The Dating Game

Many colonial era buildings incorporated a date stone, bearing the year of finished construction.

Dates have also been memorialized in wood, on plaques, even stained glass.

When I assume the fantasy position of Building Czar, date inscriptions will become obligatory; and, any facade changes will require notation, such as:

Built in 1914

Re-sheathed in 1972

Window Replacement in 2003

Perhaps commemoration will give pause.

Eyebrows Again?! Part 2

Fleeing the bracing modernity of the Craftsman period, and the techno horrors of the Great War, English country/cottage revivalism--comfort housing, gained favor in the 1920's.  

A medieval pastiche, half-timbering, prominent chimneys, irregular massing, decorative brick work, and rooflines with thatch-like characteristics were all key traits of this romantic style.

The wavy eave, or eyebrow eave (see Eyebrows Again?! 6/21/2009), a wall/roof junction with a wavy, or undulating profile, often paired with correspondingly shaped doors or windows, helped complete the illusion with a feature-softening come on.

Acanthus

The Acanthus, favored flora of the Mediterranean, first used as ornament by the Greeks,  in the Corinthian and Composite orders, and in many subsequent eras, found favor during the Arts & Crafts period when stylized representations of nature 

dominated the decorative arts. 

Not uncommonly portrayed in scrolls, and with its caulicoli exposed, alternately spiky or curly tipped, the Acanthus (aka Bear's breeches) appears often as a frieze, tempering bulk (image top).

Some historians, who have have traced the evolution of vegetal garniture, most notably Alois Riegel, claim the acanthus motif is actually a derivation of the palmette, a ubiquitous form in classical decoration.

Topless Turrets (Part 2)

Please see Topless Turrets (8/10/2009)

A common debate in the old house community is whether preservation is better served by poverty, or prosperity?

The poor, it's supposed, lack the means to alter.  Whereas the prosperous, renovate astride changing tastes.

My contention is, for a time poverty does preserve, but ultimately structure requires maintenance.  

Turrets, from the Latin turris, particularly require skilled tradespeople.

A turret projects, and is therefore not to be confused with a tower or any feature integral to the building footprint.

Tudor Revival

The Tudor Style, so called because it developed during the reigns of the Tudor monarchs, experienced a revival in the United States (and Britain) between 1890 - 1930.

The Tudor Revival, recapitulated several early English building types, even fusing for a time with the Arts & Crafts movement, probably on account of anti-industrial ideals.

Graced with several sub-types including the Cotswold model, the Tudor Revival is chiefly distinguished by decorative half-timbering (usually with embellishment concentrated at--but not confined to--the gable).  The range of half-timber expression is truly remarkable, yielding elaborate patterns.

Decorative (or false) timbering has succeeded true half-timbering: eight to ten inch timbers, joined by mortise-and-tenon.  The voids between these structural members were filled of a mortar, creating the striped or patterned appearance.

Sun King (Part 2)

See Sun King (11/30/09) for the beginnings of this thread.

Effusing sunbeams as pediment centerpiece, a refreshingly fluid highlight amidst the strict geometries of the cornice and vergeboard detailing.

A sunburst relief panel bedecks a vent dormer, the architectural equivalent of a diamond stud earring.

Could a crawl space access screen be any more beautiful, convulsive, synthetist-like?

Roof Returns (Part 2)

In Roof Returns (May 12, 2009), I featured bargeboards (see also The Devil's in the Thingee March 7, 2008 for a definition of Bargeboard and associated terms) interrupted by chimneys and unusual projections.  

I've since collected examples of 'faux fascia', roofing extensions and returns without practical purpose, in service of symmetry, aesthetic pursuits.

These 'bow tie' bargeboards (middle and bottom images) dress a roof/wall junction in dapper fashion.  Crowning a column (middle) and masking a change in mass (bottom).

Sun King

The image of the radiating sun (referred to variously, from the Baroque period forward, as Sunburst, Sunrise, Sun-in-Splendour, Sunset, and Sun-in-Glory), was the most popular turn of the century decorative motif .

Top image: Classic example in gable, glowingly rendered in gold leaf paint.

Many ancient patterns represented the sun, including the swastika, wheel, and Egyptian sun disc; still, figurative examples are the most common.

Middle image: corner brackets with delicious detail.

Bottom image: Craftsman era rendition with attic vent as fiery sphere.  

Sub Modern (Part Two)

More International Style homage, with curtain wall wrap-arounds. More ugliness.  Does this building harbor residences, offices, or civic endeavors?  Modernism's extreme formality eschews the value of distinguishability.

But back to the impoverishment of architecture (see Sub Modern Part One), and the alibis of the art agnostics: "It's too expensive to build the old way".

It isn't necessarily "too" expensive, but choicer materials and refined finishes cost more, regardless of style.  Once consumers, the consortiums, civic leaders, university regents, and mom 'n' pop home buyers accepted minimal forms, be they graph paper-y skyscrapers, or the mass produced post-war housing of Levittown, the die was cast.  

Assembly line home building, minimal ersatz, and the machine aesthetic would forever be promoted, the sometimes lesser 

costs hailed; the traditional picturesque dismissed, as impractical, even vulgar.

When did simplicity become a correlate of potency?

Transitional Columns

Transitional, the favorite catchword of the Architectural Historian, describes those works betwixt and between, when new styles are in their infancy, while elements of the preceding period endure.

These columns from the Edwardian period (and the Angelus Vista neighborhood), epitomize one such transition, from the decorative finish emphasis of the 19th century to the elemental, materials emphasis of the Craftsman period.

Heavily detailed Ionic capitals (as identified by the volute, or helix, a spiral scroll), crown relatively simple columns of (originally) unpainted brick, wood, and stone.

Topless Turrets

Before the simplification of forms, turrets made corners a point of interest, emblems of spectacular craftsmanship and ambition.

Those architectural features most unique are frequently the most expensive to maintain.  Many turrets have been shamefully re-clad or beheaded--stripped of their essentials.

 The Witch's cap or Candle-Snuffer roof remains (second image), though the fenestration has been depredated by an aluminum skin.  

In high occupancy situations, sometimes turrets, meant to function as adjunct sitting rooms--offering the grandest views, are converted to closets.

Resourceless tradespeople often resort to "mummifying" conical forms, with tar paper or roll products.  

Adding insult to injury, most decapitations yield poorly flashed, flat-roof sections which hasten other (water-related) degradations.

Sunday Brunch/Bonus Crenellation

No bartizan this (an overhanging lookout in a battlement), but still the evocation of crenellations, inverted, as a molding at the skirt of a salient feature, or oriel.

More Crenellations

In the previous post (Crenellations are Not Snack Cakes) we established crenellations as a pattern of openings or indentations, originally found in battlements, or fortified parapets.

The Crenel (or crenelle) is the opening; the Merlons are the solid alternates.

Strongly associated with medieval castles, crenellations also bedeck long stretches of the Great Wall of China.

A decorative device enlisted by nearly all the pre-war styles, as evidenced by Tudor details (top and bottom), and as stubby bay window crown on Craftsman-transitional dwelling (middle image).

Crenellations are Not Snack Cakes

A parapet is a low wall, most commonly erected above a roof line, an extension of the facade. 

A crenel is an cut-out in a parapet (thus crenelations), originally employed in battlements for defense.  Crenelations appear in Islamic fortifications of the Fatimid period (969-1171), during the Norman and Gothic periods; and, throughout recent architectural history.

Crenelations, also sometimes referred to as embrasures, crown all manner of projections, turrets and towers.

Atop the twin towers of a Hollywood Heights Cordoban pleasure palace (image #2).

Crenelations aloft a bow window in the Adams-Normandie neighborhood.

More Fraternal Twin Dormers

Please see the groundbreaking, Fraternal Twin Dormers? (12/11/2008)

The asymmetrical: exalted; explorations thereof--commonplace in El Pueblo.  Multiple roof planes: the quintessence of the Craftsman style, but conjoined gable ends of dissimilar mass?

What're you kidding me?!  

Example A, the lone single-story entry with a porte-cochere corresponding to the lower peak. 

Example B, fantastical Westlake tenement, with profile-enhancing flared, closed, eaves, and physiognomic tripartite attic vent.  Your eyes--they are like limpid pools.

Finally a Tudor facade from the precious, village-like collection on La Fayette Road.

Plan Book Bungalows

The North end of South Los Angeles is dominated by neighborhoods of detached single-family housing, built during the Edwardian era, generally of late Queen Anne, Craftsman, Four-Square derivation. 

Many were constructed by small scale builders, "untrained architects," who only labored on a handful of homes.  Some of these supposedly nescient craftspeople created striking, original renditions, others adapted planbook specifications.

The Wilson Bungalow Book of 1910 (now a fabulous Dover reprint) was one such source of designs.  Number 372 (top) featured highly articulated rafter tails, four sets of twin, battered pillars, and a bay projection in the gable.

