house theatre complex and media-arts education center. In 2000, Benton founded the Frog Rock Foundation, a philanthropy focused on improving outcomes for underserved  children.

Benton is most excited about the new museum as a gathering spot on campus where both intellectually and personally enriching experiences happen. “Art is a powerful force, opening up the mind to so many possibilities—new ideas, varied perspectives, interesting questions, emotional responses, reconsidered thinking,” said Benton. “My hope is that the new museum creates a stimulating environment for students to explore and engage with art in a deeply meaningful way.”

Only blocks from the Claremont Metrolink train station, The Benton will be a focal point for artistic expression on a campus that is also home to a Turrell Skyspace, “Dividing the Light” (2007), which draws visitors from near and far, and muralist José Clemente Orozco’s “Prometheus,” widely regarded as a masterpiece. Nearby are the Claremont Museum of Art and galleries at Scripps and Pitzer colleges, as well as in the Claremont Village.

“The new museum will serve as a lasting connection point between the College and community, and also with the entire region,” said President Starr. “Southern California is known as a place of boundless artistic innovation. Pomona College is part of that unfolding story, and we plan to continue to help shape it.”

New Athletics Center

May 9, 2019  by Staff Comments Off on New Athletics Center

New Athletics CenterPomona College has also announced plans for a new athletics and recreation facility to replace the Rains Center for Sport and Recreation, with construction to begin in 2020.

The new center will be 15,000 square feet larger than the existing one, expanding it to 94,000 square feet. More than half of the rebuilt facility will be new construction, and other parts of the structure will be updated and reconfigured to enhance the building’s usability.

Two principal gifts of $10 million each kick off the major fundraising campaign to raise a minimum of $29 million that will offset a total project cost estimated at $55 million.

Preliminary designs for the building by the architectural firm SCB include expansive use of glass throughout, with multiple outdoor patios. “This new athletic center will reflect our ongoing commitment to athletic excellence,” says Interim Athletic Director and Chair of Physical Education Jennifer Scanlon, “but just as importantly, it will also signal in a very visible way our dedication to the physical education program and to health and wellness across this campus community.”

The Rains Center has been home to Pomona-Pitzer’s athletic programs and served as the campus recreation and fitness center since it was built in 1989, but in recent years the program has outgrown its home, as more people than ever are using its facilities.

With 21 varsity sports, Pomona-Pitzer fields three more teams than it did when Rains opened. In recent years, the program has seen an unprecedented level of success, finishing in the top 40 of the Division III Learfield Directors’ Cup each of the past three years and winning the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference men’s all-sports trophy in 2017–18 for the first time in program history.

In addition to supporting 450 varsity athletes, the building’s expanded spaces will serve more than 900 intramural athletes, 550 club athletes and student physical education classes, as well as provide fitness and recreation opportunities for students, faculty and staff.

The plans call for a new and larger recreational fitness area,     including additional space for cardio workouts. The studio space available for fitness classes will be doubled. In addition to a general-use weight room, there will be a strength and conditioning center, and locker rooms will be “right-sized” to provide sufficient space for the groups that use them, with separate facilities for faculty and staff in addition to varsity teams.

The men’s and women’s varsity basketball teams and women’s varsity volleyball team will continue to play in the new facility, once complete, with Voelkel Gym remaining largely intact and a new two-court practice and recreational gym added above the fitness area.

“This will truly be a transformational building for our community,” Scanlon says. “In addition to providing an up-to-date home for our fine varsity teams, it will be a draw for health-minded students, faculty and staff and reflect the College’s deep commitment to promoting health and wellness all across our campus.”

A Mystery with a Name

May 9, 2019  by Mark Wood Comments Off on A Mystery with a Name

About a dozen years ago, on an ordinary workday morning, as I was following my ordinary workday routine, something inexplicable happened. My wife, a teacher, had already left for school. After dressing, I felt a bit odd, so instead of going straight to work, I sat down for a moment and opened my laptop. And discovered that I no longer knew how to open a file.

My mind had become a hopeless jumble. I couldn’t recall the names of the people I worked with, couldn’t formulate a clear thought or even hold a murky one in my head for more than a few seconds at a time. Out of all that confusion, one terrible conviction emerged. This must be what it feels like to have a stroke.

