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Seeking Shelter

Tue, 21 May 2013 12:34:19 +0000

We live in the natural world. We have no choice. Providing shelter from severe weather has always been problematic, and many towns are taking action. With FEMA's help, Maplesville, Alabama has built the community storm shelter shown here. Shaped like a mantle clock, this structure has saved more than 100 people from damaging winds and tornadoes. Read more about this community shelter.

FEMA's list of potential natural disasters exhausts me—and some say that climate change makes severe weather inevitable. As we mourn the horrific outcomes of recent tornadoes, let's explore the building choices that we DO have.

Protecting Your Community from Disaster:

Storm-Proof Your Home
Tsunami-Proof Building
High-Tech Solutions for Flood Control
Earthquakes, Earthquake Engineering, and Seismic Design
Protect Your Home and Property from Wildfire
California Residential Code requires fire sprinklers in all new home construction
Wind testing shows how concrete walls hold up in a hurricane
Monolithic Domes can survive tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, fire, and insects.

_{Above: Maplesville community storm shelter, shaped like a Tambour-style mantle clock. Photo ID 54767 by Brian Glaviano/Grieg Powers/FEMA.}

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Wright's Usonian Vision

Mon, 20 May 2013 13:00:00 +0000

With no attics and no basements, Frank Lloyd Wright's bare bone Usonian houses were designed to control costs. The world famous architect wanted to create democratic housing that anyone in the United States could afford. Wright's vision was well-meaning, but keeping a budget proved difficult. Perhaps it's time to revisit the Usonian ideal?

Learn More:

Photo Tour: The Zimmerman Home, a Usonian constructed of brick and cypress
Photo Tour: The Kalil Home, a "Usonian Automatic" constructed of concrete blocks (Photo above)
Exhibition: Usonia: Frank Lloyd Wright's Vision of the American Home, at the S.C. Johnson Gallery in Racine, Wisconsin

^{Photo of the Toufic Kalil Home in Manchester, New Hampshire ©Jackie Craven}

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Updates: May 12 - 18, 2013

Sat, 18 May 2013 10:23:46 +0000

Today, May 18, is the birthday of German-born architect and Harvard professor Walter Gropius (1883-1969). For over 30 years, Gropius and his family lived in this house he built near Boston. The stark simplicity of the 1938 Walter Gropius House in Lincoln, Massachusetts may seem very different from the designs of his contemporary, Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959). However, both architects shared the aesthetics of a rapidly changing world.

New and Updated Frank Lloyd Wright Pages:

Updated Architecture Pages:

New Videos:

Profile of the La Sagrada Familia by Nathan Buck

^{Photo of 1938 Gropius House in Lincoln, MA ©Nabeel H on flickr.com, Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic}

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What's so Spooky About Second Empire Style?

Wed, 15 May 2013 14:00:00 +0000

It's home to the Addams Family. It's the haunting hilltop architecture seen in movies such as Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. Why has the Second Empire or Mansard style house become the perfect setting for horror films and all things spooky?

Between 1855 and 1885, America became enthralled with this French import—especially the delicately odd mansard roof, named after the 17th century French architect François Mansart. Fast forward 50 to 100 years, and many of these buildings had fallen into disrepair—the neglected neighborhood "haunted house" was the perfect setting for spooky films and television cartoons.

Second Empire is also a favorite style along the cheerful, all-American Main Street at the Disney World Resorts. Can you find examples of the style in your neighborhood? Here's how to tell.

What famous buildings are Second Empire style?

^{Photo of Second Empire style house in Connecticut ©Alex Guerrero, Poldavo (Alex) on flickr.com, Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)}

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New York's Tallest Building

Mon, 13 May 2013 08:00:04 +0000

With the 18th section of its spire now in place, One World Trade Center is the tallest building in New York. At 1,776 feet, the David Childs-designed structure is now the third tallest skyscraper in the world.

The steel broadcasting tower sits atop the 104-story office building built on the site of the 2001 terrorist attacks. When the World Trade Center Twin Towers were destroyed on 9/11, the Empire State Building became New York's tallest building, as it had been when it opened on May 1, 1931.

But now, lower Manhattan is getting back in business. The spire doesn't quite look like the architect's rendering, but when the top beacon is finally lit later this year, New York's tallest building will be visible for 50 miles in every direction.

