The Babuk Report

Category: Architecture

Manitobans and Modernists from both parts of the Twentieth Century

The University of Manitoba Faculty of Architecture has held an annual Chicago Field Trip for a very long time. I’ve heard first hand accounts of the field trips that occurred during the 1940’s; I gather that they’ve been going on prior to that. For the past couple years, I’ve been honoured to have made presentations to the group visiting Chicago.

The University of Manitoba (not my alma mater) is located in Winnipeg. Burton Cummings of the Guess Who described Winnipeg as the perfect place for an aspiring musician of his time in which to grow up: local CBC radio broadcasts carried the latest from Britain, while Chicago radio stations enjoyed excellent reception across the endless plains. Local school and community programs provided excellent support for music and the arts; putting all of this together was the perfect foamation for a rock band in the mid sixties.

One of the other arts that Winnipeg has always supported has been architecture.

A prominent figure in the development of the Chicago School skyscraper format of the 1880’s was William LeBaron Jenney; his successor partner was William Bryce Mundie, an architect from Hamilton, Ontario who was very much supportive of the idea of mentoring young architects into the profession, just as he had been similarly mentored in Hamilton. A young architect who passed through the Jenney and Mundie practice was John Atchison, who kept in contact with Mundie throughout his career. Atchison established his practice in Winnipeg at the time of a great building boom; he had the only locally based architectural practice with the wherewithal to do skyscrapers. Winnipeg provided many a patron for Atchison’s work; the city’s Exchange District is brimming with it.

Lounge, Winnipeg International Airport. Green, Blankstein, Russell and Associates, Architects. 1964

Moving the clock ahead several decades, John A. Russell came to Winnipeg to head the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Manitoba, starting just after the Second World War. Himself a modernist proponent, he brought faculty educated at top European and American design schools who had worked in some of the most progressive practices; he imported a litany of “who’s who” in the architecture and design world as visiting lecturers; he encouraged his students to continue onto some of the top graduate schools in the world. Many of those students came back to Winnipeg. Coupled with a vigorous artistic community, Winnipeg became home to one of the most talked about architectural programs anywhere. The city reflected the train of thought going on at the University. A recent exhibit at the Winnipeg Art Gallery “Winnipeg Modern” shows it.

The “Winnipeg Modern” exhibit was ground breaking. Though it made news in Canada, it’s unfortunate that it didn’t get a lot of airplay elsewhere. However, another great Winnipeg topic for an architectural exhibit would be the skyscrapers of the early 20th century, and their contribution to Canadian architecture. Let’s have at it.

September 5, 2009
Other Coach Houses in Oak Park

1965 Chrysler Crown Imperial Convertible, obviously different than my Mini

Once, in a fit to buy an inexpensive though highly presentable company car for my practice, I came across a restored 1965 Chrysler Crown Imperial convertible. Trouble is, we live on that side of Oak Park where garages are accessible off of alleys; our alley surveys at sixteen feet (about 5.2) metres across. I thought that I’d wedge the thing in between neighbour’s fences. Something like that once happened to me on a trip into a McDonald’s near the New Jersey Turnpike, though that is quite a different story than what I’m presenting here. However, remember my previous posts about our cities being designed around the size of our automobiles – good example.

An alley in Oak Park

Otherwise, Oak Park has some very well kept alleys that could make great “mews” style lanes.

My previous post about Laneway Houses in Vancouver prompted a brisk walk to look at other coach houses in Oak Park. As mentioned, current Village policy has it that accessory spaces connected to garages are acceptable, water service to that accessory building is not. Further, anyone living in a building accessory to the main building on a parcel of land constitutes a second family on that parcel, or a “multi family” situation. Some very large parcels of land that historically were built with coach houses fronting onto the street have seen that land parcel subdivided over the years, so that the original coach house is officially a separate house on its own.