"A good substantial home, with every requisite for comfort.  This plan is well adapted to the seashore, but quite as suitable for any location, " reads the catalog description.

"The house is 28 feet front by 54 feet, and can be built for about $1800."  

Flower Power 2

A second entry?  (Please see yesterday's Flower Power)  An excuse for more images, including this uncommon flower box with applied ornamentation.

Many boxes feature a flared frontispiece.  Few enjoy such a full compliment of slender supports.

A turret base is topped by with a curved planterbox, forming a stout lip.

Flower Power

The early Southland boosters exported images of neat suburban streets awash in riotous blooms of color, bungalows enshrouded by exotic flora, with tendrils of green cascading from second floor windowboxes.

Some windowboxes had liners of tin, and more than a few have disappeared, victims of neglect, sacrificed to infestations of stucco, asbestos or aluminum/vinyl siding.  In this instance, only the supporting brackets remain.

As with any other house detail of this joyously decorative period, variations abound, including the broad, shingled box in image opposite.

Diamond Midriffs

Faux half timbering accompanied by four faux tenons/beam ends.

I love the Craftsman style and influence, but sometimes I find the diagrammatic tendencies, form as the basis for ornament, a bit forced.

Marvelous relief panel echoes the muntin pattern in the flanking sash windows.

Like its geometric partner-in-arms the lozenge, the diamond is sometimes used as a ground for other patterns, as in strapwork. 

In image bottom, the diamond adds visual focus to an otherwise undifferentiated facade.  

Eyebrows Again?!

Yes, only this time it's Eyebrow Eaves!  (See Eyebrow Dormers 7/18/08, More Eyebrow Dormers 8/3/08, and Even More Eyebrow Dormers 3/16/09.)

Eaves are that section of roof which extend past (or overhang) the roof/wall junction.

Eaves with a wavy lip or profile are Eyebrow Eaves.

A Craftsman/Four Square with a more jagged brow.  (And flower boxes with an overlay that matches the muntin pattern!)

Another eyebrow eave from a "rustic colonial" similar to top; and, another concave set.  Unframed round (or full) arched windows with consenting roofline.

More Prow

A clarion call, from rooftops and passing cars, "more prow," on corners, between verse, aided by amplification and chorus.

Yet again shabby treatment, marvelous wooden plasticity, incarcerated by a stucco gaoler.  Look at that stupid little window (middle of frame), companion catastrophe to a fiberglass 

shower stall installation I expect.  A challenging strike zone for me and my rotten tomatoes.

Now, my mood has lightened, inspirited by this cross-gabled example in powerful plum, the building type from whence the prow likely originates, the Shingle Style.   Textural effects, sock it to me!   

What's a post without a third photo?

Arches

Arches?  Not just any arches, multi-foil cusped arches.

Can you believe those elaborated cuspings?  Crazy.  Check out the stilted arch in the gable, wherein the center is higher than the impost.

The Shrine Auditorium and more cusped arches.  A lot more, an arcade.

Gunnite

Gunnite (or Gunite), is mortar conveyed through a hose and pneumatically projected at high velocity onto a surface.  (Mortar is a sticky cement/sand/water, and usually lime, mixture designed to adhere.)

The force of application and "peening effect" of the larger particles results in a very dense, waterproof mass. 

 

Trademarked in 1909, the form-less process gained popularity amongst architects in part for its resemblance to the rough pebble dash finishes of England: crushed rock set into an outer coat.

While "shotcrete" has become the all-inclusive term for sprayed or "gunned" concrete, several processes exist, and gunnite refers to a specific dry-mix technique.

The finish, typically a pale grey, was usually left unpainted.  

As styles changed, many examples were foolishly stuccoed, and are subsequently disguised, made more adobe-like, or smooth coated like this work by architect Charles Whittlesey.  Deformed.

On the Prowl for Prow

Prow-shaped Gables or prow-shaped projections in the gable are another dimensionalizing feature found in that greatest period of home building in wood, as I heretofore christen the architecture of Americana Victoriana and decades one and two of Century number twenty.

Now that we've that business out of the way, let us feast our eyes on image left, a ferocious pink pyramid, a convergence of diagonal boards, forming a stickwork beak.  Raw and forceful, Itze-Leib Schmuilowsky forceful.

A sad case, blunted in composite shingles.  Grounds to repeal old house ownership license!  You need further cause?  Exhibit B, directv dish!  Stick that stupid, headphone shaped piece of grey along the side or back, on the double!

Roof Returns

Complex roof lines, a quaint, traditional notion abandoned by the supposed vanguard, are at their zany best when features are asymmetrical (see Fraternal Twin Dormers? 12/11/2008 ), or even discontinuous.  

In rare cases, the bargeboard is truncated, interrupted by another element (like the chimney, above; or, turret, left).  

Rarer still are examples like below, from a work by the Heineman Brothers.

A shed roof bargeboard that originates not at the junction of a wall, but rather just below a knee brace, masking a slight, second-floor projection.   The partial return, attended to by the ubiquitous pigeon busting owl (see Owl Decoys 10/29/2008), is demented.

Chateauesque-lite

During the interbellum period, Revival styles crowded the stage, including several based on precedents established in French domestic architecture.  The second phase Chateauesque shared many characteristics with the Chateauesque, chiefly towers, the use of narrow, vertical windows, and steeply pitched roofs. 

In Los Angeles, this largely asymmetrically-massed second wave was often grafted to the high-whimsy, and similarly medieval-inspired Storybook style. 

Most of the original thatch-emulating roofs, which featured shingled courses of great--and seemingly random--variation have been lost, though the rolled eaves (visible at the gable ends) endure.

The style is also sometimes conflated with the Normandie Revival which features the sort of half-timbering associated with the Tudor.

Entrances are almost always through arched openings in the towers.

Chateauesque II

Steeply pitched hipped roofs serve as a backdrop for busy roof lines, punctured by towers and turrets with bell-shaped or candle-snuffer roofs, pinnacles, and finials.

Perhaps L.A.'s best high-style example of the Chateauesque, the Rindge House, designed by Frederick Roehrig (top).












This example features Italianate modillions (or ornamental brackets beneath a cornice), nicely emphasized with a dark blue, movement inducing, accent.












16th Century France on Bonnie Brae. Azey Le Rideau and Gilles Berthelot meet Merithew and Haley. Parapeted dormer, hood molds with label stops, the whole deck of cards, a royal flush.

Chateauesque

Less monumental, and more eclectic than the Richard Morris Hunt led revivals, an 1890's Los Angeles expression of the Chateauesque, exhibits the influence of the contemporaneous Queen Anne and Richardsonian house types; and, unlike its Eastern brethren, is crafted of timber.

Belt courses and balconies are common.













Nearly if not wholly symmetrical, and twin towered, a few examples feature medieval inspired Strapwork, or scroll saw elaborations (see top image).

Windows are sometimes divided into narrow vertical units with transoms above (see second image). Note also this example's jaw-dropping variations in fenestration (or design and placement of windows).













Dormers that split the cornice line or suggest a central pivot grace a few instances.

Even this stripped down case of house abuse from ol' Windmill Links wields a powerful silouhette.

The Super Duper Ellipse

The Super Ellipse, or Lame Curve (see Super E 1/07/2009 ) is neither costumed crime fighter, nor diamond shape.

Still, the Degenerate Super Ellipsoid is amongst our favorite forms, and not just because it's degenerate or a convex function.

Popularity can be fleeting, next week I'll probably get cozy the Reuleaux triangle.

But let's savor the moment: look within the diamond, deep within the diamond, past the radiating vent slats.

Battered Dormers

The battered, or tapered, column is a staple of Craftsman architecture. Battered columns appear atop room dividing built-ins, and across front porches.

The battered dormer on the other hand, which features an inclined face, is a far less common proposition. (Note the string of "doghouses" across the image top.)


In some examples, the window is hung upright, or parallel to the front elevation, inset at the base of the pylon massing (rather than adhering to the cant of the dormer).

Rare example above with clipped hip roof.

In the Anderson & Bach tract, near the Foshay Learning Center, there's a handful of properties with skinny shed roof dormers wherein the end of the fascia board exhibits the same tilt, or angle, as the dormer face.

Even More Eyebrow Dormers

An eyebrow dormer with relief panel inset!

Enlivening an otherwise undifferentiated section of hipped roof (and providing a bit of balance opposite a turret). There's a lot of mass-centric residential building today, but the roof/roof line is mostly relegated to a flat cap.

Maybe we need a roof revival!

Eyebrow dormer with dreamy stained glass window.

Odd ridge cap fascia illustrates yet again the hazards these features face in re-roofings.

More Blind Windows

(See Blind Windows 1/20/2009)

Frequently a device used to balance other facade enriching elements, Blind Windows assume many forms.

After the second World War, efforts at facade animation, became more abstract, the details less intrinsic.




