"A New Light on Tiffany celebrates the contributions of the Ohio-born designer Clara Driscoll (1861-1944), head of Tiffany Studios' Women's Glass Cutting Department. Driscoll's correspondence reveals that she was responsible for many of the firm's most iconic lampshades, including the Wisteria, Dragonfly, and Peony, as well as numerous other objects made with glass, bronze, and mosaic. In addition to designing, Driscoll managed a large department of young women, known as the "Tiffany Girls," who specialized in selecting and cutting glass for windows, shades, and mosaics. The exhibition will present the renowned works of Tiffany Studios in an entirely new context, focusing on the women who labored behind the scenes to create the masterpieces now inextricably linked to the Tiffany name."

The Dragon Fly Lamp designed by Driscoll is highlighted by the Dayton Art Institute:

"The beautiful dragonfly lamp shows Driscoll's adherence to Tiffany's Art Nouveau aesthetic of simplified forms, harmonious colors, and the beauties of commonplace nature. The dragonflies that flank the bottom of the shade are offset by cabochon glass pieces. The female employees who worked on the leading selected the shade's individual glass pieces. Thus, as a result of their liberty to choose, the same lamp might be made in more than one color scheme."

An interesting article on Louis Tiffany's relationships with those who influenced him is S. Bing and L.C. Tiffany: Entrepreneurs of Style by Martin Eidelberg.

Shopping at the NYPL

The New York Public Library Shop has some of the most original gifts now around.

A listing of some of the offerings:

Ceramic phrenology heads decorated with butterflies and friendly insects.

An In The Beginning Bracelet from the Second Rabbinic Bible, printed in Venice in 1525.

The Great Works line has been derived exclusively from the British Library’s manuscript collection with a range of porcelain tableware. Each product in the range carries excerpts from unique handwritten manuscripts.

From La Boheme, Mimi's aria on a bracelet:

ì, Mi chiamano Mimì,
ma il mio nome è Lucia.
La storia mia è breve:
a tela o a seta
ricamo in casa e fuori...
Son tranquilla e lieta
ed è mio svago
far gigli e rose.
Mi piaccion quelle cose
che han sì dolce malìa,
che parlano d'amor, di primavere,
di sogni e di chimere,
quelle cose che han nome poesia...

Freudian Thoughts Watch: Six different words (Mom, Dad, Sex, Envy, Id, Eros) rotate and are only visible inside Freud's thought bubble.

The Jac Zagoory collection includes Atlas pen holder and a bull and bear stapler remover and stapler.

If you're in the mood to recreate the NYPL reading room, there are lamps for that, too.

And, of course, a Shakespeare Memory Game to test your recall.

Made to Scale: Staircase Masterpieces

The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum is hosting an exhibit of more than two dozen staircase models from the Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection. It is considered "the largest known collection of these works outside of France. The models, the majority of them from 19th-century France, represented exercises in technical virtuosity, demanding knowledge of cantilevering, balance, forms of rotation, styles of balusters and other architectural details. In their combination of design, structural, architectural and cabinetry skills, the staircase models and accompanying drawings demonstrate the relationship between formal training, modeling, technical mastery and flights of creative fancy."

"The majority of the staircase models are from 19th-century France and were produced in the meritocratic system for craftsmen known as 'Compagnonnage.' The staircase models represent exercises in technical virtuosity used by apprentices to demonstrate their knowledge of cantilevering, balance, forms of rotation, styles of balusters and other architectural details. In their combination of design and structural, architectural and cabinetry skills, the staircase models and accompanying drawings demonstrate the relationship between formal training, modeling and technical mastery."

"Highlights include a few examples of models made by apprentice carpenters, such as a stairway turning at right angles. The exhibition also will include classic models made by experienced master carpenters, such as the elaborate double revolution stairway, a spiral stairway with two revolutions and a domed model with a double staircase."

