Artists Jen Bradley & Doug Trump at Emily Amy Gallery

(I'm piddling with my banner which I really shouldn't do but...)

Emily Amy Gallery threw a reception for artists Jen Bradley at Doug Trump last Friday. Their work will be on display until December 4, 2010.

Jen sold this one, Angelical Bombs, right before my eyes. Jen, Emily, and the new owners were pretty happy about it. Me too.


It's a big work and looks great at a distance.


Capella and Nate were there. I apologize for talking their ears off. In red: Doug Trump's Slack. Slack seemed to follow me around all night.


Atlanta art mavens Marianne Lambert, Nancy Hooff, and Lucinda Bunnen were there. They were visiting at least 3 galleries that night.


Folks enjoyed Jen Bradley's The Delights of Nature.




Up close you can see silk-screened doily like things ...


... with bulls and gorillas. No surprise: Jen is Artist-in-Residence at Boston’s Franklin Park Zoo.


I think Emily Amy Gallery is one of the best in Atlanta for art and people. Cozy rooms, great circulation, zen views, mirror-like windows. Here is Doug Trump's Ins-and-Outs inviting us into the back corridor.


You wonder what's around the corner.


Zen views everywhere.


You see unexpected juxtapositions. In the foreground is Doug Trump's Hipster and Cy in the background Jen Bradley's Angelical Bombs.


The windows turn into mirrors at night, doubling the space and duplicating the art.


From outside the gallery is a movie screen.


The very best thing about Emily Amy Gallery is Emily herself (on the right). She reveals none of the stress of readying the art, artists, and gallery. She helps guests and artists feel welcome and comfortable. The painting is In the Path by Jen Bradley.


Thanks to Jen who posed with me and her Go Rimbaud. Jen and the pinks and the purples made me look good for a few minutes.


What a great evening. I was inspired to pushed the "artistic" button on my self portrait in Photoshop.

Leon and Robert Krier visit Georgia and speak in Atlanta

On Tuesday October 26 it was my good fortune attend a lecture by Leon Krier and his brother Robert Krier. Pronounce "Krier" in 2 syllables, the first with a long "e" sound: kree'er. Leon Krier is considered by many to be the intellectual godfather of the New Urbanism movement in America. Leon made the case that resulted in Seaside and it's successors.

On Monday Robert and Leon lectured at SCAD and toured Savannah with Rodney Cook. Leon was called to Italy unexpectedly so Robert made the trip to Atlanta with Dhiru A. Thadani. Here is Rob signing one of his books.


The lecture was at the Millennium Gate in Atlantic Station? Have you seen it? You can't miss it if you been to IKEA. You can't see this view on a drive-by. The museum is on the lower level.


They moved the exhibits aside to improvise a lecture hall.


These are the details of an important space. Yet the rooms are comfortable and cozy.


Rodney Cook welcomed the crowd. He was still quite pumped: He'd just taken some of the world's foremost town planners to Savannah, America's first planned city. I wish we could have been there too.


Dhiru A. Thadani filled in for Leon.


Here is a tiny lesson in New Urbanism. Mix fancy public buildings, plainer private buildings, and humanely scaled piazzas.


Rober Krier himself.


We asked what he thought of Savannah. Can you guess the answer?


The Gate was full of architects. Here are Rick Hatch, David Person, and Frank Heery.


Architect Sandy Cooper (whose face is just under the stair rail) designed the Millennium Gate.


The chatting and the hor d'oeuvres continued after the lecture.


Special thanks to Anne Yauger and Victoria Woodruff for making me feel welcome.

Let me say this about the Millennium Gate: It's an odd duck that I like very much, not the least for the vision and exuberance that produced it. It takes me somewhere else. You should go.

Here is the view I didn't expect. There is a lawn and a lake on the west side, lower than the roadway. It's visually and aurally quiet. Looking west is a rare Atlanta "big sky" view framed by the roadway and condos. It was very pretty that night.

Georgia Tech throws an Architecture Party for Betty Dowling.

I'm telling you: those crazy hard partying architecture professors had their-selves a time.

