Pasadena on My Mind

I'm spending a lot of time in Pasadena. It began representing a Craftsman crazed buyer in Northeast Pasadena (see New Frontiers 10/27/2008). Then came Craftsman Weekend, Pasadena Heritage's annual celebration of the American Arts & Crafts movement; and, the various exhibitions devoted to the work of architects Charles and Henry Greene, at the Pasadena Museum of History, Pasadena Museum of California Art, and the Huntington Library.

I fill time between Crown City engagements photographing Shingle Style derivatives, mostly around the Governor Markham and Bellefontaine districts. Kathleen Tuttle's book on Sylvanus Marston, native son and prolific Pasadena Architect, informed my hunting grounds.

The common denominator is my love of wood, the medium through which I like things to be expressed. I appreciate the potential sensuality of plaster and concrete, the attributes of glass, the convenience and intensity of tile, the obvious durability of metals; still, none do I value so much as wood.

I like streets of trees and houses of wood.

New Frontiers

I've ventured a bit further afield lately, working with a buyer in the Foothill communities, and a seller in Anaheim (more on this later). Last week I rummaged through the inventory in Monrovia, and took these stills.

Image 1: A Craftsman style house clad entirely, nauseatingly, in pink marble squares. Note the landscaping, roses what else?

Image 2: Beam ends wrapped in copper sleeves, an interesting preservation strategy.

Image 3: Dear Craftsman connoisseurs, a Tifal Brothers is for sale! (see Clinkers, Tifals...Clifals! 5/5/08) Snazzy built-ins, split granite fireplace, distinctive hardware, lousy kitchen update, walking distance to Myrtle (but not in the Wild Rose Historic District).

Image 4: Interior Tifal Bros. detail: fireplace hearth.

MTM

I'm still leafing through Larry Millet's guide to Twin Cities Architecture (see June archives and My Absence Parts 1 & 2). Recently I came across this entry:

S.E. Davis ("Mary Tyler Moore") House 1894

A Queen Anne house that became a local icon by virtue of its association with the popular Mary Tyler Moore Show. An exterior shot of the house identified it as the location of Moore's apartment.

Of course that show aired in the 1970's, as Victoriana experienced reappreciation. Gingerbread made for suitably hip digs. Now days the beautiful young are cast in gleaming cubes, stark fields of white*, and the Queen Anne is relegated by the tastemakers to cameos in Horror movies like Pacific Heights or supernatural fare such as Charmed.

On the other hand, maybe the Victorian styles (along with the preceding Gothic Revival) have always served as a backdrop for fright night. My 6-year old associate turned up some architectural typecasting in a silver age Fantastic Four.

In the story that introduces Agatha Harkness, Franklin Richards governess, and a witch, a most exuberant structure is rendered by penciller Jack Kirby.
















There's several captivating interior drawings as well, the setting a bit fussy of course, and overdecorated.

*Actually by the 1890's, a few interiors were being painted all white, though masses of color still prevailed.

Come to mention it, doesn't the Thing look a bit Richardsonian?

My Absence (Part 2)

While the Walker Art Center hogs the headlines, a highly visible emblem of modernism, a tumble of aluminum clad cubes, promising not just paint but pixels, performance, and Wolfgang Puck. I visited instead the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, to see the collection naturally, but also to consider the building's architectural accretion, nearly equal parts McKim, Mead & White, Kenzo Tange, and Michael Graves.

Graves addition came most recently (in 2006), and feels less like his flamboyant high wire act and more like a sideshow hustle, cartoon classicism (perhaps an ode), with Paul Bunyan sized dowels, or columns, checkerboarded about in a field of white.

Tange's contribution, for a master of movement, feels a bit static. (Maybe the client's to blame?) Porcelain smooth surfaces, dinner ware without decorative roughage, the crackle of McKim, Mead, and White's matchless classicism and ornament (see photo top).

From the Prairie School gallery (yes!), the Minneapolis skyline is purposely framed. The view is accompanied by a detailed placard, buildings are identified and attributed, architecture offered as more than mere canister or amenity. Yes!
***************************************
Today's open: 2892 W. 15th ST 2 - 5:30
The best all-around property for sale in West Adams!
4 beds, 2 baths, music/bonus room, butler's pantry
The backyard is loaded with trees and shady spots (see left).
Come see the laundry chute. When's the last time you saw one of thems?

I'll have some Gatorade on ice.

My Absence (Part 1)

The entries slowed, sidelined by work, deals concluding and discontinued, a zany hailstorm of activity. That, and I took a vacation.

Family, neighbors, and clients voiced concern, "you need to get away, your work is devouring you, go somewhere, decompress."
"Where," I asked, "Cleveland's on my wish list, but the Museum of Art is closed till late June."
"Maui, St. Thomas, Cancun," suggestions fired like a Hubbell heater, each a bit more desperate and thoughtful.
"Near water," I puzzled.
"Yes, " they implored.
"Maybe a river," I continued.
"That'll do," sounded the chorus.
"The Mississippi River, " I concluded, "the Twin Cities."

So off I went, armed with Larry Millet's AIA guidebook to the architecture of Minneapolis-St. Paul, hoping to learn more about the city's great builders, the original starchitects, like Cass Gilbert, Clarence Johnston, Harry Jones, and the Prairie School poobahs Elmslie & Purcell.

Instead, I realized that American cities are almost all the same. (No bad thing, with something in each to love.) So many cities underwent tremendous growth in the 1880's, shedding absolutely their small-town forms, force fed by industrial advances, and burgeoning transportation networks. In 1920's another boom time facilitated downtown growth, great apartment houses, and a continued outward push. Periods of war are marked by inactivity in the built environment. PWA Moderne projects typify the 1930's (except notably in Los Angeles). In the 1950's and '60's, downtowns and main streets are decimated by large land clearing projects, freeways, and pedestrian malls, as civic leaders respond desperately to suburban dispersal and fading influence. In the early 21st century, high density in-fill (and adaptive re-use) pockmark re-imagined city centers with "luxury" condos, townhouses, and artist lofts. Under the cover of smart-growth mantras, most puncture the sensitive integument of scale and mass.

END PART 1