Christopher Alexander wins Vincent Scully Prize

          Central Building of the Eishin Campus, built by Alexander in Japan in 1985. Source:  www.tricycle.com

The National Building Museum has made a fascinating selection for its 2009 Vincent Scully laureate and all of us here are eager to share the news as an auspicious, consensus-building way to remind our constituents of Christopher Alexander's unique and under-appreciated contribution to design pedagogy and practice.   The article form Metropolis Magazine attached sums it up well.  As far as I know Mr. Alexander does not and would not label himself a classicist and traditionalist. In any case, I make no such presumption in marking this tribute. Instead, I recognize his steadfast iconoclasm in the face of all dogma including the hegemony of modernism which inevitably shaped his training and predominant collegial milieu. There is in his work always a central place for nature, the human figure , and the applied endurance of  time-tested patterns,   contrasting his work with most of what has been the overall design zeitgeist of his lifetime.  Combined with his innovative embrace of technology and its resulting tools, his role as universal, provocative asset is secure. Congratulations to him the Museum's selection committee for such overdue recognition.  PWG 

Architectural Watercolor: Reviving a forgotten tradition

In the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you.       Leo Tolstoy

The inherent dichotomy expressed by Russia’s foremost literary genius in this passionate admonishment has been resolved magnificently by his latter-day native compatriots: Anton Glikin and Irina Shumitskaya.

That fact is revealed well by their exhibition and accompanying catalog and I am pleased to join in heralding its advent here in our design classrooms (the first exhibition we’ve been yet able to feature…) and the fine continuing achievement of both artists.

Anton and Irina long ago learned how to stand still and observe with the patient and discerning eyes of the draughtsman. This act informs their minds and guides their hands.  

They stop in order to work.

Of particular interest to the architects, designers and other classically-inclined constituents of the Institute are their drawings of buildings and interiors, whether old and new, which delight the viewer’s eye while also informing the attentive practitioner in search of exemplary lessons for the sake of their own respective design endeavors.  In this way, they record results and inspire anew; and in this way, they demonstrate above all how drawing is a pathway to seeing. 

Irina Shumitskaya, The Greek House, East View, 2004, Watercolor on paper, 40x25” 

The ICA&CA was pleased in 2003 to recognize Anton with its Arthur Ross Award in Rendering –although it might just as well have fallen in a category of fine art. He transcends categorization. Meanwhile, the work of his wife and fellow traveler, Irina, reveals comparable excellence and reinforces our celebratory impulse on behalf of each.  

Anton Glikin , A Rotunda, 2004, Pen on paper, 7 ½ x 5” 

Likewise their rigorous studies at the St. Petersburg Academy of Fine Arts, where those enrolled advance to new tasks and assignments only when each sequential assignment has been mastered fully, constitute a fine pedagogical model for the Institute today. This is the case in our fine arts division, the Grand Central Academy of Art, whose curriculum demands years of cast and figure drawing preceding the paint brush, as well as in our classical design certificate sequence and its close ties to a well-tested progression of skills and aptitude.

Irina Shumitskaya, An Empire Style Garden Seat, , Elevation, 2001, Watercolor on paper, 17x12”

Anton and Irina personify the Institute’s work both in the course of study they followed in Russia and in the results of this preparation achieved in America. It is a joy to know that their contributions to contemporary classicism will continue for many years to come.

Paul Gunther

August 2009

 

Anton Glikin, A Mosque at Sunrise, 1995, Watercolor on paper, 18x19”

Affordable Housing - ICA&CA Southern California Chapter Habitat for Humanity Competition

The Southern California Chapter of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Classical America (ICA&CA-SCC) announced the winning designs of its inaugural Affordable Housing Design Competition at a special reception at the new Waterworks, West Hollywood, on July 16, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m..  The event was held to benefit Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles. The winners are:

Best Overall Design

Cindy Grant Architecture, Inc. with Tierra Sol y Mar, Inc. and Brooke Gardner Interior Design

Best Craftsman

William Hefner Architecture, Interiors and Landscape

Best Spanish Colonial

Cindy Grant Architecture, Inc. with Tierra Sol y Mar, Inc. and Brooke Gardner Interior Design

Best Mid-Century Modern

KAA Design Group, Inc. with Kaplan Gehring McCarroll Architectural Lighting

Best Contemporary

William Hefner Architecture, Interiors and Landscape

Best English Colonial Revival

Michael G Imber, Architects

Spanish Colonial & Best Overall Design Winner by Cindy Grant Architecture, Inc.

