Experiencing Poly Canyon:

Seth Mayer is an architecture student who is employed by Cal Poly to be a caretaker of Poly Canyon. He lives in the Modular house located in Poly Canyon. In exchange for rent, Seth works about ten hours a week renovating and improving the structures.

How long have you lived in Poly Canyon?

I have lived in the canyon since last July so it has been a little over ten months.

What has been the most enjoyable and the most difficult part of living in Poly Canyon?

I think the thing that I have enjoyed the most about living in the canyon is the fact that I am isolated and away from things. I am somewhat introverted sometimes and I enjoy being able to get away from everything. I also really enjoy keeping up the canyon because it is so rich in history and I am proud to contribute to that. I also enjoy the opportunity that it gives me to actually do something with my hands, to get me away from the classroom. I also enjoy giving tours to incoming students in the fall. For me, the most difficult thing about living in the canyon is the time that it takes away from my studies. Being an architecture student is very time consuming and sometimes I find myself needing to catch up on the work I need to do in the Canyon

You work about ten hours a week on the structures up here. From your experience, what structures need the most work and why.

From my experience, the Underground House and the Shell House are the two that need the most work. The underground house has been rebuilt multiple times and it has failed repeatedly to stop leakage so it was brought above ground. The Shell House will hopefully someday be turned into a caretaker’s house, so to be able to be livable the is a lot of renovating that is needed on that.

Have you ever had problems with the structures falling apart or any other things that are dysfunctional?

Quite often I find myself having problems with the water. Everything in the canyon is student built except for the septic tank. The water main between my house and the tank has broken on several occasions and leaked one time until the whole tank had been emptied.

Are these buildings built well enough to be considered livable?

It was never the intention of the builders to have these structures be permanent residences. There is a lot of leakage in my house because the connections between the wood and the steel expand and contract at different rates leaving gaps within the connections. The roof is not sloped and there is no gutter system on the house so leaking is something that I deal with when it rains. But I feel some of these structures despite their imperfections are very well built. The tensile structure for example was well design and the building process was very well organized.

What do you consider to be the most impressive structure in the Canyon?

I would say the most impressive structure in the canyon would have to be the Shell House. It is so unique. Where else can you go and see something built like the Shell house?

What significance does this area have to the Architecture Department and Cal Poly?

Poly Canyon is a very significant part of the Architecture Department and the school because very few schools have outdoor architectural labs. It is not often that students have the chance to practice what they are taught in a hands-on way that Poly Canyon offers. I think that it offers a tremendous opportunity for students to practice what they have learned about. It is said that you learn the most from your failures so successful projects aren’t the goal here. To put yourself out there and to try new and innovative things is what the canyon is there for.

Tell me something that I would otherwise not know about the canyon had I not asked you.

We are pretty open about all the information that we know about the campus. I guess what really surprises most people when the first visit the campus is that the structures are a lot older than they expected. Most of them were built in the 60’s and 70’s.

How have your experiences in the canyon improved your knowledge of architecture and your education at Cal Poly?

Living and working in the canyon has really made me appreciate how much work and difficulty there is in the whole process of building something. It is a lot more work than just drawing some lines on some paper. It makes me appreciate the neccesity in Architecture of thinking things through. I really like working construction and I feel that that living and working here has motivated me because I now see what the possibililties of actually having my designs constructed.