Wednesday Book Review / Promotion

A Classical Journey: The Houses of Ken Tate
from an essay on the architect's website
 

Architect Ken Tate’s passage through education, internship and early employment in his chosen field, finally culminating in the establishment of his own Mississippi-based practice, can be described as a Classical journey. When he completed his Bachelor of Architecture at Auburn University, a bastion of 1970s modernism, Classicism wasn’t even on the table as a valid approach to present-day design. Unlike these architects, Tate was drawn to engage more profoundly with the Classical, archaic, and vernacular roots of architecture. These origins fed him on a spiritual level, as well as an aesthetic one, inspiring the title of his thesis: Architecture in Search of Soul.

 
Bringing Karl Jung’s ideas of archetypes that speak the universal language of the collective unconscious to his understanding of past architecture and his own creative process, Tate established the foundation for his future work. “To bring beauty out of ugliness, order out of chaos, and something new out of passion,” was the ambitious student’s goal, and one that still informs the mature architect’s practice.

Not long after Tate completed his formal education, the New Classicism movement arose. Advocating a faithful approach to reviving the Classical tradition, the movement’s leaders called for the study and practical application of forms, proportions, and decorative motifs from Greco-Roman, Renaissance, and Neoclassical architecture. In 1992, the Institute for Classical Architecture was founded with the goal, in the words of an early alumnus, of teaching students “to produce traditional and classical architecture in an informed and rigorous way.”

Although Tate was later to become associated with this movement, his early work revealed a fascination with outsider architecture and the vernacular. Having interned with Bruce Goff, famed for his creative free association and use of borrowed materials, Tate later joined fellow Auburn graduate, architect Sam Mockbee, in Jackson, Mississippi. Describing Mockbee as “a wild, creative person,” Tate served as his head designer many years before Mockbee went on to form the Rural Studio. From these two mentors, Tate learned the practical, architectural applications of unrestrained imagination.

Before starting his own firm in 1984, Tate practiced briefly with Texas architect Richard Davis, whose philosophy celebrated the pluralism of historical architecture. Tate describes his work with Davis, during which he participated in the design of large residences drawing from a range of styles, as an important turning point in his career. “Richard’s work expressed an inclusive approach to the language of traditional architecture, which was very inspirational to me when I started my own practice,” says Tate. During his tenure with Davis, who worked extensively in the early-twentieth-century neighborhood of Highland Park, Tate also discovered another source of inspiration: Colonial Revival architecture.

Twenty-five years later, when Tate is asked to name his favorite period or style of architecture, he invariably points to the rich eclecticism of early-twentieth century America. Whether discussing the Colonial Revival houses in America’s first suburbs or Addison Mizner’s exuberant Mediterranean fantasies in Palm Beach, he praises the fluid[ity] of style and sense of ease exhibited by these dwellings.

By the time he formed his own firm, Tate was ready to put all these lessons into practice, creating an intuitive, open-ended approach that draws upon a wide range of influences, from ancient to modern, and high style to vernacular. “I don’t know if I’m doing anything differently from what’s been done before,” says Tate, “but there aren’t a lot of people doing it this way. I follow intuition, and I’m not afraid to do something that is needed for a project, even though it may have nothing to do with authenticity.”

    While New Classicist architects were approaching antique prototypes in a purist fashion, Tate was asking, “What is authentic? If you have the whole history of classical architecture to choose from, it’s up to the architect to make it work.” This inquiry has informed a wide variety of residential projects, from near faithful interpretations of Federal and Georgian styles to unapologetically eclectic dwellings that marry the Classical and with the vernacular.

According to Robert A.M. Stern, an advocate of New Classicism: “the past is a rich terrain that can be reoccupied, but with that reoccupation comes an obligation to give back, that is to interpret and reinterpret.” Tate’s open-minded approach to employing the wealth of historic styles fulfills this mandate, revealing the vitality, versatility, and beauty with which they can be employed.

Hardcover: 450 pages
Publisher: Images Publishing Group Pty. Ltd. (due: February 16, 2011) 
Retail: $90.00 Amazon: $56.70

Porphyrios at Home

On a very recent trip to Athens, a newer building across the street from my hotel caught my eye. It had a scale that matched it's context. It felt comfortable. Upon closer inspection I noticed a mix of materials: stone, metal, glass. It is definitely what I would call modern, and at the same time it was classical. It is logical, while at the same time having fun. This is unusual in a new building. This building had an effect on me. It inspired me to investigate further the potential for classicism in the modern building environment. It is referential without being a cartoon or slave to precedence. It is modern and expresses the structural effect of modern materials without having them pretend to be something they are not. It exemplifies the term "new classicism" for me in that it has re-interpreted historical themes for today.

View from my hotel with the Acropolis in the background (photos by the author)

After returning home I investigated this Athenian structure further and found that it was designed by none other than Demitri Porphyrios, the brilliant Greek architect and theorist. It is the Interamerican Insurance Headquarters Building on Syngrou Avenue in Athens, which is a main boulevard. The building fills a prominent triangular block. The detailing is just terrific. It's glass portion is taught and light while the masonry sections are blocky and stong. It is a nice contrast of modern and classical on multiple levels. All is held together by a proportioning that can be read throughout.