The ICA&CA-SCC and Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles launched this competition in response to the critical need to shelter families impacted by the current economic crisis.  This partnership brings a fresh approach to an age-old problem: affordable homes which families actually dream of owning. Over twenty-two firms nationwide representing architects, interior designers, landscape architects and those in the construction industry have entered the competition.  The single-family home designs capturing the best of Southern California vernacular styles will be adapted for use by Habitat for Humanity affiliates throughout Southern California.  The design entries inform and inspire affordable, neighborly, sustainable homes that can be readily built by Habitat volunteers. The winning entries will be published in a pattern design guidebook for use by Habitat for Humanity.

  

Craftsman by William Hefner Architecture, Interiors and Landscape  

Committee member Brooke Gardner speaks to the importance of this initiative: “The goal of the competition was to produce an Architectural Pattern Book to be used in the field by Habitat volunteers. The Pattern Book will feature five different architectural styles, Spanish Colonial, English Colonial, Craftsman, Mid-Century Modern and Contemporary and will offer aesthetically pleasing, affordable design solutions that will help Habitat secure the permits and the resources to house families in need.  It is hoped that the partnership between these two highly respected non-profit groups will result in building designs that will encourage healthy community growth, accelerate project approvals within building agencies, and ultimately, provide affordable homes to those desperately in need. This was a unique opportunity to direct the skill and attention of design practitioners to meet an urgent social need and to reduce the ‘not in my backyard’ community response to many affordable housing initiatives."

         

English Colonial Revival by Michael G. Imber Architects 

 

The competition is made possible by the support from DC Williamson General Contracting, Inc., McCoy Construction, Waterworks, Richard Holz, Inc., Taylor Development, William Hefner Architecture, KAA Design Group, and the Pacific Design Center.   

About ICA&CA-SCC:

The ICA&CA is the leading national non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the practice and appreciation of the classical tradition in architecture and the allied arts.  The organization fulfills its mission through four program areas:  education, publications, awards and advocacy.

The Southern California Chapter regularly produces unique events, home tours, lectures, continuing education courses and discussions with architects, authors and designers committed to advancing the institute’s core values.

For more information, log onto www.classicist-socal.org.

 

About Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles 

Habitat For Humanity of Greater Los Angeles strives to eliminate poverty housing through advocacy, education and partnership with families in need to build simple, decent affordable housing. Since 1990, HFH GLA has built and renovated nearly 500 homes locally and worldwide, transforming the lives of hundreds of individuals.

For more information, visit www.habitatla.org.

Grand Central Academy of Art Presents Results of 2nd Annual Classical Figure Sculpture Competition

The Institute of Classical Architecture & Classical America at the behest of its fine arts division, the Grand Central Academy of Art, is pleased to announce the winners of the second annual Classical Figure Sculpture Competition.

The first place winning work by Joshua Koffman

The competition took place from June 8-12, 2009 in the Grand Central Academy's Sculpture Atelier at 20 West 44th Street in Manhattan. It was made possible by a grant from the Morris and Alma Shapiro Fund of New York, New York.

The twelve finalists (selected  last April from more than 60 applicants) competed in a deliberately all- consuming 40 - hour, five-day competition, modeling a half-size figure from life.  The model held her pose  throughout the intensive week that defined the competitive concours.  Promptly at 5 pm Friday, the artist competitors put down their tools and the judging immediately commenced. 

Viewing the sculptures at the award ceremony

The  just session ensued with the winners announced at 8 pm to the assembled reception and presentation ceremony. The judges were 1) GCA founder, director and teacher, painter, Jacob Collins; 2) designer and ICA&CA co-founder and teacher, Richard Cameron ; 3) sculptor, educator and founder of Philadelphia's Schuylkill Academy of Fine Art, Stuart Feldman.

