architecture

• More open houses

  In response to this earlier post, John Morse has done a small bit of research and put together a short list of Arts & Crafts homes that are open for public viewing:

  Albert Kahn‘s 1908 Cranbrook House, on the campus of what is arguably one of the best art schools in North America, just outside of detroit; William Morris‘ home and now a museum to all things Arts & Crafts, the Red House of Bexleyheath, which recently became a National Trust property; Glensheen, an amazingly ornate mixture of late Victorian and A&C rooms and furnishings, now administered by the University of Minnesota at Duluth; the Frank Lloyd Wright home and studio in Oak Park, Illinois and Wright’s Robie House in Chicago; another Wright property, the Pope-Leighey house of 1940, in Alexandria, Virginia; and Craftsman Farms in Parsippany, New Jersey, the historic home and workshop of Gustav Stickley, which is now owned by the township of Parsippany-Troy Hills.

  Got any more? Tell us in the comment section, below.

• Best Open Houses

  What are your favorite Craftsman, Prairie or Mission homes or other structures that are open to the public?

  A few of mine include Pasadena’s Gamble and Blacker Houses (since the Blacker’s restoration, it is only open from time to time for tours), La Cañada-Flintridge’s Lanterman House, San Diego’s Marston House, on the edge of the wonderful Balboa Park (in itself one of the richest examples of Spanish Revival architecture anywhere), Wright’s Fallingwater in Western Pennsylvania’s Laurel Highlands, and Julia Morgan’s incredible Hearst Castle.

  Please comment on this post and let us all know about the historic structures in your area or places you’ve visited that are open to the public.

  book links: Blacker House; Gamble House; Fallingwater; Hearst Castle

• Steve Jobs’ Old House

  Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer, would like very much to tear down his home – a beautiful 17,000 square foot Spanish colonial revival mansion designed by George Washington Smith (book) in Woodside, California. The house has been empty for five years, and is, according the the NY Times, run-down and decrepit. Jobs claims that the structure “was never really a very interesting house to start with” and that it was “pretty much a dump when I moved in.” The local History Committee disagrees, and has a long tradition of debating and fighting noveau-riche dreams of I.M. Pei glass-and-steel cubes.

  How has historic preservation helped or hindered the growth and integrity of your community? from metafilter

• Northome at the Met

  The Metropolitan Museum in Manhattan can’t really be said to have anything on display that is not a highlight. However, one of my personal favorite parts of the museum is the Frank Lloyd Wright room, a re-creation of the living room at Northome, formerly of Wayzata, Minnesota. The Met’s reassembled room contains some beautiful pieces of Wright-designed furniture, including in ingenious collapsable print table and a pair of chairs that seem to be Wright’s update of the Roycroft aesthetic. Recently, the met added an excellent virtual tour of the room to their website.