The George Glazer Gallery features architect's model staircases recently made:

"Miniature staircases were produced by architects and furniture makers as fanciful projects (perhaps as students), primarily in the 19th and 20th centuries.  They were also made for staircase manufacturers as models in designing or patenting proposed structures, as well as salesman’s samples.  They took the form of spiral staircases or straight ones, sometimes with other decoration such as railings, pulpits or fancy structures.  Some were simply constructed and utilitarian, others had fine detailed carving or other embellishments.  Generally they were made from oak, walnut, mahogany, or wrought iron." 

"The collecting of staircase models was popularized in the late 20th century by the publisher Carter Burden and the late fashion designer Bill Blass."

The 2006 National Preservation Award Winners

From the Historic Trust's Website:

The National Trust's 2006 National Preservation Awards illustrate the great diversity of our country and honor the dedication of citizens, organizations, and public and private entities who have worked to ensure that the best parts of our past are preserved for the future. The preservationists who received awards come from different areas of the country and work and volunteer in an array of professional fields, but they share a common trait: When their history was at stake, these preservationists stepped up to the plate. Their efforts serve not only to protect our nation’s past, but also to ensure that their community’s heritage remains intact for their children and grandchildren to experience.

Louise du Pont Crowninshield Award: Stewart Udall, Santa Fe, N.M., and George B. Hartzog, Jr., McLean, Va.  As Secretary of the Interior under Presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, Stewart Udall's embrace of preservation helped to elevate historic preservation on the public agenda, and his leadership was key to passage of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966. George Hartzog, Director of the National Park Service from 1964 to 1972, worked closely with Udall to help to pass the NHPA, and also oversaw its implementation, including the appointment of the first state historic preservation officers.

John H. Chafee Trustees’ Award for Outstanding Achievement in Public Policy: Harry K. Schwartz, Bethesda, Md. Harry K. Schwartz is a visionary preservationist whose work on federal and state tax credits has led to the widespread adoption of preservation tax credits — enormously effective tools for preserving and revitalizing our communities — throughout the country. Through his work at the National Trust, the National Park Service, and the Maryland Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, Schwartz has been an innovative voice on the front lines of the preservation movement for many years. 

National Trust/ACHP Award for Federal Partnerships in Historic Preservation: Amy Biehl High School, Albuquerque, N.M. Albuquerque’s former Post Office and Courthouse building had been a community landmark and symbol of civic pride for almost a century, but by 2001, the government’s needs had outgrown the historic downtown building. Enter Amy Biehl High School, a charter school that — with assistance from the GSA — transformed the building into a thriving high school that has given new life to a place that has always had great meaning for people in Albuquerque. 

National Trust/HUD Secretary's Award for Excellence In Historic Preservation: Ryan Companies US, Inc. Minneapolis, Minn. When Sears, Roebuck and Company closed its historic South Minneapolis retail store in 1994, it vacated what had been the commercial center of a struggling inner-city neighborhood. Now, Ryan Companies US, Inc. has transformed the building into the "Midtown Exchange," a thriving mixed-use project with condominiums, affordable housing and a lively marketplace featuring cuisines from around the world.  

Trustee Emeritus Award for Excellence in the Stewardship of Historic Sites: Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, Pittsburgh, Pa. A strong stewardship effort is vital to the preservation movement, and since it was founded in 1932, the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy has been one of the nation's best stewards, protecting thousands of acres of land and gardens. But WPC is perhaps best known for its exemplary stewardship of Fallingwater, Frank Lloyd Wright’s architectural masterpiece.  

Trustees' Award for Organizational Excellence: Colorado Preservation, Inc., Denver, Colo. Since 1984, Colorado Preservation Inc. has been one of the nation's most able and accomplished statewide preservation groups, demonstrating leadership in a range of areas, from advocacy to education to technical assistance. Colorado’s sacred public lands, historic towns and sweeping country ranches are among the treasures that are thriving thanks to the dedicated work of Colorado Preservation, Inc.

Board of Advisors Award: The Henry Ford Museum's Rosa Parks Bus, Dearborn, Mich. On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks, a 42-year-old African American woman boarded a bus in Montgomery, Alabama and ushered in a new era in America's quest for freedom and equality.  Although City Bus 2857 was stripped of its seats, neglected and used as a storage shed for three decades, it was purchased at auction in 2001 by The Henry Ford, underwent a multi-year restoration and is now the centerpiece of a permanent exhibit entitled "With Liberty and Justice for All." 

