Architectural Historical Research

 My next show will be a treat!  

The playwright specifically calls for the set to be a school children's library... as it might be designed by legendary architect Julia Morgan.  The first woman to to be admitted to the architecture program at l'École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris and the first female architect licensed in California. Most famous for designing Hurst Castle.  (Go check her out at Wikipedia!)  

More than that, her buildings are beautiful - designed in a unique blend of 19th century Beaux Arts style mixed with a California sensibility and material palette.

Photo by King of Hearts - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=21785132

Siege - Days 21 and 22

Tomatoes!

A tiny handfull of tiny tiny green cherry tomatoes.

What else?  

The last two days have been mostly doing architecture.  First an online continuing credit course - Texas requires 12 credits a year to maintain an architect's license.  So, after only one solid hour, I'm now just a little bit of an expert on Rust!

Public domain image

Second?  I've been designing a few floor plans for a basement renovation.  Mostly just to establish that everything the client desires can, indeed, fit in, and also to start establishing a budget for construction.  Except for adding a window and a bathroom - which requires experts and permits - the rest of the work could probably be home handiman-ed I think.

Designing floor plans is fun.  And frustrating.  I swear, the architects of the Great Pyramid or the Louvre* must - like every other architect ever! - have gotten to that sticking point where you need just one more inch to make this thing work...

Public domain images mashed

Theater work is in abeyance just at present.  But a kind theater friend made and mailed me a cloth coronavirus mask with Minecraft themed fabric.  Friends are great!





*Architects Hemiunu and Pierre Lescot through I. M. Pei respectively (I. M. Pei designed the Louvre's glass pyramid).

Wright at Home

In the market for a new home?  There's a pristine 1960 era Frank Lloyd Wright "Usonian" house for sale!  With all its original furniture and fittings.

HERE

Plan for FLW's Dana House - believed public domain

Last Chunk of Concrete

If Trump hadn't lost my vote long ago, he'd have lost it yesterday...

I just realized (okay, I'm slow) that his vulgar '80s Trump Tower is built over the dead body of an Art Deco jewel, the flagship Bonwit Teller department store.

Not only that, but he deliberately had his (undocumented, underpaid) Polish workmen destroy the lovely carvings and grillwork rather than save them for the Metropolitan Museum of Art.   Wanton destruction. 

The guy's a barbarian. 

Those of us who build, who design, who make art, have to push back against the forces of destruction... it's civilization against barbarism every day: whether the vandals are ISIS destroying archaeological sites in Palmyra or the Taliban dynamiting ancient Buddhas in Afghanistan "for religion", or greedy developers in NYC for a buck.  Or book burners.  Or political candidates who try to dismantle whole parties and, oh, free press and confidence in the election process.  Those kinda guys.

Please, if you're undecided about voting, don't let this vandal near the White House.

Photo from the Department Store Museum

(More HERE at Art Watch International and HERE at the Department Store Museum.)

Where's Waldo?

While I'm on an architectural riff here, HERE's a link to a charming story about a construction site across the street from a children's hospital where a great guy hides a cut-out Waldo every day for the young patients to find.  (Made with help from his own kid)  What a wonderful idea!

Jason Haney's Waldo at work.  Found at Bored Panda

Architectural Sketching

And it works for theater design too!

I sometimes drop by Jim Leggitt's "Drawing Shortcuts" website to see really excellent renderings and to learn something to improve my own drawing skills.

He uses a totally fearless mix of media and methods to create lovely, fresh, simple (seemingly) freehand (looking) architectural sketches.  He seems to usually start with a SketchUp model and/or a photo, then adds in hand drawing and coloring using mostly markers and some pencil. He might overlay and trace computer or photographic material or draw directly on top of them.

Amazing!  I particularly like his use of entourage people, plants, umbrellas etc.  (A lot better than that same sad ficus tree or little-girl-with-balloon I saw used back in the day.)

Check 'em out HERE with his post on creating sketches that show the repurposing of a urban alley.  Drawn as illustrations for a lecture... I'm wondering if he'll ever lecture near me?

Phone photo to hand drawn sketch - Jim Leggitt / Drawing Shortcuts

Image copyright is Mr. Leggitt's of course, believed Fair Use as in a review.

At any rate I'm vowing to use more SketchUp and photos in creating my own theatrical drawings.  I'm the Queen of Tracing Stuff already, why not make that tracing more 3D-ish?  (And it'll help keep computer skills up at the same time.)

Break Time!

As a mental break from pressing deadlines and arriving-earlier-than-expected appliance guys (now two dishwashers smack in the middle of my kitchen)...