Comical trompe l' oeil. Reminiscent of the 'Occupied Look' programs of those cities hardest hit by foreclosure and abandonment. Plywood seals over the means of egress are 'dressed' to resemble functioning doors and windows, sometimes even with flower boxes and cheery looking occupants.

New construction on Wilton.

Architect Sumner P. Hunt

Sumner P. Hunt was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1865, and arrived in Los Angeles in 1889. Hunt had apprenticed since his teen years for architect Clarence Cutler of Troy, N.Y., remembered today for the Park Street Railroad Station in Medford, Massachusetts.

In Los Angeles, Hunt initially toiled for the firm of Eugene Caulkin and Sidney I. Haas, potentially contributing to Haas' Mission Revival designs for the California Building at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

But with Hunt's first independent commission, the famed Bradbury Building (1893), he embarked on a career of stunning innovation and achievement, contributing (sometimes in partnership with other distinguished architects including Theodore A. Eisen, A. Wesley Eager, and Silas Burns) to the design of iconic structures such as the Wilshire Ebell Theatre, the Automobile Club of Southern California, Casa de Rosas, the Southwest Museum, and El Alisal.

Along with Silas Burns, Hunt designed many early Los Angeles park buildings, including the city's oldest branch library in Vermont Square. The library, opened in 1913, was built in the Italian Renaissance style, with a grant from Andrew Carnegie.

Hunt lived for nearly twenty years in West Adams, for a time on Severance Street, in a house he designed. His residential designs are scattered throughout the area, from Alvarado Terrace to the Menlo Avenue Twenty-Ninth Street Historic District. An especially strong concentration can be found in the Kinney Heights tract, from whence the accompanying images come.

John Hudson Thomas

Described as a "medieval-ist," designing strongly unfiltered period revivals (as well as true to form Craftsman residences) between 1906 - 1945, architect John Hudson Thomas may be best known for his category defying creations between 1908 - 1915, bulky, stucco house castles, with massing-to-the-max, and a strong cubist bent.


Many of these homes, which share the overt geometricism of the Vienesse Secession, are virtually impossible to represent with a single image. Side elevations are seemingly disconnected to the precepts of the facade, like a toppled ziggurat, liberated entirely from the usual architectural contract, Euclidean manners, civility, and impulse.


In addition to ground-hugging prairie style clean machines, Thomas' work of this period anticipates the sky-reaching verticality of the Streamline Moderne and perhaps even those ideas that shaped modular building.


Born in Ward, Nevada, Thomas graduated from UC Berkeley in 1905, and spent two years working for UC faculty architect John Galen Howard. Thomas was a noted member of the Hillside Club, a City Beautiful movement inspired off-shoot, concerned wih the development of the Berkeley Hills, which counted amongst its ranks Julia Morgan, Bernard Maybeck, and Charles Keeler.

Blind Windows

Usually employed to enliven an otherwise featureless elevation, Blind Windows appear with great unpredictability and without regard to style.


Remarkably ornate treatment on a highly visible corner property. Symmetry or balance is served.



A comic pairing of ersatz ornament: spare, blank frames and Gothic detail turned chintz (the accursed combined-with-square quatrefoil).



Another corner Italianate with dual treatment and icky opportunistic signboard.

Quattrefoil

An aesthete like myself complaining about ornament, sounding a bit like cranky Adolph Loos or some early modernist tea totaller? It's true. Another quattrefoil-esqe tracery employed as arbitrary "architectural enhancement," and I'm likely to duff up some fool.

Sure I love the four-lobed pattern divided by cusps, possibly originated in the ceramic revetments of Spanish and oriental mosques. Particularly when utilized in the Venetian Gothic, and the bizarro Mission Revival (see variation with multi-light window top). But just fashioned of foam and adhered to any old flat wall? Well, every man's got his limits.

"No, no, no," I screamed, at one apparent homeowner, post stucco applique, "it's a colonial revival cottage, not a flippin' would be Mediterranean."
I feel you law man, it's hard to keep order out here.

I don't know what's more offensive, 'Fried Chicken, Chinese Food & Donuts,' or that turd of an ornament, which is also a bit cartouche-like, an oval panel with crested or scrolled borders.

Clearly, this requires continuation......

Super E?

Not to be confused with the diamond, or lozenge form, the super ellipse (or lame curve) was another, less common, geometric motif.

Check out the four square and its super ellipse house bling (top), anchoring a fabulous second story projection. I could do without the stucco, Romeo.


A pair of double hungs. What I wouldn't do for curvy muntins (they're probably steam bent). In love yet?



Bargeboard cut-outs, like a twinkling star.

Relief Panels Tangent

In our last Relief Panels installment (9/25/08), I'd become captivated by that decorative element centered between the two windows (top image), beneath the Anthemion scroll. (Anthos is Greek for flower.) Familiar it was, but where had I seen it and how to describe?

For starters, it's geometric and composed of straight line segments.

All of its angles, both interior and exterior, are right angles, and as such it's a parallelogram. (If only I could do geometry over, I'd ace it!)

A similarly shallow--or low--relief panel--or the effect thereof (image second from the top), conjured by the application of a small bead, in a manner that abstractly suggests a frame. Close but no cigar.

I was reminded of the returns in Greek Fret work, geometric patterns formed of short fillets, bands, or reglets, variously intersecting in rectangular containments.

This band embellishes a cottage in Pico-Union, for many years a dentist's office. A classic example of a Greek Fret, or the Greek Key design.

Perhaps I'd seen the pattern in furniture? I consulted Joseph Aronson's The Encyclopedia of Furniture. The illustration provided a momentary balm.

The Girl Next Door. A near match (see bottom image) occurs in chummy Kinney Heights, on a block I regularly walk. How could the connection have eluded me so, and might I have also seen the pattern elsewhere?

Fraternal Twin Dormers?

I'm a lover of asymmetry, but uneven side-by-side dormers? Pretty novel and pretty rare. Conjoined gable dormers, with identical pitch and mass, are fairly common, but a staggered sawtooth? The refrain: pretty novel and pretty rare.


Gable dormers have a gabled roof, with two sloping planes that meet at a central ridge. Sometimes, they're called doghouse dormers.



The photographic angle distorts slightly, but what an ensemble: an uneven pitch (like the images above), with a "walkout"/porch, and the icing on the cake--over-lapping bargeboards (see criss-cross, ad nauseam).

More Finials

A bell tower bereft.

Further South on Hoover, a magnificent "turned" finial (note what resembles a series of ice-cream scoops). The late 19th century featured lots of great woodturning. The lathe, a spinning tool not unlike a potter's wheel, was newly motorized; resulting in a stream of wood shaped products: spindles, bead-and-stick designs, balustrades, finials.

By the middle of the Craftsman epoch, finials, roof crests, and the like, had disappeared from the home building lexicon. They were to make a comeback however as weathervanes during America's Spanish Revival craze. Medieval crafts, including metal working and wrought iron techniques (as opposed to cast-iron processes) were re-discovered and marvelously paired with the new vernacular in grilles, railings, door hardware, etc.

Finials

Finials (also known as Turret Caps or Roof Caps) are decorative roof top elements, once prominent during the Gothic Revival and Victorian Eras.

Image one, shows a hook-shaped model, inspired by Crockets, a feature common in Gothic buildings. The name Crocket derives from the diminutive of the French 'croc' meaning 'hook'.

Most finials terminate or crown a gable, pinnacle, or spire. An ornament mounted on the apex of a pediment however is called an Acroterion.

The bottom image offers a variety, including those of metal (often copper) and turned timber, plus the popular ball-style.

Relief panels

A glorious ceramic explosion between the first and second floor windows. Byzantine revival, Assyrian boogie--I love all that 1890's exotica!

A relief is a carving, chasing, or embossing raised above a background plane.

Beneath the windows, over the skirtboard or stringcourse, the popular lozenge makes an appearance.

Relief panels are also called Bas-relief panels. Bas-relief is French for low relief, derived from the Italian basso rilievo: sculpture that is not free, standing, or in the round.
The flat panels beneath the second story windows look like painted plywood, dismal replacements for some doubtlessly exuberant ill-tended relief. Such indignities!

Liberty style foliage and a dental frieze at the cornice.

And between the windows, another panel, with some sort of open fretwork, rectangular form. I've seen that form before, it must have a name....oh damn, I feel another obsession--er pursuit--coming on

Enough Already

I'm cleaning out the garage, again. Really, I'm picking through the garage for stuff without much personal weightiness, to chuck. Scoping out the easy marks, because I don't want to get bogged down sifting through emotional souvenirs, considering their value and the likelihood of future contribution or use. The downsizing thing ain't easy.

My first target, magazine back issues, crates full, Fine Homebuilding, Old House Journal, International Photographer.

