Bookshelf: 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School

Published in 2007 by The MIT Press, Matthew Frederick’s book “101 Things I Learned in Architecture School” is part scrapbook, part greatest hits and part conscience. With it’s thick chipboard cover (if you know, you know) he succinctly captures the concepts, skills and practices that were first introduced in architecture school but I would guess, most of us continue to revisit, explore and hone. Although a few personal favorites didn’t seem to make the cut (Virginia Tech is #1 ‘Let’s Go Hokies’, coffee and your studio mates are the glue that hold everything together, and turn the music up to get through a creative block), some favorites are highlighted below:

#48

IF YOU CAN’T EXPLAIN YOUR IDEAS TO YOUR GRANDMOTHER IN TERMS SHE UNDERSTANDS, YOU DON’T KNOW YOUR SUBJECT WELL ENOUGH.

This is a great place to start. The way to communicate the design / idea is almost as important as the design itself. Clients may or may not be able to read drawings to translate what is drawn into what the final product will look like. It is our job to convey the idea, thought process and resulting design.

[Rosa Maragioglio 1896 - 1967]

#39

A STATIC COMPOSITION APPEARS TO BE AT REST.

“Static compositions are usually symmetrical. At their most successful, they suggest power, firmness, conviction, certainty, authority and permanence.”

[Nexton Del Web entry structures by RDA. Photo Tripp Smith]

#7

FIGURE-GROUND THEORY STATES THAT THE SPACE THAT RESULTS FROM PLACING FIGURES SHOULD BE CONSIDERED AS CAREFULLY AS THE FIGURES THEMSELVES.

A favorite past-time is studying aerial maps (check out Rome, Savannah, GA, even college campuses) and urban planning where you can really see this in play. Some of our favorite buildings are not the buildings but the spaces they create.

[Image from book, Matthew Frederick]

#40

A DYNAMIC COMPOSITION ENCOURAGES THE EYE TO EXPLORE.

“Dynamic compositions are almost always assymetrical. They can suggest activity, excitement, fun, movement, agression and conflict.”

[Avian Pavilion at Camp Hall by RDA]

#86

MANAGE YOUR EGO.

“Forget about what you want the building to be; instead ask, ‘What does the building want to be?’ A design problem has to be addressed on its own terms: the needs of the client, the nature of the site, the realities of the building program..”

[Dr. Anderson of Holy City Orthodontics brought her strong brand and vision to RDA. Photo: Ridge Media]

Fire Island Modernism | Horace Gifford and the Architecture of Seduction

One of the best things about growing up on Long Island was spending summers working on Fire Island where the commute typically involved coffee (“light and sweet”), my best friend and a ferry ride across the Great South Bay to Ocean Beach, NY. I worked for a flower shop and landscape company, with the best days spent as the extra set of hands for the landscape crews. I would deliver and/or plant flowers at the second homes of Manhattan’s prominent and intriguing inhabitants (looking at you Zabars and Lobel’s). The houses ranged from the expected - quaint beach cottages with clever names and a salt air patina - to the unexpected and, for me, immensely magnetic - the bold, modern, sculptural objects that I needed to know more about. Enter, author Christopher Bascom Rawlins, some 30 years later, with his epic ode, Fire Island Modernist, detailing the modern architecture and culture on Fire Island through the eyes of architect an architect I wish I knew about sooner.

Rawlins crafts this comprehensive look at the often overlooked architect Horace Gifford (1932 - 1992), his approach to design, portfolio of seaside pavilions and houses with in the broader context of personal challenges, social and cultural movements.

“As the 1960s became The Sixties, architect Horace Gifford executed a remarkable series of beach houses that transformed the terrain and culture of New York's Fire Island. Growing up on the beaches of Florida, Gifford forged a deep connection with coastal landscapes. Pairing this sensitivity with jazzy improvisations on modernist themes, he perfected a sustainable modernism in cedar and glass that was as attuned to natural landscapes as to our animal natures. Gifford's serene 1960s pavilions provided refuge from a hostile world, while his exuberant post-Stonewall, pre-AIDS masterpieces orchestrated bacchanals of liberation.” Christopher Rawlins.

Travis-Wall House, Fire Island Pines, 1972-1975

Burge Pavilion, Fire Island Pines, 1965

A majestic presence on the beach which harkins to the massing of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Larkin Company Administration Building.