A recent, local newspaper story spoke of the first garage built in Oak Park. Only Oak Park would recognize such a thing, but it was built to house a fellow’s Locomobile Steamer in 1898. This was a very nouveau idea for a new fangled invention; larger houses on larger land parcels here in “distant” suburbs were more likely to have horse stables with haylofts.

Formerly stables, now a garage

There are a couple examples in Oak Park of former horse stables, with what would have been hay-lofts above. There’s undoubtedly some sort of Village ordinance in these modern times prohibiting people keeping horses on their property, though one may have as many three dogs. Fancy dog houses aside, former horse stables have either been demolished or converted into garages for cars.

An elaborate coach house, now a single family residence

There are several examples of large houses with separate “motor garage” coach houses that have access from a street. Many of these land parcels have been subdivided, so that the former coach house is a residence unto its own.

There are new garages being built in with accessory space. One client approached me about building a large garage in his backyard, an upstairs space to accommodate his 10,000 volume library collection. While it didn’t require water service, putting that much weight above a long span structure doesn’t come inexpensively. The project never got off the ground.

August 31, 2009
The Vancouver “Laneway” House

Within the last year, the City of Vancouver (British Columbia) recently amended the City’s zoning ordinance to permit coach, or “laneway” houses to be built along back alleys (rear lanes) in certain areas. In a nutshell; in specific single family zoned areas, on lots 33’ (about 10.8 metres) or wider that have a back alley or corner frontages, in the rear of the lot; with specific distance separation, lot size and on site parking requirements. The lot where the laneway house is to be built cannot be strata-titled.

Laneway Houses, image courtesy of Lanefab Development Company, Vancouver, BC www.lanefab.com

At least of couple different design / build companies have emerged catering specifically to this market. The “laneway housing” concept is an easy way to increase density in a neighbourhood without altering its visual character. It can bring a human presence to an area previously a “no-man’s land” and create safety within a neighbourhood. Laneway housing can increase add to the local tax base while providing a method of providing affordable housing, and more than likely catering to a different age and social group than currently resides in a community – an important feature allowing people to “age in place”.

An entire lane developed with "laneway houses", image courtesy of Lanefab Development Corporation, Vancouver, BC www.lanefab.com

It also supports my notion that our housing stock has come to be much too large, and that an easy to bring about sustainability in design is to simply build on a smaller scale.

As with other tiny house concepts, laneway housing may appear to have a higher construction cost per square foot than a conventional house. A unit-cost-per-square foot includes not just the foundation, floor and roof, but also walls and all systems contained inside those walls. A building with smaller rooms will contain more walls per square foot, so that makes sense. In order to conserve space, many features that would otherwise be store bought furniture are built-in. Frank Lloyd Wright used built-in features generously in his Usonian House concept – even the catalog bought “Sears House” of the US Midwest used built in features to increase living space. Paying for these features as part of a base building or as furniture from a store, well… It’ll all get paid for somehow.

Other municipalities in the Vancouver area are considering zoning amendments allowing laneway housing. Most municipalities in the Chicago area – including the City of Chicago itself – disallow new habitable “coach house” construction. Oh, how I wish that could change…

August 27, 2009
The Running of the Lions in Chicago

Ernest Hemmingway came from Oak Park; he wrote about the running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain.

I’m wondering about the running of the lions in Chicago….

Here, we have the Lion of the Art Institute of Chicago, guarding the main entrance on Michigan Avenue, Facing Adams Street…

And here, we have a lion crafted by Albert Speh named “David”, guarding the front door of a bungalow house in Oak Park…

August 25, 2009
… and even more “almost Frank” kind of houses

The Flori Blondeel Houses in Oak Park

As follow up to a previous post about William Street in River Forest, the street with an entire block of houses that might – or might not – be designed by Frank Lloyd Wright; the three Flori Blondeel Houses in Oak Park look very Frank Lloyd Wright – especially in the way they relate to each other – but aren’t. They were designed by another architect who worked under FLW for a time in the Oak Park studio, John van Bergen.

