“…everything is interesting if observed at the right level of detail…” (in a posting about indexers, itself redolent of the unmissable)
Monthly Archives: December 2012
here we are
vernacular architecture of a sort
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David Malki captures an essence that I should have thought of myself (given that I’m thinking about how people construct the spaces they live in –and given that we now have a camera that can capture stuff in very low light). Not that there’s so very much Xmas decorating of this sort in the Midcoast, but I ought to collect some examples of what there is.
(he says permission to embed is granted)
some early St. George photographs
on a walk in the rain
within a kilometer of home, along Route 131 in Martinsville:
a summer place:
Pointed Fir, alluding to Sarah Orne Jewett’s Country of the Pointed Firs, written in and about Martinsville [“Dunnet Landing”] ca. 1896 (Jewett rented the schoolhouse building, next door to Pointed Fir -see text of the novella)
a bit of recent renovation:
nice big window:
not the color I’d have chosen:
close to home
A variant of the house-connector-barn, various pieces renovated at different times. The old house (ca. 1850) is to the right, 4-over-4 with a center chimney and minimal basement. The middle piece has been the kitchen for many years (and might have been added ca. 1900 or so, to judge by construction details), and the shed on the left was added to the living space only 40 or so years ago.
endangered species
What with declining birthrates and the effects of global warming, purpose-built units like this schoolbus shelter are now rare in the Midcoast landscape:
The barn
Thinking about my own efforts, the 2008 barn renovation stands out:
(I’ll put up other shots as I find them in the archives)
A clutch of probably-relevant books in my library
these are directly relevant to the project:
Identifying American Architecture: A Pictorial Guide to Styles and Terms, 1600-1945 / John J. G. Blumenson
Big House, Little House, Back House Barn: The Connected Farm Buildings of New England / Thomas C. Hubka
Discovering The Vernacular Landscape / John Brinckerhoff Jackson
A Field Guide to American Houses / Virginia McAlester
Field Guide to New England Barns and Farm Buildings (Library of New England) / Thomas Durant Visser
these have been with me for years, and I recognize them as broadly influential:
Shelter (1st Edition) / Lloyd Kahn
Shelter II / Lloyd Kahn
Modern Architecture and Design: An Alternative History / Bill Risebero
The Story of Western Architecture, 3rd Edition / Bill Risebero
Architecture Without Architects: A Short Introduction to Non-Pedigreed Architecture / Bernard Rudofsky
Looking Around: A Journey Through Architecture / Witold Rybczynski
A stretch of Glenmere Road
In March 2007 I snapshotted all the houses along about a mile of one of the back roads that I walk frequently. One question to ask: how much have things changed, or not, in five years? Here’s the set.