Hours later, I'm cross legged, reading articles on slate countertops, clear finish products, and an interview with John Alton. Damn, the downsizing thing ain't easy. I came across an article on a movie titled, An Ambush of Ghosts, shot in "the interior of an old Victorian house located near USC." I put a July 1992 issue of American Cinematographer aside, with a feature story on Batman Returns. My son likes Batman, and wouldn't you know there's a production still wherein a Bull's Eye window (see nearly every post for the last month) dominates the composition.

Once observed, noted, becomes ubiquitous.

Even More Revelation...

Defining L'eoil de boeuf led to the terms oculus, and roundels: small circular panels. No stranger to these, I went a snappin'.

In great numbers, adorning a paint deprived bargeboard.

Along the cornice beneath a Jerkinhead roof line (also known as a clipped gable, hipped gable, or Shreadhead).


(More Jerkinhead jamba in the upcoming Separated at Built post.)



At the bargeboard's end.

More Radiating...., or Revelation?

Sunday, between morning and late afternoon showings, I side-tripped over to Central Library for the latest photography installation, Play Ball! Images of Dodger Blue, 1958-1988. Included are several pre Dodger stadium images of Chavez Ravine.

I drifted upstairs to canvas recent periodicals, including the Spring issue of American Bungalow, featuring an excellent article by Jose Vazquez on Miami bungalows. The accompanying images included a house with a window, the likes of which I've described in numerous, recent posts as: elliptical with radiating keystones. Jose Vazquez's description included the term, l'oeil de boeuf, or bull's eye. Viola!

Later, I consulted my architectural dictionaries.
L'oeil de boeuf: a round or oval aperture.
L'oeil de boeuf: an oculus.
L'oeil de boeuf: a distinctive window in Mansard roofing.
L'oeil de boeuf: a Mansart Window.

I knew there was a reason to do all this reading.

Shingle Style (Part 3)

The Shingle Style, its often claimed, is a wholly American style--the first wholly American style, inspired in large part by the humble cottages and outbuildings of New England fishing villages.

Typically the (cedar) shingles were meant to be left unpainted, and to age naturally.
Antithetically, this example (top) in Western Heights has painted shingles (albeit a verisimilar brown), and an utterly inappropriate light grey roof. The style is intended to be perceived as a whole, unified, rather than as highly contrasting planes.

In connection with the Shingle Style, many progressive turn of the century architects experimented with "rusticity," often adapting medieval forms. (Traces of which are visible in this marvelous Angelino Heights house.)

Shingle Style (Part 2)

Whereas Los Angeles offers few examples of the prototypical Shingle (or Seaside) Style, owing to its period of development, aesthetic leanings, or even the dearth of wide frontage lots to indulge its rambling masses, one Shingle Style sub-set appears in large numbers.

Houses, largely clad in shingles, with simple and complex gambrel roof lines, appear in most neighborhoods with Arts & Crafts era architecture.

Architect John Calvin Stevens, of Portland Maine, a progenitor of the Shingle Style, is often credited with the revival of the gambrel roof, possibly inspired by Dutch Colonial architectural, which like other early American forms, was being reconsidered around the time of the American centennial.

A gambrel roof is generally symmetrical, with two slopes on each side. The uppermost slope tends to be quite slight (which allows for more headroom in interiors), while the lower slope is steep.

The example left, is clipped at the gable, and boasts deeper eaves, a characteristic that's referred to as "sunbonnet".

While some classic elements, columns or palladian windows, are borrowed from elsewhere, note the absence of applied ornamentation.

Worlds Collide

Radiating keystones and an eyebrow dormer! Holy roller!

This caps a pair of recent obsessions, now back to the Shingle Style.

Eyebrow Dormers (continued)

Business before babble: I'll be open at 2158 W. 24th ST (see previous post for a description) on Tuesday, August 5th, between 11 am - 3 pm. The house is located three doors West of Gramercy, and two blocks East of Arlington; 24th ST is two blocks North of Adams.
This property is not yet on the MLS, nor is there a For Sale sign.

Maybe this was always a vent and never a window; still, it looks suspiciously jerry-rigged.



A delicate upturn in danger of suffocation by the next layer of roof sheeting. Preferable I suppose to a re-decking, wherein the feature might be sacrificed for a cost savings. Reason #88 for Historic Preservation Overlay Zones, historic commissions, historic designations, whatever.

Another glass-less remnant.

Shingle Style

Without an evening of work, I attended the Maysels Bros. twin-bill at the New Beverly, Gimme Shelter and Grey Gardens.

Grey Gardens, released in 1975, documented the day-to-day of a mother daughter duo, former socialites, living in near isolation and semi neglect in a seaside estate in the elite Georgica Pond neighborhood of East Hampton. The estate, from which the title Grey Gardens comes, was designed by Joseph Greenleaf Thorpe in 1897, in the Shingle Style.

We haven't much pure* Shingle Style in Los Angeles, though this behemoth (top) in Alvarado Terrace, endowed with touches of the Richardsonian Romanesque, possesses many typical features including a round corner tower topped with a conical roof and little or no window casing.

The former Ziegler Estate (now La Casita Verde Childcare Center) in Highland Park is another example of these "grand cottages", a rambling mass, asymmetrical, clad in shingles, with towers and extensions. Note the arched entry.

The tower (bottom image) bespeaks of possible Shingle Style magnificence, as do the slightly arched veranda piers and nominal window trim. (Still, who knows how much has been lost to the stucco monster?)

*Is anything pure ever, free from the inheritance of preceding styles? Even so, there is a Shingle Style sub-type which Los Angeles boasts in large numbers. To be continued......

Is There Nowhere to Hide (continued)

More (mostly) elliptical (mostly) windows with radiating keystones.

Some of these apertures are round, rather than the ellipse shape. Some are louvered vents, not windows.

In masonry, the keystone (or key block) is the central, often embellished, voussoir (or wedge shaped piece) on an arch.




As in the case of the Eyebrow Dormers, some examples are made blind (see photo above) as home owners lack the resource (and sadly the interest) to repair elements for which standardized parts are unavailable.

Eyebrow Dormers

Popularized in the United States by architect Henry Hobson Richardson in the mid-late 19th century, Eyebrow Dormers interject a bit of frivolity in an otherwise flat, somber roof line. The Eyebrow Dormer, also called Eyelid Dormers, take the form of a low, upward curve with no distinct vertical sides, a sine wave, half oval, or quarter round.

Dormers are structural elements that protrude from a sloping roof surface. Dormers come in many shapes and the majority incorporate windows. Dormers are generally used in top floors to introduce light, head room, and ventilation. The word dormer comes from the Latin dormitorium meaning sleeping room (think dormitory).

Largely abandoned during the Arts & Crafts period, the Eyebrow Dormer re-emerged in the early 1920's in Revival forms.

Some Eyebrow Dormers were false (or blind), glass-less or walled off, included only for their distinguishing presence. Others have become false, as homeowners lacked the resource to install curved pieces of glass; or, converted to vents (though vents also appeared in an eyebrow-like form). Some also were likely removed by witless roofers during re-decking or as they struggled to shorten their shingle courses.

Is there Nowhere to Hide?

Is there nowhere to hide from elliptical windows with radiating keystones?

Most are located in gables and dormers, but not always.

They appear on 19th century Colonial Revivals, early 20th century Craftsman dwellings, even 1930's Chateauesque apartment buildings. Not to mention, early American Federalist architecture.

Like other house parts, once identified, they become that obscure object of desire.

"Look another," I'll proclaim sometimes to the dog, sometimes to a passenger, head craned, eyes ill-advisedly divorced from the road. "There. There."

"No, up there."

And to Think that I Saw it on Mulberry Street

What a remarkably daring design, cantilevered bays and gables, seemingly supported by Italianate block modillions, corner brackets and story-high corbels.

Sadly the owners have obscured the porch area with a bum awning (beneath the cornice), and masked the lower half of the windows in the front gable with an off-center trellis. (One hopes the trellis merely serves as a short term child proofing device.)

Still the sense of movement, part ropey vortex, part incipient flower is as sudden and electrifying as a 3-D movie scare.

Eastlake

The Eastlake Style (or Movement), where to begin? Perhaps with the man whose name is ascribed to the style, from which he sought to be disassociated. Confusing?

Charles Locke Eastlake (1836 - 1906) was a British architect and furniture designer, author of the wildly popular Hints on Household Taste in Furniture, Upholstery and Other Details, published in the U.S. in 1872. He was a reformist, who believed in a simple and single cohesive style, opposed to the excesses of the Italianate and Second Empire styles. (Ironically and contrary to his credo, the style that came to bear his name was often quite elaborate and eclectic.)

Eastlake is one of the architectural styles of the mid-late Victorian period, along with Queen Anne and Stick. Often it's difficult to draw any precise lines between these largely concurrent building types; in fact, the style goes unrecognized by many leading architectural guidebooks, examples swept into the Queen Anne or Folk Victorian categories.

