Southern Cypress

Louisiana cypress has been mentioned in previous posts. John Lautner has described Frank Lloyd Wright's preference for the wood, and his use of it for the 1936 Abby Beecher Roberts House ["Deertrack"], Marquette, Michigan.

The Southern Cypress Manufacturers' Association (SCMA), founded in New Orleans, issued pocket books with plans and elevations for model bungalows. Sears Kit Homes (1908-1940) were also made with cypress exterior components, such as window trim, clapboard, soffits and fascia.

In 1915, New Orleans architect Martin Shepard (1875-1962) was commissioned by the SCMA to design a model cypress bungalow. He completed the advertising model (shown above) in 1916, for which the association paid him $179.30. The cypress bungalow toured hardware stores across the country, including the Delta Lumber Company in New Orleans (3536 Carrollton Avenue) and the headquarters of Philipp Ott and Son, in Jefferson City, Missouri.

From the 19-teens through the 1930s, the SCMA regularly commissioned architects to design model homes plans. Chicago architect Murray D. Hetherington (1891-1972) designed the cypress cabin that the SCMA featured in the Chicago Century of Progress International Exposition (1933-34).

The SCMA Records (1932-1973) are housed at the University of Florida--Gainesville. The Southeastern Architectural Archive retains a collection of SCMA pocket books, as well as plan books for Radford American Homes.

Image above: John Hypolite Coquille, photographer. Martin Shepard, architect. K.D. Cypress Model Exhibit. 1916. Martin Shepard Office Records, Box 19, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

New DIGITAL Resource

The British School at Rome Library and Archive has announced the launch of a new digital database, funded by a generous grant from the Getty Foundation. This incredible resource will eventually include maps, prints, photographs, manuscripts, paintings, drawings and postcards.

The database currently includes maps of Rome, prints of important Roman architectural projects, and some wonderful photographs of the Sacro Bosco that were taken from the John Bryan Ward-Perkins Collection.

Click here to access the database [URL: http://www.bsrdigitalcollections.it/].

Image above: De Rossi, Giovanni Giacomo, 17th cent. engraver; Bernini, Gianlorenzo, architect. Molisaeneae quam fusili artificio Urbanus VIII. Pont. Max. super. S.S. Aposr. Petri et Pauli, Tumulm excitavit, ornavique, Ioannes Laurentius Berninus Eques. qui in Templo Vaticano opus perfecit hic delineationem expressit. [Rome: s.d.] © 2009 British School at Rome, via A. Gramsci 61, 00197 Rome, Italy.

Iron Works War Map

New Orleans architect Martin Shepard (1875-1962) received this promotional map from Dow Wire and Iron Works, Incorporated during World War I. The Louisville-based company specialized in ornamental iron and bronze work, and advertised its wares at the First Exhibition of the Louisville Chapter of the American Institute of Architects in 1912.

Henry Wolters' designs for the Louisville Board of Trade Building and the New Orleans Cotton Exchange were featured in the exhibition, which was devoted to arousing interest "in the development of a worthy city plan for Louisville." If you want to read the exhibition catalog and see reproductions of the works displayed, click here to access through google books.

Image above: Dow Wire and Iron Works, Inc. War Zone Map of Europe. Louisville, KY. Martin Shepard Office Records Collection, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

TSA in the News

ARCHITECTURE’S CITY FOCUS BRINGS ACCOLADES

November 25, 2009

Carol J. Schlueter
cjs@tulane.edu

More than four years after Hurricane Katrina, the Tulane School of Architecture continues to garner national attention for its community projects focused on the renewal of New Orleans, the latest coming in the school's ranking as one of the nation's "Hidden Gems of Architecture Education."

Tulane School of Architecture students work on the school's fourth URBANbuild home in New Orleans' Central City neighborhood. Students design and build the homes as part of class projects. (Photo by Emilie Taylor)

At the same time that the prestigious DesignIntelligence published the ranking, it also named the school's dean, Kenneth Schwartz, among its 25 "Most Admired Educators of 2010."

The ranking positions the Tulane school among five programs that are "doing incredible things, pushing the boundaries of education innovation, partnering with private firms in enterprising new ways and developing the next generation of design thought leaders," the publication says.

One of Tulane's premier programs, URBANbuild, is in the spotlight as well. The fourth URBANbuild home, designed and constructed by Tulane architecture students under the leadership of URBANbuild director Byron Mouton, is featured in a lengthy article in the December/January 2010 issue of Dwell magazine.