Architectural Heros are few and far between these days... but they DO exist!

An Architecture of Our Time?

Charles Siegel tackles the criticism of New Classicism and New Urbanism that it resembles a theme park, or if you will a Disneyfication in his book An Architecture of Our Time: The New Classicism. Here is an example. You decide.

Theme Park Architecture[?] Which of these two recent buildings is designed to look like a symphony hall, and which is designed to attract gaping tourists, like a theme park?

Above: David Schwartz, Schermerhorn Symphony Center in Nashville, 2006. (Photograph by Kerry Woo.)

Below: Frank Gehry, Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, 2003. (Photograph by PDphoto.org.)

Rebirth of a Classic Seaside Gem

Travel and tourism is one of Rhode Island's most valued industries, ultimately generating more than $2.26 billion for the state's economy. With more than 100 beaches, 400 miles of picture-perfect coastline, historical and cultural attractions, and world-class dining, it is no surprise that tourism and hospitality is Rhode Island's second-largest industry, supporting 70,179 jobs and more than $5 billion in spending in 2006.
Originally built in 1868 the Ocean House was built as Newport's first tourist destination resort. Actually located in Watch Hill, R.I., it was the last remaining waterfront Victorian Era hotel on mainland Rhode Island. Mid-way between Boston and New York, the big yellow hotel became, at the turn of the Twentieth Century, an innovative landmark physically and socially. For instance, Watch Hill's Ocean House was the first resort hotel in the country to offer telephone service, which made it a target for businessmen from major cities since they could access their offices while away on vacation. Perhaps even more importantly, the Ocean House was the first hotel to offer indoor plumbing!



In an article in the Hartford Courant, from July 4, 2010 Michael J. Crosby, AIA writes that in 2003 the old historic Ocean House hotel was shuttered and slated for demolition, its site fertile ground for a crop of McMansions. Watch Hill shuddered at the thought. Banding together to save the Ocean House, the Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission, local preservationists, town planner Bill Hasse and the Westerly Town Council helped to create an "Oceanfront Historic Hotels" ordinance. That stopped the McMansion developers, but it didn't change the fact that the hotel was too far gone to save.


Centerbrook Architects, hired by Watch Hill resident Chuck Royce (who jumped in to revive the hotel), did a careful survey of the building and concluded that the cost of bringing the Ocean House back to its former glory as a viable hotel would be prohibitive. According to architect Jefferson Riley of Centerbrook, the structure was shaky, the cellar was beyond resuscitation and would not accommodate the needs of a modern facility, most of the existing building fabric was beyond restoration and code violations were numerous. Centerbrook advised him to tear it down.






This didn't sit very well with preservationists, who had just fought to save it. But Centerbrook made an interesting argument about reconstruction as preservation. Based on their research they determined that

the year 1908 was the apex of the hotel's history. Why couldn't a new Ocean House be reconstructed as it looked a century ago?

Centerbrook worked with an advisory committee of historic design experts on the design, staying faithful to the appearance of ocean house a century ago. The existing building was carefully documented. The overall heights of the new building are true to the original, as are critical dimensions such as the distance between floors and the size of windows and their position about the floors. A mansard roof replicated from the original graces the central tower.

Parts of the old building were salvaged — a decorative window and balcony over the front door, the front desk, a beach stone fireplace on the first floor that was taken apart and reconstructed precisely in the new hotel, and an old wood and wrought iron elevator cab that was sensitively enlarged so that you can't tell the new parts from the old. The architects were careful to replicate the columns, capitals, woodwork, railings—all the touchable details that give architecture its character, its authenticity. All of the materials close to human touch and eye are made of wood, while details on the upper stories are of synthetic materials easier to maintain.

Walking around and through the reconstructed Ocean House, it is difficult to argue with Centerbrook's logic—the only way to save the old building was to tear it down. If one follows a very strict interpretation of preservation, Ocean House is gone —there is very little of the original hotel that once stood on this spot. But in the larger context of the town of Watch Hill, the site, and its 140-year history, Ocean House is very much preserved.

The key here is to be clear about what is saved through preservation. A narrow view focuses exclusively on preserving a physical object. A broader view of preservation recognizes the fact that buildings constantly change physically. Additions are made, taken down, new pieces are added, old parts are demolished. What we are left with is a presence —the building in its context —the street, the neighborhood, the town, the city.
That presence is what is worth saving — and now infuses the Ocean House — even if it means we lose an old building beyond saving^[1] .

The new hotel has 49 guest rooms and 23 luxury residential suites available for purchase. They will be priced at $2 million to $7 million for Studio, 1, or 2 bedrooms. New amenities in the new hotel include meeting rooms, spa, lap pool, fitness center, and restaurant. The construction of the new Ocean House was managed by Dimeo Construction Company of Providence, R.I.