^{Photo of spire installed on May 10, 2013 courtesy Port Authority of New York and New Jersey}

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Lucky Mothers Get Great Houses

Sun, 12 May 2013 09:00:00 +0000

Robert Venturi is only one of many architects who have designed for their parents and other family members. Young architects often launch their careers by building family homes. Mature architects sometimes turn to their families when they want to try out experimental new ideas. For an up-close and personal look at home designs by twenty-five architects, check out Beth Dunlop's book, A House for My Mother (compare prices). The affordable paperback is packed with photos, plus interviews with architects and their parents.

Also, for an inside look at the Vanna Venturi house, check out the PBS broadcast 10 Buildings That Changed America. Check your local listings for dates and times.

^{Book cover of A House for My Mother - Architects Build for their Families by Beth Dunlop, 1999, courtesy Princeton Architectural Press and PriceGrabber.com}

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Updates: May 5 - 11, 2013

Sat, 11 May 2013 09:22:59 +0000

Which buildings changed the way Americans live, work, and play? In the new documentary 10 Buildings That Changed America, host Geoffrey Baer suggests Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House is one answer. From Boston to Los Angeles, Baer takes us on a fast-paced one-hour journey of American architecture, architects, and ideas that shaped a nation. Our new architecture pages give a preview of this weekend's broadcast on PBS (check your local Public Broadcasting Service listings).

New Architecture Pages:

Updated Architecture Pages:

^{Photo: Geoffrey Baer at Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House in Chicago courtesy of PBS Press Room, 2013}

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Jay Gatsby is no Otto Kahn

Fri, 10 May 2013 08:00:03 +0000

Another film version of the classic American novel The Great Gatsby opens worldwide this weekend, and once again we're brought back to the Gilded Age. The title character, Jay Gatsby, remains tragic and fictional—unlike the era's real-life Otto Hermann Kahn.

Like Gatsby, Kahn hosted lavish summer parties and grand balls at his Long Island mansion, but that may be where similarities end. Kahn was the real deal—a smart banker of legitimate wealth, a philanthropist, a patron of the arts, a family man. The German-born financier built the "Gold Coast" mansion OHEKA Castle as a family getaway in 1919. Otto Hermann Kahn named his château after himself but modeled it after the great castles of France, including the grand stairway of the Chateau Fountainbleu. Oheka is still America's largest residence after the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina.

Do you think you've seen Kahn's face before? Otto H. Kahn made it to the cover of Time magazine in 1925, but his image is widely known as the cartoon millionaire in the game Monopoly. Take THAT, Mr. Gatsby.

Learn about Oheka Castle on Long Island, New York:

^{Photograph of Otto Kahn courtesy of Prints & Photographs Online Catalog, Library of Congress.}

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Richardson's Legacy

Wed, 08 May 2013 13:00:00 +0000

Not often do architects get their names attached to a style, but that's just what happened to Henry Hobson Richardson. During the 1870s and 1880s, the New Orleans-born architect applied his unique vision to masonry churches, schools, libraries, and public buildings. With towers and arches of rugged stone, Richardson's buildings brought together an American rusticity with the ancient Roman architecture he studied while in France. Soon, his distinctive approach became known as Richardsonian Romanesque.

Trinity Church in Boston is one of Richardson's most famous buildings and is featured in the PBS documentary 10 Buildings That Changed America.

Learn More:

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Accessiblity in St. Louis

Mon, 06 May 2013 11:00:00 +0000

Architects, planners, and developers flock to St. Louis this week for the Fifth Universal Design Summit (UDS5) at the Busch Student Center on the campus of Saint Louis University. They'll discuss ways to build accessible housing and communities and also visit noteworthy examples of universal design found throughout St. Louis.

Presentations include AARP Livable Communities, a case study on Modifying a Mid-Century Ranch home, and other topics related to the Better Living Design (BLD) movement.

Not on the schedule: the famous Saint Louis Gateway Arch. Universal design wasn't on the radar when Eero Saarinen designed the 630-foot tall monument. To enjoy the views, visitors must maneuver at least 96 stairs and remain standing for upwards of 20 minutes. There are no restrooms at the top, and no way for wheelchairs to get there.

Eero Saarien would certainly make many changes if he were designing the Arch today.

^{Above: NOT accessible--the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. Photo ©Chris Brown, zoonabar on flickr.com, Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0). Arch statistics from Accessibility, Gateway Arch at Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, National Park Service.}

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