The style is asymmetrical, often with diagonal corner towers, and polygonal bays. (See photos, with diagonal bays stretched into miniature towers.) Some towers feature large finials. Ridge cresting or decorative ridge flashing is also a trademark, as are intricately pierced bargeboards.

Fashion never changes abruptly, beginning or ending on certain days; and, in the West and in Los Angeles, the Victorian styles maintained prominence longer, more immune to the architectural revolutions of the 1890's and the increasingly fashionable Richardsonian Romanesque, Shingle, and Colonial American forms.

Much of Los Angeles' 19th century housing stock is located in neighborhoods wherein losses to indifference are on-going, and apparently beneath the notice of the culture capos, focused on trophy buildings, the Jet age, and places movie stars live.

Archeology

What happened here? Ok, the chimney was removed, possibly lost in a temblor. Asbestos shingles were installed atop the wood siding prior to the chimney loss. Then...the chimney void was patched...with wood siding? How considerate...I guess.

*****************************************************
Sunday's Open:
2892 W. 15th ST 2 - 5 pm
Harvard Heights, West Adams
Los Angeles, CA 90006
United States of America
Planet Earth
Milky Way Galaxy

Clinkers, Tifals,...Clifals!

Sometimes clients inspire these entries, so when David & Gisa bought 2881 W. 15th ST (no, not 2892 W. 15th ST), they asked about their clinker brick porch, and I began to recount details of my post on Clinker Brick (see The Brick Pile 2/24/07).

"But really," I advised, "your porch combines clinker brick and stone, which is referred to as Peanut Brittle or Brickle."

"And are there many other examples of this," they asked, doubtless trying to spur a blog entry, mad picture taking, and some fossil fuel usage.

"More chimneys than porches," I responded coyly, "but there is one block--not far from here, with the greatest array of Arts & Crafts era masonry porches anywhere in the Southland."
"Here in West Adams," they asked taking the bait.
"No."
"In Pasadena," Gisa inquired, whilst David slyly abstained. My head fanned slowly back and forth.
"In Echo Park or Hollywood," she questioned, with slight irritation but growing intrigue.
"No," I answered finally, "in the Tifal Brothers Tract, the 600 block of East 52nd Place."

"The Tifal Brothers?"

Omniscient voice (is this to what 'heteroglossia' refers?): The Tifal brothers, Charles, Gustav, and William were designers and builders, immigrants from Posen of the then German Republic, who constructed over 350 bungalows in Los Angeles and another 100 in Monrovia where they were based, and where their work is most celebrated.

Charles Tifal (later partnered with Ralph Hurlburt) also had a long career (which included work in a range of styles) in San Diego where he is recognized by the Historical Resources Board as a Master Builder.

The Tifal Bros. Tract features examples of River Rock or Arroyo Stone porches, glazed bricks, Brickle, Tapestry (or multi-colored) Brick, and brick work laid in a seemingly chaotic, bond-less fashion, called Eccentric Brickwork.

The 600 block of E. 52nd Place is located between Avalon and McKinley.

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Tuesday's Open: 2892 W. 15th ST 11 am - 2 pm

The Devil's in the Thingee Part 3

My parlor games failed, the bait was left to age and molder, a psychological gambit gone belly up.

Yeah, I got more pictures to share of the minutiae turned mania (even if y'all didn't come asking): criss-cross apple sauce, er bargeboards (please see earlier installments). Including our first single story participant (see above).

How about our first front gable/rear gable matched set (see opposite).

I think I've finally worked through this--whatever it is, and now I'm ready to obsess some more about the Stick style, broke down cars, serpentine bath fixtures--you know, the day in/day out stuff.

Splitting Hairs

Another image from 2314 Maple Ave, in the fabulous Garey tract (much of which was lost in the construction of the Santee Education Complex).

The doors, most of which endure, are of the lovely raised panel variety, sporting the positively rare dual-bevel (see image left).

More rarities, and more examples of one of my favorite exotic revival styles in Atwater Village.

My favorite street in Atwater is Brunswick, in particular the 3700 block, chock full of fanciful ecletics. (Please see past entries on the Egyptian Revival style: 3/15/2007, 9/10/2007.)

Never had I seen a porte cochere, or reference to, associated with the style, until I glimpsed this heavyweight (also located on Brunswick). Worth noting as well is the orientation of the front door.

I asked an architectural historian the difference between a porte cochere and a car port. "There's no difference dummy," the historian chided, "porte cochere is car port in French."
"But isn't a porte cochere," I regrouped, " a cover for a drive-through entrance, en route to a garage--or carport?"
He rolled his eyes, "you're splitting hairs blog boy."
I pounded my fist in mock theatrics, "my readers need to know!"

Sunday's Open: 2035 W. 29th Place 2 - 5 pm
Tuesday's Open: 2892 W. 15th ST 11 - 2:30 pm (Profile coming Monday)

The High Road to Eagle Rock (Part 2)

So that parapet-ed thing up the hill, turned out to be a rather institutional-looking Mission Revival, built by Joseph Cather Newsom in 1907.

Remarkably plain even for this often simplified building form. Particularly given its architect, one of the kings of Queen Annes.

A Newsom house is for sale (and they aren't often), at ground zero, 3115 W. Adams Boulevard (at Arlington). The property (pictured below) has been described as Italian Gothic, and is known locally as the Elegant Manor. The Elegant Manor, a should-be iconic residence, originally the Fitzgerald House (1903), has a rather colorful recent history, is in need of intensive restoration, and is asking $1.9 million.

The larger than large clinker brick chimney, with the arched window through, is the house's most regaling feature.

The High Road to Eagle Rock

Wishing to alter my route to and fro the Genevieve listing (see below), I forsook Figueroa for Avenue 64, into Pasadena, where a pair of marvelous buildings, quite nearly neighbors, rest.

Above, Church of the Angels (1889), a mouth gaping example of the Richardsonian Romanesque style, largely authored by architect Ernest Coxhead, best known for his visionary work in San Francisco. Coxhead, an Englishman, lived in Los Angeles for about three years, contributing to 25 or so projects, few of which survive.

Romantic eclectic! Were it a mansard roof, I'd call it Second Empire. Otherwise a Queen Anne-Italianate is probably the most accurate description.

Astonishingly the cornices are bare, particularly given the elaborated side brackets on the porch support columns. My guess, something's gone missing.

Stark and severe, forbidding, rivaled only by works of the Folk-Gothic or Neo-Brutal. Alienation, coolness, sangfroid, the ideological viscera dominating modernism isn't only a modernist conception beholden to the techno rapture, it's 19th century representin' on Avenue 64.

Wait, what is that on the hill? Check out the shaped parapet. Gotta go!




About the Genevieve listing, I've dropped the price to $449,000, which makes it a short sale. If one is interested, please saddle up your patience, as lenders don't always respond quickly. Still, it'd be a challenge to find a better condition house in the area for less.

Shown often by appointment, see earlier entries more more photos and description.

The Devil's in the Thingee Part 2

More criss-cross fascia boards, and you thunk it an obscure builder's folly. Not so, an obscure blog writer's folly perhaps.....



We gotcha long tips.

We gotcha teensy-weensy tips, or ends.



We gotcha walk-outs and bays, Tudor details and extra stickwork, the panoply of Craftsman expression.

Does this qualify as another example of faux joinery*? Arguably, since one piece is merely butt jointed (a technique whereby two pieces are joined simply by butting together), rather than cross-keyed, a more exacting technique exhibited in some mission furniture of the time.

*see the archive for postings on beam ends, etc.

Don't make me drop a part 3 on you fools.

Stick Style!

Los Angeles boasts few examples of the Stick Style (previously featured in Architectural Musings), a transitional style which links the preceding Gothic revival with the subsequent, crowd pleasing Queen Anne. That's partly a by-product of the age of L.A.'s built environment (the Stick style was largely cast aside by the 1890's), and the lukewarm popularity of the style itself, less favored than the contemporaneous Italianate and Second Empire building types.

While restoration idol Roland Souza hacks through the deferred maintenance undergrowth on his Stick re-do at 24th ST., this treasure (near Main & 23rd) warrants equal measure.

The signature touch is the siding applied in varying directions and the picket-fence pattern which forms a band at the base of the gable.

The Southland's best known Stick Style building may be the Point Fermin Lighthouse in San Pedro (1874) or the Sherman-Gilbert house (see photo left), with trademark tower in San Diego's Heritage Park.

The Devil's in the Thingee

Twin gabled dormers with criss-cross vergeboards (or fascia boards).



Vergeboards, are also known as bargeboards, fly rafters, gable rafters, gable boards, fascia, fascia boards, and barge rafters.

It's that long piece of wood hanging from the projecting edge of the roof.


Inspired by a client's recent purchase, I sought other examples of this seemingly singular decorative riff.

Was it a one-off, the three dollar bill of bargeboards, the fancy of a visionary owner-builder?