For Schwartz, the ranking underscores the dedication, creativity and hard work of the school's students and faculty, who are energizing a school that has provided traditionally strong architectural education for more than 100 years.

"Students and faculty have been extraordinarily effective in their partnerships with nonprofit organizations on projects ranging from individual design-build houses to farmers' markets and planning strategies for rebuilding neighborhoods," Schwartz says. "They embody the best qualities of civic engagement that are so important to Tulane University today and indeed for the community."

Now in his second year as dean at Tulane, Schwartz says that his academic career at the University of Virginia and what he calls "the Tulane bump" — "the challenge and opportunity of this amazing city and its recovery" — influenced his position on the list of admired architecture educators.

Schwartz says, "Coming here 1 1/2 years ago changes the equation. It was an opportunity to change venues and try to make a difference."

Extracted from Tulane New Wave 25 November 2009.

New Orleans School Design 1958-59

Curtis and Davis, firm. Preliminary sketch for mural partition, George Washington Carver Junior-Senior High School, 3019 Edna Street, 1959. © Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries. Do not reproduce without written permission.

Curtis and Davis, firm. Preliminary sketch for elevation, George Washington Carver Junior-Senior High School, 3019 Edna Street, 1958. © Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries. Do not reproduce without written permission.

New Orleans 1964

In 1964, the New Orleans firm of Curtis & Davis was commissioned to design additions to its large combined Junior-Senior High School, George Washington Carver (1957-58). Located at 3019 Edna Street, the structure had been featured in Samuel Wilson, Jr.'s important A Guide to Architecture of New Orleans 1699-1959, published by the Louisiana Landmarks Society in 1960. Above is the cover sheet sketch for the firm's set of drawings related to the proposed additions.

Arthur Q. Davis recently wrote about the project in his book, It Happened by Design:

"One of the largest educational institutions designed by our firm was the George Washington Carver Elementary, Junior, and Senior High School. The Orleans Parish School Board commissioned us to design a senior high school on a large tract of land of approximately fifty acres. A portion of the site was to be set aside for a junior high which would later be designed by another architect, and perhaps later another portion of the site would be spun off of for an elementary school. We advised the school board that we did not believe that this was the most practical or expeditious way to use the site. If the junior and senior highs could be combined, they could share kitchen and cafeteria facilities and have one first-class auditorium instead of two smaller, less useful ones. A small auditorium could not provide a stage loft and the backstage area needed for a first-class high school auditorium--one which could also be available to the community for evening productions. The same would apply to the gymnasiums. We could build a much larger and much more efficient gymnasium if it were to serve the two schools." (pp. 17-18).

Indeed, the Carver auditoriums as designed could serve a variety of functions. The large auditorium was designed to seat 1,478 (main floor capacity 1,046; balcony 432); the small auditorium could accommodate an audience of 493. If you want to read more about C & D school projects, check out Arthur Q. Davis's It Happened by Design (University Press of Mississippi, 2009), available in multiple Tulane University Libraries.

The Recovery School District plans to demolish the building.

Image above: Curtis and Davis, firm. Detail of cover sheet sketch, proposed additions to George Washington Carver Junior-Senior High School, 3019 Edna Street, 1964. © Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries. Do not reproduce without written permission.

The Two-Bit Chair Design

In November 1880, New York's Adams and Bishop Company advertised a 25-cent Eastlake Chair Design in The Ladies' Floral Cabinet and Pictorial Home Companion. Named after British architect and designer Charles Locke Eastlake (1836-1906), chairs such as this were very popular in late nineteenth-century Britain and the United States. Eastlake's Hints on Household Taste in Furniture, Upholstery and Other Details (U.K., 1868; U.S., 1872)* disseminated his style to a wide audience.

Adams & Bishop of New York published patterns for DIY household items, including the chair shown above. For 15-25 cents, interested parties could purchase these individual designs; for $6.75, folks could purchase the entire 8-volume collection, containing approximately 1,000 different patterns.

Come and see the new CHAIRS exhibition in the Southeastern Architectural Archive.....

Image above from The Ladies' Floral Cabinet and Pictorial Home Companion (November 1880), p. vi. Paid advertisement for Adams & Bishop's "Latest Designs." Adams & Bishop, 46 Beekman Street, New York. The Garden Library of the New Orleans Town Gardeners, Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.