Van Bergen was a prolific designer of prairie school houses, in neighbourhoods all across Chicagoland, including Oak Park.

The Blondeel houses are all virtually the same, the middle house being built without the same front “sunroom” of the other two, to give an overall spatial focus.

Recent Garage and Coach House for one of the Flori Blondeel Houses

As witness to how easy it is to still generate prairie school massing and detailing, that same middle house recently sprouted a large addition in back – difficult to photograph from the street, but sporting many of the same stucco and wood trim details found in the original house. One fault that only a purist would find with the new addition is that it is much larger than any small prairie school house, and takes up much more of the lot. This house also has a well detailed coach-house in back (again, remember my previous posts about coach houses), though the double garage door and wooden fence are dead giveaways as to its real age.

Emma Martin Coach House, by Frank Lloyd Wright

My favourite prairie school coach house? It was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for Emma Martin, adjacent to the Peter Fricke House facing Iowa Street in Oak Park. Emma Martin acquired the main house – also designed by FLW – and proceeded to commission FLW to design several additions, including the garage and coach house, and a pavilion. The garage and coach house is visually connected to the main house by a garden wall, the coach house comfortably resting atop to complete the visual composition.

FLW’s Coach House on the Continental Divide

I always muse that the Fricke / Martin house – at least according to signs posted throughout Oak Park – sits atop the “Great Continental Divide” – on the middle of the prairie! It looks nothing like the Kicking Horse Pass (Canadian Rockies) or the Rogers Pass (Selkirk Range) that I can recall.

August 24, 2009
A curious street in River Forest

While some like to think that history has uncovered everything that it will, some still keep finding secrets to be told.

Are they, or aren’t they…?

The houses of the 700 block of William Street in River Forest seem different from their large, revivalist neighbours. The two dozen or so small, simple houses are… Prairie School. But “Frankly” Prairie?

It’s a mystery. Many neighbours are claiming that their houses are long lost designs of Frank Lloyd Wright.

… only Frank Lloyd Wright knows for sure.

The houses were built just prior to 1910. It was a ‘colourful’ time in FLW’s personal life and career; some major commissions were going through his Oak Park studio. Purportedly, he was spending time away; he spent time at the Banff Springs Hotel prior to his commission for the Banff Pavilion in association with Francis C. Sullivan. Something doesn’t seem to suggest that he would want to do two dozen simple houses – anonymously – when others were beating down the door for his services.

Apparently, the FLW Foundation Archives carry no record of these houses.

First Congregational Church of Austin, William B. Drummond, Architect, 1908

The FLW Studio spawned many students – virtually every architect, designer and craftsman in Oak Park at the time claimed to have worked for him. William Drummond, Dwight Perkins and Walter Burley Griffin are well known architects who come to mind who worked under FLW in the Oak Park studio; EE Roberts and John Van Bergen may not be as well known architects, but were every bit as talented.

My thought – they were done by students of Frank Lloyd Wright. The “Prairie School” – a phrase later coined by University of Toronto historian H. Allen Brooks – by 1910 had become excessively formal and rigid and, well…anticipatable. It’s the bane of any contemporary Oak Park architect trying to do any sort of work in this town. It’s so easy to recreate. Since the River Forest houses are smaller, it may be an indication of a high style finding its way into more and more popular markets.

So there ya go.

August 21, 2009
Saturday, in the Park…

Years ago, the Chicago-born rock group “Chicago” had a sit single “Saturday, in the Park”. It described what was seemingly an idyllic weekend day in Chicago’s Lincoln Park. These kinds of days happen all the time in Chicago, witness this last weekend.

Cloud Gate, otherwise known as ‘The Bean”

Friends from Toronto called the night before. They had just flown in and hoped to meet up. Their plan was to take a leisurely morning stroll around Graceland Cemetery, completely unknowing about the Chicago Cubs baseball game next door at Wrigley Field, or even the Air and Water Show. I warned them, and they though that this was unusual. We agreed to touch base later in the day.

