2012 MAY BLOG
WHAT FUN ! I have just taken a trip to Arkansas prior to taking a trip to Arkansas...a Virtual Tour
I have been looking forward to an evening at the GRACE MUSEUM in Abilene for the LOREN MOZLEY exhibition "Cross Currents - Three Generations of Artistic Influence", opening May 10th. From there we drive to Bentonville, Arkansas to see Alice Walton's CRYSTAL BRIDGES MUSEUM designed by MOSHE SAFDIE. But more about this next month. For now I want to extol the marvels of the internet and my virtual tour.
Learning that we were going to Arkansas, Lu Ann Barrow (seated in the photo) encouraged us to see THORNCROWN, the important and remarkable chapel in the woods near Eureka Springs, Arkansas. I began my virtural journey by searching for the architect E. FAYE JONES, a contemporary of Frank Lloyd Wright. JONES's most well know structure is probably his THORNCROWN. Please go to www.thorncrown.com for more about this spectacular structure.
Discovering THORNCROWN, I emailed our son who, with his wife and her family, vacation in Arkansas on Greer's Ferry Lake. (My daughter-in-law is standing beside me in the photo.) Son Stuart then emailed me to say that he now realized it was FAYE JONES who designed the amazing house behind his wife's family's vacation house. Following his "rabbit trail" I learned the house to which he referred was called STONEFLOWER and was a precursor to the larger Thorncrown Chapel. A link to Stoneflower is www.theartofwhere.blogspot.com/2009/03/stoneflower-road-to-thorncrown.html
Prior to Stoneflower's current status, one could stay there by making arrangements with the nearby Apple Inn. Now as a private dwelling, it has been enlarged and remodeled and much changed. A blogger states, "...sorry if you didn't stay in this home before it was butchered."
I understand the owner's dilemma. In 1962 my husband and I purchased a small gem of a home in the Brykerwoods area of Austin. It had been designed and occupied by CHESTER NAGEL in 1939 when he came to the University of Texas to chair the Architecture Department. Nagel had been a student, and later an associate, of WALTER GROPIUS who came to America from the Bauhaus, a school of design in pre- war Germany. The Nagel International style home was a radical design for its time in proviincial Austin.
There had been several owners and the house on Churchill street was in very bad shape...rotted wood soffits, a leaking roof, no air-conditioning and many other difficulties. Our parents thought us foolish as did friends, one of whom called it a "shoe box". However three good friends, Bill Hoey, Dick Keahey and Bill Staehely brought paint brushes and helped us paint and patch the interior. The story would have made a great Hollywood movie. We were in a race for time making improvements up to the stair landing before the Christening our first child and visits from aunts, uncles and cousins.
The house had been documented in American and French publications so we were able to restore it with integrity. However with the arrival of our second child, the small 2/1 home became inadequate. Unlike the owner of STONFLOWER we were not willing to compromise the design with a clumsy addition. We moved.
As a testament to good design, the small Nagel house on Churchill remains my favorite of all the homes in which we have lived. In 2008, Lisa Germany and Grant Mudford included it in their publication GREAT HOUSES OF TEXAS along with Abner Cook's Woodlawn in Austin; John Staub's The Stable, Houston; O'Neal Ford's Bromberg House, Dallas; Philip Johnson's De Menil House in Houston; and many others. I recommend this book to you. Chester Nagel is in great company of significant architects like Lake/Flato, Paul Lamb, Frank Welch, Paul Rudolph, Bruce Goff and others who designed significant homes in Texas from 1854 to 2005.
I have been looking forward to an evening at the GRACE MUSEUM in Abilene for the LOREN MOZLEY exhibition "Cross Currents - Three Generations of Artistic Influence", opening May 10th. From there we drive to Bentonville, Arkansas to see Alice Walton's CRYSTAL BRIDGES MUSEUM designed by MOSHE SAFDIE. But more about this next month. For now I want to extol the marvels of the internet and my virtual tour.Learning that we were going to Arkansas, Lu Ann Barrow (seated in the photo) encouraged us to see THORNCROWN, the important and remarkable chapel in the woods near Eureka Springs, Arkansas. I began my virtural journey by searching for the architect E. FAYE JONES, a contemporary of Frank Lloyd Wright. JONES's most well know structure is probably his THORNCROWN. Please go to www.thorncrown.com for more about this spectacular structure.
Discovering THORNCROWN, I emailed our son who, with his wife and her family, vacation in Arkansas on Greer's Ferry Lake. (My daughter-in-law is standing beside me in the photo.) Son Stuart then emailed me to say that he now realized it was FAYE JONES who designed the amazing house behind his wife's family's vacation house. Following his "rabbit trail" I learned the house to which he referred was called STONEFLOWER and was a precursor to the larger Thorncrown Chapel. A link to Stoneflower is www.theartofwhere.blogspot.com/2009/03/stoneflower-road-to-thorncrown.html
Prior to Stoneflower's current status, one could stay there by making arrangements with the nearby Apple Inn. Now as a private dwelling, it has been enlarged and remodeled and much changed. A blogger states, "...sorry if you didn't stay in this home before it was butchered."
I understand the owner's dilemma. In 1962 my husband and I purchased a small gem of a home in the Brykerwoods area of Austin. It had been designed and occupied by CHESTER NAGEL in 1939 when he came to the University of Texas to chair the Architecture Department. Nagel had been a student, and later an associate, of WALTER GROPIUS who came to America from the Bauhaus, a school of design in pre- war Germany. The Nagel International style home was a radical design for its time in proviincial Austin.
There had been several owners and the house on Churchill street was in very bad shape...rotted wood soffits, a leaking roof, no air-conditioning and many other difficulties. Our parents thought us foolish as did friends, one of whom called it a "shoe box". However three good friends, Bill Hoey, Dick Keahey and Bill Staehely brought paint brushes and helped us paint and patch the interior. The story would have made a great Hollywood movie. We were in a race for time making improvements up to the stair landing before the Christening our first child and visits from aunts, uncles and cousins.
The house had been documented in American and French publications so we were able to restore it with integrity. However with the arrival of our second child, the small 2/1 home became inadequate. Unlike the owner of STONFLOWER we were not willing to compromise the design with a clumsy addition. We moved.
As a testament to good design, the small Nagel house on Churchill remains my favorite of all the homes in which we have lived. In 2008, Lisa Germany and Grant Mudford included it in their publication GREAT HOUSES OF TEXAS along with Abner Cook's Woodlawn in Austin; John Staub's The Stable, Houston; O'Neal Ford's Bromberg House, Dallas; Philip Johnson's De Menil House in Houston; and many others. I recommend this book to you. Chester Nagel is in great company of significant architects like Lake/Flato, Paul Lamb, Frank Welch, Paul Rudolph, Bruce Goff and others who designed significant homes in Texas from 1854 to 2005.
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