Tag Archives: Architecture

Lombard’s Lustron Houses

28 Thursday May 2020

Posted by in Illinois

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This is a Surf Blue Lustron.

Lombard, Illinois has a particularly interesting mix of housing from every period since its founding in 1833. We are staying in a house built from a kit purchased from Sears Roebuck in 1926, and there are several of these around town, but there is another experimental type, the Lustron House, that has more than a dozen surviving examples in Lombard. We took ourselves on a self-guided tour of some of these very intriguing houses.

Lustron Houses were developed as part of the post WWII effort to construct housing for returning GIs and their families. Carl Strandlund, a Chicago industrialist and inventor, was going to build gas stations for Standard Oil, but was told he could only get an allocation of steel if he were to build homes. He came up with the idea of building an all steel house using enameled steel panels for a maintenance-free exterior, pitching his homes as a way for families to maximize their free time together.

Desert Tan Lustron house, Lombard, IL

Between 2500-3000 Lustron houses were built, and many are still standing, due to the sturdy steel panels, the same material used to make enameled cookware, though heavier. Even the roof tiles have lasted 50 years or more. These are relatively small houses, 700-1100 sq ft. and those that have been demolished were generally removed to make way for larger homes. The enameled steel construction was quite strong and durable, but didn’t lend itself to remodeling or additions. As anyone who has chipped the corner of an enameled pot knows, the chips can’t be mended. Most surviving examples are in their original form in one of the four colors that were available. On our tour, we wondered whether the relatively small size of these houses has turned some into rental properties. About half of the Lustrons we saw had minimal landscaping and outdoor maintenance.

This Dove Gray Lustron’s original front porch has been enclosed as a vestibule.
This maize yellow Lustron is for sale, in case you’d like your own.

The built-in metal bookshelves and cupboards were handy, but there was no way to add a picture hook except for magnets. This might be an excellent house for a true minimalist. Having seen all four exterior colors in different settings, we concluded our tour, intrigued by the concept. Today Lustron houses are a collectors item, though the use of steel in home construction was ahead of its time.

You can read more about Lustron Houses, why the company founded by Strandlund failed, the politics of the time, and where to find examples in 36 states.

Charleston’s Historic District

21 Saturday Sep 2019

Posted by in Charleston, SC

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We’re starting to get to know Charleston. Our house is very traditional and located in the historic district. We hear the horse drawn tours clip-clop past the front door a few times a day. Passengers wave if we’re out on the porch. It’s like living in a diorama. We walked to Broad St., and down a few blocks to the Four Corners of Law, where the courthouse, Post Office, and City Hall face one another. The Post Office looks like a Victorian men’s club, full of dark colors and polished brass.

Continuing down Broad St. beyond the historic corner is Normandy Farm Artisan Bakery, where there are excellent croissants and other pastries. When we got to East Bay St. we turned south toward the waterfront, passing Rainbow Row, a series of houses dating to the late 18th and early 19th centuries that are each painted a different pastel color. The area is so large that it’s difficult to capture in a photo, though many local artists have painted the scene. I like this aerial view (internet photo).

Beyond Rainbow Row you can look out over the water to Ft. Sumter, and walk along the Battery, a long wall around the toe of the city. Elegant houses line much of this southernmost part of the city, and visitors stroll along admiring the views, taking a break in White Point Garden at the southern end of the city. Walking west along the Battery we turn right on Lenwood Blvd. In a few blocks it becomes Logan Street and shortly after that we are home again.

Our walk would have taken even longer if we had stopped to read all the historic markers along the route. About every third house has a plaque from the historical society. Others have information about the distinguished builders or owners. Yet others mention the role of the occupants during the Civil War. Charleston is an historian’s delight.

Even if historical details aren’t your thing, the architecture is quirky and charming. Many houses were first built in the late 1700s, which is very old for the US. Some have since burned down and been rebuilt, but in our neighborhood most houses look old even if they are not. There are interesting doorways, boot scrapers, door knobs and knockers.

The intensely humid weather combined with summer heat, winter rain, and occasional flooding is all very tough on frame houses. Contractors have projects underway on every block, from hurricane repairs to wholesale rebuilding of an entire three story house. One house nearby is being elevated, lifted on jacks while construction of a new lower level is carried out. Construction and maintenance of these lovely structures seems to require lots of very loud devices that sometimes spoil the charm. I don’t mind the hammering, but the trimming and blowing fill part of every day. This is not hurricane repair. It’s daily routine here.