The Illinois Saint Andrew Society had their wrap up meeting of the Highland Games Committee, over breakfast. From my vantage point as Chairman of the British Car Show, we talked a lot about the weather, the flooded fields, and the success of the show despite nature’s wrath.

The Province of Nova Scotia invited me to attend their private reception at Irish Fest in Milwaukee. The Nova Scotians are awfully nice folks, even for a prairie kid like me. Though I really like Nova Scotia, I must admit that I’ve never been there. My parents were great fans of the CBC television show, “Don Messer’s Jubilee”, broadcast from Halifax, perhaps that counts. I hope that they’ll invite me back for their reception at Celtic Fest in Chicago.

More than a million people descended on the lakefront for the Air & Water Show. I kept thinking back to our visitors from Toronto, who were taking the same el line that those million people would be taking to the show, as well as all the crowds partaking the Cubs game; again, on the same el line. Game Day at Wrigley is kind of like a giant street party. Apparently, there’s a baseball game that happens during the party, the throngs are simply out having a good time.

Heard back from my visitors, they chose to spend the afternoon inside conditioned air at the Art Institute of Chicago. Good choice. They acknowledged my advice about the crowds at Wrigley.

It was one of the few dry days we’ve had in a while, and despite everything going on during a typical weekend (wasn’t it Lollapalooza last weekend?) the mundane things never let up. Yard work and my tomato plants were finally showing signs of ripening.

Zaha Hadid designed Burnham Pavilion

We managed to meet up at the Burnham Pavilions at Millennium Park. Last time I was there was at the dedication reception, coincidentally held during the nasty storm that reeked havoc on the Highland Games. Although the pavilion designed by UN Studio of the Netherlands was complete, the Zaha Hadid pavilion was not. It was now, and the time to see these pavilions are at night.

Crown Fountain at Millenium Park

Reynar Banham once described a concept of “the architecture of energy” – not counting every last watt or joule of energy and finding ways to conserve, but rather defining architecture by energy. The Burnham Pavilions at night – even the rest of Millennium Park – are great examples. The Bean was shining profusely in the dull light. Both Burnham Pavilions were kaleidoscopic in nature. The Crown Fountain was alive with shadows of children playfully running through the water on a hot, muggy night.

The city between the earth and sky

I’m still taken by the UN Studio’s Burnham Pavilion. Despite being designed in Europe, it’s a very prairie display of the earth and the sky, and the city that grew in between.

August 17, 2009
More Walls Talking – Vacant Storefronts

Vacant Storefront for Rent

The current economic doldrums have brought out all sorts of vacant storefronts – not just a tell tale of the economy, but a fascinating take on urban anthropology.

At first glance, they would indicate that the economy is down, that the activity that previously existed at that location fell victim to a recession. Any retail leasing agent would be quick to point out that marginal locations die first, and that the economy is really in bad shape if the vacant storefronts syndrome were to hit the more sought after locations and properties.

At a deeper investigation, one may wonder if the types of commercial activity that went on in any given vacant storefront is sustainable economically, and if things picked up, would this type of activity resurface?

The concept of selling goods changes presentation and architectural trappings often. In North America, we’ve seen a progression of:

            Open Air Markets

            General Stores

            Specialty Stores

            Department Stores

            Stores arranged along a main street, accessible on foot

            Stores arranged along commercial highway strips, accessible by car

            Open-air shopping plazas, approached by car, then accessed on foot

            Mall-ified pedestrian street, which closed a street to all but pedestrian   traffic, to  recreate the open-air shopping plaza concept in an urban setting

            Climate controlled, enclosed shopping mall in a suburban setting, with anchor tenants (usually department stores), approached by car but accessed on foot, where every day is always a pleasant 72° Fahrenheit (20° Celsius) regardless if it’s winter or summer