This is Betty Dowling, Elizabeth Meredith Dowling Ph.D. that is. She's an author, professor, architectural historian, a registered architect until 2005, and now the Georgia Tech College of Architecture’s first professor emerita.


For Atlanta architecture fans: she wrote THE book about Shutze: American Classicist: The Architecture of Philip Trammell Shutze and others.

She gets around. I've seen her out and about 3 times lately. As president of the ICA & CA Southeast (Southeast Chapter of the Institute for Classical Archtiecture & Classical America) she rallied the classical architects, designers and fans.


She introduced William Bates (founder of the Drawing and Design Department at the American College of the Building Arts) at ADAC.


She enjoyed the Pink Castle with us. She'd written about it in "The Book."


So what do you for a girl who has everything and is obviously too young to retire? You throw a party featuring her former students who have become distinguished architecture historians in their own right. You start at 8:30 AM on a Saturday morning and end with a luncheon with key lime pie for dessert. Yeah!

Where to party? The recently renovated Reinsch-Pierce Family Auditorium. It's a beautiful modern room with walls covered with sparkly gold fabric, stainless doors with portholes, and practical hospital style lobby, impervious to sleep deprived students.


How do nutty, hard partying architects break the ice? They present academic papers at 9am of course. Yahoo. I'm pretty sure I was the only non-professor, non-student, non-in-the-business person in the room. Those that knew me were amused. I had the freedom of an outsider and the ignorance of the amateur.



The law of academic papers: All the blood must be squeezed out before delivery. Fortunately when humans deliver the papers, joy and beauty inevitably escape the text.

Pauline Morin (Ph.D., Georgia Institute of Technology now at Cornell) took us to Florence. Did Masaccio's painting, "The Trinity," serve as the model for main portal of Santa Maria Novella by Alberti? I was delighted to go home and study up on that.


Carol A. Flores (Ph.D., Georgia Institute of Technology now at Ball State) . Text on buildings remains a BIG thing and there is more come. I'm going to pay more attention.


Michelle Moody (M.Arch Ga Tech, now project manager at Norman Davenport Askins Architects) introduced me to parody as a way to appreciate P0mo. No irony though. I wanted to learn more about Kresge College and Robert Venturi.


Julia M.-Smyth-Pinney (M. Arch Harvard now at University of Kentucky) confirms that however hard it is to find out what your neighborhood was like 50 years ago, it's a bit tougher in Leo X's neighborhood back in 1520.


Dorothy Metzger Habel (Dottie Habel Ph.D. University of Michigan now at University of Tennessee) gave the keynote. She demonstrated that property management, tenant relations, urban planning, financing, and building has always been tough. We've all been to THAT zoning meeting. The Piazza Colonna turned out pretty nice anyway but you should have seen the original plans.


A panel discussion followed


Allow me to introduce you.

George Johnston and Julia M. Smyth-Pinney


Julia M. Smyth-Pinney, Michelle Moody, Dorothy Metzger Habel


Dorothy Metzger Habel, Carol Flores, Pauline Morin


Here is another person Georgia need to know, Robert M. Craig (Ph.D. Cornell now at Ga Tech). He appeared in a ghostly internet video to pay a humorous tribute to Betty. Robert is the author of most of the architecture entries in the New Georgia Encyclopedia like this one on Leila Ross Wilburn. Grab Robert's, "Atlanta Architecture: Art Deco to Modern Classic, 1929-1959" if you can find it.


After that we had a nice lunch with key lime pie. Betty could not escape without a little speech. Some eyes were a bit moist. But the session ended in time for that horrible game at Clemson.

ICA&CA New England Announces the 2010 Bulfinch Award Winners

Now online http://blog.classicist.org/?p=1324

I don't see this on the web anywhere yet. I think you need to know if, like me, you enjoy this sort of thing. This is New England's version of ICA&CA Southeast Chapter's Shutze Awards. Who is Charles Bulfinch?

Congratulations!