It never occurred to me to dial 911. All I could think of was phoning my wife, but I couldn’t remember the name of the school where she worked. I pawed through our file cabinet, searching through drawers for old pay stubs. Finding a number for the school’s front office, I left what must have been a strange and alarming message for my wife.

I don’t remember how long it took her to come to my rescue or what I did in the meantime or what she said to me when she arrived. All of my recollections from that day are sketchy and disjointed. I remember the emergency room and the neurologist questioning me. I vaguely remember various tests and scans. I recall becoming fixated on the initials “TIA,” which stand for “transient ischemic attack”—a kind of mini-stroke that my father had suffered on a couple of occasions—telling my wife about them over and over, each time the first for my muddled brain.

And I remember the comic relief of the day—the man in the next bed, who looked and sounded like a character right out of The Godfather, asking me what was wrong. I said I was having trouble remembering things, to which he replied with a wise-guy grin, “Well, do you remember the $200 you owe me?”

Eventually, the neurologist returned with a diagnosis and a smile. I hadn’t had a stroke. All my results were normal. The diagnosis: a rare and poorly understood condition with no known cause, called “transient global amnesia.” (I thought at the time—and still think—that “transient global amnesia” sounds like something invented for a soap opera plot. “Now we know why Bryan disappeared. He was suffering from transient global amnesia.”)

The good news, the doctor said, was that I would almost certainly be back to my usual self within a day and never have a relapse. And he was right. By lunchtime, I felt better, and by the time I left the emergency room, mid-afternoon, I was back to normal. And I’ve stayed that way, more or less—so far, anyway.

But I doubt that I’ll ever again have quite the same confidence in my own “normal” cognitive functioning. Since that day, whenever I feel a bit odd or have trouble remembering a word or a name, I go through a careful litany of friends’ and family members’ names and phone numbers in my mind, just to reassure myself that it’s not happening again.

It would be comforting to believe that everything that can go wrong with us has both a label and a clear explanation, but what I learned that day—something every doctor knows, I suppose—is that a disorder can have a name and still be a mystery.

Medical mysteries abound, and not just in the headlines about emerging diseases like Ebola. As you’ll read in Kate Becker’s “The Face of a Pandemic,” a century after the Spanish flu swept away something like 5 percent of the total world population, we’re still trying to figure out why it was so lethal. And almost everyone knows someone suffering from some chronic illness that seems to defy diagnosis and effective treatment.

As I learned later, my own diagnosis that day was made purely by process of elimination. It wasn’t a stroke or a tumor or anything else the doctors could pinpoint, so it must be transient global amnesia—a mystery with a name, but no less a mystery for that.

Sagehen Update

May 9, 2019  by Staff Comments Off on Sagehen Update

Men's basketballIt was an eventful winter for Pomona-Pitzer sports as Sagehens swept the SCIAC tournament championships in men’s and women’s basketball and dominated the conference once again in swimming and diving.

The men’s basketball team claimed both the conference title and the tournament, with a historic season featuring program bests for wins (26), conference wins (15), win-streak (18) and highest national ranking ever (No. 9). The team also advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament with a 58–37 win over Texas-Dallas before losing to second-ranked Whitman College in round two.

After finishing second in the conference, the women’s basketball team won their first SCIAC tournament championship and advanced to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2002. Although they lost in the   first round to the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, the team finished with 22 wins, topping 20 wins for only the seventh time in program history.

Women's basketballThe men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams also swept the SCIAC championships for the second time in as many years. The women went on to place seventh at the NCAA championships, with the men taking 11th overall. The teams combined to end the year with 20 All-Americans.

The Pomona-Pitzer men’s cross-country team finished the NCAA in seventh place overall, while the women’s program finished 32nd at the national championships.

The men’s water polo team went undefeated in conference play and breezed through the SCIAC tournament to reach the NCAA, where they fell to Long Beach State in the opening round. They finished the regular season 22–8 and held noteworthy victories over UC Irvine and Princeton. This is the third straight year the men’s water polo program are conference tournament champions.

As this issue was going to press, the women’s water polo team had just finished their second consecutive undefeated conference season.