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1.  Essex architect Michael J. Crosbie is chairman of the University of Hartford Department of Architecture, and a member of the Place Board of Contributors.

• Ocean House, R.I.
• Rhode Island tourism
• Ocean House Press Release
• Centerbrook Architects Blog
• Watch Hill Real Estate
• Dimeo Construction

Stonington Light - It's not a beer.

photo by Kraig Anderson


 Great Places in Connecticut

The Borough of Stonington in the southeast corner of Connecticut is a beautiful historic village, with a number of well-preserved houses and other structures dating from the fishing and whaling days of the 18th and 19th-century. First settled in the 17th century, the town had one of its most storied events in 1814, when the badly outnumbered and outgunned townspeople managed to repel an attack by five British warships commanded by Commodore Thomas Hardy. The town was a thriving port, dominated by fishing, whaling, and shipbuilding, and the first U.S. ships involved in sealing in the Antarctic were based in Stonington.

Responding to increasing ship traffic, Congress allocated funds in 1822 for a lighthouse at the southernmost point of land in Stonington to mark the harbor entrance. Benjamin Chase won the contract for construction of the station, and the thirty-foot cylindrical stone tower and stone keeper’s dwelling were finished in 1823 at a cost of roughly $3000. Originally, ten whale oil lamps set in thirteen-inch reflectors and arranged in an arc were used to cast a stream of light out to sea. On a clear night, the light was visible for over twelve miles. During the day, the tower was used as a guiding reference point for sailors entering the harbor, in tandem with the highest steeple in town.

The first Stonington Harbor Lighthouse had a short life due to the quick erosion of the beach in front of the tower. By the late 1830s, there was significant danger of the lighthouse being swept into the sea. At first, construction of a protective wall was considered, but it was realized that a wall would only be a temporary solution. In addition, the preventive measure would cost roughly the same amount as a new lighthouse, so plans for a new structure positioned farther up the peninsula were prepared.

Using stones from the old tower, a new one-and-a-half-story keeper’s quarters was built with a 35-foot octagonal tower centered on the front gable end. The 1840 Stonington Harbor Lighthouse represents the diversity in design that characterized lighthouses built before the Civil War. The new station showed a fixed white light produced by eight lamps with sixteen-inch reflectors, shining from sixty-two feet above sea level.

The first keeper of the Stonington Harbor Lighthouse was Captain William Porter, who kept the post from 1823 until his death in the mid-1840s. If a keeper had been married, the custom in those days was to offer the vacant position first to the keeper’s widow. Porter’s wife Patty accepted the appointment, but a few years later an inspector found that she “kept the most filthy house he had ever visited; everything appeared to have been neglected.” Things must have improved somewhat, as widow Porter remained keeper for six more years.

Following the construction of a breakwater at the entrance to Stonington Harbor, a privately built and maintained light and fog signal were installed at the breakwater’s east end. After it became apparent to local mariners that this beacon was much more effective than the government's lighthouse, the Lighthouse Board submitted the following request in 1888 for funds to place an official light on the breakwater.
In consequence of the completion of the breakwater at the entrance of this harbor, the present light has ceased to be of any practical use as an aid to navigation. For some time past the Stonington and Providence Steam-Boat Company has maintained, at its own expense, a private light and fog-signal on the eastern end of this breakwater. The Board therefore came to the conclusion that a public light and fog-signal should be established here, and it estimated the cost for doing this at $8,000…When this is done the present light will be discontinued.

In 1889, a new 25-foot-tall, conical tower rising from an octagonal base was completed on the breakwater and commenced operation with a fourth-order lens showing a fixed red light. The Stonington Harbor Lighthouse was deactivated at that time, and the keeper was reassigned to care for the breakwater light. The keeper continued to live at the old station’s quarters, although a small shack was built on the breakwater wall, where he stayed when necessary. A frame house was built for the keeper just south of the old Stonington Lighthouse in 1910, and part of this structure is visible still today in the western portion of the yellow house. In 1926, the breakwater light was taken down and replaced with a skeleton tower.

In 1925, the Stonington Harbor Lighthouse was offered for sale by the government. The winning and only bid came from the Stonington Historical Society, who refurbished the structure and opened it to the public as a museum. The Old Lighthouse Museum still operates today, and although it is open seasonally, it is the only lighthouse on the Connecticut mainland that is regularly open to the public. The lighthouse has been well maintained by volunteers over the decades, and now boasts six rooms of diverse exhibits that include nautical tools, items brought from China for trade, early local pottery, and military items relating to the Battle of Stonington during the War of 1812. A fourth-order Fresnel lens is on display upstairs, while in one of the downstairs rooms a section of epoxy flooring allows guests to gaze down into the station's old cistern and well. Visitors may also climb the granite steps in the tower to be treated to a nice view of the surrounding area. If you look off to the southwest, you can get a distant view of Latimer Reef Lighthouse. 


Stonington Harbor Lighthouse is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., from May through October. The lighthouse can be reach at (860) 535-1440. lighthousefriends.com