Fishman House, Fire Island Pines, 1965

“Twelve robust columns, containing closets above and below, lifted the Fishman residence into the air. Early Fire Island cottages squatted akimbo upon skinny pilings, evoking the architectural equivalent of “martini legs.” Gifford composed and selectively clad his own version of these posts, realizing a muscular base still in harmony with the surrounding architecture.” (excerpt from Fire Island Modernist)

Fishman House Floor Plans

Please read this book for an exact insight (both colorful and heartbreaking) into Horace Gifford’s world, American architectural history and the mid-century modernist movement. "The injustice of Horace Gifford's early death was compounded by the fact that his important contribution to American domestic architecture of the 1960s and 70s has been overlooked by history.” Paul Goldberg

Paul R. Williams | New Homes for Today

Continuing our study of the noteworthy African-American architect, Paul R. Williams (1894 - 1980), we have been pouring over his book published in 1946, “New Homes for Today.” The book is light on words and heavy on images which is just how us visual learners like it.

We first wrote about Paul R. Williams on the blog in June when we discovered the “Paul R. Williams Student Scholarship” organized by DesignClass. In their words, “Paul Williams kicked off a prolific career by becoming the first licensed African-American member of the American Institute of Architecture in 1923. Throughout his life he designed over 2,000 buildings in California and helped shape Los Angeles into the metropolitan city it is today. In 1957, Williams became the first African-American elected as a Fellow of the AIA. DesignClass honors the legacy of Paul R. Williams with a scholarship for African-American architecture students seeking to foster curious and creative confidence in their communities.” The scholarship provides financial assistance to African American students studying at a NAAB accredited architecture program. [As of last week, they have more qualified students than sponsors, so if you are able to contribute $500 to sponsor an African-American architecture student please contact them here. Our industry desperately needs diversification.]

While Mr. Williams had a wide multi-faceted based in Los Angeles, including the design of public buildings, working for the Navy and designing over 2,000 homes (even that of Frank Sinatra!), this book seems to focus on smaller homes, perhaps for the middle class. His words appear to approach homebuilding and designing with refreshing clarity and practicality:

“Two items for consideration face the homebuilder of today which did not confront the homebuilder of yesterday. One: higher building costs; Two: The necessity of reducing household labor to the minimum. The former can be done by skillful planning, the latter by the intelligent use of present labor-saving devices.”

He goes on discuss the merits of solar orientation, single or multi-story homes, warns against highly individualized designs as they could effect resale value and shares trends on the rumpus room (informal living area for the non-Boomers / Gen Xers reading this.) The structure of the book itself allows just two pages for each house design and includes the description, floor plan and classic-now-vintage perspective renderings. Home names like “The Flamingo” and “The Country Gentlemen” start to paint a picture of each home’s character. Our favorite is the “The Esquire”, a 2 bedroom house totaling 1,260sf with a large living room opening to a side patio and double fireplace - one indoor and one outdoor. We may want to individualize it a touch in the bathroom department, but the plan’s efficiency and architecture’s overarching modernist lines and components are a lesson in what you really need and want in a home.

His advice includes a “Do’s and Don’ts” section:

“DO arrange the rooms so that passage may be made from one part of the house to another without the necessity of going through the living room.

DON’T plan the entrance door to expose all of the living room every time the door is opened.

Antiques can be mixed with modern pieces, but it is a job for the expert rather than the amateur decorator.”

And to the question posed in the book “Can we afford an architect?” he answers “To this question there is only one answer: You cannot afford to build a home without an architect.” I do believe we would get along very well, Mr. Williams.

Place Matters: The Architecture of WG Clark

A new addition to our studio bookshelf is Robert McCarters’s new monograph on architect, WG Clark. If you follow us you know what an inspiration Clark (+ Menefee) is to us - thoughtful, rigorously edited designs with pen and ink drawings that make you want to start hand drafting again. The book highlights his work from the mid-1970s to the mid-2000s with a fair amount of projects in Charleston: Middleton Inn, Reid House, Downtown Bus Stop, South Carolina Aquarium, Croffead House, Bedon’s Alley Residence, structures at Mepkin Abbey as well as some unrealized designs.

Beyond the design process and final product, Clark’s view on architecture and its place is truly compelling: “The most important quality of architecture is the way it relates to, signifies, and dignifies a place on earth. This is why most of the architecture we admire, be it the product of individuals or of civilizations, is that which has been built with a sense of allegiance to the land. Architecture is a disturbing art; it destroys places. Construction sites always have the scent of sacrifice, barely masked by the exciting and hopeful smell of building. It is our job to assuage the sacrifice and make building an act of respect for and adoration of the place.”