They are:   

First Place, $10,000     - Joshua Koffman
Second Place, $3,000   - Kate Brockman
Third Place, $2,000      - Jiwoong  Cheh  
Honorable Mentions    - Julia Levitina McGeehan and Angela Cunningham 

The first place winner lives and works in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he studied and presently teaches at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. For more information on Mr. Koffman, as well as the other honorees please visit the GCA Web site.

First Place Winner Joshua Koffman at work

Juror Richard Cameron said, “This second competition was an unqualified success and I was pleased to serve as a judge. During our deliberation, the three of us had an engaging dialogue about naturalism versus classicism in contemporary figurative sculpture. The choice of Josh Koffman was unanimous as his piece emerged as the most coherent whole of style, form, and expression."

ICA&CA President, Paul Gunther, said “The sculpture competition like the new Atelier that houses it each year is now integral to our overall drive to sustain an interdisciplinary center for the study, appreciation, and advancement of classical art and architecture. The physical and psychological rigor of the competition takes its cue from the Beaux Arts model as an annual complement to the regular class schedule and includes both regular core students and artists from around the world who pay attention to our work from a kindred perspective. What it signifies is a growing community of students and practitioners, who seek an alternative to the more solipsistic basis of most of today's schools of art. One path to such an alternative is the slow and exacting development of technical skill nurtured above all by a lifelong examination of the human body as a centering point of creative departure. The Competition thus serves as an eventful metaphor for all we endeavor to impart as stewards of the classical course throughout history."   
For additional photographs of the twelve final pieces, as well as the competition itself,  along with more information about  all of the finalists,  visit the Grand Central Academy 's Web site at http://grandcentralacademy.classicist.org/sculpturecompetition.html .

For more information about all ICA&CA programs visit www.classicist.org  Members of the press can contact Paul Gunther at pwg@classicist.org

 

Isaac 'Takes the Gold'

Despite the small amount of designated funding presently available, the Institute continues making strides with the restoration and installation of its historic plaster casts collection, received so kindly five years ago from the de-accessioning Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Late last month, after a patient wait of more than a year, our consultant conservator, Treese Robb, delivered another of the six Ghiberti Gates of Paradise panels we are lucky enough to have.  (Four of the ten were absent at the time we made our initial 2003 curatorial inspection at the Bronx warehouse, where they’d been stored for decades-- see the catalog entry here for a more complete description.)

 It is the Isaac panel, which more than any other, features classical architecture as spatial context. Some refer to it as “#5” as it was created as the left-side panel of the gate’s middle band.  

As you see, what makes this intervention extraordinary is its gilded surface – as Ghiberti intended and created in the 15^th century and as now restored on the originals held today in sealed cases in Florence’s Museo dell’Opera del Duomo (www.operaduomo.firenze.it) just alongside Brunelleschi’s  masterpiece.

 At the end of the 19^th century when the Met procured its casts directly from the originals, the gild had long been eroded and covered by a succession of well-intended interventions and it appeared instead with its underlying bronze patina.  It was that surface that has therefore guided our own restoration, i.e. in careful evocation of the vaguely opalescent bronze surface that its great Met-engaged casters first intended.

The original gilded surface was revealed only in the later 20^th-century after the originals were replaced in situ and literally brought inside.

  

With all this conservation history in mind, I accepted Treese’s spirited (largely subsidized—bless her) proposal to treat one of the panels with like impulse—and Isaac seemed ideal given its architectural setting.

 ICA&CA stalwart and guiding light, Clem Labine, awarded the funds as per our ongoing if somewhat “under known” Adopt-a-Cast” enterprise and long, exacting labors ensued.

 I am pleased to cite Clem now that we have this literally brilliant teaching resource in hand. As per usual, he sums it up best:

 The transformation is magical. The bronze patina of the other restorations is excellent, but with the gilding, the Isaac panel absolutely comes alive. It is no longer just an artifact, but a piece of vibrant contemporary art—contemporary in the sense that it seems fresh from Ghiberti’s hand. Treese is a true artisan as her subtle variation in the levels of burnishing brings new levels of perceptible depth. The gold leaf emphasizes the play of light and shadow as can best assist future teaching –after all, the cast collection’s ongoing raison d’etre. The projecting areas of the relief are now so bright that the receding areas in shadow provide insightful contrast. In sum, it has come alive.