*Tulane's Special Collections Division retains a copy of the 1883 Boston edition.

Exhibit Highlights Aesthetic & Technological Changes

CHAIRS: 125 Years of Design

"A chair is a very difficult object. A skyscraper is almost easier.

That is why Chippendale is famous."

--Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Tulane University’s Southeastern Architectural Archive (SEAA) has launched a new exhibition.

CHAIRS: 125 Years of Design illustrates the profound aesthetic, cultural, societal and technological changes that have impacted modern chair design. Highlights include seating furniture by A.W.N. Pugin (1812-1852), Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969), James Lamantia (1923-), and Curtis & Davis (active 1947-1978).

It has been said that few objects embody modern design as eloquently as the chair. The SEAA exhibition provides an expansive array of chairs and other seating forms dating from 1835 to 1960, from British architect/designer A.W.N. Pugin’s delicate etchings of Gothic-inspired seating to the New Orleans Curtis & Davis firm’s high modern sacristy furniture.

Architects first began designing furniture for their buildings in the seventeenth century. The Scottish-born architect Robert Adam (1728-1792) expanded his practice to devise furnishings and other household objects befitting his interiors. Similarly, American architect Samuel McIntire (1757-1811) designed neoclassical residences along with the case furniture and chairs to match.

Massachusetts furniture makers such as John Ainsworth Dunn and the Heywood Brothers shifted production from artisanship to factory assembly. The New Orleans World’s Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition (1884-1885) revealed a growing assortment of manufactured American and European furniture: Charles Fitch Company’s rosewood and mahogany bureaus & tables, Heywood Brothers’ rattan & reed chairs, Friedrich Wenzel’s Texas Longhorn chairs, and Thonet’s Austrian bentwood seating. New Orleans architect Thomas Sully (1855-1939) decorated both home and office with such accoutrements.

There were also those who resisted the industrialization of household fitments. Arts and Crafts Movement architects such as A.W.N. Pugin (1812-1852) and Henry Hobson Richardson (1838-1886) championed the harmonious inclusion of handmade furniture into their structures. Harry L. Moses (c. 1877-c. 1935), a New Orleans designer, advertised himself locally as both an interior decorator and maker of fancy carved chairs. In the early twentieth century, Charles Milo Williams (1867-1954) created whimsical sketches of furniture adorned with intricate Moorish architectural embellishments.

The reconciliation of mechanization and fine craftsmanship occurred in the late 1920s. Architects associated with the Bauhaus created some of the twentieth century’s most significant chair designs. Such furniture impacted New Orleans architects in the years following World War II, as renowned architect-designers Charles Eames (1907-1978) and Eero Saarinen (1910-1961) garnered public acclaim, and as Knoll International expanded the American market for high quality “designer” furniture. Mark Lowery, Lemuel McCoy and James Lamantia’s entries for the Chicago Tribune’s 6^th Annual Better Rooms Competition (1952) attest to these changing sensibilities.

Has designing a new kind of chair been modernity’s ultimate test of architectural genius? Visit CHAIRS: 125 Years of Design and decide for yourself.

Co-curated by Keli Rylance and Kevin Williams, CHAIRS: 125 Years of Design opens 9 November 2009 in the Southeastern Architectural Archive and runs through 10 November 2010. The SEAA is located at 6801 Freret Street/300 Jones Hall, on Tulane University’s campus. Hours are 9-12 and 1-5 Mondays-Fridays. Admission is free.

Aleix-Art Tree House

If you venture beyond the galleried house located at 1614 Esplanade, you will find a fabulous treehouse/waterslide/ropebridge. From the brightly colored pod-topped treehouse, you can see as far as the Mississippi River.

A March 1868 newspaper clipping documents the property as having "a high state of cultivation as a garden, planted with vegetables and a great variety of fruit and ornamental trees." By 1872, Mrs. Emma Goldenbow, wife of Joseph Aleix, had built the present raised house. Its address was originally 248 Esplanade, and it was home to Mr. and Mrs Joseph Aleix, as well as to Jacinto Aleix, who owned a Bourbon Street cigar shop, and to Fernando Aleix, who served as the Spanish Consulate's chancellor. Today, the property supports an arts co-operative, the Art House, whose membership built the rapidly expanding treehouse.

