There's more to Arts & Crafts than quarter-sawn oak

“Global Influences: Women in the Arts & Crafts Movement”

Series begins Feb. 18 at Oak Park Public Library

The important women in the Arts & Crafts movement in Chicago and around the world, including architecture, decorative arts, interior design, and social influences will be the focus of a free lecture series hosted by Pleasant Home Foundation with the Oak Park Public Library.

“Global Influences: Women in the Arts & Crafts Movement” will be held on Thursday evenings, beginning Feb. 18, at the Oak Park Public Library, 834 Lake Street. The lectures, which begin at 7 p.m., will continue Feb. 26, March 4 and March 11.

Another Friend's Home

Since there isn't much happening at the Tiny Bungalow this weekend, I thought it would be nice to add an entry about another home I worked on a few years ago. Several months ago, my friends called and said that they had finished painting the interior of the Prairie Style home that I designed for them. This weekend, I finally got around to seeing it. The house looks great. They chose some fantastic lighting fixtures for the place from Oak Park Home & Hardware and they really feel at home. The colors they chose look great too.

The design process on the home was interesting. The overall plan was started by one of the owner's father. He was my boss at the time and thought mixing family with design was a bad idea. I continued developing the plan and we eventually gravitated towards a Prairie School/Arts & Crafts look for the house. Though we were all fans of this period of architecture, we didn't set off to design such a home but this is how it came out. The town that they live in has an "appearance/pain in my ass committee" that reviews designs. After adding some over-sized windows to the master bath (practical?), we were good to go.

It fits the site well as the home opens up to a golf course in the back. Unfortunately the landscape planned for the home is not doing as well as we had hoped. The wild roses look great and so do some of the ornamental grasses. The phlox is not faring as well though. So much for the "native" landscape idea. Hopefully it will grow in more over the next couple years.

A lot of time and effort went into getting the interior stair woodwork, cabinetry, windows and trim to work together. There are also many areas designed within the home to showcase the collection of prints, pottery, and original art glass that the owners have.

The home has an elevator and is designed to be completely accessible. The spatial challenges that this presented were pretty big but in many ways, it helps add to the overall openness of the home. Work on this project was a huge learning experience for them as well as myself. I am sure that there are a lot of things that they (and I) would do differently now and it is too bad that the home pre-dates the recent explosion of available and affordable "green" products and materials as I am sure it would have been a great place to use them. All in all, it turned out well. I dind't have to "get all Frank Lloyd Wright" too often during construction, and the owners seem very happy.

Getting My Arts and Crafts Fix

When ever I mention my appreciation for arts & crafts to someone, I often get an odd look. I immediately imagine a bubble forming over their head with an image of an animal made out of pipe cleaners, a birdhouse made with Popsicle sticks, or a fabric-painted cartoon sweatshirt. Mmm.. …no.

An odd thing is that I get this confused reaction more from the people I know in Central New York than in any other place where I mention it. Little do most CNYers realize, with Stickley Furniture, Robineau Pottery, and the architectural practice of Ward Wellington Ward, their home was once a cultural center with a great number of individuals focused on the Arts & Crafts movement. In addition to these local purveyors of the movement, many local patrons worked with people from other parts of the country and masterworks from people like John LaFarge, Louis Comfort Tiffany, Frank Lloyd Wright and countless others dot the Upstate NY landscape.

Obviously, the "Arts & Crafts" that I am talking about includes things like mortise and tenon joinery, natural wood, art glass, fine pottery. Since my fellow housebloggers detest this kind of stuff (ha ha), I apologize in advance for boring you with some pics.

Unfortunately, while in Buffalo, we did not get to visit many of my favorite Arts & Crafts landmarks there. I did do my ritualistic drive by all of the Silsbee homes there but that is about it. Incidentally, I am always prepared to drive by and find one torn down. Buffalo might have been a bust but I did have some time to do a bit of sightseeing while visiting Syracuse.
On our way into Syracuse, we stopped in to see the Willard Memorial Chapel. I have known about this place for some time but have not taken the time to see it. This is a perfect place to go touring with a 3 year old! (sarcasm). While I ogled at the art glass, fine lighting fixtures, exquisite tile and stencil work, my daughter danced around the chapel nave singing a song from one of her favorite TV shows. I thought it was hilarious. I am not sure that the other tourists felt the same.Supposedly this is the only intact Tiffany designed chapel. We have also visited the chapel designed for the Worlds Columbian Exposition, parts of which are on display in Winter Park, FL. This one is as nice and in some ways more impressive. It is a remarkable place (understatement) and a must see for anyone driving in the vicinity of Auburn, NY.
We stayed in Syracuse our final weekend of the vacation and on Saturday I took some time to visit the new Stickley museum. Holy crap this place was cool and it really surprised me. While growing up, the old Stickley factory was used as an outlet store for the company. I don’t exactly remember what shape it was in then but it has recently been converted into the Fayetteville Public Library. The second floor of the factory is now home to the Stickley Museum - Incredible!I was told that only about 10% of their collection was on view at the moment. It was great – an exhibit of furniture from 1901 through the present that included highlights like Gustav’s own personal bedroom set and pieces owned by Barbra Streisand. It showed me a lot that I didn’t know about the company and the various designs. Like the chapel, this too is well worth the trip to anyone that is in the area. I didn’t get the overdose of architectural sites I had hoped for but all in all, it was a nice vacation.