 Please come by soon for a personal inspection.

 

Paul Gunther

Lector, Si Monumentum Requiris Circumspice: 10 Architectural Walks in Manhattan

Francis Morrone and Matthew A. Postal, Photography (and all photos below) by Edward A. Toran, Robin Lynn, Editor

W. W. Norton & Company with a proprietary assist from New York’s beloved and too-little-understood Municipal Art Society (MAS) has published a new volume entitled 10 Architectural Walks in Manhattan.

The Madison Square skyline, though not nearly as large as the downtown or midtown skylines, nonetheless is quite extraordinary. The easy intermixture of tall and low buildings and open space has had no small role in the neighborhood’s late twentieth-century renaissance.

When it comes to the Society it’s NOT “Arts” but “Art”; in 1898, when among distinguished others, Richard Morris Hunt, Daniel Chester French, and Edwin and Evangeline Blashfield founded this civic organization, inspired, as they were, by the hopeful lessons of the Ecole des Beaux Arts it was to promulgate the concept that today we would call “urban planning” “ or “town planning,” or “New Urbanism,” or now more currently, “emergent urbanism” or “smart growth.” Back then it was purely, simply, and very elegantly referred to as “municipal art”—not bad when you think about it with the distinct advantage of removing the polemical schisms of recent years…Maybe it’s time to revisit that moniker in the face of all the opportunity now at hand.

Besides paying attention to the good works of MAS generally, I urge all to those who either reside in New York or who love and visit New York to secure a copy and use it accordingly, soon and often. Visit our online bookstore to that worthy end via www.classicst.org.

The monument to Admiral David Glasgow Farragut, with a bronze statue by Augustus Saint-Gaudens and an exedra by Saint-Gaudens and Stanford White, was recognized early as one of the most important public artworks in America.

This MAS guidebook is a fine resource for those either already pre-disposed or eager to encourage the not-yet-converted to take the time to look about and discover the joyous and endlessly illuminating lessons of the built environment in the full historic palimpsest it promises to reveal for discerning onlookers. Look and you shall see!

The cherub is one of the principal formal devices of Western art. No one- before or since- executed them better than the Alsatian Philip Martiny, New York’s greatest architectural sculptor.

Plus it is dedicated to our co-founder, Henry Hope Reed , who on April 8, 1956 invented the New York walking tour and brought what he himself describes as a French construct to America. The visite conference as it was and is denominated took its permanent place in American culture; he thus spawned what is now commonplace and ubiquitous.

Henry Hope Reed, the late Arthur Ross and Janet Ross, at the 2007 Arthur Ross Awards

I have asked my friend and former colleague, Robin Lynn, to comment further:

Architectural historian Henry Hope Reed led what was not only the first MAS walking tour but also probably New York’s first architectural walking tour for the general public. The tour “From Madison Square to Gramercy Park” was such a novelty that newspapers sent reporters to cover it, and neighborhood residents didn’t know what to make of it. It is a testimony to what MAS and Henry started that walking tours are today an accepted part of the city’s culture.

MAS has just published 10 Architectural Walks in Manhattan, and dedicated it with pride. Designed for visitors, students, or newcomers, but also for seasoned New Yorkers eager to learn more about the bricks, brownstones and glass towers they live among, 10 Architectural Walks takes walkers all over Manhattan. Under bridges, into buildings, and across parks, it allows everyone to make the most of New York’s pedestrian-friendly streets, vibrant public spaces, and historical architecture.

The guidebook features the experienced voices and strong opinions of architectural historians Francis Morrone, ICA Fellow and Matthew A. Postal, who have both led MAS walks for over 10 years. Tours include Madison Square, where Henry led his first group, a walk along Park Avenue’s prestigious corporate addresses; a historical stroll in Hamilton Heights; an informative section on New York’s earliest tall buildings; a tour along The High Line, New York’s newest and only elevated park; and Midtown Deco, among other areas.

Can’t read maps? No sense of direction? No problem. The book is filled with intuitive, easy to follow directions with recognizable landmarks, 10 clear maps, and more than 200 color photographs by noted photographer Edward A. Toran to ensure that you never confuse your chapels, misname your buildings, or end up lost in lower Manhattan.