Prince Charles Meets Manchu

The Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment is partnering with the Preservation Resource Center to restore the derelict New Orleans property located at 1423 North Claiborne, immediately next to MANCHU, the Mardi Gras-colored cinderblock fried chicken shack. Traditional building craft apprentices will tackle the double-galleried structure that once housed the American Missionary Association (AMA). Once the project has been completed, 1423 will be donated to another non-profit organization.

The AMA Archives are located on Tulane University's campus at the Amistad Research Center.

CHAIRS: 125 Years of Design

The Southeastern Architectural Archive has been installing its new exhibition, co-curated by Keli Rylance and Kevin Williams.

CHAIRS: 125 Years of Design illustrates the profound aesthetic, cultural, societal and technological changes that have impacted modern chair design. Highlights include seating furniture by A.W.N. Pugin (1812-1852), Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969), James Lamantia (1923-), and Curtis & Davis (active 1947-1978).

The exhibition features the following works:

Inventory of Works

Baird, Henry W. (†1959)

Check Desk and Settee. 1918. Ink on paper.

Baird, Henry W. (†1959)

Office Design. Undated. Pencil on paper.

Curtis & Davis (active 1947-1978)[Nathaniel “Buster” Curtis, Jr. 1917-1998] [Arthur Q. Davis, 1920-]

Sanctuary Stacking Chair, Sedilla, and Prie-Dieu for St. Francis Cabrini Church, New Orleans. 1961.Pencil on paper

Curtis & Davis (active 1947-1978) [Nathaniel “Buster” Curtis, Jr. 1917-1998] [Arthur Q. Davis, 1920-]

Seating for Sacristy Furniture, St. Francis Cabrini Church, New Orleans. c. 1961. Ink on paper.

De Buys, Rathbone (1874-1960)

Interior, The Tudor Theatre, New Orleans, c. 1915. Photograph.

Eames, Charles (1907-1978)

Plastic Chairs, 1960-1961. Color Samples, Catalogs and Price Lists, Herman Miller, Inc., Zeeland, Michigan.

Freret & Wolf (active 1946-1980) [Douglass V. Freret, 1903-1973] [Albert Wolf, 1914-2004]

Offices for Montagnet Associates. Location unidentified. 1952. Pencil, ink, and colored pencil on tracing paper.

Knoll, Florence (1917-); Bellman, Hans (1911-1990); Saarinen, Eero (1910-1961); Mies Van Der Rohe, Ludwig (1886-1969)

Chairs. Undated Catalogs, Knoll Associates, Inc.

Lamantia, James (1923-)

Unidentified Furniture Showroom. Undated. Ink and watercolor on tracing paper.

Lamantia, James (1923-)

Unidentified Project. Undated. Ink on tracing paper.

Lamantia, James (1923-)

Unidentified Project. Undated. Ink and gouache on tracing paper.

Lamantia, James (1923-)

Chaise Lounge for Interiors Magazine Competition. Undated. Ink and ink wash on illustration board.

Lowery, Mark, Lemuel McCoy & James Lamantia.

Kitchen 152-AB for Chicago Tribune’s 6^th Annual Better Rooms Competition. 1952. Mixed media on illustration board.

Lowery, Mark, Lemuel McCoy & James Lamantia.

Kitchen 152-B for Chicago Tribune’s 6^th Annual Better Rooms Competition, 1952. Mixed media on illustration board

Lowery, Mark, Lemuel McCoy & James Lamantia.

A-4 Bedroom for Single Occupancy-Juvenile 115 for Chicago Tribune’s 6^th Annual Better Rooms Competition, 1952. Mixed media on illustration board

Mellor, Meigs & Howe (active 1916-1928) [Walter Mellor, 1880-1940] [Arthur Ingersoll Meigs, 1889-1956] [George Howe, 1886-1955]

A Spanish Chair for Mrs. Newbold’s Dressing Table, 1925. Photogravure. An American Country House, the property of Arthur E. Newbold, Jr., Esq., Laverlock, PA. New York: The Architectural Book Publishing Company, Inc., 1925. Courtesy Rare Books, Special Collections Division

Mies Van Der Rohe, Ludwig (1886-1969)

Barcelona Chair. First designed 1929. Chromed Steel, Leather and Urethane Foam. Knoll International, 745 Fifth Avenue, NewYork. Courtesy Dean Lance Query

Moses, Harry L. (c. 1875-c.1933)

A Spanish Chair for F.E. Lee. Undated. Graphite on tracing paper.