The 2006 National Preservation Honor Award Winners:

90 West Street, New York, NY – When the World Trade Center collapsed, tons of debris tumbled down on a lavishly adorned 1907 skyscraper, a handsome, 23-story building designed by famed early 20th century architect Cass Gilbert.  With a scorched terra cotta façade and a melted copper roof, the building was thought to be a goner until a top-to-bottom rehabilitation gave New Yorkers something to cheer about — one of the few architectural success stories to come out of Ground Zero. 

Amoskeag Millyard, Manchester, NH – Amoskeag was once the largest millworks in the world, stretching for a full mile along the Merrimack River and employing as many as 17,000 workers. It was also the economic heart of the community, so when it closed its doors in 1936, it left a big hole in the community life of Manchester. Now, after decades of neglect and failed redevelopment schemes, Amoskeag is once again a vital center. A staggering four million square feet of former manufacturing space has been transformed into a variety of uses, including an urban business park where 300 firms employ more than 3,000 workers, an educational campus, a non-profit science and technology center, and the acclaimed Millyard Museum.  

Cadillac Hotel, Seattle, Wash. – One of the first masonry buildings constructed after the Great Fire of 1889 that destroyed Pioneer Square, Seattle's Cadillac Hotel has been a cherished part of the city's historic district for more than a century.  But in the wake of the 2001 Nisqually Earthquake, the High Victorian Italianate hotel became a poster-child for what can happen to an old building when the earth moves.  Although the crumbling building was threatened with demolition, it was instead saved and given new life by a public-private partnership that will ensure the survival of this beloved Gold Rush-era landmark.

Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pa. – When it outgrew its home in the 1897 Allegheny Post Office, Pittsburgh’s acclaimed Children's Museum decided to expand into the former Buhl Planetarium, built in 1939. A competition was held for a new building that would link the historic structures – a major challenge because of their different architectural styles. The winning design is a perfect complement, a sleek box faced with a shimmering translucent screen that respects – but does not mimic – its older neighbors.

First Security Bank, Salt Lake City, Utah – Completed in 1955, First Security Bank was the first addition to Salt Lake City's downtown skyline in 30 years and Utah's first major modern office building.  But by 2002, the sleek steel and glass tower was up for sale and vulnerable to insensitive alteration or even demolition.  Happily, the owner instead undertook a renovation designed to keep the building's mid-century look intact, and, in so doing, supported the ongoing revitalization of downtown Salt Lake City.

Hawaii Theatre Center, Honolulu, Hawaii – When it opened in 1922, the Hawaii Theatre –with its splendid Neo-Classic design – was a showstopper in Honolulu's bustling Chinatown neighborhood. But when the city’s entertainment center shifted to Waikiki Beach, the theatre once known as the "Pride of the Pacific," closed and languished for decades until preservation-minded developers restored the jewel and brought life back to a once-struggling neighborhood.

Mather Tower, Chicago, Ill. – Completed in 1928, the 41-story Mather Tower is Chicago's most slender and distinctive skyscraper, with its octagonal-shaped, telescoping "needle" tower and Gothic-inspired cream colored ornament.  Although the building had fallen into considerable disrepair by the late 1990s, today Mather Tower is perfectly restored and a vibrant icon on the Windy City skyline.

North Dakota State University School of Visual Arts & Architecture, Fargo, ND – Built in 1903 as an agricultural machinery warehouse, the building that was to become the new home of NDSU's School of Visual Arts & Architecture was days away from an appointment with the wrecking ball.  Thanks to alumnus Doug Burgum and the foresight of NDSU, the building has been gloriously restored and is now the centerpiece of a revitalized downtown neighborhood.

Save-a-Landmark Program by Hampton Hotels – To foster recognition of the historic – and sometimes quirky – places that enliven the American road, Hampton Hotels created its innovative Save-a-Landmark program.  Dedicated to restoring cultural and historic roadside attractions, Hampton Hotels has contributed $2 million toward the preservation of 26 landmarks in 23 states in the last six years.