10 Architectural Walks in Manhattan costs $29.95. ICA&CA members can present their membership card at Urban Center Books, 457 Madison Avenue, and receive a 10% discount. Books can also be ordered online at www.urbancenterbooks.org. To find out how to walk with Francis or Matthew or other MAS tour guides, visit www.mas.org.

The principal facades of the redbrick Potter Building are enlivened by sculpted terra-cotta ornament.

By the way, the self-guided tours as listed in the index are as follows:

1) Old City, New City: Downtown Preservation and Planning

2) Before the Code: Downtown Skyscrapers

3) Along the High Line

4) Of Farragut and Flatiron

5) Midtown Deco

6) Grand Central City

7) When It Was New: Park Avenue

8) Midtown since Modernism: East 57th Street to Columbus Circle

9) Country in the City: Central Park

10) Harlem Haven: Hamilton Heights

The titles best hint at the full content. I commend all who have made it happen and I do so in like tribute to Henry Reed, who whether with praise or occasional wrath loved above all to look about at the achievements of his fellow city dwellers –some renowned yet most anonymous. This post first appeared in the Summer of 2009 but it’s recommendation will hold for at least a decade to come.

Paul Gunther

Henry Hope Reed calls The Glory of Commerce America’s greatest work of monumental sculpture.

Member Profile: Nicholas S. G. Stern, Builder: In Conversation with Our President

I recently had a conversation with long-time ICA&CA stalwart Nicholas S.G. Stern, who serves as Executive Vice President of Taconic Builders from its Manhattan office, which he launched in 2002  as a vital hub in Taconic's growing network of offices and operations. He is the New York City-born and raised son of architect and educator, Robert A.M. Stern, and photographer, Lynn Stern. He attended the Buckley School and St. Paul's in Concord, New Hampshire and then received a B.A. Degree in Architecture from Columbia College. Besides the longtime generosity of Taconic for both the annual Arthur Ross Awards for Excellence in the Classical Tradition and various educational programs, Nick has been instrumental in securing funds from the Bernard F. and Alva B. Gimbel Foundation, where he serves as a trustee, earmarked for the Institute's ongoing affordable housing initiative.  A Pattern Book for Neighborly Houses and its lessons and guiding blueprints continue as the rich centerpiece of this innovative program. 

 

Nick's example is thus a worthy one from a number of perspectives.  -Paul Gunther

 

PG: What shaped the trajectory of your career as a builder?  Did your childhood make it inevitable?  

NS:  I’m not sure whether I found design and architecture or if it found me.  Most likely it is a function simply of the fact that I was immersed in it my entire life.  My father is an architect, my step-father is an architect, my mother is an artist and my wife is an interior designer.  My father has a passion for design and its practice as well as its historical, contextual, and academic study.  I was lucky enough to have traveled with him extensively while growing up so by the time I was fifteen, I had informally completed several semesters’ worth of survey courses and tours of Western architecture.  In high school and then college I pursued and nurtured these  interests and I engaged in more formal study, ultimately majoring in Architecture at Columbia.

Greenwich Village townhouse renovation.  Robert A.M. Stern Architects; Courtney Stern Design.  2005.

PG: Did you think about going on for a Masters in Architecture?

 NS:  I did; I dropped out of the Yale School of Architecture almost immediately after I enrolled.  Going through the changes of a twenty-two year old, I decided that if I graduated tomorrow, the first thing I’d do was get into showbiz.  So I left as quick as I started.  This was many years before my father was the dean, but he has forgiven neither me nor his colleagues for letting me off the hook so easily!

I wound up in a ten -year career arc in show business.  I actually had spent a year in Los Angeles working at Walt Disney Imagineering in the architectural department – design development for the Hollywood Hotel and Euro Disney outside of Paris among other things.  Combined with some other jobs I had in college, I had some introduction to the entertainment business and I took a job at International Creative Management.

Later I worked for producer John Hart on Broadway productions and subsequent road and world tours of Guys and Dolls, Tommy, and How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.   I then went back to Disney – this time as a material scout for a newly created New York development division serving the film and television divisions.