Without constant maintenance, the houses of Charleston slip into disrepair. Even in the center of the historic district, I notice a few places that need work. Fortunately for these old houses, in Charleston they are more likely to be rebuilt than demolished and replaced by a parking garage.

This is just a corner of Charleston but took us three hours to make the circuit. We did make a detour to the Oyster House on S. Market St. for a refueling stop of raw oysters and shrimp & grits. (Delicious.)

Carriage tours pass by our house every day.

Charleston, SC

03 Tuesday Sep 2019

Posted by in Charleston, SC

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We just arrived in Charleston, swooping in over Labor Day weekend. Hurricane Dorian isn’t scheduled to land until Wednesday or so. It may veer another direction in the meantime, so we’ll hope for the best.

Our house here is completely charming, decorated to the teeth. We are very comfortable, right in the toe of the old city, a short walk from the water.

We’ve stayed in many places that have minimal cooking equipment, but not this time. We have blender, stand mixer, waffle maker, dishwasher, and bread boards, cutting boards, carving boards and serving boards. A big basket is filled with platters of various sizes. We could throw dinner for the entire city.

Walking around the neighborhood I notice most houses are several steps above the level of the sidewalk, keeping floods at bay, at least for a while. The oldest houses here were built just after 1700, and over the years a wide variety of styles have accumulated. I like the more elaborate 19th century buildings with cupolas and towers though I admire the durability of the more squat, solid 18th century survivors. It is amazing that any wooden structures still stand in the hot, humid climate of coastal South Carolina.

Plants flourish in every nook and cranny that can hold a few drops of water, and there are some unusual efforts to take advantage of their tenacity. I passed a brick building with a cross between ivy and a hedge, a dense layer only an inch thick trimmed neatly down the side of the house, like living wainscoting. Window boxes and tiny formal gardens are raised to fine art, mixing colors and leaf size to create fantastic displays. My initial impression of Charleston is a tranquil, long-settled community.

Sydney Architecture

01 Monday Apr 2019

Posted by in Australia, Sydney

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If prosperity is measured by the number of construction cranes hanging over downtown structures, then Sydney is very prosperous, indeed. Huge cranes are perched on top of twenty story office and apartment towers, old houses are being torn down in the city center and contemporary beach houses are replacing older single-story homes near the water.

A few older buildings remain in the city center, though we found evidence of the ones being torn down, a very archaeological view. Extensive excavation of an early neighborhood of Sydney is preserved at the “Big Dig” site in The Rocks.

Elaborately trimmed Victorian structures from bus shelters to houses can be still be found in the neighborhoods beyond the city center. Cast-iron balcony and porch railings on older buildings in Sydney remind me of New Orleans.

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The stately Queen Victoria Building covers a large shopping precinct. Older buildings nearby display glazed terracotta tiles. The Queen Victoria Building and the Sydney Central train station both have complex stained glass windows. Here are some of the quirky elements I noticed.

I like the Australian emblem with a kangaroo and emu holding a central shield. Don’t ask me why there is a castle atop the clock in the Queen Victoria Building.

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There are even some Art Deco buildings that have managed to avoid the wrecking ball. We didn’t see any private homes, but hotels and industrial buildings with characteristic deco features.

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Contemporary architecture is tall, and colorful or dramatic, if not as graceful as older structures.

There is a lot to look at while walking anywhere in Sydney.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Contemporary architecture is tall, and often colorful, if not as graceful as the older

 

structures.

 

The newest structures are the least interesting, very tall towers of glass. There is a lot to look at while walking anywhere in Sydney.

 

Sydney from the Opera House

05 Tuesday Mar 2019

Posted by in Australia, Sydney

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For us, the Opera House is the heart of Sydney. We made our first pilgrimage to this icon by bus to Circular Quay, then a stroll toward the point where rounding a row of apartments, the Opera House is revealed in all its glory. On a sunny day the roof tiles create a dazzling reflection.

We walked all around the building, noticing that it is three separate rooftops, not a single one as it often appears in photos. From one spot it looks like three giant-sized Spanish conquistadors helmets.From another angle, it looks like a spaceport, with at least one spaceship ready to take off.Close up, the Opera House is a busy place. Tourists walk around taking photos, runners avoid them as they circle the Opera House on the path. Women in black dresses walk in and out. Either Sydney is a lot like New York or the dress code for staff is “wear black.”