Last Look

May 9, 2019  by Staff Comments Off on Last Look

4/7 Day

As Sagehens around the globe—from Claremont to Hong Kong—volunteered for community service projects in honor of 4/7 Day, the campus celebration was designed for a lighter purpose—to give current students a chance to shed some of their mid-term stress. For a day—Sunday, April 7—Marston Quad took on a carnival atmosphere with everything from a zipline and a rock-climbing wall to a petting zoo and a range of food trucks—all in honor of Cecil’s favorite number, 47.

Photos by Kristopher Vargas and Jeremy Snyder ’19

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Picture This

May 9, 2019  by Kristopher Vargas Comments Off on Picture This

painted lady butterflies

Picture This: Like the rest of Southern California, the Pomona campus saw unprecedented swarms of migrating painted lady butterflies this spring, due to the superbloom in the desert areas where they breed.

—Photo by Kristopher Vargas

Alumni Profiles

May 9, 2019  by Staff Comments Off on Alumni Profiles

Scott Kratz ’92
Spanning the Divide

bridgeScott Kratz ’92 was having breakfast with a good friend, who at the time was director of D.C.’s Office of Planning, when he asked an offhand question about all the construction going on with an old bridge over the Anacostia River. To his surprise, Harriet Tregoning began to lay out her dream for transforming that old span into a park.

“You want to help?,” she asked.

That was six years ago. Kratz, a history major in his Pomona days, eventually quit his job at D.C.’s National Building Museum to lead an effort that now employs nine full-time staffers and has set a $139 million goal that includes bricks and mortar as well as investments in nearby neighborhoods to ensure local residents can thrive in place by the time it opens in 2023.

Along with lots of good press, the project has drawn financial backing from the city, foundations and corporations as well, with Building Bridges Across the River, (a nonprofit where Kratz is vice president), so far securing $85 million of the needed funding while engaging the community in a positive vision for the future.

Ambitions for the 11th Street Bridge Project were big from the start. Take an abandoned bridge connecting the well-off Capitol Hill and Navy Yard neighborhoods to low-income and often overlooked Anacostia. Turn it into a vibrant park devoted to recreation, environmental education and the arts. And, in some way, help bring the city together.

Plans soon grew even more ambitious.  During one of the 1,000 community meetings held to date, one thing became clear: there were much greater needs in Anacostia—for wealth creation, housing, jobs and more. The effort shifted toward the concept of equitable development, with the aim of getting ahead of gentrification and potential displacement. The key question: “Who is this for?” asks Kratz, noting the massive disparity in household incomes between the mostly white area west of the river and mostly black Anacostia to the east.

Some of the answers: launch workforce development efforts to help people get jobs in fields such as construction, start a homebuyers club and a community land trust, a mechanism that allows people with limited incomes to become homeowners. (Simply put, buyers purchase the house, but the trust owns the land beneath it, which reduces the price. Deed restrictions limit buyers to those within a certain level of income.) Already, 71 renters have become homeowners. Long-term plans call for 1,000 units of affordable housing. Kratz recently piloted 5-to-1 matched savings accounts for 110 east-of-the-river families to support access to college.

Of course, economic justice isn’t the only aim of the project. Everything from urban agriculture to an environmental education center to public art and performance space are part of the plan.

This may sound like a lot for one span to hold, but for Kratz it’s not so much about the bridge as the communities it will connect. Kratz notes how D.C. is booming, with a growing population, but areas such as Anacostia have been left behind.

“It’s really tempting to think, ‘This isn’t our job,’” says Kratz. But “if we don’t get this right, then we’re probably not going to get it right in this city.”

—Mark Kendall

 

Mike Budenholzer ’92

Coach of the Year—Again

Milwaukee Bucks Head Coach Mike Budenholzer ’92

AP Photo/Aaron Gash

Milwaukee Bucks Head Coach Mike Budenholzer ’92 was already the talk of the NBA before his selection in April by a vote of his fellow NBA coaches to receive their Coach of the Year award for 2019.

“In less than a year since taking over as head coach,” Matt Velazquez in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel wrote the day the award was announced, “Budenholzer has totally transformed the Bucks. They went from being one of the worst defensive teams to the best in the NBA. They rebound at a high level, they don’t foul and they punish opponents with a potent offensive attack built on points in the paint and letting three-pointers fly. After years of up-and-down play, the Bucks were consistent on their way to recording the best record in the league this season. They lost two games in a row just one time and won the season series against every Eastern Conference foe. Budenholzer’s schemes, love of efficiency in all aspects of life and individual development— known as ‘vitamins’— are hallmarks of his philosophy that have paid dividends since the day he arrived in Milwaukee last spring.”