In 1999, I established Mixolydian Entertainment, an independent production company.  I was fortunate enough to develop working relationships with terrific like-minded colleagues and we produced two very successful Off Broadway shows, FULLY COMMITTED and THE GOOD THIEF.  I wrote several screenplays both on my own and with a far-more-talented partner, Estep Nagy.  Always with a toe in the design work, I also wrote during that time some freelance pieces for ARCHITECTURAL RECORD.

 

PG: So your show business career was paying off well. Why the change?

NS:  Well, I wouldn’t say ‘paying off’ in a literal sense.  I was boxing myself into a very small corner in terms of the business side of things.  I wanted to stay in New York and the forms of entertainment to which I was attracted were more labor of love type ventures – there was little long term up side.  Artistic success in the entertainment industry does not always walk hand-in-hand with reward and vice versa (sad but true probably in much of American culture).  I can't say that I simply woke up and said, ‘OK, I’ll be a builder.’  But I did know that I needed to find a creative outlet that better married my tastes with my business sensibilities.

I already gravitated towards the collaborative nature of construction, then I fell into its practice.  I was trained as an architect, surrounded by architecture, the media arts and the performing arts and an overall culture of perfectionism (not always a blessing).  I always thought I’d either be an actor or an architect. The elements in the production work which I’d been doing and that of what’s done in construction are nearly identical to me in that they are the cornerstones for my career work to date:  team driven creative design characterized by the implementation of layered and sophisticated works of functional art.  Add the mobility and malleability of production schedules and budget constraints and I realized that making a film is not too different than making a building. 

For me, a movie or play must “function” as entertainment just as a good building/house/apartment/store/school office must function for its end-users and stand the test of time.  The tenets of Western drama and architecture were evolved (and, to a certain academic/structural extent, perfected) by the Greeks and the Romans.  Certainly, history has done much to transform these foundations and formulas, but I can’t see a good movie or walk through a good building without some concept that was solidified in the cradle of Western civilization popping into my mind.  Here’s the ‘act’, ‘chorus’, ‘deus ex machina’, ‘entablature’, etc….not to say that I think in terms of textbooks!

 

Manhattan condominium after-market build-out.  Smiros & Smiros Architects & Scott Snyder Inc.  2008.

PG: Tell me a bit about your mission at Taconic.

NS: Taconic was a two man partnership founded in the mid 1980s.   I came on board to realize accelerated and significant growth.  Specifically, I targeted architects and designers, with whom I felt we should be working on an aesthetic level and, in time, develop relationships.  Ideally, this is a pool not only of talented industry leaders, but also of team players who make every project a learning experience and, of course, fun.  Our signature location is the tri-state area and most of my projects are in Manhattan, Greenwich, East Hampton and points in between, but we also have outposts in Seattle for West Coast operations and are venturing into England with a London office.

East Hampton summer colony renovation and new construction.  Barry Rice Architects.  2007.

PG :  How do you see economic challenges affecting client needs?

Today’s challenges -- even without the glare of the current economic crisis -- are cost and schedule.  We live in a world of instant information and complex electronics which are widely and inexpensively available.   Would-be clients of high-end construction expect the immediate convenience and mass market economies of the ‘real world’ in the finite arena of intricate and unique artisanship.  Unfortunately, much of high-end and specialized construction is fundamentally different from and out of line with 21^st Century manufacturing.  Sure, we use the most advanced tools to do what we do better, faster and for far less money than has been done heretofore, but at the heart of our work is training, apprenticeship, experience, specialization, consultancy, r & d, skilled labor, and craft – and all these elements are neither mechanically replicable or available inexpensively.  I suppose I’m preaching to the choir here, but many of these key players are educated, supported and/or affected in some way by the Institute and its programs.  In short, it is cost intensive to do what we do and the hardest part for us to explain to our clients is that our margins are slim.

PG : To produce a show in whatever medium resembles the complex role of builder come to think of it.

NS : Exactly. It requires a comparable capacity to recognize and then integrate all stakeholders --from the design team to the artisans and engineers always with an eye to the client and cognizant throughout of budget and timetable.  A building project is not unlike a film production. 

 

PG:  I am curious to learn more about those early experiences mentioned before that most shaped your role as builder?

