renovations/upgrades at BBR

[marti]

The hardest step to take with a much-loved and already successful
formula, which defines Black Butte Ranch, is to honor the magic that
is there and NOT bring in a hodgepodge of "newer, bigger, better"
ideas and plans. Our new Visitor/Welcome Center, as well as our new
Administrative Facility, for instance, are both generic and sterile
buildings which could have accommodated any resort on the west coast
and have nothing inherently Black Butte about them. Neither building
is particularly welcoming or indigenous or inspiring -- there is no
"ah/wow" to either one. Both were costly to build and will be costly
to properly maintain, and neither will ever be architecturally-
memorable.

Just focus on an authentic and honest restoration of our structures AS
THEY CURRENTLY EXIST, including the little grocery store, the Lodge
Tennis Courts, the gift shop and spaces that service the Lodge
Swimming Pool, and ESPECIALLY our beautiful, original Lodge WITHOUT
any expansion or structural architectural changes. Of course its
functions will never be without glitches, but it has style and great
sense-of-place; it deserves to be lovingly restored. Of course these
restorations would be expensive, but these structures have already
proven themselves to be gems!!

Our Lodge recently has had the life sucked-out-of-it with its now-
purposeless entry area. To attempt to remedy that void, get a variety
of materials which might draw visitors and residents alike:
newspapers
area activity brochures
BBR restaurant menus
local recreation suggestions, etc.
And a Black Butte employee to staff that entry so that visitors
immediately establish a sense of "There Is A Place." Honestly, the
emptiness we now all feel when walking into our Lodge should have been
anticipated before construction began on our new buildings and as
marketing decisions were being made.

Let's have reasons to go to the current Lodge! That is where the view
and setting are -- the image all of us first have when we think of
Black Butte. And looking out those windows to the meadow, trees and
mountains beyond.

A tear-down and build-new mentality is going to deliver us a resort
which will look just like any other resort, which has already been
demonstrated by the construction of both the Visitor Center and
Administrative Building. Building "new, bigger, better" is not going
to draw the revenue from visitors and users that Black Butte Ranch
needs -- and additionally, is fiscally irresponsible.

[Katie Williams]

Marti - I would like to thank you for taking time to artfully
articulate your perspective on the Lodge and its meaning to the BBR
community. As I have said many times on this discussion board, it is
easy to see the passion and caring that homeowners have for this
special place, its environment and ambiance. That is the purpose of
this discussion board, to give a voice to all those people who want to
have their thoughts heard and to share their ideas for the future.