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The Woodside Town Council, in a unanimous vote, appointed resident and architect Thalia Lubin to the town’s Architecture and Site Review Board at the council’s July 27 meeting.

Ms. Lubin takes the now-empty seat of Glenn Atkinson, who resigned recently. Her term ends in February 2011.

“She is an architect and the (ASRB) charter calls for there to be an architect” on the seven-member board, Councilwoman Anne Kasten said after the council’s interview of Ms. Lubin.

Councilwoman Sue Boynton added that, “as an architect, I think she’ll be able to realize or visualize what the applicant is trying to achieve. I think that’s a very important component (of the process).”

Bringing construction and design plans to the ASRB for review is a required step for new homes and major remodeling projects before they go on to the Planning Commission. Ms. Lubin told the council that she has been involved as an architect in at least 10 projects that went before the ASRB.

She is also on the town’s History Committee and is participating in this year’s task force of volunteers and staff who are reviewing the town’s general plan, according to her application for the ASRB post.

“I feel I would be a valuable addition to the board,” Ms. Lubin said in her application. “Having represented clients before the ASRB, I have an understanding of the process. I love Woodside and want to help ensure that it remains the special place that it is!”

Ms. Lubin lobbied persistently and prominently for the preservation of the Jackling house, a Jazz Age country home on Mountain Home Road now owned by Apple Corp. chief executive Steve Jobs and originally designed by noted architect George Washington Smith.

After years in court battles, the path is apparently now clear for Mr. Jobs to have the house divested of historically significant parts, dismantled and replaced with a modern home.

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4 Comments

  2. And she thinks she can outwit Mr. Jobs et al again?
    HE will build to code and ANY design he wishes, without looking up from his newest invention.

  3. Neither of you have a clue about what you’re talking about.

    Ms. Lubin is a professional and has a very long history of community involvement. And the Woodside ASRB (and Planning Commission), by design, is SUPPOSED to be mostly lay people – except for one architect and one landscape architect. That’s the idea.

    Mr. Jobs did not build to ANY design he wanted. His project was subject to approval by the ASRB, Planning Commission and Town Council. Most importantly, his project complies with all of Woodside’s regulations, including a maximum 6,000 square feet for his main residence.

    Large, yes, but clearly within the limits of an enormous and beautiful property.

  4. Mr. POGO…….My reply REMAINS facetious to anyone who still thinks this is the 20th Century.
    I am sure Ms.Lubin is competent, but you haven’t a clue of some of the architects I know and have worked with in my lifetime; who would be able to get a giant igloo built out of titanium and to code.
    As for my comment about Mr. Jobs, I doubt if he is concerned one way or another, that he won’t get the home he wishes to be built.

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