NS :  I was privileged to travel a good deal in my childhood and my parents encouraged and enabled me to continue to do so in high school and college.  A few of the places that particularly have informed my ideals in design are Baroque Rome --especially Bernini’s St. Ivo alla Sapienza -- Venice and the nearby Cimiterio Brio Vega  by Carlo Scarpa, a wonderful trip I made though pre war-torn Yugoslavia in 1989 – the once glorious small city of Ljubljana -- and countless European hillside towns with layers of organic building history  -- Positano, Portofino, Eze, to name a few.  I suppose if I was dropped randomly in the world anywhere in history, I’d be very happy in an Italian Mediterranean village.  Although I’d venture that this is a human characteristic, I feel particularly sensitive to my environment – built and otherwise.  The natural world awes and informs me as much as man’s contributions – Bryce Canyon (and much of the American Southwest), blue lagooned islands –I’d love to go to Tahiti, Indonesia and other points Pacific -- barren and hard places --sand deserts and mountains -- and a million basks in the sun in places both mundane and magnificent.

            Greenwich Village townhouse renovation and restoration.  M.A.D.E.  2005.

PG: Do you have a guiding design philosophy or modus operandi?

NS:  I gravitate towards and greatly enjoy working with architects.  We share training and skill sets, but really I think it’s simply a mutual calibration of our eyes.  A fantastic thing about truly great architecture and design is the comprehensive nature of its vision and execution.  The wonders of the built world amaze us on so many levels: scale, engineering, attention to minute details, solutions to challenges of geography/climate/technology (or lack thereof), cultural relevance and a sense of place.   Sort of like the unquantifiable swing and joy of musical improvisation.  So when I find an architect, designer or project that embraces this generalist yet oh-so-specific commitment to the craft, I’m excited.  Certainly, not every job elevates to such a level, but with ideals shared among architects, craftsmen, and patrons, any trade task can offer challenges and solutions on par with the loftiest successes.

 

      Manhattan condominium after-market build-out.  Smiros & Smiros Architects & Scott Snyder Inc.  2008.

PG:  How does ICA/CA fit in with your not-for-profit work? 

Architectural education is a sensory one and ICA&CA make it their mission to celebrate, and therefore, perpetuate craft and accomplishment.  Without the preservation, practice and education of classicism, we fail to evolve all fields of design and construction.  More immediately, ICA&CA’s affordable housing initiative and the housing pattern book are fantastic and pro-active solutions to a deepening national crisis of urban blight and the clear-cutting of American civic architecture.  In the past, Taconic has lent a hand locally as best we physically can by providing labor to Habitat For Humanity programs and for local disaster recovery.  With respect to my foundation work, it’s wonderful to be involved with something that gives to those who need it most – and that this giving is with the same spirit of design and detail that informs everything else that we do.

 

April 2009

ICA&CA Fellow Profile: William Bates III

William Bates III is, as many ICA&CA students and stalwarts know, a Fellow of the Institute, beloved occasional teacher, and constant, loyal guide and friend. Today he lives and works in Charleston, South Carolina, where he is a Professor of Architectural Drawing and Design at the American College of the Building Arts. ACBA is a national pedagogical pioneer, which received a 2008 Arthur Ross Award in Education; learn more at their Web site. They're lucky to have him in their faculty ranks.

As the Institute prepares for its June 2009 Rome Drawing and Painting Travel Program, William is once again very generously providing the Edward Vason Jones Scholarship. We thank him profusely. This initiative was one he first launched in 2002 and is made in a year when the Institute conceives and offers a drawing trip in Rome as a modern extension of one of the most essential components of a well-rounded classical design education-- squarely in place since the French and English first began such inspiring expeditions in the 18th century.

Jones was posthumously awarded the Arthur Ross Award in Architecture in its second year of existence in 1983. What was then Classical America alone, recognized this late, great neoclassical architect and member of the Georgia School of Classicism for a nearly 50-year career in and around Albany, Georgia. Perhaps best remembered today is his work at the White House and in creation of reception rooms in the U.S. State Department. Jones personified ideally the continuum of this classical tradition, which defines our core mission in architecture and its allied arts.

To herald the upcoming Jones Rome scholarship opportunity, I recently posed some questions to its patron and report below accordingly: 

PG: I am curious to learn how you landed so auspiciously at Charleston's American College of the Building Arts?

