More FLW: Taliesin!

"The House" Taliesin

My visit to the AD German Warehouse renewed my interest in Frank Lloyd Wright and therefore, I am happy to describe my most recent Wright experience.

Yesterday a group of design students and I visited Taliesin --Wright’s home/studio and school. This was my first visit and it was a wonderful experience. The site is cared for by the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and Taliesin Preservation, Inc. 

According to the Foundations website Taliesin Preservation Inc. was: "created to preserve the buildings, artifacts, landscape, and legacy of Frank Lloyd Wright in Wisconsin. America’s premier architect and Wisconsin’s native son considered Spring Green his home, and he built and created an environment both beautiful and inspirational.

If you are in or near Spring Green WI. (in the southern portion of the state) I recommend making a visit. Tours of both the "Hillside School" and Wright's "House" and studio run from May to October and are conducted by Taliesin Preservation, Inc. (reservations are recommended). Taliesin is also a school of architecture.  

Follow up on the A.D. German Warehouse

I was happy to see this recent article about the AD German Warehouse. This is a great follow up to my earlier post and answers questions I had about this  building. If you click on  "more photos" in the left column you can get to additional images.

http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/on-wisconsin-saving-wright-s-lone-warehouse/article_a448221c-20b8-55e2-a759-d95fe2bf063e.html

Back home in the upper midwest now, late August, and its hot. The world around me hangs heavy. Heavy air,  plants heavy with vegetables. Everything seems ripe.

It is that semi-magical time of year, when I get back to school, meet with new students and the whole thing starts over. Soon it will be the real fall: cool air, leaves changing, and crisp. For now I won't think about winter.

On a side note, I took this quick picture of a flower, in a vase, on my kitchen table --with my phone. I continue to be amazed at the quality of quick little i-phone pictures.

Qualities of Light

Currently visiting Southern California and lucky enough to spend time at the beach. This is La Jolla, just south of La Jolla Cove. I'm always struck by how varying geographical locations have such variation of qualities of light. In coastal areas of the Pacific, when the fog burns off,  there is a coolness to the air and a bright contrast to the sunlight that is just spectacular. A swim in the salt water and taco post swim = perfect summer day in my book.

Lath and Plaster, a beautiful mess

I live in a house built in 1897, it is not a fancy or grand house, just a place that people have lived for over a hundred years. Much of the older more charming elements were “renovated” out of this house in the 1960s by a previous homeowner.  Over the years we have tried to remove the 1960’s elements and replace them with items that are more in keeping with an old house. Another way of saying this is that our renovations consist of getting rid of lots of junky material from the 60s and trying to make the house “look and feel” as old as it is.

Current work in the house involves scrapping away all the 1960s stuff and taking out a wall so that we can open up a small, poorly lit kitchen. In doing this work we uncovered the original wallpaper and lathe and plaster. A little background: lath and plaster was the wall finish of choice until the 1950’s when it was replaced with drywall (aka gypsum board, aka sheet rock). Installing lath and plaster involved attaching the wood strips called “lath” to wall studs (lath was often 3/8” thick, about 1½” wide and 48” long, with a 3/8” gap between them –sorry to use non-metric measurements for those of you outside of the US). A layer of coarse plaster was troweled onto the lath forming the base of the wall finish and this was then finished with finer plaster.

My long explanation of that plastering process was included so that I could share my amazement at the fact that when we removed the ugly fake paneling from the walls we found perfectly straight, intact plaster walls.  Such a precise job had been done originally that after 116 years the plaster was smooth, straight and rather lovely.  Not to mention the perfectly preserved, albeit faded wallpaper. Part of me wants to keep the lath, wallpaper and plaster exposed –as though we were in a hipster brewpub. I keep staring at the exposed elements because I find the whole thing sort of beautiful.  Acknowledging a job well done by the long gone craftsman that did the work so long ago and the slower more painstaking approach to construction is important to me. Plus I really do like the way this looks.

FL Wright, Richland Center WI and the AD German Warehouse

I was recently in Richland Center, WI a small town that happens to be the birthplace of Frank Lloyd Wright. There is one building designed by Wright in town, known as the A.D. German Warehouse

A website devoted to the building calls it “ one of few surviving examples from his most creative period (1911-1924), and considered his first definitive use of the so-called “Mayan Revival” motif".

The warehouse was designed in 1915 for a local commodity wholesaler, Albert Dell German with construction started in 1917. By 1921, construction had halted; many of the interior details, in addition to the front entrance remained unfinished

(- See more at: http://www.hometownwright.com/about/#sthash.tMrCObjV.dpuf)

While visiting the building, I was shocked to see a sign indicating that the building was for sale and learned that the building was owned by a private investor who passed away leaving the property as part of his estate. The Richland Chamber and Development Alliance is seeking a buyer with the long-term goal of helping to raise funds for public or public/private ownership of the building and for restoration.

The site is not far from Taliesin, Wrights Wisconsin home and compound. It certainly seems a project worthy of investment and its odd to see this building sitting empty and in need of significant restoration.

I was completely delighted by the building and happy to be able to study it closely and focus on design details. I visited the building with a teaching colleague and had a lively discussion with my colleague about how “important” buildings should be cared for  --or not. My colleague had the point of view that such monuments may be useless and dangerous and we should not fear the wrecking ball in such cases. I, on the other hand, believe that restoring and maintaining such buildings is useful for current and future generations. Seeing the patterns in the brick and the oversized Mayan-inspired details made my heart sing and I do hope something can be done to preserve this gem and indeed to make it useful once again.

There is a FaceBook page for the building:

https://www.facebook.com/ADGermanWarehouse

Headspace

I have a theory that we have only so much space in our heads at any given time. Picture a real-time, cognitive, pie chart. Some of us have more space, others less --but we are all  held to limited space.

It could also be called focus, which can be very helpful at times. The downside is that when we focus on something fully, it fills a big old chunk -or all of our cognitive pie chart and we don't have room for much else. We may lose the car keys, put the cereal in the freezer and sort of lose touch with all manner of daily niceties. In my own life I can lose serious perspective when my headspace is full.

I realize this is similar to what is called "mindfulness" but  I am also aware of the fact that many of us have commitments that require us to fill up our headspace -so I try not to beat myself up about the times I can't control all that is coming at me. With that said, am learning to seek out ways to free up some space so I can have a little extra room in my personal cognitive pie chart.

The other thing is: to remember that when I am not thinking clearly or having trouble making decisions, -that its just a matter of full headspace and time to look for ways to get rid of something that is taking up space.

Beginnings

I have just stepped down from a demanding role at work, and look forward to having more free time because of this change. 

One of the things I will have more time for is keeping a little blog going  --I hope. Toward that end this is my first post on the new blog.

My current question is: will I use this time wisely or goof off relentlessly   --or some combination of the two?  So far I have had more sleep, more exercise and more fun than I have in a long time. I have also done a little work around the house and caught up on some chores that had long gone undone.

The list of things that I would like to accomplish begins with these:

     

     Work on home renovation

     Work on the beginning of a new book

     Work on a scholarship of teaching and learning project

     Organize my "stuff" for fall classes 

So here is to my new beginning with a photo of a morning glory meant to convey the optimism of a new day.