Here's an architectural day at the beach.

The website DesignYouTrust is featuring the beach house designs of Dionisio Gonzales  HERE.

Conceptual design for a beach house by Dionisio Gonzales, via designyoutrust.com

This one looks particularly fun.

Been Busy

Sorry, it's been hectic here at Scenic Central, so no posting.

But as a making-up-gift, how about some beautiful floors?  See them here:

Barcelona Floors
Venetian Floors
Parisian Floors

Photographer Sebastian Erras looks underfoot and discovers Treasures!  Beauties!  Marvels!

Photograph by Sebastian Erras from "Barcelona Floors" - CC - ND copyright

first seen at Designyoutrust

So what's been going on that's been keeping me so busy?

Mainstage Irving - Los Colinas' production of Kind Lady is teching this weekend, so I've been painting and fabric shopping etc.  I've been designing, redesigning, and modifying (not necessarily in that order) Under the Skin for Circle Theatre.  And creating construction drawings and starting the furniture hunt for End of the Rainbow at Uptown Players.

Phew!  Busy.

ADDENDUM:  How'd I miss these floors? Tile Addiction on Instagram by  Jose' Jo'vena and Elisabet Martinez HERE.

How Big Is Your House?

This is just too funny to miss.

There was quite a fuss a couple years ago when the size of one of Mitt Romney's houses was revealed... a measly 11,206 square feet of La Jolla, California.  Ocean view natch.

But how does that compare to, like, normal everyday houses?

The Washington Post's handy Compare-O-Metric will show you!

HERE

Me?

I could fit my life - including design studio - into Mitt's Living / Dining room.  I dibs the ocean view!

Design Quotes

I like quotes.

Little nuggets of thoughts to turn over and examine.

These often lead to long monologues as you decide what you yourself think about the topic or to further reading, to research, and to then figuring out what you yourself think on the topic.  (Simply making the quote into a coffee mug or bumper-sticker rather short circuits that process, yes?)

Today's quotes...

From a webcast of the story "Edge of Your Seat" on the radio show 99% Invisible  this quote from architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, "A chair is a difficult object.  A skyscraper is almost easier."

Mies's Barcelona chair - Public domain image from Wikimedia

And from the book, Bambi vs. Godzilla: on the Nature, Practice, and Purpose of the Movie Business a snippet, a definition only, by David Mamet, "...entertainment, which is to say tincture of art..."

Tincture of art = art extracted by alcohol.

Lovely.

Not completely true, of course, but plenty truthy enough for any entertainment-artist's coffee mug.

A Peek into the Past

I'm teaching myself Sketchup and, in that process, am doing research on how-to.

So...

I stumbled across this lovely little bit of history, someone recreating his family's 1912 farmhouse in virtual 3D.  Sparking this project was the discovery of original blueprints (actual blueprints!) and old contracts for that construction, as well as some delightful old photos.  Take a look at the Mason Farm HERE.  (I'm thinking of a similar, much less ambitious project of my own, actually, so I was especially impressed.)

Blueprints, that archaic tech - believed public domain

Research.

How much fun it is!  And how addictive!  Because, of course, there's always just one more little bit of information out there waiting for the researcher...  I'm hopelessly addicted to research myself and have watched a number of others succumb, most recently someone introduced to the genealogy bug, which is a particularly virulent strain of the research infection.

Research is one of the great joys in theater design.

Architectural Stories

The sad news is that Charles Rennie Mackintosh's Art Nouveau masterpiece, the library of the Glasgow School of Art has been destroyed by fire.  The rest of his building - and the art collected there - have been damaged, but it sounds as if heroic salvage efforts are underway and plans for restoration are already being developed.

I particularly feel for the final year students whose work (at the very end of the semester! of their school career!) has been damaged or lost.  Imagine losing your whole portfolio...

Read HERE for a good BBC article on the status and HERE to donate funds or help towards restoration.

Glasgow School of Art library - believed public domain photo

On a brighter note (in every sense), HERE's a terrific website about the neon signs of Hong Kong.  Gorgeous!  They influence, among other things, the film Blade Runner... which inspired these LEGO artists  to build an apocalyptic cyberpunk city - see it HERE.

Isn't it amazing what can come from imagination?

Monsterpiece Theater

I just saw this great little Muppet masterpiece and thought you might enjoy it: the Monsterpiece Theater rebuttal to Godot... "Waiting for Elmo."  HERE

What else has been going on?