WB: I met John Paul Huguley, founder of ACBA's institutional predecessor, the School of the Building Arts, at an Institute lecture in 2001 held at Warren and Wetmore's fabled New York Yacht Club. His ideas about fusing a liberal arts education and a trade focus paralleled my personal interests.  Our conversation developed over the next four years and in 2005, I joined with an originating core of eight colleagues to found what evolved into ACBA. I developed the program for the drawing and drafting department, where I teach today. Helping to found a College along with so many incredible individuals from around the world has been the best kind of job. I have learned more as an educator than I ever did as a student.

 Portico Detail of a recent house

PG: How did you become a Classicist? What is your training?

WB: My undergraduate degree is from Alabama's Auburn University – a Bachelors in Interior Design from their Architecture Department. It was a broad education, not classical per se but a rich, diverse, and duly provocative offering of all ideas from modern to antique. I was always intrigued with geometry and might have ended up a modernist had I not been thoroughly immersed in traditional form as a child. I briefly met Edward Vason Jones at the age of 10 and he sparked an interest in the local vernacular and its classical antecedents. It is of course a passion that still encourages me today. My ensuing Masters of Architecture degree is from University of Miami.

 The bedroom of a fanciful Charleston gentleman

PG: How were you introduced to the ICA&CA?

WB: I came across The Classicist #1 from 1994 in what alas is the now long-gone Carousel Books in Atlanta. I could not believe my luck--just what I was looking for. I wrote Institute co-founder, Richard Cameron, and he invited me to a lecture at the University Club right afterwards in 1995. I accepted, arrived in New York, had lunch with Richard, and the rest is history-- my personal career path for which I am glad and grateful. In 2002 I was appointed as a Fellow of ICA—now of the fully merged entity-- and I see this periodic scholarship as one part of my central guiding duties on this front line of the overall volunteer contribution to the Institute’s full educational program.

PG: What was the advent of the Edward Vason Rome scholarships? Why did you chose this namesake and why Rome?

WB: Although Jones is most well known for his work at the State Department, his entire portfolio is a constant source of joy. He was able to produce designs that were creative classical solutions to contemporary needs and problems. And his broad knowledge and innovative incorporation of the precedents of Southern architecture form the 18th, and early 19th centuries made his work very compelling. The Edward Vason Jones Scholarship evolved as my way to insure that students of demonstrable skill who might not otherwise be able to afford the travel program could take due advantage and join the eager group that always characterizes ICA&CA travel programs no matter their destination or content. And yet those concentrating in rigorous daily drawing fit the bill best of all. I had been to Rome once as a child but had not yet studied there when I invented my tribute scholarship in 2002, celebrating the example of my lifelong design hero. I wanted others in the early stages of their careers to have the chance that I did not have while in school. I am glad at such uncertain times to sustain this relatively young yet vital 21st-century teaching tradition.

PG:  We will report ahead the scholarship recipient and make certain that he or she understand the meaning of your generosity.  Thanks come from one and all.

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To learn more about the Rome tour and other travel opportunities soon at hand, be sure to visit the Web site soon and often as its offerings are creative and constant.

Report from the Traditional Building Exhibition and Conference Spring 2009

The ICA&CA welcomes to it ranks several new members who joined during the Boston 2009 TBEC: William (Chip) Sloan, Monty Cornell, Anne Decker, Peter Lund Jensen, Joseph Warren, Robert Yorburg, and Historical Arts & Casting. 

William Sloan Associates were also the Spring 2009 winners of the Traditional Building  Design Challenge! Click on the image below for a closer look at the winning project.

Tastemakers of an Era: Symposium & Tour

ICA&CA Board Member Ray Gindroz (Urban Design Associates) would like to recommend an upcoming symposium being held in Newburgh, NY.  Morrison Hecksher of the American Wing at the Metropolitan Museum will lead the panel, and it will focus on Andrew Jackson Downing, Calvert Vaux, and Frederick Clarke Withers. The symposium is to be held on Saturday, April 25, followed by home tours on Sunday, April  26. For more information click here!

 

Warren House, Newburgh, New York. Designed by Calvert Vaux and heavily influenced by Andrew Jackson Downings' design theories as published in "Cottage Residences."