Socorro Mission, El Paso, Tex. – One of the most significant historic sites in the Southwest, the adobe and stucco church — with its finely decorated beams and distinctive bell tower — dates from 1843 and stands on the site of a 17th century mission.  When decades of sun, rain and misguided maintenance left the church with rotting timbers, a leaking roof and walls that threatened to topple, a community of volunteers came together to restore the mission to its former glory. 

Southwest School of Art and Craft, San Antonio, Tex. – In 1971 the long-vacant campus of the Ursuline Academy — the first school for girls in San Antonio — was purchased by the San Antonio Conservation Society to prevent its demolition. A few years later, the newly established Southwest School of Art & Craft took over the site. In the ensuing decades, the dedicated women who founded the school have given generously of their own resources, and developed innovative fundraising strategies to help support the school. Now, the complex that once faced the wrecking-ball is a dynamic center for arts education and community events that attracts more than 200,000 people annually. Vision and determination have preserved an historic treasure in one of America’s most historic cities.

Trinity Church, Boston, Mass. – Cited as one of America's 10 most important architectural creations, the 1877 granite and brownstone Copley Square landmark represents the work of a who's who of 19th century masters, including architect H.H. Richardson and muralist John LaFarge.  As with many older buildings, Trinity Church was in need of restoration, and this $55 million project preserved spectacular interior murals and added a new visitor center to the church’s undercroft to accommodate 100,000 annual visitors.

Vulcan Park, Birmingham, Ala. – Vulcan Park's prized icon, a 56-foot statue of the Roman god of the forge created for the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair that had resided in the park that bears his name since the 1930s, had seen better days.  Cracking and deteriorated, the statue had become a safety hazard until local citizens rallied to save their hometown colossus by giving him a complete makeover and, in a miracle of modern engineering, re-installing Vulcan on his 124-foot tower.

Wentworth by the Sea Hotel & Spa, New Castle, NH – Built in 1874 on a rocky bluff and affectionately called the "Grand Dame of the Sea," the Wentworth Hotel was famous in its heyday for its lavish accoutrements, including steam powered elevators and luxurious water closets.  After the hotel closed in the 1980s, it was threatened with demolition and sat deteriorating until a community group came together to spearhead a spectacular, historically authentic restoration so that Wentworth by the Sea could once again welcome a new generation of guests.

The Renaissance Home at the V&A

"When evening comes, I return home and go into my study. On the threshold, I strip off my muddy, sweaty, workday clothes and put on the robes of court and palace, and in this graver dress I enter the antique courts of the ancients and am welcomed by them. And for the space of four hours I forget the world, remember no vexations, fear poverty no more, tremble no more at death: I pass into their world."

From a letter written by Niccolò Machiavelli in 1513

London's Victoria&Albert Museum has on display an exhibit entitled At Home in Renaissance Italy:

At Home in Renaissance Italy reveals for the first time the Renaissance interior’s central role in the flourishing of Italian art and culture. The exhibition provides an innovative three-dimensional view of the Italian Renaissance home, presented as object-filled spaces that bring the period to life. The exhibition showcases masterpieces by Donatello, Carpaccio, Botticelli, Titian and Veronese, and exquisite treasures from the Medici and other private collections, alongside unexpected everyday objects like a babywalker and a pair of velvet shoes.

Part of the exhibit online allowsl for a virtual tour, in this case the cucina:

The kitchen (cucina) belonged to the network of service spaces — from pantries to wine cellars — that kept the house supplied with food and drink.

Kitchens were rarely located on the same floor as the sala, because of the smells, noise and constant circulation of people. Instead, they were usually in the attics, to minimise the risk of chimney fires, or on the ground floor. Many servants rarely left the kitchens, and the woman of the house paid frequent visits to supervise their work.

Even in large kitchens, the equipment was quite basic. The most important item was the mortar (ancestor of the modern blender), used for grinding and mixing all sorts of ingredients. But there were also pastry cutters to make pies, terracotta pots for slow braising and spits for roasting meat. Few of these survive, and most come from archaeological excavations.