Well, Fun House's brilliant version of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead is over... hope you caught it.  A great experience.  Gidion's Knot at Kitchen Dog was struck this last weekend - it took 30 times as much time to strike all that classroom set dressing as it did to strike the two walls!  Venus in Fur is now open at WaterTower Theater and The Other Place is about to open at Circle Theatre in Fort Worth.  

Now for me theater design is just simmering, while architectural things are boiling.  I've been very busy with continuing ed sort of stuff.  First came the yearly ADA seminar (that's the Americans with Disabilities Act), which is always amazingly persnickety.  Don't get me wrong, I'm entirely for the goal of removing architectural barriers... but is it really sensible that the government mandate emergency flasher alarms and roll-in showers for all those deaf, wheelchair-bound firefighters?  Or that the rule is that, if a company's breakroom has no stovetop or oven and only a countertop microwave then that food prep area need not be wheelchair accessible (i.e. kneespace at sinks, limited reach ranges etc.) but if that microwave is built-in then it MUST all be accessible?  ADA rules are filled with such logical... idiosyncrasies.

Also a front burner project for me right now is learning to use Sketchup - a very cool, free, 3D modeling program (with its own amusing idiosyncrasies).  I'm researching CAD classes too, as it seems time to improve those skills.

3D Sketchup model of Circle Theatre: non-commercial, self educational use!

Here you can see my first ever 3D CAD (computer aided design/drafting right?) project, a little Sketchup model of Circle Theater's stage.  Those fat tubular columns at the corners gave me an extra tool to play with.  Just don't look too close at the klutzy construction, huh?  I've since started a much more complex model of  a hypothetical architectural project which also has cylinders - tilted at weird angles, sloping surfaces, cut-in windows....  And I'd thought making this little stage was a bit of a monster!

But I can see that, once I get practiced enough with it, Sketchup is going to be rather fun.

So...  Think AutoCAD is going to be a real hoot then?

Earth Day 2014

I'm working on a make-your-theater-greener ebook.

It's progressing!  I'd say it was "gathering steam," but how old-tech, coal-fired, big-carbon-footprint is that?  No.  It's gathering, um, "solar power."  That's it.

More news soon.

Good Advice

I just stumbled across this post "11 Things to Know Before Starting Architecture School" - full of great advice!

My personal favorite is the admonition to actually get sleep.  Very important, sleep.  It made all the difference in my own college career - my grades rose amazingly as soon as I swore off pulling all-nighters.  One of my prof.s used to say, "A project designed at 2:00 a.m. should only be critiqued at 2:00 a.m."... and then he refused to show up at that hour.  Seriously, what looks like a good idea when you're all sleep-deprived is usually not a good idea.  The companion advice is: Don't Draw Drunk.

Friends Don't Let Friends Draw Drunk - and wouldn't that make a great bumper sticker?

The applications of this architectural wisdom to theater is pretty obvious.

The Nightmare by Henry Fuseli (public domain pic).  What the painter MEANT to call this work, 

obviously, was The 2:00 a.m. Design Idea.  Equally obviously, the swooning character is the sleepy designer.

So get your sleep.

Yes, the deadline is unforgiving, but you'll be so much more efficient and make so many fewer bone-headed mistakes (especially with dangerous tools) that any hours "lost" to sleep will repay themselves many-fold.  I promise.

Back to Work

Sorry for the long lull between posts, I've been out of town on other business.

But, as always when returning after Time Away, there's suddenly a lot to do!  Lots of meetings being scheduled and rescheduled.  Lots of running around.

Yesterday was an architectural Lunch 'n Learn (to keep me up-to-date for licensing), an interview with a journalist (who inexplicably seems to want to write about my set design), some scenic painting (to help a friend), and an impromptu tour of Mountain View College's theater.  Pretty impressive.  I got to see the waaaay up there of the rigging - including the metal wire mesh floor of the lighting canopy over the stage's thrust.  I'd heard about these wire mesh lighting grids - the primo way to go! - but walking on one was more uncomfortable than I expected, not because of the too-good view of the floor below, but because the wire mesh had just enough give in it to suggest walking on a tight trampoline.  Kinda disconcerting.  Very safe, however, certainly much safer than catwalks when you're wrestling heavy and awkward lighting instruments. You can see examples of wire mesh lighting grids HERE at SkyDeck.  (I didn't take pictures myself because I was hanging on with both hands.)

This photo is from the SkyDeck site HERE  If that manufacturer objects to my use of it, please let me know and I'll remove it.