From the Opera House you can see tiny figures of the groups climbing high up the sides of the Harbor Bay Bridge. We walked around the edge of the ferry docks into the neighborhood called “The Rocks.” It is full of shopping and restaurants, and a lot of stairs. We ended up in the park beneath the huge bridge where plaques explain the process by which the fort located on this point was demolished and the bridge built. From a distance the Opera House looks quiet and peaceful, a ship at its mooring.In this age of celebrity architects, we couldn’t name the designer of this marvel, Jørn Utzen. After winning the design competition, new construction techniques had to be invented in order to build his design, methods that made later more free-form works by Frank Gehry and Zaha Hadid possible. Construction was both expensive and political and Utzon resigned from the project part way through. He never returned, not for the opening or to receive any of the awards offered to him by subsequent Australian governments. “If you like a person’s work, you don’t give them an award, you give them something to build.” There are a lot of stories there. Here are a few:

From the Sydney Opera House website

 

Melbourne Architecture

27 Wednesday Feb 2019

Posted by in Australia, Melbourne

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Looking at buildings gives me a sense of the age of a place, style, and how lively and economically vibrant it is. You won’t see construction cranes on the horizon if people aren’t doing well. Melbourne is very dynamic, with a skyline full of cranes, new buildings pushing out the old. The skyline is developing a panorama of very new, very tall structures. “Melbourne style” consists of angular multi-story buildings patterned with color. There are apartments that look like stacks of cubes and buildings decorated with lego-like designs and dramatic geometric patterns.

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The skyline is filling with tall structures and continues to expand. It certainly impressed us when we arrived. Contemporary architecture is entering the neighborhoods, too. It can be jarring to see it run into the older building styles when angular contemporary homes fill lots created by the demolition of older homes gradually transforming neighborhoods.

The other interesting architecture harks way back–Victorian/Edwardian cottages decorated with elaborate cast iron railings or complex wooden barge boards and gingerbread trim, beautiful and intriguing. These are often quite small, 1000-1800 sq ft, with a tiny garden front and back. Many were designed and built as single story duplexes, sharing a center wall.

Fans of Phryne Fisher will recognize the older buildings and some of the more ornate civic structures that display decorative circular towers, balconies, and niches. The covered shopping arcades also reflect turn-of-the-century style. The Flinders St. train station is a stately and highly decorative central place. In addition to all its flourishes, it apparently hides a ballroom on the top floor that is only open once a year for visits by architecture aficionados.

Above: Flinders St. Station

Left: Shopping Arcade Below: Mosaic floor detail

While I like the old style, a brick cottage has limited space and light. Upkeep on all that gorgeous decorative trim…. I was unable to find any evidence of historic districts in residential areas. This may not be a concept that is applied in Australia. Without one, though, the charming cottages of the older neighborhoods will be gone sooner rather than later as the city expands upward.

 

 

Summer in Ellwood

11 Monday Feb 2019

Posted by in Australia, Melbourne

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We’ve been following summer around the world for five years, and I enjoy summer in every locality. Now that we’ve been in Melbourne for a week, I’m getting a sense of what summer is like right here. Our neighborhood is Ellwood, a close-in suburb of Melbourne. For Chicagoans, it’s like living in Evanston near the lake. I can walk to the beach in ten minutes, while ten minutes the other direction takes me to the tram or the train into the city center.

The city influence means there is a good bakery just blocks away despite our street being a leafy residential zone. The cafe right at the beach does good business all day long. I see all kinds of people there, moms and small children, older couples having lunch, individuals reading on their phones. There are always at least a few people on the beach, and on the hot, hot Saturday there must have been 300 people there.

A cool Monday
A hot Saturday

I take different routes to and from the beach, watching the construction of new houses and renovations of older ones. There seems to be a tendency to build ever higher walls along the street. I see the upper fringe of detail on a house and am unable to take a photo that does it justice because of a brick or concrete wall that covers most of the facade. Duplexes are quite common here, and halves of houses are bought and sold independently. With high walls proliferating, the best picture I have of a traditional duplex shows that sometimes one owner is more diligent at upkeep than another. Many neighborhoods of Melbourne hold lovely old houses in a variety of styles. There’s a “Southwest style” house, others with elaborate  exterior trim or fencing, and even a few Art Deco.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many older houses have lovely beveled glass windows. Our front door has some. I saw a creative newspaper box on my walk, too.