Here's another quote used in the online description of the kitchen from a conduct book for new brides (Pietro Belmonte, Istitutione della sposa, 1587):

Enjoy this generous exhibit with it's many details and eclectic descriptions, uncovered as many of the house's rooms are, in mystery and surprise. Activities online include Design your own Renaissance Room, the Biribissi Bingo Game and the Mystery Object Quiz.

More Museum Shopping Sites

London's Royal Academy of Arts' shop hosts an imaginative variety of items. I immediately went to the socks ... although only one pair displayed but those by Terry Frost were colorful and vibrant ... but then again, I love socks. And I liked the ceramics decorated with Edward Bawden's illustration of the Lion and the Gnat, one of Aesop's famous fables. There's a marvelous chenille throw which includes patterns found in Mary Fedden's paintings.

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (whose stolen paintings, Vermeer, The Concert; Rembrandt, A Lady and Gentleman in Black; Rembrandt, The Storm on the Sea of Galilee; Rembrandt, Self-Portrait; Govaert Flinck, Landscape with Obelisk; Manet, Chez Tortoni remain among the FBI's top ten art crimes) has a shop that carries reproductions of tiles that Mrs. Gardner favored. Three of these sayings are: “Win as though you were used to it and lose as if you liked it,” in two in French "The secret of two is the secret of God, the secret of three is the secret of all," and "Think much, talk little, write nothing.”

An intricate pewter snuff box and initial seals are among the more unusual items.

The Brooklyn Museum has included children's gifts such as the Hieroglyphics Kit, an Ancient Mexican Stamp Kit and a
Sticky Mosaics Kit. The plates category features a Judaica Serving Dish, a Camellia Lacquer Tray and William Morris Serving Pieces.

Meet Madame Morere

Read expat Jane Shortall's latest dispatch from France, Meet Madame Morere:

On the first floor of our house in the medieval village of St Lizier, a tiny village in the Ariege which is in a remote and little known part of France, the two rooms facing on to the street had floor to ceiling windows, heavy wooden shutters and small wrought iron balconies. Apart from the views of the Pyrenees, announcing that the Spanish border was not far away, to me the little house was like a small Paris apartment. From the street it looked modest, as lots of French houses do. Indeed one of our earliest visitors, a very rich Irish person from a now very rich Ireland put it bluntly "it looks poor".

Shopping at the Bodleian Library

It's not too early to start thinking about Christmas cards and other seasonal greetings and gifts. The Bodleian is the main research library of the University of Oxford, England.

The Bodleian is an impressive collection of buildings and libraries:

The buildings within the central site include Duke Humfrey's Library above the Divinity School, the Old Schools Quadrangle with its Great Gate and Tower, the Radcliffe Camera, Britain’s first circular library, and the Clarendon Building.

In addition, the Bodleian consists of nine other libraries, in separate locations in Oxford: the Bodleian Japanese Library, the Bodleian Law Library, the Hooke Library, the Indian Institute Library, the Oriental Institute Library, the Philosophy Library,  the Radcliffe Science Library, the Bodleian Library of Commonwealth and African Studies at Rhodes House and the Vere Harmsworth Library.

But to our cards and gifts. Currently there are cards which were originally illustrated by J.R.R. Tolkien and sent to his son John, at Christmas 1920. Another is an illustration by Walter Crane in Flowers from Shakespeare's Garden, 1906 for As You Like It, Act 2, scene 7. Yet another is the frontispiece to Rough and his Rambles, a Volume of pictures and Stories for Little Folks, Ernest Nister from as early as 1894. Elizabeth Blackwell's Mistletoe is from the Herbarium Blackwellianum, 1754. The Night before Christmas by Clement C. Moore has a front cover illustration by Arthur Rackham as a card.

There are a couple of decorative items for tree decorating such as a velvet Tudor Rose from the Library's collection of bindings. A 'Silence Please' theme takes form in a tea-for-one pot and an egg cup set, among other uses. The Oxford aerial nineteenth century map is imprinted on a mug as well as four of Edward Lear's quirky birds, the Runcible Bird, the Stripy Bird, the Lilac Bird and the Spotty Bird, from his Query Leary Nonsense, 1911, printed on English bone china.

