Builders play around with small plans

Alicia Robinson

A little neighborhood with houses painted bright green and purple, a

hodgepodge of building materials and a building shaped like a shoe

sprang up practically overnight at Fashion Island.

It’s not a lapse in city zoning codes. It’s the return of Project

Playhouse, an annual fundraiser for HomeAid Orange County, the

community outreach arm of the Building Industry Assn. of Southern

California, a trade organization that includes architects and

builders.

For Project Playhouse, builders, architects, landscapers and

designers donate time and materials to create elaborate and eclectic

children’s playhouses that will be displayed at Fashion Island until

Oct. 23 and then auctioned off. The proceeds are used by HomeAid

Orange County to build and renovate shelters for temporarily homeless

people and families.

The playhouses for this year’s event were brought to Fashion

Island Wednesday night, and workers were putting the finishing

touches on the landscaping and the houses on Thursday. And for the

first time, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department also built and

donated a playhouse.

“The inside of these houses and the detail that goes into them is

incredible,” said Mike Meyers, a landscaper with Newport Beach-based

Lifescapes International.

Some playhouses have running water, electricity and entertainment

systems inside, but the outside is important, too. Meyers landscaped

a house built by Pardee Homes of Irvine with the theme of the Mad

Hatter’s Tea Party Cottage.

He chose plants in a variety of colors and used multicolor pots in

keeping with the off-kilter look of the house, which had a tea pot

spout coming out of one side and bright paintings on some of the

walls.

“These are always so whimsical; we’re using stuff we wouldn’t

normally use every day,” Meyers said. “Really it’s like theater

design.”

The houses do look like the products of imaginations run wild. One

had a wooden mill wheel on the side that’s turned by a stream of

water. Another was a giant pineapple like the cartoon character

SpongeBob SquarePants inhabits.

Irvine architecture firm KTGY Group Inc. designed a house fit for

a 21st-century child. While its boot-shaped exterior recalls nursery

rhymes, inside it features a flat-screen television and a video-game

system.

This is the firm’s fourth year participating in the event, which

is in its 13th year. The architects started work on the house in

April, and the builder completed it about a month ago, said William

Ramsey of KTGY Group.

“I think it was just a fun, playful idea, and it was both fun and

challenging to do,” he said.

The fun is one of the reasons the firms enjoy the project, but

they also like that it benefits the community, said Claudia Jones of

Pardee Homes.

“It gives us the ability to be creative, and it’s for a tremendous

cause,” she said.

The curious and eye-catching designs of the playhouses tend to

draw people to them. According to Fashion Island’s statistics, during

the 10 weeks the houses were on display in 2003 they were seen by 3.3

million people, HomeAid Orange County spokeswoman Delene Garbo said.

This is the group’s biggest fundraiser each year. In 2003 the

event raised $370,000, and playhouses usually fetch between $7,000

and $75,000, Garbo said.

The playhouses are fun for the builders, and observers get a kick

out of them too.

“We love it,” said Kim Harker of Chino Hills. She and her husband,

Bob, stopped by Fashion Island on the way to spend time on their

boat.

“The designs are all different and they’re unique,” agreed Bob

Harker. “For playhouses, they’re fantastic.”

An open house, when families can go inside the 12 playhouses, is

planned for Saturday, and the playhouses will be on display until

Oct. 23, when the auction is held. For more information on Project

Playhouse, call (949)533-9510 or visit

https://www.projectplayhouse.org.

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers business, politics and the environment.

She may be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail at

alicia.robinson@latimes.com.