Occasionally, though, duplex life produces some pretty uncomfortable architecture. The most extreme I’ve seen is a traditional house on one side, single story with a low peaked roof, with a two-story contemporary on the other half. Possibly the only original part of the newer half is the connecting wall between them. The two houses below really share a center wall.

There are lots of apartment buildings throughout Ellwood, but most are no more than two stories tall and fit into the neighborhood easily. In this way the area holds enough population to support urban services like public transportation. Melbourne’s system is easy to use, one card for bus, tram, and train.

My walk generated a moment of nostalgia when I saw a four-drawer file cabinet on the sidewalk with a couple of other items marked “free.” About 40 years ago, Jonathan rescued a similar cabinet from the sidewalk in Manhattan. It moved around the country with him. I met up with it when we got married and lived in Denver, and from there we went to Santa Fe and Chicago. We finally donated our file cabinet to Goodwill when we downsized. I hope the cabinet on the sidewalk in Ellwood gets as good a run as ours did.

One of life’s pleasures is feeling like you belong somewhere and however fleeting, I feel this way about Ellwood. I could live here happily, even though we’ll be moving on at the end of the month. Something about the settled neighborhood, the weekly market at the school at the end of the block, access to other areas of the city, and friendly neighbors makes it feel like it could realistically be home. It’s a very warm feeling that I enjoy every day.

Out of the Frying Pan….

04 Monday Feb 2019

Posted by in Australia, Melbourne

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We left Hobart under a cloud of cold smoke, with the temperature around 60°. We arrived in Melbourne in similar weather but without the smoke. The coming days are forecast to be in the 90°s. Rolling blackouts in Melbourne last week ended with a lot of finger-pointing. I’m waiting to see what happens during our stay. Will the AC work? Will there be blackouts?

After a month in farmland, Melbourne looms as a gigantic city full of contemporary architecture. I feel like the country mouse newly arrived in the city.

Sure enough, the day after we arrived was a scorcher, and it was even hotter on Sunday. The beach was packed both days, and I didn’t go until late in the afternoon to avoid the worst of the heat (over 100°).We braved the heat in the morning when we found out that the route of the Melbourne Midsumma Pride March was relatively near us. The parade was a wholly upbeat event, mostly people with rainbow umbrellas and enthusiasm, many friends and family of LGBTQIA marching and watching. There were a few people dressed in fabulous outfits, and a few barely dressed. The mood was celebration rather than hookup, and we enjoyed it all. Why go to a pride parade? General support for the idea that people can be whoever they decide they are, and the possibility of seeing something fun and a little outrageous. We did well on both counts.

Architecture and Design NZ

06 Sunday Jan 2019

Posted by in New Zealand

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Like other parts of New Zealand, living along the water is a preferred location, and new houses are squeezed onto steep hillsides facing the bays or open ocean. We have seen houses built very close to the roadside, or on stilts that are three stories on the downhill side with the foundation sitting on the hillside at the upper end. I’m not sure how confident I would be of living in a house cantilevered off the side of a cliff in a place prone to earthquakes, but that’s what we see all around us. Most of the time, I think they are fine, though occasionally an earthquake wreaks havoc.

We have seen refreshing experimentation with architecture and design in New Zealand. There are Victorian style buildings that emulate structures built during the 1840s when the island’s first Europeans arrived. Old style houses may be interspersed with contemporary homes built with repurposed shipping containers, corrugated metal quonset huts, acres of glass, and sharp angles.

One of our houses…note glass doors to the large deck.

Even traditional-looking homes are likely to have the entire side facing the sun replaced with sliding glass doors to bring the sun in during the cooler part of the year. There is a lot of variety in architecture, from antique to futuristic.

There is an emphasis on nature, focus on the distinctive native wildlife, and bold colors and patterns. Though the houses we have rented tend to be middle of the road family homes, one had a maroon kitchen.

We’ve seen more of stylish New Zealand in hotels. At Lupton Lodge, the exterior was a farm building, while the interior was contemporary.

In Mangonui, the Old Oak used to be the Mangonui Hotel, the first hotel in town. It retains the traditional exterior with an updated interior. The headboard of our bed was an antique wood mantel, while the furnishings were contemporary.

The Old Oak, first hotel in Manganui
Contemporary on the inside

I am sure there is lots more out there, and I enjoyed the stylish places we saw and visited.