Shop at the Museum

Boise Art Museum's store features hand-made glass, ceramics, jewelry and giftware created by designers and artists. Currently, there are silk baby shoes on view an Idaho a la Carte cookbook, Tozai's ruby red dots and spots vases and other objects by that artist. For an inexpensive and welcome gift, we've purchased a number of the Roos glass urchin vases. Stylish Chinese takeout boxes in stainless steel keep food hot. There is no shopping cart on the site but ordering can be accomplished by calling 208-345-8330 or e-mailing Catherine@boiseartmuseum.org or Leslie@boiseartmuseum.org

Developments Lauded by the Sierra Club

From the Sierra Club:

This report, A Guide to America’s Best New Development Projects, highlights America's best new development projects, based on their ability to offer transportation choices, revitalize neighborhoods, and preserve local values. It also spotlights some of the movers and shakers — developers, architects, local officials, activists — responsible for making these innovative projects a reality.

Curbing Sprawl, Building Healthy Communities
Much of the development in the United States today is sprawling, low density, car-dependent “bigbox” or “strip-mall” construction, which produces more and more traffic and harms our land, air, and water. The Sierra Club believes there is a better way to build, and in doing so, to produce healthy neighborhoods, and livable communities.

While the Sierra Club opposes poorly planned, sprawling development, built on natural areas and farmland, we support quality investment in areas that already have a history of development to enhance communities and the environment. By reinvesting in existing neighborhoods and creating more walkable, transit accessible places to live and work, a select subset of the nation’s development leaders are raising the bar for neighborhood design.

By embracing conservation, green building techniques,
and affordable housing, and by building on the assets we already have, these developments offer a path to a more sustainable future.

“Good Development” Criteria
We had several criteria for selecting America’s best
new development projects. Top candidates had to:
• Offer a range of transportation choices, including
walking, biking, and public transportation;
• Redevelop existing areas, rather than developing
natural areas, working farmland, or wetlands;
• Locate homes, retail shops, and offices close to
each other;
• Preserve existing community assets, by re-using
older buildings and protecting rivers, woodlands,
and farms;
• Minimize stormwater pollution and handle runoff
in an environmentally responsible manner; and,
• Be the product of meaningful input by local citizens
and reflect a broad set of local values.

We also considered the use of “green building”
design and housing affordability in compiling our
list of the best new development.

Building Large and Small
We arrived at a diverse list of successful projects, from cities large and small, to suburbs, to small towns in each corner of the nation. They involve economically challenged areas like Fruitvale in Oakland and Highland Park in Milwaukee, as well as well-off areas like Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts.

We included massive projects like Atlantic Station in Atlanta, which encompasses 138 acres and includes 12 million square feet of retail, office, residential and hotel, and by contrast, smaller scale projects like 66 residential homes and an industrial building in Hopkins, Minnesota.

A Guide to America’s Best New Development Projects
This report highlights America's best new development projects, based on their ability to offer transportation choices, revitalize neighborhoods, and preserve local values. It also spotlights some of the movers and shakers — developers, architects, local officials, activists — responsible for making these innovative projects a reality.

Read the rest of the report at the Sierra Club site.

Affordable Housing

The National Building Museum is hosting an exhibit of Affordable Housing searchable by project owner, project name, location and by architect.

The exhibit is introduced with this perspective:

Some of the country's most gifted architects are focusing their visions and energy on designing attractive, efficient homes for low-income families. The selected projects in the National Building Museum's new exhibition Affordable Housing: Designing an American Asset showcase these visions and this energy. They demonstrate that low-cost housing does not have to mean low-quality housing, and explore the far-reaching benefits of good design for residents and their broader communities. More than a dozen current projects from across the US are featured in the exhibition, which also places the projects within the broader context of affordable housing history.