I also got to see the waaay underneath of the fascinating platforms that can be controlled to form either the raised stage's lip or large steps or a sunken orchestra pit.  Whatever's desired.  These are powered, apparently, by Slinky-Structure!  At least the mechanism that raised and lowered the sections of stage were not the usual hydraulic pistons; they looked like Slinkies TM mysteriously coupled with stainless steel tubes... I'm going to have to do some research.

Otherwise...  My show at Kitchen Dog Theater here in Dallas, Gideon's Knot, has progressed while I was gone - there's a door now! - but I need to show up today to work on more classroom bulletin board displays.  (I'm printing out pics of Norse gods as I type this.)  My shows for Circle Theater will be tomorrow's visit: Venus in Fur is moving from Fort Worth to WaterTower Theater in Addison, so I need to consult with carpenters on that, and Circle's next show, The Other Place, should be pretty far along in its build so consulting ditto.

Busy, busy

Garland's Residential Idea Book

Today I put on my architect hat and...

Okay.  No hat.  More like making sure I'm wearing only black, white, or gray. (No, fluffy yellow bath robe as some bloggers might wear to type this post.)  Corb glasses are optional.

Corb.  A 1953 color portrait of architect Le Corbusier by Willy Rizzo at Design You Trust

There!  Ready.

The City of Garland - my home town - has published a wonderful guide book: the Garland Residential Idea Book.

The City of Garland's Residential Idea Book - I believe this is public domain, 

since this was paid for by tax dollars and the book is a free download.  Get it HERE.

This book is filled with useful information.  It helps a homeowner identify what style their existing home is, then suggests ways to work with that.  Ideas for renovations or additions that improve that house... not ruin it.  The premise is that you can update, make your home more livable by today's standards and more inviting (or, to be blunt, more salable and a better investment), by helping along its original architectural style.  Finding compatible choices in paint color, details, and landscaping are demystified.  There's a great section on Curb Appeal.  And this little book is so thorough that it includes great floor plans showing, for example, how to convert your garage into a master suite or how to enlarge your kitchen, each tailored to fit existing residential styles.  

It's terrific!

The book - like the inner ring suburbs it champions - has a certain charm.  There's affection in describing the characteristics and foibles of Garland's historic building styles.

The book starts with a brief illustrated history of Garland's residential development.  Around the city center are its earliest houses - charming late Victorians from the 1880s to the turn of that century- then a wider circle of bungalows from the "Craftsman" period of 1910-1930 plus the "Tudors" of the 1920s-1940s.  Then came the lull in building due to the Depression, followed by the boom after WWII.  I like the style designations: "Minimal Traditional," "Traditional Ranch," and "Late Ranch."  ("Minimal Traditional"!)  Later came 1970s "Contemporary."  (Architects of that vintage called these "Contempos.")  After that are just dates: "1980-2000" and "2000-present" because it takes a while to evolve a good nickname.  (I guess the moniker for the '80s will have the word "Gilded" in it... or maybe just "Brassy.")  A brisk, useful style guide.

Suggestions for home improvements are pithy too.  Photoshop-ed TM color options on real houses illustrate advice on finding compatible paint colors.  ("Shooped" is, I hear, the new vocab for image manipulation.)  Good advice on landscaping.  Top Ten ideas for quick fixes.  Photos and advice about the importance of building details is particularly well done.

Garland Residential Idea Book would help homeowners in many other places.

Get the free book HERE.

Or look on Garland's webpage (with more good info) under "Development and Permitting" and then "Idea Book Series."  I certainly hope this becomes a series, because this guide book is terrific.  What a smart way to spend my tax dollars!  The firm of Quimby McCoy Preservation Architecture created the book for the City of Garland - many thanks to everyone involved.

Best line in the book?

"...improvements are not just about making individual homes better, but they are also about improving neighborhoods as a whole."

I tip my architect-hat to that sentiment.  Let's improve the world home by home.

Sixty Years of Architectural Drafting

How things have changed!  Watch this great video Holiday Card from Omniplan.

http://vimeo.com/81682539

A picture of my own, circa 1970 drafting compass set - gifted to Public Domain

The Kimbell Addition

The new museum addition by Renzo Piano to Louis Kahn's masterpiece original building opens over the Thanksgiving holiday.  KERA radio has an interesting talk with Piano HERE.

Kimbell Art Museum - believed public domain photo

Rare Architectural Photos

World War I era photos of damaged Gothic cathedrals - riveting images!

http://boingboing.net/2013/08/14/unseen-world-war-i-photos-ger-2.html

And here's the ongoing tumblr http://wwiphotos.tumblr.com/  the Walter Koessler Project.