In his first year with the Bucks, Budenholzer guided his team to a league-best record of 60-22 and the top seed in the playoffs. The last time Milwaukee had 60 regular season wins was almost 40 years ago, in 1980–81, the era of Marques Johnson, Bob Lanier and Sidney Moncrief. This year’s record was a 16-victory improvement over last season and gave the Bucks their first divisional title since 2000–01. The Bucks were the only team to rank in the top four in both offensive and defensive ratings, and had the best net rating in the NBA.

Still described occasionally as a “disciple” or “acolyte” of the legendary Coach Pop—Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs (and previously the Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens)—under whom he served as assistant coach for almost two decades before getting his first head coaching opportunity with the Atlanta Spurs, today Budenholzer has earned his own three-letter nickname—“Bud”—and has emerged as a coaching force in his own right, though he still attributes much of his success to learning at the feet of the master.

Of course, all he did in Atlanta was lead the Hawks to four playoffs and record the team’s first 60-win season while being named 2015 Coach of the Year. Last year, however, with the Hawks in a rebuilding mode, Budenholzer decided that the time was right to move on—and the offer from the Bucks was the perfect next step.

As with Coach Pop, Budenholzer brings to the team not only a deep understanding of the game, but also a host of intangibles that sports writers struggle to describe. Take, for instance, his reputation for making strange faces in the heat of the moment.

“Though friendly with the media, Budenholzer has long eschewed the spotlight, as Pop always taught his staff to do,” reports Chris Ballard ’95 in Sports Illustrated. “Fairly or not, what Bud may be best known for—outside his coaching—are his facial expressions. The cameras started picking them up in San Antonio. His greatest hits include: Disappointed Dad; Dude-Cut-Me-Off-on-the-Merge; Man-Trying-to-Decipher-Legal-Document; and Just-Watched-a-Bull-Gore-Someone. Observers delight in captioning them on Twitter. An example, from Rob Perez of the Action Network: ‘I swear every time Mike Budenholzer is on camera he looks like he just watched the stampede scene from The Lion King.’”

At the same time, however, that naked authenticity seems to be one of the keys to his success as a coach. Ballard quotes Utah Jazz guard Kyle Korver, who played for Budenholzer in Atlanta: “One of the best parts about playing for him is watching him in the film sessions. But that’s how his heart feels, man! He cares so much and he’s just so disgusted with what’s going on in the court, but it’s so genuine. He’s just someone you want to follow because he’s not just a good person, but he’s great at his craft.”

Personally, Budenholzer had previously expressed his hope that the Coach of the Year award this year would go to his former assistant, Kenny Atkinson, for the job he’s done as head coach of the Brooklyn Nets.

“It is an incredible honor to be recognized by your peers, and that makes this award truly special,” Budenholzer said after the award was announced. “Thank you to my colleagues across the NBA, and most importantly thank you to our players and staff in Milwaukee. The players’ and staffs’ work this year has given our team and our fans a very special season.”

—Mark Wood

 

 

Artifact: Museum, Deconstructed

May 9, 2019  by Staff Comments Off on Artifact: Museum, Deconstructed

The Benton mock-upOver the past year and a half, a strange, disconnected structure has arisen at the center of what was once a remote parking lot on Pomona’s South Campus. Its concrete walls enclose nothing. Odd slabs and pillars of concrete surround it in no discernable pattern, and yet it includes a number of striking architectural features, making it a puzzle for passersby. It may look pointless, but according to Brian Faber, the project manager overseeing the construction of Pomona’s new Benton Museum of Art, this odd assemblage of architectural details is an important part of Pomona’s building process—a mock-up where the structural elements of the Benton’s new home can be tested, evaluated and, if necessary, adjusted before they are set in stone, so to speak, in the new building.

“This wall, this piece of wood, this piece of glass—you can build it or install it here, and then the architect can come out and look at it and say, ‘This looks good’—or ‘This is horrible,’” Faber explains. “If something goes wrong here, it’s OK. You can figure out how to fix it. But if you do it on the building, you just have to live with it.”