In order to be eligible, the projects had to be completed before September 2002 and address the following issues:

• Logical and productive use of the ground underlying the development

• Clear accommodation of activities in the continuum from public to private

• Use of buildings to separate noisy from quiet, circulation form rest, public from private

• Capitalization in design on the unique qualities of each place in the project

• Provision of amenity, flexibility, and personalization for the dwelling

• At least 20% of the units must be available to families making less than 50% of the median income for the area in which the project is located, assuming that they spend no more than 30% of their income for housing

Celebrating the Teapot

Atlanta hosts the Teapot Festival during which three galleries display the work of artists producing contemporary teapots:

Mud Fire Gallery titles their exhibition and sale Teapots-A-Go-Go 2006 which is their third bi-annual gallery exhibit of this homey and prized household object.

The Signature Shop and Gallery's 100 Teapots is also a participant in the concurrent show with an extensive array of imaginative and colorful examples.

The Seen Gallery is the third venue showing teapots and their exhibit is Tea Time. Sadly, we can't show you their items but they are showcasing thirty artists.

Teapots, A Lot of History in a Little Pot by Elizabeth J. Bailey cites the quote from Henry James, writing in A Portrait of a Lady: “There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea.”

Design Museum & Phyllis Pearsall

We found the UK site, Design Museum, a while ago and thoroughly enjoyed their biographies of designers and images of what they create. But it was only recently that we discovered the story of Phyllis Pearsall which we include a portion of from the Museum's site:

Working eighteen hours a day to walk 3,000 miles of London’s streets, the artist Phyllis Pearsall (1906-1996) not only conceived, designed and produced the A-Z street atlas of London, but founded her own company to publish it. The A-Z remains one of the most ingenious examples of early 20th century information design.

Realising that she did not know the location of the party to which she was invited in the London district of Belgravia one evening in 1935, Phyllis Pearsall armed herself with the most recently published London street map she could find. It was the 1919 Ordnance Survey map and, hard though she tried, Pearsall could not find the address of the party.

Pearsall decided to devise a more efficient means of helping other people to navigate the labyrinthine London streets. Working from her bedsit on Horseferry Road near Victoria Station, she set off early each morning to walk – and catalogue – the streets of the city. As London was so big, rather than produce a cumbersome map, which would be very hard to read as each street, bridge or building would be so small in scale, Pearsall decided to divide it into different sections, each of which would be coded in an index.

Working for up to eighteen hours a day, she walked a total of 3,000 miles while mapping London’s 23,000 streets. When she failed to persuade any of the established book publishers to accept her atlas, Pearsall published it herself by founding the Geographers’ Map Company. The A-Z Atlas and Guide to London and Suburbs was published in 1936 and has remained the principal guide to the city ever since. A tribute to Phyllis Pearsall’s vision and determination, the A-Z is an exemplar of modern information design. Yet Pearsall never saw herself as a designer, but as an artist and travel writer who happened to have invented a successful design concept by chance.

Born Phyllis Gross in Dulwich, south east London in 1906, she was the daughter of Alexander Gross (originally Grosz), a Hungarian-born map maker and his Irish-Italian artist wife, Isabella Crowley. Phyllis was educated at Roedean, an expensive girl’s boarding school, but taken away at the age of 14 when her father’s business folded and he was declared bankrupt. He fled to the US leaving Phyllis with her mother whose lover, Alfred Orr, the royal portrait painter, refused to allow her to live with them. She fled to France. At one point she was so hard up that she slept on the street, but then scraped a living by teaching English, writing for an ex-pat newspaper in Paris and painting portraits. She also attended philosophy classes at the Sorbonne.

In 1926 she returned to London where she met and later married the artist Richard Pearsall, a friend of her brother Anthony. The newly married couple travelled around Europe together for several years but separated in 1935 and she moved back to London. Pearsall began work on the A-Z helped only by the draughtsman James Duncan, who had once worked for her father. She rose at 5am each day to walk the streets in order to compile the atlas and index. “I had to get my information by walking,” she later recalled. “I would go down one street, find three more and have no idea where I was.”

Read the rest of Phyllis Pearsall's biography at the Design Museum's British designers site. Their shop is also worth a viewing and, perhaps, ordering from.

Arch Forum's Puzzler

A)  "A chair is a very difficult object. A skyscraper is almost easier. That is why Chippendale is famous."

Quote by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe or LeCorbusier?