Hardly, X marks the spot throughout high-ranking Harvard Heights and in L.L. Bowen's buff Normandie Avenue tract in King Estates.


Some are accompanied by a phalanx of brackets and others have elaborated (shaped) ends, including coves, scrolls, and slants.


Sadly, in some instances the tips have been clipped, likely victims of rot, neglect, and dreadful taste.


The word fascia also applies to a band or fillet of cloth.

You want a part 2, anybody?

Before and Just After

The Before 1912 Craftsman. The owner wanted to pursue a new/old exterior color scheme, potentially stymied by the asbestos-cement siding (installed atop the original wooden clapboard and shingle).

Asbestos-cement is a mixture of Portland cement reinforced with asbestos fibers, first produced by Johns-Manville in 1905 as a coating, and used originally in chimneys.

The After
Experiments with asbestos, as a building material valued for its fire resistance, began as early as the 1880's; but without a binder, these long, thin, naturally occurring fibers proved too coarse and abrasive.

The cement-asbestos composite, pre-formed beginning in 1907, demonstrated incredible durability, and could be inexpensively molded (to imitate wood or other) and mass-produced.

As early as 1920, the National Board of Fire Underwriters recommended asbestos-cement shingles as a roof covering. The product enjoyed extensive use, on roofs and as siding, between 1930 and 1973, when it was banned.

Some building professionals recommend total household asbestos removal, be it ducting, siding, tiling, etc. Others are concerned only with loose or damaged materials, and contend the best and least risky management technique is to leave undisturbed.

Shingles contain non-friable asbestos, which means fibers are only released when they're broken or penetrated, a likelihood with removal.

But why not just paint? Some painters are opposed to working on a surface that cannot be prepped with traditional techniques, and might be damaged with power washing.

In the end, the guys with the haz-mat suits and proper disposal methodologies took a star turn.

Afterwards, the 2 ton-simian evicted, the building archaeologists made the rounds, noting missing aprons, gable details, and a window box.

Here's hoping for Part 2!

More Agent Turn-ons

Closet windows were not uncommon in early 20th century building, allowing light and ventilation--the things windows do! Most closet windows were plain, single light casements. A complex muntin pattern (see left, from Ochs Manor) was very definitely an upgrade, in the service of exterior continuity. Occasionally a small double hung sash was employed .


Twin, decorative double-hung sashes in a closet, and a planter box to boot--unprecedented!

How nice that I've a buyer in escrow on this prize. The client however is wise to my feitico.
"Are you here to see me," he'll smartly ask in future when I visit, "or just the closet?"

Brise Soleils (continued)

Brise soleils are common in American architecture of the 1950's and 60's, as architects grappled with the challenge of linking geometric structure to organic forms.

Much of architecture, from the Shingle style onward, is rooted in similar concerns, the synthesis between the rational-geometric and the organic-rustic-mystical.



In mid-century architecture, the intense interest between inner and outer space, promoted by earlier movements, continued. Aided by cheap, mass produced products like the blocks seen left.

Jury Duty

As the market shook off its holiday torpor, likely fueled by lower prices and bargain basement rates, civic duty intervened. My breaks were stuffed with phone call catch-up and an obsession with the 6th floor view.

The courthouse, spare and unrelenting, might be described as Brutalist architecture, a modernist/minimalist sub-set. The term originates from the French breton brut, or raw concrete, and quixotic architect Le Corbusier.

My view was made more interesting by brise soleils, or sun breakers, a lone and lively piece of architectural adornment, that subtracted weightiness by adding delicacy.

Brise soleils or cobogos, reticulated screen block surfaces (of terra cotta or concrete) are common in California, utilized as a means to deal with harsh Southerly exposures or to balance intimacy and exteriority.

Less common are meshrebeeyahs (or "privacy windows"), a feature in some Islamic architecture: elaborately carved or turned wood screens or latticework.

Think Damascus or Alhambra, or...the Hill Street Courthouse?!

S. Tilden Norton

It was my privilege to serve as a porch docent (and shepherd) during the recent West Adams Heritage Association Holiday Tour. I was stationed at 1656 W. 25th Street, an early work (1905) of accomplished architect S. Tilden Norton, about whom I generated part of the following spiel:

Samuel Tilden Norton, or S. Tilden Norton as he was known (possibly to distinguish himself from former New York governor Samuel Tilden and Olympic wrestler Samuel Norton Gerson), was born in Los Angeles on January 21, 1877, the son of Isaac and Bertha Norton. Isaac Norton, advantageously, was the founder of a building and loan firm. Bertha Norton-Greenbaum is thought to be the first Jewish child born in L.A., in 1851. A graduate of Los Angeles High School in 1895, S. Tilden Norton began his professional training at 18, apprenticing in New York City, and for local architect Edward Neissen.

In 1902, Mr. Norton founded his own architectural practice, later teaming on some of his biggest assignments with partner Frederick H. Wallis (or F.H. Wallis).

S. Tilden Norton was a prominent Jewish citizen, serving as president of the Board of Trustees of Congregation B'Nai B'Rith, the first president of the Jewish Men's Professional Club of Los Angeles, director of the Federation of Jewish Welfare Organizations, president of the Jewish Consumptive Relief, and the Nathan Straus Palestine Society. Subsequently, many of his most prominent works were ecclesiastical : the B'Nai B'rith Lodge (9th & Union, 1923), the Jewish Orphans Home of Southern California (1924), Sinai Temple (407 S. New Hampshire, 1924), Young Men's Hebrew Association (Soto St. and Michigan Ave, 1925), Israel Temple (Franklin and Argyle, 1927), and a clubhouse for the Council of Jewish Women (1928). He was also one of three architects attributed with the iconic Wilshire Boulevard Temple, completed in 1929 at Hobart & Wilshire, and for whom he served as president in the 1950's.

Norton is further credited with several surviving downtown landmarks including the 1927 Financial Center Building (with F.H. Wallis) at 704 S. Spring St. (which housed his own office), the William Fox Building (now the Fox Jewelry Mart, 608 S. Hill St., 1929), and the opulent Los Angeles Theatre (1930 co-credit with S. Charles Lee). The Los Angeles Theatre enjoys continuing life as a prime venue during the Last Remaining Seats program. Other enduring highlights include The Greek Theatre (1913) and the Shane Building (Hollywood & Cherokee, 1930 now "Hollywood Center").

S. Tilden Norton and his family lived for many years in Fremont Place where he was known to design at least one home. He died in 1959 at 82 years of age.

Harvard Heights henchmen Danny Miller and Bob Myers contributed to this piece.

Rise, Tile Riser

The tiled front step riser has returned. A once familiar feature in Spanish Colonial Revival architecture (see left), which culled detail from several eras of Spanish and Mexican architecture, and during the art tile heyday of the 1920's and 1930's.

This decorative jotting is increasingly revisited, applied to non period appropriate architecture, masking concrete steps from here to Cudahy. (Or an entire block of E. 31st ST. , near Trinity, whence all these pictures were taken. ) I've even noted tile adhered recently to the wooden stairs of a 19th century porch.

Sometimes the total walk (and both the rise and the tread and the skirt) is tiled. The astonishingly common design (in images 2 and 3) resembles a colloform pattern: a rounded, globular, mineral texture. I call it, cartoon marble.

On one level, I understand the desire to make decorative a surface that is otherwise flat and undistinguished. Paradoxically, this embellishment is often instituted by homeowners who've otherwise obliterated substantial architectural decoration.

This love of tilos, however chintzy--mostly chintzy, and possibly inspired by a form of mal du pays (or country sickness/homesickness), at times runneth amok. I visited one turn-of-the century cottage, at the behest of a feedback-seeking agent, positively girdled in tile. A light-colored porous tile, single-fired, blanketed inside and out. "Easy to clean", the agent offered. "To whose standard", I challenged, "certainly not mine. The grout is filthy."

"The wood floors were old," this agent continued. "I'm sure", I added, "nonetheless your sellers have covered $12,000 in hardwood with $800 in hardibacker and uniform tile. Would one trade a '37 Duesy with a flat tire for an '07 Kia?" I hoped the sellers, sequestered within earshot, might recall my objections when faced again with old wood floors. (Added to the list of, ill-advised alterations beget ill-advised alterations: tiled over floor registers spurred the installation of vertical wall furnaces.)

Note the shallow rise on the bottom step (in the final image). Like roofing strata, this walk has accrued multiple tile layers. A new door has been added too, possibly because the former may no longer have cleared the built-up threshold. If something needs fixing, it's sometimes reasoned, it's inherently less good than the thing that doesn't, ergo it ought to be replaced.

Jeez, a row of 49 cent tiles can sure lead to a lot of mess.