Institute of Classical Architecture & Classical America (ICA&CA) New England Chapter:

22 Oct 2010
Announcing the 2010 Bulfinch Award Winners

John P. Margolis, President of the New England Chapter of the Institute of Classical Architecture & Classical America, announced the winners of the 2010 Bulfinch Awards today. The Bulfinch Awards recognize contemporary excellence in New England classical and traditional design. The Awards are named for the Boston architect of the Massachusetts State House, Charles Bulfinch, who played a key role in introducing neoclassicism to America in the late 18th century.

Mr. Margolis expressed his appreciation to the jury: Richard Cameron, Patrick Chasse, Elizabeth Dowling, David Flaharty, and Peter Miller.

The 2010 Bulfinch Winners

NEW CONSTRUCTION, CLASSICAL UNDER 5,000 SF
Pavilion in the Park, MA
Ivan Bereznicki Associates, Cambridge, MA

NEW CONSTRUCTION, CLASSICAL OVER 5,000 SF
Greek Revival Residence, Dedham, MA
Dell Mitchell Architects, Boston, MA

NEW CONSTRUCTION, TRADITIONAL
Champlains Bluff, Chatham, MA
Polhemus Savery DaSilva Architects Builders, Chatham, MA

ARTISANSHIP
Reproduction Sheraton Arm Chairs, Pierce-Nichols House, Salem, MA
Philip C. Lowe, Beverly, MA

RESIDENTIAL RESTORATION, RENOVATION,
SYMPATHETIC ADDITION
The Moorings, Chatham, MA
Polhemus Savery DaSilva Architects Builders, Chatham, MA

CIVIC, INSTITUTIONAL, ECCLESIASTICAL
Church of the Sacred Heart, Weymouth, MA
The S/L/A/M Collaborative, Inc., Boston, MA

COMMERCIAL
Pro Shop, Wequassett Resort, Cape Cod, MA
Polhemus Savery DaSilva Architects Builders, Chatham, MA

LANDSCAPE
Lowder Brook Residence, Dedham, MA
Keith LeBlanc Landscape Architecture, Inc., Boston, MA

COMMUNITY DESIGN-No winner

RESIDENTIAL INTERIOR DESIGN, NEW CONSTRUCTION
Georgian Style Country Estate, Weston, MA
SLC Interiors, Inc., South Hamilton, MA

RESIDENTIAL INTERIOR DESIGN, INTERIOR RENOVATION
Prides Crossing, Beverly, MA
Wilson Kelsey Design, Salem, MA

The winners of the Bulfinch Awards will be recognized at an evening reception at the Massachusetts State House in Boston on November 3, 2010. Click here to purchase tickets to the Awards Ceremony ( http://classicist.pmailus.com/pmailweb/ct?d=N8pSSQAKAAEAAA-uAARimQ ) .

Morningside Apartment Hunt 600 by 14 by $860

The first born has a notion to move. The queen and princesses of Architecture Tourdom sprung into action. Your sentimental host is - you know - a bit sentimental about it all. A young adult starting out in a charming broken-in apartment. It takes you back.

You'll have to decorate it in your mind, maybe plan for your firstborn's flight. Moms love that sort of thing. Dad's hope the move doesn't require too many stairs.

Here you go. 1940, said to have been a school. 19 1-bedroom units, about 600 square feet, 14 foot ceilings, $860/month plus gas and electricity.


For you Morningside / Virginia Highlands insiders it's the apartment next to the synagogue, the little building with the gray house in the front yard, 3 short blocks to Alons. You know the one. You've seen the little table in the yard. It's very nice up there.


Floor plan. These we updated and condo'ed in 2000. Overall about 26x22 with step-saver bathroom, includes dishwasher and stacked washer-dryer.


These windows look normal against a 14 foot ceiling. In fact you could drive a mini-van though them. It's a nicely proportioned space. You feel lot's of air, if you know what I mean.


Our agent, Vennie Owen in pink, said it wouldn't last. It dropped off Craig's List 2 days later.


Here is a peek at the washer/dryer niche.


Looking into the bedroom.


Back from the bedroom.


10 x 15 is a fair bedroom. These are huge windows and make the space seem small in the picture.


Dust-bunnies have no place to hide in the bathroom.


We didn't take it but we did get a few dreams.