All posts tagged: Historic Preservation

Architectural Icon Farnsworth House Under Water

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The storms in the Midwest from Hurricane Ike and related weather systems have resulted in flooding at the Farnsworth House , a modernist architectural icon and National Trust Historic Site.  National Trust Graham Gund Architect Barbara Campagna posted a report on the PreservationNation blog which describes the impact.  Site Director Whitney French and other staff and volunteers from Trust partner Landmarks Illinois are on site and made this short video on Saturday which shows the water rising at the site. Stay connected to http://www.PreservationNation.org for updates as the situation develops. More to come… DJB

Random Ridge

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I just heard from my good friend Susan in California.  Her note reminded me of a wonderful time that my daughter Claire and I had a couple of years ago at Susan and her husband Bill’s vineyard and winery on the Sonoma/Napa border.  Susan was writing to say she enjoyed the blog and that she loved baseball, acoustic music, historic places, and teenagers.  Hey, she’s my target audience!  This is a post to connections and friends. Susan is a preservation lawyer.  Bill is a surfer, poet, and winemaker.  Their wonderful wine is Random Ridge and Claire and I enjoyed a delightful lunch and afternoon at their winery a year or two ago with the staff and families of the Western Office of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The day was rainy (hence the appropriateness of Susan’s photo of the double rainbow at Glen Ellen) but the friendship was warm.  Claire and the other children enjoyed playing with Susan’s dog and marveling at Bill’s ceilings made of surfboards.  The adults enjoyed the wine, food from …

Speaking in Memphis

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Later in September I’ll be in Tennessee to speak as part of the Memphis AIA’s Architecture Month Celebration .  My talk will include an overview of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s annual listing of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places (see 2008’s Boyd Theatre listing at left) and I’m looking forward to seeing friends and colleagues from Memphis Heritage. I wouldn’t want to return to my home state without letting family and friends know I was in the area.  (“In the area” is a bit of a stretch, I’ll admit.  Here’s a bit of useless trivia for you:  Bristol, TN is closer to Canada than it is to Memphis, TN.  It is a looooong state.)  So if you can drop by Memphis on September 24th, it will be great to see you. More to come… DJB

In Praise of Independent Coffee Houses

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Dolores emailed me this morning to say that our neighborhood coffee house here in Silver Spring – Kefa Cafe – was having a customer appreciation day with free food.  Candice and I had been looking for a time to have a coffee together, so we braved the remnants of Hanna that are making their presence felt in Washington today and enjoyed our coffee, pastries, and good company. There’s a nice post on Kefa on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s This Place Matters site where Dolores tells why this is her Third Place in Silver Spring.  Run by two sisters since 1996, it is a great place to hang out, enjoy good food, and meet interesting people.  Candice and I shared our table today with two middle age guys who just returned from their weekly basketball game at a local gym…a tradition they’ve continued for 20 years. Support that special independent coffee house in your town.  Like all unique and special places, they are going too fast. More to come… DJB

Montpelier’s Restoration and the Importance of James Madison

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Many of you know that the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Montpelier Foundation have undertaken a complete restoration of Montpelier, the historic home of James Madison in Orange, Virginia.  The home will be opened Wednesday, September 17th, after a five-year restoration.  Preservation magazine has a terrific story on this work in the September/October 2008 issue.  The Father of the Constitution’s house will be reopened – appropriately enough – on Constitution Day.  The opening also comes three days after the extension for yet another year of the national state of emergency first declared on September 14, 2001. Madison – one of our most underappreciated Founding Fathers – is still very relevant today.  To see Madison’s warnings about “experiments with our liberties” read his Memorial and Remonstrance.  More to come… DJB

Driving On 16th Street

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I love 16th Street, NW in Washington.  A drive today reminded me why. Most of my commutes between work and home take place on the Metro.  But since we moved to Silver Spring in 2000 – just a couple of blocks over the DC line and two streets over from 16th – I’ve driven up and down this main north/south thoroughfare countless times to get to and from my office on Dupont Circle or to drive the children to or from school. Today is Labor Day, and I needed to run into the office early this morning for a short errand.  So I took 16th Street with the luxury of driving slowly so I could soak up the character of this special place. Wikipedia will give you the basics of the street’s history.  Part of the original plan of Washington, it was an early location for both embassies and churches.  Most of the embassies have left, but one of the charms of the street is the beautiful church and institutional architecture that’s interspersed throughout the …

Pandora Radio and Ben’s Chili Bowl

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A couple of random topics about unique institutions that you may find of interest… Pandora Radio – My friend and colleague Scott Gerloff introduced me to Pandora Radio, the Internet radio station that allows you to program your own music.  If you’ve never tried Pandora, I recommend you pay it a visit.  No matter your musical taste, you’ll enjoy it…because you get to program it! In a posting today on the Bluegrass Blog, there’s a story about the difficulties Pandora is facing due to royalty issues with the music industry.  Check out the blog, learn more about Pandora, and become a listener.  Let’s hope we can all enjoy it for a long time to come. Ben’s Chili Bowl – There’s a Washington institution celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, and the blog at PreservationNation captured the celebration at Ben’s Chili Bowl on historic U Street in a posting today.  The Washington Post also had a terrific article earlier this week that covers the history – and future – of Ben’s.  After coming back from two weeks …

Stadium Memories

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Some people read 1000 Places to Visit Before You Die and think about how many they can check off in a year.  My quest is more modest:  to visit all the major league baseball stadiums in the next ten years.  I’m about 1/3 of the way through my list, but I have to admit that given stadium demolitions, I’ve had to make up my own rules about what counts.  Essentially, I’m just trying to get to at least one stadium  per team. So along that line, I wanted to let you know there’s a great online story – accompanying a magazine feature in Preservation – of Yankee Stadium memories on PreservationNation.org.  If you like baseball stadiums and/or baseball stories, check it out. FYI, this has been a good year in my quest.  So far I’ve visited three new (for me) parks this year:  Oakland (with Anthea and all the folks from the Trust’s Western Office), Coors Field in Denver (with Mountains/Plains Office Director Barb and Dolores), and – of course – the new Nationals Park …