The mockup tested a range of details involving the poured-in-place concrete walls, such as the spacing between boards in the wooden frames, which is mirrored in the board lines that give the exterior walls their signature look.

Other elements tested in the mock-up include two types of openings and the Western red cedar columns—both free-standing and inset—for the new museum’s arcades.

The funds to pay for a mock-up like this one are included in the cost structure of each new building on campus.

The low concrete pillars just inside the wall on the right were used to test a range of finishes on the wooden frames, which affect the color and texture of the finished concrete.

The slabs of concrete that litter the ground around the mock-up were used to test different polished finishes for concrete floors, ranging from low to high polish.

The last week of May, when the mock-up is no longer needed, it will be torn down to make room for a mock-up for the next construction project.

Where Claremont Meets Hollywood

May 9, 2019  by Robyn Norwood Comments Off on Where Claremont Meets Hollywood
Where Claremont Meets Hollywood

Where Claremont Meets HollywoodWANTED Lead Camera and Lights for a documentary-style film.”

“Congrats to Maximilian Zarou (PO ’99) on his upcoming TV appearance!”

“If anyone has a short or feature film they’d like to get into a festival, PM me.”

With nearly 2,000 members, the Claremont Entertainment & Media networking group’s Facebook page is a lively community of alumni of The Claremont Colleges who mostly either work in Hollywood or aspire to.

Founded in 2007 by a group that included actor Kelly Perine ’91, the network offers a clearinghouse for job openings, freelance gigs, congratulations and queries from alumni and current students of the seven Claremont campuses.

“I was on the ground floor of getting this puppy up and running, and after 10 years we’re on the brink of turning The Claremont Colleges into forces to be reckoned with, just like other universities that seem to have a stronghold on Tinseltown,” says Perine, who is currently appearing in Nickelodeon’s Knight Squad.

The Claremont Colleges have some Hollywood heavyweights in their corner, including Interstellar producer Lynda Obst ’72 and The Martian producer Aditya Sood ’97, who is also a Pomona trustee.

“What they’re doing is fantastic,” Sood says of the group, also known as CEM.

Before the last decade or so, students and alumni often discovered Claremont entertainment industry contacts either by digging hard or by accident, which is how Sood met his first show business contact, Greg McKnight ’90, now a partner at United Talent Agency. “I was a sophomore sitting in Honnold reading weekly Variety, the print paper,” Sood remembers. “All of a sudden this guy came up to me and said, ‘Oh, how long have they had that here?’ And I said, ‘Ever since I’ve been a student.’ And he said, ‘When I was a student here, I used to write letters to get [the library] to subscribe.’ Then he said, ‘Do you want to get lunch?’ and we did. We became really good friends and have crossed paths many, many times in business over the years.”

At the offices of Lynda Obst Productions on the Sony Pictures studio lot in Culver City, Obst’s right-hand woman is Katarina Hicks ’10, who reached out to Obst because of their Pomona connection and was hired as Obst’s creative executive. She since has been promoted to development executive. There are “tons of people my age in the ‘trenches’ making moves up the ladder,” says Hicks.

Obst proudly notes that one of her former Pomona interns, Justin Huang ’09, is now the head of development at Pearl Studio, the Shanghai-based animation studio formerly known as Oriental DreamWorks. Obst says the CEM group has grown “very strong,” and she continues to speak on the Claremont campuses and offer guidance to students and recent graduates.

“I have always responded to anyone from Pomona, and they’ve come to my office, and I’ve given them advice—but not when I’m in production,” Obst says. “Also, they’ve tended to be my smartest interns, because you know when you get a Pomona person, they can write English sentences; they can analyze scripts; they can speak well; they can think on their feet. I mean there’s just been a very consistently high quality.”

It is a competitive field, and a shared alma mater isn’t enough on its own. But Sood emphasizes the value of the preparation students receive at the 5Cs, as the Claremont undergraduate schools are known. “There’s a real literary component to what we do,” he says. “You’re reading books; you’re analyzing material; you have to have critical thinking and a lot of problem-solving in novel situations. I really think the liberal arts background is a perfect steppingstone for this kind of work.

“The advice I give every time I talk to students is something I didn’t really have but I think would have been great to have: Try to find the other people on campus who also want to do this, and get to know them now. Get to know them as students, because they will form the nucleus of your network that will last you throughout your entire career.”