Pugin, Augustus Welby Northmore (1812-1852)

Chairs. 1835. Etching. Gothic Furniture in the Style of the 15^th Century. London: Ackermann, 1835. Courtesy Rare Books, Special Collections Division

Roach, Philip (active 1949-1969)

“Imperial” Chair Profiles, client not given. Undated. Pencil and colored pencil on paper; Pencil on paper.

Sully & Toledano (active 1888-1892) [Thomas Sully 1855-1939] [Albert Toledano 1859-1923]

Pew for J.L. Harris Memorial Chapel, Christ Church Cathedral, New Orleans. c. 1889. Ink on linen.

Unknown Designer

Bentply Chair 1294-S16 with Urea Finish, Brass Ferrules & Rubber Cushion Guides. 1966. Thonet Industries, Inc., Park Avenue, New York. Private collection.

Unknown Designer

Fiberglass Chair Model 6000-8 with Chrome Legs, 1960s. Krueger Metal Products, Green Bay, Wisconsin. Private Collection

Unknown Designer

CH. 28 Chair. 1967. Catalog and Leather Sample. Zographos, Madison Avenue, New York.

Unknown Maker

Walnut Side Chair from the Masonic Temple, Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Product supplied by George Smith Co., 1925. Private collection

[Weiblen, Albert] Albert Weiblen Marble & Granite Company (1889-1970s)

Plaster Models of Stone Benches. Undated.

[Weiblen, Albert] Albert Weiblen Marble & Granite Company (1889-1970s)

Photographs of Sample Marble Benches. Undated.

[Weiblen, Albert] Albert Weiblen Marble & Granite Company (1889-1970s)

Suggestion for Stone Seats for Audubon Park, New Orleans. 1920. Ink on linen.

Williams, Charles Milo (1867-1954)

Drawings of Chairs and Tables. 1903. Pen and ink.

William C. Williams & Brother (active 1884-c. 1890s)

Entrance Hall. Undated. Watercolor on paper.

William C. Williams & Brother (active 1884-c. 1890s)

Entrance Hall. Undated. Watercolor on paper.

Other catalogs/furniture announcements:

Auction Announcement 1861

Unreserved catalogue sale of very elegant household furniture from the best Paris makers, rich silver ware, ... by N. Vignie, auctioneer. Monday, April 22d and the following day ... no. 104 Bourbon street ... at the residence of A. Ledoux,Esq., leaving for Europe ... New Orleans, 1861. Courtesy The Louisiana Research Collection, Gift of Mrs. Alford Guna

Catalog No. 11, c. 1911

Southern Seating Company, New Orleans.

School Furniture Catalog 100S, c. 1919

Distributed by W.T. Moore & Co., New Orleans for Heywood-Wakefield. Wakefield, Massachusetts.

General Catalog of Equipment, 1926

Albert Pick and Company, Chicago, Illinois.

Church Furniture Catalog No. 51, 1952

Riecke Cabinet Works, New Orleans.

Unknown Maker

Theatre Seating Ends, c. 1900 From the St. Charles Theatre, St. Charles Avenue. Painted Cast Iron and Wood.

Sanitary Opera Chairs for Church Auditorium & Theatre Catalog, c. 1911

Southern Seating Company, New Orleans.

Theatre Seating Catalog, No. 99E, c. 1920s

Distributed by W.T. Moore & Co., New Orleans for Heywood-Wakefield. Wakefield, Massachusetts.

& In the Garden Library. . .

Roccheggiani, Lorenzo

Invenzioni diversi di mobile ed utensili sacri e profane per usi comuni della vita. Milan, 1811.

Wiedorn, William (1896-1988)

Hidden Garden. Undated. Graphite and Ink on Paper. William S. Wiedorn Collection, SEAA

Unknown Makers

Garden Seats illustrated in Gertrude Jekyll’s Garden Ornament. London, 1918.

Style of Adam, Robert (1728-1792)

Chair illustrated in Minga Pope Duryea’s Gardens in and about Town. New York, c. 1923.

Faux Bois

As illustrated in Edward Sprague Rand, Jr.’s Garden Flowers: How to Cultivate Them. A Treatise on the Culture of Hardy Ornamental Trees, Shrubs, Annuals, Herbaceous and Bedding Plants. Boston, 1866.

Image above: Detail, 1957 EMECO Catalog. Courtesy EMECO.