Additions, Not Just in the Rear Anymore

Porch enclosures are a common architectural alteration. Most Historic Preservation Overlay Zones prohibit such alterations, but in neighborhoods without watchdogs or policing powers, enclosures, porch build-outs, and front additions are widespread; and, where the set-backs allow, legal. (Above: an early porch addition, pleasantly outfitted with matching casements and sidelights)


Left: a recent modification. An open vestibule remains, with three doors, presumably for tenant use, to access either side of the enclosed porch and the main house. Nothing says cheap remodel any louder than square vinyl windows.

Despite the recent window installation, I'm guessing this project intends to do more than just re-build an open air space. Here's an idea expansion-lusting homeowners: consult an architect.

What's the opposite of a face lift, a face drop? Note the slightly different roof pitch on the front end, also the klutzy pink stucco to white clapboard transition.

"What's so good about a porch," one homeowner challenged, "I don't sit there with my kids. I'd rather have a place for tv."

Architectural Musings/Sunday update

I've been fiddling with this entry the last couple days. It's a test submission, as I attempt to alter the blog, allow for comments, create new links, and organize by category. These changes are all in progress. In the meantime please give this a re-read as I've added commentary.

I took this still in the Broadway Square area.

Obviously the massing typifies the Craftsman style, while the treatment in the two gables is atypical.

Siding applied vertically or in varying directions (see photo below, from the Adams-Normandie area) was common in the Stick style, though here the ends are carved (almost pendant like), and the effect is more reminiscent of the Swiss Chalet style, wherein rough cut boards were sometimes nailed to a wooden underlayment.


It also reminds of the Tudor style, renowned for half-timbering, mimicking Medieval infilled timber framing.

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Saturday October 13th from 1 - 3 pm, I'm having an open at 1114 W. 40th Pl., a Craftsman duplex near the Southwest corner of Exposition Park.




Sunday October 14th from 2 - 5 pm, 2361 W. 20th St. will be open. More on 2361 W. 20th St this week.

Raised Panels

My wife photographs baking creations to share with fellow foodies. Camera phone photos, text, text, text; camera phone photos, text, text, text.

I like to take photographs of panelling. Some of the most primo panelling, most wonderous wainscots, are found in museums. A wainscot, is a decorative facing applied to the lower portion of an interior partition or wall.

Reminder: I'll have 2361 W. 20th St. open tomorrow from 11 - 2:30, and 1114 W. 40th Place open from noon - 2. Both houses boast a board-and-batten wainscot in the dining room. A quintessential Craftsman-style feature.

Boiserie (often used in the plural boiseries) is the term used to define particularly ornate decorative (or carved) panelling, particularly popular in 17th & 18th century French interior design.

A boiserie, unlike wainscotting, can be floor to ceiling.

Cut Outs Part 1

Decorative cut-outs were very popular in turn-of-the-century home building and furniture making.

Homes both modest and grand exhibit these details. On exteriors, cut-outs were most often featured on bargeboards (see image left), or gable vents. (In interiors, the ballusters were the hotess with the mostess).

Card suites, like these clubs, were a very hep motif, hearts the most common.

This amazing balconet in Western Heights is riddled with diamonds. A balconet, incidentally, is not a small balcony, but rather a false balcony. Dig the zig-zag brackets. A planter box? Nah, I don't think so.


Where to start, aside from the whole, tie beam, collar beam, king post, open gable thing? Yeah, the swallows. Fantastic, eh?

My Offer to Parag

"If you buy this house Parag", I promised, "I'll help you take down the awnings."

Parag made the purchase, but instead he opted for my help with carpet removal, and his painters removed the ridiculous awnings. Even more ridiculously, they masked a beautiful leaded glass transom. Of course, we wouldn't want all that light in the house making things, errr--look good.

I found this ad for awnings at the National Building Museum.
In ancient civilizations and even in the early 20th century, awnings were meant to be seasonal, mostly made of canvas, rolled up or stored, away from the summer months. Of course some were designed to be retractable. But when aluminum came in, these cheap, fixed, colorful shed shapes, spread like wildfire.

Awnings suit nicely sidewalk cafes, but I don't much care for them in residential architecture*, particularly not on late Queen Anne Transitionals.

*Nor do contemporary home builders it seems, particularly not in our air-conditioned world.

Egyptian Revival Returns

The rare Egyptian Revival single family residence (in Longwood Highlands)!!!
It's missing the distinctive columns or bundled shafts, as well as the deep cavetto or gorge-and-roll cornice, but the battered (or sloped) walls and the smooth monolithic exterior finish is a dead give away (though some examples used a cement or smooth ashlar finish). I think some detail has gone missing in the cavities over the awnings, maybe the ever popular, ever horizontal vulture and sun disk symbol, or a wing-spread raven. Tall windows and flat roofs are also associated with the style, particularly in its second coming (1920 - 1930).

Dutch Revival

Los Angeles hasn't many examples of Dutch Renaissance Revival architecture (or Mannerist Revival also termed pont-street Dutch or Flanders Revival), the Van De Kamps Holland Dutch Bakery in Atwater Village may be the most noteworthy.




The trapgevel or Dutch gable is a stair step like design at the triangular gable-end of the building. The top of the parapet wall projects above the roof-line and the top of the brick or stone wall is stacked in a step-like pattern as decoration and as a convienent way to finish the brick courses. It was also motivated by practical concerns, access for roofers, chimney sweeps, etc.


This house might be considered Dutch Revival or Dutch Eclectic, for amongst other features, its steeply pitched parapeted roof and centered gable or pediment with rich entablature. The house resides regrettably and distractingly close to the 10 freeway Hoover off-ramp (on Arapahoe at 22nd). Always I crane my neck to look from the feeder lane, longer than I should.
The revival styles or neo-styles are inconsistent, sometimes because elements from several older styles were combined (so called eclecticism).

Pairs of square, fluted, Greek columns, a Greek revival element (though never found in Greek and Roman prototypes), add to an intense facade.




I think this qualifies as a Fractable, a coping on the gable wall of a building, when carried above the roof, and especially when broken into steps, or curves forming an oriental silouhette.

One day I'll introduce myself to the occupants: "Hi I'm Adam, and I regularly admire your house from the 10."

I haven't yet, but I will. Why not?

The Density, the Irony, the Whole Ugly/Beautiful Mess

This 1920's era commercial building, home to El Azteca Market and its chianti bottle signage, features a pedestal at the corner of the roof, an acroterion, to support ornament. In this case, two urns decorated with a garland, or festoon, of leaves and flowers.

An air raid siren rises half a block away.

A caged machine dispensing purified water (agua purificada) sits just off the corner. (Many immigrants are distrustful of tap water.)

Guadalupe Radio, amazingly began as a low powered television station (channel 6). But in February, Padre Alberto, "Los Hombres Nuevos" and company, materialized as a 24-hour a day evangelizing blast furnace. Local Catholic churches, parish groups, and ministries buy the air-time.

I tried listening to Guadalupe Radio this morning, but my house guests smacked me with pillows.

Thru-Tenoning

On Friday, whilst getting a tire patched at Kumho tires on Western (again, those marvelously convenient West Adams services), I became transfixed by the house at the corner of Western and 14th St., and the thru-tenoning effect around the window moldings.
I stared and stared, drawing closer and closer, inveigled by the Craftsman cajolery.
"I'll be back", I instructed the yard attendant, "I need
sustenance."

I marveled at the exposed tenon detail, wondering if there was another like it on the block.
(Sadly there wasn't, though I photographed some other cool things on Harvard Heights' northernmost east/west street.)

Some might refer to this detail as a Cross-key Overlay. Surely it's meant to imitate a form of joinery, the process of connection or joining two pieces of wood.

The little man inside me began to recount, "it's like that porch column detail on 29th, one of the 29th's." The tire was repaired by this point, so I coasted down to Jefferson Park in search of a sister detail.

More thru-tenon or exposed-tenon details (with locking pins). The tenon is the male part of a mortise and tenon joint, where the cut end--or tenon fits into the matching opening--or mortise.

The tenon is referred to as exposed or thru because it passes through the mortise (a locking pin in this case holds it in place).

Most of these house details (as evidenced by the photograph left where some pieces have gone missing) are in reality false, the elements are merely attached to the surface (butt-jointed) imitating complex joinery.

Still, they're way cool.

Milkglass

Milkglass, a white, opaque variety of glass first appeared in 16th century Venice. Frequently a cheap substitute for porcelain, molded milk glass has been used to create products as wide ranging as light fixtures, figurines, and costume jewelry.



In pre World War II housing, milk glass kitchen and bathroom lighting fixtures are common. The schoolhouse fixture is omnipresent.

Above: the classic "tear drop" shape.


The majority of common glass is composed of silica, soda, and lime. The silica typically makes up 60 - 80% of the glass, and is generally derived from sand. The final color of glass is both a matter of controlling off-coloring impurities and adding compounds (like tin oxide in the case of milk glass).

Quoins

Quoins

Large stones or bricks (or block-like form) used primarily to decorate and accentuate the corners of a building. (In some masonry construction, a quoin can actually serve to reinforce a corner.)