Middleton Inn Site Plan

Croffead House, James Island, SC

South Caroilna Aquarium, Charleston, SC

Mepkin Abbey Guest House, Moncks Corner, SC

Rural Studio : Samuel Mockbee and An Architecture of Decency

This book chronicles the genesis and early years of Auburn University’s College of Architecture, Design and Construction’s “Rural Studio”, a design-build architecture studio located off-campus in rural Alabama. The studio educates what founder, Samuel Mockbee, calls “citizen architects” through feet-on-the-ground researching, community immersion, collaborative design and hands-on construction in Hale County’s ‘pockets of poverty.’  What started as a new house per year has grown into chapels, community buildings and structures for much needed economic development.  Paramount lessons beyond design and construction are those in human decency, class and racial differences and how both client and student are equally helping one another.  

“It’s got to be warm, dry and noble.”

Samuel Mockbee

We reach for this book to remind ourselves that good design doesn’t have to come with a large price tag; that listening to and respecting a project’s client, context and culture leads the way to the best design solutions.  It teaches us that architecture isn’t on paper, that the profession can and should serve those who need it most, that function alone isn’t enough, and that humble can also be bold.

[The Harris “Butterfly” House, Mason’s Bend, 1997, Photo by Timothy Hursley] “No I don’t think I’ll take one of those today,” Anderson Harris, who at first was not interested in what the Rural Studio was offering. Relationships were cultivated with Harris ultimately working alongside the students. The resulting structure, with a construction cost of $25,000, amplifies the importance of the family’s porch and low cost sustainable strategies.

[Yancy Chapel, Sawyerville, 1995, Photo by Timothy Hursley] Scrap tires filled with soil and reinforcing then wrapped in wire mesh and coated with stucco form the base with harvested heart pine roof framing and rusted tin roof shingles. Beyond the ingenuity and resourcefulness of scavenged / repurposed materials and sweat equity, this is a poignant piece of architecture.

[Thomaston Farmers Market, 2000, we’re looking at you Jeff Johnston @SMHa, Photo by Timothy Hursley] This structure is the first foray into economic / town development with the initial goal of “creating a dialogue between the Farmer’s Market, the coop grocery and a local canning kitchen business.” The power is in the simplicity of the steel column grid, correctly sized stalls and lofty roof covering.

“Proceed and be bold.”

Samuel Mockbee

S. H. Kress + Company

When we first landed in Charleston, SC one of our favorite buildings we discovered downtown was the S.H. Kress Building on King Street. At the time, (mid-1990s) it was vacant and unloved - like much of King Street, which is hard to imagine now - yet its quality, proudness and Art Deco details shown through. The massing of the building struck us with the depth of what often is a flat facade, materials including yellow brick, terra cotta, and gold accents work together to form a structured ornamentation. As fate would have it, the architectural firm we worked for was hired to do a feasibility study for its adaptive re-use as a Barnes + Noble. (Spoiler alert: it apparently wasn’t feasible.) Being eager, young intern architects, we set out with measuring tapes, graph paper and flashlights, tasked with field measuring and documenting this architectural and cultural gem. There is something equal parts exciting (like when your flashlight illuminates the original ornate plaster work on the ceiling through a gap in the 1980-ish faux ceiling) and creepy (evidence of critters) about walking through a vacant building that reeks of days gone by, especially one so grand.

Kress Building in Charleston, SC circa 2000. Click here for link to see original press on the Charleston Kress building on the Historic Charleston Foundation’s website.

It was only a short time after that, when in New Orleans, ANOTHER Kress building was discovered. “You mean there is more than one?” How we got this far in life without knowing about this retailer and its commitment to a quality built environment, we will never know. Research mode found what is now one of our beloved books, the National Building Museum’s “America’s 5 & 10 Cent Stores - The Kress Legacy” by Bernice L. Thomas. Now, every time we explore a new city, we look for the Kress Building.

The period between the turn of the century through the 1930s was a prolific time for this new type of American architecture, aligning with a new type of retail - the five-and-ten-cent store - along with the advent of the chain store. There are most certainly systemic negatives to chain stores in general, their encroachment on small/local businesses, the standardizing of America’s towns and as of the last 50 years the uninspired and cookie-cutter designs; this architectural blog focuses on how S.H. Kress invested in and ultimately elevated retail and commercial architecture. Click here for a list of Kress buildings in the US.

“Kress stores are more than pretty designs. They are commitments to a better everyday world, to civic pride, to the bounties of democratic society. The modernist canon has helped make us more cynical. There is much to be gained from taking a few steps back in time and understanding the sophistication as well as the civility of our forebears.” Dr. Richard Longstreth, GWU