B)  "Small rooms or dwellings discipline the mind; large ones weaken it." Quote by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe or Leonardo da Vinci?

Take Architectural Forum's architectural puzzler quiz on a weekly basis.

Excerpt

Some places just feel like home. As soon as you walk through the door, you want to stay. You want to curl up by the fireplace, throw a party in the loft space, lounge on the old porch, or follow that staircase to wherever it goes. These special homes come in all sizes, shapes, and styles, from twee country cottages and grand prewar apartments to rambling suburban ranch houses and small beach condos. What they have in common is a tonic effect on your behavior: how you think, feel, and act. One indication that you're in such a home is that you feel both interested and relaxed ...

The reasons why we feel at home in certain homes, whether a farmhouse or a penthouse, and delight in certain features in them, such as the fireplaces Maybeck mandated, have less to do with aesthetic fashion than with evolutionary, personal, and cultural needs of which many of us are mostly unaware. Some elements of a just-right home are strictly individual, but even there, we're apt to focus on secondary matters — the love or avoidance of beige or modern design — rather than on more essential ways to personalize our dwellings. Other deep feelings about our habitat are particular to our species; still other inclinations and aversions, to our society. A homelike home fulfills these profound individual, human, and cultural needs, becoming a place that shelters and fascinates — a womb with a view.

"Home improvement" summons thoughts of renovating the master suite or installing a restaurant-style kitchen, but evolutionary psychology and architectural history suggest some more basic criteria for creating just-right houses and apartments. To the architect Grant Hildebrand, such dwellings exemplify what he calls "innately appealing architecture." Many homes built before World War II, when most development was on a small scale and craftsmanship was less expensive, have this likable quality. However, over half of America's houses and apartments have been built since the 1970s. The huge modern housing industry's low-overhead, mass-production orientation, combined with much of modernist architecture's emphasis on public buildings rather than private dwellings and on aesthetics and novelty over behavior, means that truly contemporary homelike homes are in short supply.

Excerpt from When We See It, We Know What We Like, Chapter One of House Thinking; A Room-by-Room Look at How We Live

Futuristic Design

We've mentioned England's Helen Hamlyn Design Centre in the past and an update of their research designs is warranted. Here's a sampling of the products of the 2005 Design for Our Future Selves competition.

Concrete canvas is the winner of the Helen Hamlyn Award for creativity:

Concrete Canvas is a hardened emergency shelter that weighs only 230kg. It can be deployed by one unskilled person in under 40 minutes and is ready for use in 12 hours. It can be delivered sterile enabling previously impossible surgical procedures to be performed in situ. It enables hardened, weatherproof buildings to be erected from the first day of a crisis such as a natural disaster. The build time and minimal resources needed to construct it ensures an exceptionally rapid response time.

User Friendly Vehicle:

The goal is to create a vehicle that is more usable within urban centres by an ageing population as well as being accessible and appealing to everyone.

Key features

• The vehicle maintains familiarity while not being too distinctly retro

• The interface combines voice and visual feedback to create a more accessible and enjoyable experience in the car

• Visually compartmentalized technical components make using and maintaining the car more honest and understandable and appropriate for older users.

A focus group of older users helped to define what attributes of interacting with cars from the past remain distinctive today and what features in today's cars are appreciated by older users.

Lucy Whiting is winner of the Help the Aged Award for independent living, an easy to pour teapot: The teapot rocks over a shaped base to make it easier for people with weakness in their arms, wrists and fingers to pour a pot of tea. The project aims to create a teapot that is easier to use for people who have dexterity problems to use.

It was inspired by looking at a family member with repetitive strain injury struggling with the weight of their current teapot. The rocking teapot is part of a range of teapots that reassess the function and relationship we have with everyday objects.

Pattern Book for Gulf Coast Neighborhoods; The Tiny House

Part of the Mississippi Renewal Forum is a publication, A Pattern Book for Gulf Coast Neighborhoods, that reveals details land techniques for building and renovating Gulf Coast houses. The downloading of the book will take some time because of its length.

While these homes may not be in a style appropriate for the entire country, they represent the architecture of an area long admired for its form and graceful lines.

Also at the Mississippi site an image of "