Northland, New Zealand

14 Wednesday Nov 2018

Posted by in New Zealand

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We wanted to see the far north of New Zealand. We didn’t get to Cape Reinga, the tip of a long finger of land that points north from the rest of the island, but we got to the knuckles, around Doubtless Bay. One long sandy bay after another stretches along the north end of New Zealand’s north island. We left our spot on the beach near the town of Mangonui to see Tokerau Bay farther along. When we got there, it was the same gorgeous sand beach stretching for miles.

Beachcombing turned up lot of interesting shells, though only a couple of pieces of beach glass. Fragments of mussels and pen shells have iridescent interiors that reflect the sun in stripes of blue, green, and purple. Jonathan found the live oysters growing on the rocks irresistible.

We stayed at the Old Oak hotel, built in 1861 as the Mangonui hotel, renovated many times, and lovely. The small downtown area of Mangonui has photos showing buildings that have been in place since the 1890s. The only difference between then and now is that the buggies have changed to cars.

One of our goals in Northland was to see Ninety-Mile Beach. It spans the entire west side of that northern finger of New Zealand. Vehicles can drive the length of the beach at low tide and it’s a popular tour. We didn’t really want to drive for two hours up and then back, so we went for a look, and saw marks of the wheelies on the sand–at the end of the tour? Jonathan found people clamming along the shore and wanted a bucket so he could take home his own clams, but we’re not going to be home to the stove for two days and that might not be good for either the clams or for us after eating them, so we watched enviously while they worked. I admired the work of the woman who was clamming with a bucket in one hand and her cane in the other. That’s spirit for you.

Our chief souvenir from 90 mile beach was a flat tire. We changed the tire in record time and when we stopped at a wood carving shop just down the road, a woman directed us a few hundred yards to Awanui Tires. According to the young man fixing tires (tyres), the Monday morning rush had just ended and we chatted while he fixed the hole. He held up a strange piece of metal, neither bolt nor screw, that made the hole. We shook our heads and thanked the two men. The entire process from flat to fix had cost us less than an hour. We understood most of what they said…..New Zealanders can speak their own language when they want to and tourists–we’re on our own.

Last stop in the north was Whangarei (Fhan-gar-ey) the only city north of Auckland. Highlights included the Town Basin area where there is a sculpture walk along the water and shops and galleries selling beautiful local crafts. Polished and carved wood and resin from the kauri tree, distinctive and now rare, was one of the highlights.

Among the sculptures in the downtown area of Whangarei is an unusual small building covered with colored tiles and mirror. This turns out to be a prototype of materials and forms to be used in the Hundertwasser Museum. Hundertwasser was an Austrian artist and architect who was captivated by New Zealand and moved here in 1975 and spent the rest of his life near Kawakawa, outside Whangarei. I became aware of Hundertwasser’s imaginative paintings when I was in college. He drew floating cities with forests for roofs, presaging green roofs by quite a few years. He turned to fanciful architecture, building structures in Europe that resemble the work of Antoni Gaudi. He designed public toilets for the town of Kawakawa, a project that proved to be his last. Now, after years of public debate and fundraising, the Hundertwasser museum is under construction in Whangarei, to open in 2020.

On our way out of town we visited the Quarry Arts Center where a number of artists have studios in a delightful tiny neighborhood filled with sculptures of all kinds..

We ended up at Kiwi North, SW of Whangarei, to see the kiwi. They live in a controlled environment that leads them to believe day is night so they will come out to eat. What funny birds! They look like the back half of a cat with a long beak in the front that they use to snuffle about in fallen leaves. When startled, they zip back into their cave-like nest. We watched them in the dark until a keeper brought out food. That drew them out into what little light there was. After eating, the pair scuttled back into their burrow and we went on.

Kiwi North is a central place for culture in Northland, including historic structures moved from elsewhere, a small museum, rotating exhibits, the kiwi, and a series of regional museum/clubs including medical equipment, old cars, rocks and minerals, and others. These are not open on any particular schedule, but the campus-style setting provides a place for aficionados of different things to have a clubhouse/museum. It looks like a good arrangement for all.

Church made from a single tree’s lumber
Looking through a hollow log.
The tardis?

By this time, we had to make our way back to Piha. We packed a lot of looking around into a few days in Northland. There’s lots more to see–we missed the Hundertwasser toilets in Kawakawa! That will have to wait for another time.