Late this summer, I was pleased to spend an afternoon with Spencer Campbell of 5280 Magazine, touring him around the city and looking at examples of new residential designs, discussing their positive or negative impact on the public realm.
His article is now out, and I am so pleased that 5280 Home is taking on the issue of design quality in Denver. To read the article, click here.
I enjoyed presenting this brief lecture at the 24th Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) on the panel discussion “Architecture of Urbanism,” along with panelists Vinayak Bharne, Gary Brewer, Ellen Dunham-Jones, John Massengale, Steve Mouzon, Stefanos Polyzoides, Dan Solomon, Paddy Steinschneider, Galina Tachieva, and Samir Younés.
The panelists examined the specific means by which architecture, one building at a time, forms the urbanism of a place. The issue of the role of architecture and architectural style and character has been a long-running debate in the CNU.
The Congress for the New Urbanism is an international nonprofit organization working to build vibrant communities where people have diverse choices for how they live, work, and get around. For more information see www.cnu.org.
Click to Tweet: Christine G.H. Franck Wins @BaldwinHardware Design Competition. Congrats @CGHFranck!
LAKE FOREST, CALIF.—March 3, 2014—Baldwin Hardware, a leading brand of the Hardware & Home Improvement (HHI) division of Spectrum Brands Holdings (NYSE:SPB), today announced Christine G.H. Franck has won the “Show Us Your Baldwin” design competition for her design of Chadsworth Columns founder Jeffrey L. Davis’ house: Chadsworth Cottage on Figure Eight Island, N.C. Franck’s winning project will be featured in a national Baldwin advertising campaign, and she was awarded a trip for two to Southern California and $10,000 of Baldwin hardware.
“Christine’s work on the Chadsworth Cottage incorporates Baldwin’s bold ideals and classic beauty; it exemplifies the core tenets for which Baldwin is known—quality, design and effortless style,” said PJ Rosch, brand manager of Baldwin Hardware. “We are thrilled with the response and look forward to recognizing more architects and designers through bold campaigns in the future.”
In addition to award-winning residential design and decorative projects, Franck teaches, lectures and writes on the topics of design and architecture, and serves as the first Director of the Center for Advanced Research in Traditional Architecture at the University of Colorado Denver College of Architecture and Planning. She earned a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the University of Virginia and her master’s degree in architecture from the University of Notre Dame.
The “Show Us Your Baldwin” competition invited architects and designers to submit projects that incorporated Baldwin Hardware. Ten semi-finalists were chosen and also received custom photo shoots of their projects. All 10 projects will be featured on the Baldwin Hardware website, as well as in other marketing initiatives. Semi-finalists included:
ABOUT BALDWIN
Baldwin is part of Hardware and Home Improvement (HHI), a major manufacturer and supplier of residential locksets, residential builders’ hardware and faucets with a portfolio of renowned brands, including Kwikset®, Weiser®, Baldwin®, National Hardware®, Stanley®, FANAL®, Pfister™ and EZSET®. Headquartered in Orange County, California, HHI has a global sales force and operates manufacturing and distribution facilities in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Asia.
HHI is a division of Spectrum Brands Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: SPB).
MEDIA CONTACT: Sabrina Suarez, 714-573-0899 x. 227 sabrina@echomediapr.com
# # #
When designing a new building, how can we use historical precedent to guide us? Which precedents should we select? How should we study and apply them to our designs? Enjoy my powerpoint presentation exploring these issues for the AIBD’s First Tuesday @ 2:00. Full recorded version with audio will be forthcoming from the AIBD.
Architecture tells us about ourselves. Whether it is academic architecture guided by refined aesthetic traditions or vernacular architecture designed and constructed by the layperson, it can reveal aspects of our history, our culture, or a particular place and time.
All architecture reflects its place, but vernacular architecture is inseparable from it because it relies on regional materials, simple forms, and local labor. For example, a building design will respond to the area’s climate: porches, large windows, and high ceiling are common in the hot and humid South, whereas small windows and low ceilings are typical in the cold and windy North. Because vernacular architecture speaks of its place and people, it allows us to experience diversity that, in turn, enriches us.
Continue readingA beautiful house can only be so when the windows of the house are right. All too often today houses that would otherwise be beautiful are not because of choices made in the placement and selection of windows. While there are many issues of good design that affect the cost of a building, placing and selecting well-designed windows do not. In the past, while directing the ICAA’s Program in Classical Architecture for Design and Construction Professionals, I have seen a wide range of today’s houses and common window products and have thus been able to see many of the most typical errors in fenestration. For a catalog of windows and their details visit my collection of windows.
In 1608, Henry Hudson, an English explorer sailing for the Dutch East India Company in search of a shorter route to the Far East, discovered the great North American river that still bears his name. Although the prospect of a western route to the Asian subcontinent soon faded, the enterprising Dutch saw an opportunity to develop a lucrative fur trade in the New World. From 1613–14, Captain Adriaen Block was the first to map the area between Virginia and Massachusetts, which he named New Netherland. By the 1620s, thirty-some families were settled on Manhattan, Long Island, and in Connecticut. Few examples of their earliest homes exist, but their architectural legacy has survived.
Dutch Colonial
In 1608, Henry Hudson, an English explorer sailing for the Dutch East India Company in search of a shorter route to the Far East, discovered the great North American river that still bears his name. Although the prospect of a western route to the Asian subcontinent soon faded, the enterprising Dutch saw an opportunity to develop a lucrative fur trade in the New World. From 1613–14, Captain Adriaen Block was the first to map the area between Virginia and Massachusetts, which he named New Netherland. By the 1620s, thirty-some families were settled on Manhattan, Long Island, and in Connecticut. Few examples of their earliest homes exist, but their architectural legacy has survived.
Dutch Colonial
In 1608, Henry Hudson, an English explorer sailing for the Dutch East India Company in search of a shorter route to the Far East, discovered the great North American river that still bears his name. Although the prospect of a western route to the Asian subcontinent soon faded, the enterprising Dutch saw an opportunity to develop a lucrative fur trade in the New World. From 1613–14, Captain Adriaen Block was the first to map the area between Virginia and Massachusetts, which he named New Netherland. By the 1620s, thirty-some families were settled on Manhattan, Long Island, and in Connecticut. Few examples of their earliest homes exist, but their architectural legacy has survived.
Dutch Colonial
From the middle to the end of the nineteenth century, the landscape of American domestic architecture was a kaleidoscope of revivals of European historic styles. Gothic Revival, Italianate, Tuscan Villa, Second Empire, Queen Anne, and even Egyptian Revival houses were being built around the country. Out of this cacophony a new, uniquely American style emerged: the Shingle Style.
If any architectural style defines the Victorian era it is the Queen Anne style, so much so that we often refer to Queen Anne style houses as Victorian. However, the term Victorian refers not to a particular style but to the era of the reign (1837-1901) of Great Britain’s Queen Victoria.
The term Second Empire refers to the period in France from 1852-1870 when Napoleon III, nephew of Napoleon I, reestablished imperial rule by a coup d’etat, thereby ending the Second Republic of 1848-1852. In an ambitious building campaign, Napoleon III appointed Baron Haussmann to oversee a vast program of work including modernization, improvements to living conditions in the revolution-breeding slums through demolition and rebuilding, and turning Paris into an imperial capital replete with magnificent buildings housing new institutions.
Second Empire