J. Michael Welton
Mike Welton writes about architecture, art and design. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Interior Design, Inform, Modern and Artworks. He also publishes an online design magazine at www.architectsandartisans.com.
Man of Steel
The Seattle prince of architectural gizmos is branching out into a new line of hardware fashioned from bars and pipes.
On the Waterfront
After purchasing a revered archetypal lake house designed by American architect Richard Meier, a retired couple launches into the home’s second renovation in 35 years.
Shutter Island
Lowering the shutters on this small writer’s retreat completely exposes the interior to the site’s impressive island views.
Israel's Heavy Light House
Everything about this vacation home is little crazy. For starters, there’s the location. It’s in Israel. In northern Galilee. On the border with Lebanon.
Handmade Wine Chillers
Ceramic artist Michael Wisner learned much of his craft from Juan Quezada, the self-invented Mexican master who rediscovered ancient methods of Indian pottery. “I knocked on his door and told him I loved his work,” Wisner said. “And I ended up staying there for three months." During an 18-year period, Wisner estimates, he spent two and a half years with the recipient of Mexico’s coveted National Art Award. “I was keenly interested in his process, his attention to detail and his acute knowledge of materials,” Wisner said. "He’s constantly challenging himself, and you’re imbued with that when you work with him.”
The Architecture of Adler & Sullivan
In a prolific 15-year period between 1880 and 1895, Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan teamed up to produce an architecture that was stridently American—one that drew from nature for its ornament while creating simple, modern forms on steel frame walls.
Witold Rybczynski: Makeshift Metropolis
Witold Rybczynski has been called “architecture’s voice in the world of letters” by The Weekly Standard. He writes about design and planning for The New York Times, the Atlantic, The New Yorker, and Slate. He’s been awarded the Vincent Scully Prize by the National Building Museum, and he’s the author of a number of award-winning books. He also teaches at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Design, where his students are primarily MBA’s from the Wharton School of Business. His new book, Makeshift Metropolis, not only addresses the past 100 years of trends and development in American cities, but also offers a wise and perceptive look into our urban future. We talked to him recently about planning, architecture, cities and development.
Blair Kamin, on Criticism
Blair Kamin is a Pulitzer Prize–winning architecture critic from a town blessed with some of the best buildings in the world. He writes for The Chicago Tribune, passing unflinching near-daily judgments on the great designs of our time. He’s got a new book out called Terror and Wonder: Architecture in a Tumultuous Age, composed of 51 columns he’s written since 9/11. We talked to him recently about what it means to be a critic today.
The Model Architect
Timothy Richards of Bath, England, turned his love of design into a cottage industry. He makes architectural models—not from cardboard, blocks or foam core, but from strong British Gypsum Crystacal plaster. Richards is inspired by Jean Pierre and Francois Fouquet, the 18th- and 19th-century father-and-son team whose work in plaster was much preferred over cork or terra cotta. When Thomas Jefferson needed a model of his design for the State Capitol in Richmond, Virginia, he turned to the Fouquets. When the curators for the Palladio exhibit at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York needed models, they turned to Richards. He began 23 years ago, in his attic and on his own. Today eight people busy themselves in his workshop, spending 80 to 400 hours on each project. “I’ve had to make my own market,” says Richards. “Now, we’ve got 60 models on site.”
Shelter Island Retreat
Architect Cary Tamarkin designed his family's summer house for snoozing. “It lends itself to massive relaxing,” he says of the 2,800-square-foot cottage on Shelter Island overlooking Long Island Sound. “There's lots of napping, and big dinners on the teak tables out on the porch.”
Guest quarters with two bedrooms anchor the home at ground level. Above, a breezeway separates kitchen, dining and living areas from master suite and children’s bedrooms. “Every bedroom gets to sleep to the sound of the waves,” he said. Tamarkin, principal of New York architecture firm Tamarkin Co., used 100-year-old cypress salvaged from the swamps and rivers of Georgia and Florida for its skin and structure. A former shipbuilder crafted its 36-foot-long beams.
The design challenge, Cary said, was to respond to the forces of the site – its sounds, breezes, views and lighting. “It's all about outdoor living,” he explained. “It's small inside but it was meant to be that way.”