Midtown Plaza, Rochester, NY

The climate controlled enclosed shopping mall even saw an urban version, closing off streets and creating“superblocks” with inward focuses. While the classic examples may be Eaton Center in Toronto, the Galleria in Philadelphia or even the ZCMI Center in Salt Lake City; a more iconic version may be Rochester’s Midtown Plaza. Opened in 1963, it virtually recreated a controlled suburban environment in an urban setting, complete with a promotional “courtyard” featuring the “Clock of the Nations” that commemorated one of twelve different countries every hour and an elevated “kiddie monorail” made by the Louden Machinery Company of Fairfield, Iowa – also found in department stores like Kresge in Newark, NJ, Sears on State Street in Chicago and the Meier and Frank Department Store in Portland, Oregon. (Let’s save the kiddie monorails for another entry, I do write about transportation devices from time to time)

And I’m not even touching on further developments like festival markets (Faneuil Hall in Boston, the Inner Harbor in Baltimore), power centers (name your suburb) and big box retailers (even real cities are clamouring to get big box retailers).

Who knows what the next step will be. Web based e-commerce seems to be picking up, but my guess is that retail – as in going out and shopping – is too much of a social event to be relegated to a computer screen.

The bigger question is something like, who knows what will happen to all this vacant space, and what sort of impact will this redevelopment have on the visual image of our cities…

August 13, 2009
If walls could talk…

In stripping wallpaper off of the walls in the study, what did we find but this inscription written on the plaster:

“March 16, 1937 16% above zero”

1937 is when Albert Speh Jr. graduated by Fenwick High School. March 16 would be the day before St. Patrick’s Day – a very big deal in Chicago, no matter what one’s parentage is. But 16% above zero? – I’ve no idea.

August 9, 2009
The Idea That Came Around

A freshman design studio professor warned us many times that whatever in-depth design synthesis we went through to invent something original, that we could always find that someone had already come up with it before.

Pullman, a neighbourhood on the far south side of Chicago is touted as one of the first ‘planned communities’. It was home to the Pullman Company and the Pullman Works, which built sleeper cars for passenger trains.

The Pullman Sleeping Car

As a sidenote, Pullman owned and operated many of these cars that in turn were part of trains operated by major railroads. Sleeper cars are always a fascination for me, since they are designed for near total living experiences in absolute minimal space. Kind of like a pre-cursor to minimal housing. But that’s literary irony at this point.

The Pullman neighbourhood was self contained and self supporting, containing housing, employment centres, retail and recreational facilities. Its housing included both temporary (the Florence Hotel) and permanent housing, its housing catered to all different social strata.

A street of Pullman Workers’ Cottages

Zeroing in on the “Pullman Workers’ Cottage” this fourteen foot ( 4.2m) wide housing type had two floors and an attic above a basement. Built of masonry, it had two bedrooms on the second floor; with a living room, kitchen and dining room on the first. While it has taken a century to happen, Pullman Workers’ Cottages have become quite trendy, rather chique one may say.

Grow Homes in Montreal

About twenty years ago, The School of Architecture at McGill University in Montreal and the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation jointly developed a housing type called “The Grow Home”. Exhaustive and groundbreaking research into housing types and formats was performed, uncovering typical “one bedroom wide” and “two bedroom wide” formats in narrow European and eastern North American historical housing types. From this, to develop the optimal entry level house for the Montreal real estate market, optimizing both market forces, land costs and building technology The Grow Home was devised. It’s also 14 feet (4.2m) wide. The first floor had living and kitchen spaces; the second floor was envisioned to be one large loft that could be subdivided through sweat equity.

I don’t recall seeing the Pullman Workers Cottage example in the research but then, there are many examples of this type of building throughout the world. The sixteen foot (4.8m) wide rowhouses in Baltimore’s Federal Hill (discussed in a previous post) are my favourite.

“…dinner in the diner, nothing could be finer…” the Dining Car on the 20th Century Limited.

My thought is – why aren’t we looking at the railway cars as examples for the tiny home movement?

August 3, 2009