Most often laid in vertical series with, usually, alternately large and small blocks. (Though not always, see image on right.)

Trompe l'oeil: quoins painted near an entryway in Manchester Park. A slightly darkened edge gives the illusion of depth.





Tile has been added atop these quoins in Arlington Heights.

From behind the security door, a resident asked about my picture taking. "The tile," I asked, "why cover the corner accents with tile?" The voice responded, "we love tile, we think it's beautiful."
"Would you tile your car?" I asked.


In Los Angeles, Quoins are found on many apartment buildings of the 1930's, like this Normandie revival in the Fairfax district.

Here the edges are rough, or quarry faced.

More Pilasters

At 42nd and Flower.

"This Property is Not Open to the Public", reads a sign affixed to the tall construction fence. A neon signing flashing, squatters welcome, might be more instructive.

Imperiled, as such postings sometimes presage, despite its august pilasters and mighty pediment? If so, no one cares.

Who has time to care? Not the politicians, though the character of a city depends of the survival of intriguing vestiges of the past.

This building brought a smile to my face, the same way a vintage automobile does.

Accordingly, I'm grateful to old car owners, for maintaining and displaying their increasingly different means of transport. I'd grant old cars an HOV exemption too, like the hybrid drivers. Who'd mind really, sharing the car pool lane with a Nash Rambler?

A Structural Glass Wainscot?!

More on my newest listing:

Amongst the most astonishing and unusual features of 1522 S. Hobart Boulevard is the bathroom wainscot made of Structural Glass. Structural Glass, formerly known under such trade names as Carrara Glass, Sani Onyx (or Rox), and Vitrolite, was first produced by the Marietta Manufacturing Company in 1900. Penn-American Plate Glass Company quickly followed, producing white and black Carrara Glass, named for the white glass's resemblance to marble, starting in 1906.

The versatility and strength of structural glass, immune from warping, swelling, or crazing, contributed to its popularity, which was greatest during the "Art Deco" period. Used for both exterior and interior applications, the glass could be pigmented, cut, laminated, curved, textured, and illuminated; and, was easy to clean. (The glass was traditionally installed with an extremely fast-setting hot-melt asphalitc mastic.)

Production of pigmented structural glass in the United States ceased several years ago, and is now limited to a glass company in Bavaria; and, as such, is increasingly rare.


The Carrara-clad bathroom at 1522 S. Hobart is a wonderous asset that we hope future owners will preserve and cherish.

1522 S. Hobart Boulevard will be open Sunday from 1 - 4. Come see the bathroom, come see the whole house!

Egyptian Revival

After WW I, buoyed by the patriotism and traditionalism that frequently accompanies major conflict, the prevailing Craftsman architectural style was supplanted, particularly here in Los Angeles, by revival styles.

Los Angeles in the 1920's was inundated with Spanish and Mediterranean revival style buildings, and the occasional Colonial, Dutch Colonial, and Normandy or French Eclectic. Perhaps the most unusual of the revivals and likely the shortest-lived, was the Egyptian Revival style.

While Los Angeles's most heralded examples of the Egyptian Revival style are a pair of movie houses, the Vista on Sunset and the Grauman's Egyptian on Hollywood Boulevard, the style was most commonly applied to apartment buildings (see example below on Westmoreland in Harvard Heights).

The Egyptian Revival of the 1920's is generally attributed to the sensation-creating discovery of King Tut's tomb in 1922 by archeologist Howard Carter. (Egyptian influences or Egyptomania had also penetrated western architecture in the early 1800's, inspired by Napoleon's expedition of Egypt.)

Most of these apartment buildings are Art Deco (sometimes the 20's Egyptian Revival is treated as a Deco subset) or Italianate forms onto which Egyptian columns (described as massive bundles of sticks tied together at the top and bottom and flared at the top) have been imposed.

Developer-builder-architect J.M. Close was responsible for this building at 737 Wilcox, as well as other Egypto-follies nearby: the Karnak apartments at 5617 La Mirada and the Ahmed apartments at 5616 Lexington. All three were built between 1925-26.




The entrance to the breezeways, through sarcophogai, is especially impressive and who would be without the faux hieroglyphics?

Another enthralling Egyptian Revival structure, the Samson Tyre and Rubber Company Building (now more popularly known at the Citadel outlet mall), was designed by the architecural firm Morgan, Walls, and Clements in 1929-30. An industrial workplace, its fortifications were modeled after the ancient walled city of Khorsabad, the fourth capital of the Kingdom of Assyria. (The Oriental Institute renewed excavations of Khorsabad, about 10 miles North of modern day Mosul in 1928.)






The Osiris apartment building, in Westlake on Union, also erected by architect J.M. Close, features a striking alternation of window size, a colonnaded frontispiece, and a pylon style facade (similar to the Grauman's courtyard). Close reporteldy also contributed to the marketing of many of his buildings, encouraging prospective buyers to "pyramid your dollars."










Osiris is the Egyptian god of life, death, and fertility.

The Egyptian Revival of late '90's Las Vegas is generally credited to brain cramp.

The Brick Pile

Five years ago I replaced my original foundation (from 1909) and removed a chimney that acted as a vent chase (for a floor furnace and wood burning stove).

Both were made of brick ("unreinforced masonry"), together they created a heckuva pile.

I've begun in earnest to sort through the heap, scraping away the disintegrating mortar, tossing the broken pieces, restacking the rest. Delightedly, many are "clinkers", bricks that became mishapen and irregular, vitrified, in the firing process.

The "clinker" name comes, supposedly, from the sound the bricks make when knocked together, owing to their increased density.

These odd lots were often discarded, until practitioners of the Arts & Crafts movement began to prize their organic, pre-industrial non-conformity.

Last year, I took a few hundred and laid a patio. This year maybe I'll make an horno, and then next year a giant tower that'll reach hundreds of feet up into the sky.....

Maybe I should just keep scraping.

Pilasters

Get a load of those pilasters!


Pilasters are engaged, that is attached to or partly embedded in a wall. Pilasters, like these ionic columns, are purely decorative, as opposed to full columns that would instead be a supporting feature.

(Apartment building on 8th near Westlake)



Pilasters are a common detail in Greek Revival architecture, also featured in Georgian, Federal, and Colonial styles.

This house on 25th street in Kinney Heights has a pilaster that resembles a doric column, with a single story shaft, terminating at the stringcourse.




Pilasters are most commonly either piers or pillars/columns and can be constructed as a projection of the wall itself. This example in North University Park is also column-like, sporting a small rosette and capital (a type of finishing crown).

The entalature above is festooned with a garland, resembling a band of flowers, a swag of fabric, a festive decoration.

Multiple Roof Lines

A joy of living in an architecturally rich community is that over time--or perhaps immediately for those more schooled--one can sometimes identify architectural differences on a street-to-street or block-to-block basis. The 3600 block of 2nd Avenue (in Jefferson Park) is lined with delightful Arts & Crafts style bungalows, most of which feature such a distinguishing motif: multiple roof lines.

In the first image, this sadly stuccoed example has three front gables, two of which are side-by-side and on the same plane. (Not to mention a dreadfully-placed downspout).










Here the porch roof is a separate gabled element and is "projecting".


This is a highly common bungalow subtype. What's more unusual is the way the solid, slightly-tapered (or "battered") porch-roof supports start and rise uninterrupted from the ground.



Wow! Cross gabled and with a gable above.





The asymmetry is almost shocking, especially when compared to our first example. The column supports, unevenly spaced, are more typical here, short and resting upon a solid porch balustrade.

Beam Ends

Beam Ends, or Exposed Structural Elements. They're all over my block, with many variations, often penetrating the bargeboard/vergeboard/gableboard--whatever, which hangs over the gable's front.




This one is quite shallow, the same depth as the dentil molding(s).





Really they're just end caps, meant to imitate a thru-tenoned look (a technique of wood jointry, popular in furniture making of the time).



These ends are shaped, elaborated, or chamfered.





I know architecture isn't about aesthetics, or isn't only about aesthetics--but damn if this stuff doesn't look great.

Four Square

American Four Square

Not to be confused with Box Ball or King's Corner, American Four Squares (or Four-squares) are more likely to be the recreation of 47 year-olds than 7 year-olds.

A housing style which emerged as part of a new era of post-Victorian vernacular architectural styles, with details that range from ornate neoclassical to proto-Prairie. Typically two stories in height, the four walls of the house are roughly of equal dimension, thus creating a square. The fenestration is generally balanced and symmetrical, with full-length porches, and pyramidal or near-pyramidal hipped roofs with a single, centered, dormer.

The Emard House, despite the atypical partial-width porch, showcases these features, including details associated with the Craftsman style such as decorative rafter tails and beam ends. Most of Los Angeles' Four-squares were built between 1899 - 1919 (the Emard House dates from 1904).