Girl About Town: Wolf House Ruins

Walking through the grounds of Jack London's Beauty Ranch, it's easy to see why he wanted to build his dream house there. The landscape is lush and varied, suitable for farming and ideal for peaceful reflection. Nestled in the Valley of the Moon, it's close enough to San Francisco for lively social calls, far enough away for a writer's solitude.

With a dining room large enough to seat 50 guests, and a private writer's retreat in the treetops, Wolf House was designed to accommodate every aspect of the London's lifestyle. It burned in 1913, mere weeks before they were to move in.

It's an impressive ghost, even reduced to a skeleton of lava rock and metal. Built to last, stone archways and  beautiful brick fireplaces gape eerily above the hollow structure. Now swathed in moss, it remains a dream of a house.

If you're just joining in now, we started our walk through Jack London State Park yesterday with a look at the cottage kitchen, interiors from around the estate, and a dining room with inspiring significance. This afternoon we finish our tour at the London's grave site.

Girl About Town: Jack London's China Cabinet

Well, Charmian London's, to be exact. This is the dining room in The House With Happy Walls, a home built after Jack's death. It currently exists, per Charmian's wishes, as a museum at Jack London State Park to showcase her husband's adventures and accomplishments. The house is a gallery of photographs, publications, and prized possessions from their worldly travels. My favorite part was the oddly extravagant dining room, with an indoor fountain, a massive bank of windows, and three walls of cabinets specifically designed to display a very special set of dishes.

If you look closely, you'll notice that the cabinet knobs are off-set.

Look closer still and you'll realize that the hardware and cabinet trim have been painted to match the china within. The floral shape of the knobs emulates the leafy ornaments on the serving pieces, and both are given an illustrative quality with green outlines.

I love the idea of decorating to celebrate an heirloom or beloved artifact. Even more, I love the significance of these plates and bowls to their owners: Jack London purchased the set from the estate of Robert Louis Stevenson, a man he greatly admired but never met. 

Today I showed you Jack's enviable kitchen sink and some of the interesting interiors on the property. Tomorrow I'll take you on a hike through the grounds...

Dare to Dream: Parisian Perfection

Sometimes, I can let a picture do all the talking (with a musical French accent).

Photograph by Gilles de Chabaneix, Scanned by Shock the Bourgeois

Back to Future Shack: A Recap

After a stroll through the past at the Sunday Flea Market, we hopped on a bus to the future.

Future Shack, that is!

In preparation, Adam and I spent the afternoon in feisty discussion about modern architecture- and I wish we'd seen the same spirit out of the Future Shack panel. It became clear that the two juries had polarized agendas for the future of our city, but they tiptoed around their differences very politely. To hell with polite! These are issues of major import- something worth of throwing punches raising your voice over.

Despite this, we really did learn a lot. In most cases we found ourselves siding with the public jury, who placed a greater value on maintaining Seattle's aesthetics than maximizing density. They acknowledged the need for a variety of housing- and that one-size-fits-all needn't be the solution for dwellings. They even admitted to preferring a more traditional style of construction. (I wanted to high-five Knute Berger when he said he had liked an old house that had been torn down better than the project that had replaced it!) I thought the overall attitude of the public jury was appreciative... but hesitant. The heart of the issue? While the jurors admired the innovations of the modern projects, they didn't want to live there.

Adam and I found the social engineering aspect of many of the projects to be disconcerting. I feel that a home should be sculpted around its occupants, not the other way around. The size of your home should be based on your needs and means, not based on the lowest common denominator of the community. And it's not immoral to require a parking space!

So, the program reaffirmed to us that we aren't really new house types. But, all my ranting aside, we were inspired by what we saw: buildings constructed conscientiously and creatively, even if they didn't appeal to our taste.

I've already mentioned my admiration for House for a Mother and Daughter. Here's a few other submissions that earned my non-professional approval...

Impluvium by Roger H. Newell was the only multi-unit building that I would have seriously considered living in. The exterior was completely inoffensive to the surrounding neighborhood- and I think that's the highest compliment that an apartment building can achieve. I could actually imagine this building becoming more attractive with age.

Photo by Jennifer Jenkins - Vista Estate Imaging

Danielson Grove by The Cottage Company really got us thinking. I wasn't thrilled by the execution, but I was inspired by the concept. The project is essentially a mini-development of small-scale detached homes, designed to appeal to people like Adam and myself. We won't have the budget for a full lot for quite a while, but sharing walls with our neighbors has become very tiresome. I'd love to see a similar project in which the homes sported a little more variety and were plotted out in a more organic (and less grid-like) way.

Photo by Ross Chapin, Triad Associates, Northwest Property Images

Boulders at Greenlake by Johnston Architects was a fresh take on high-density living. Knute Berger put it best when he described it as having the feel of "urban Paganism." There's something that gets my romantic little heart beating! The finishes, while modern, were very characteristic of the Northwest. My favorite part of this project (other than that worship-worthy tree) were the peaked roofs. A refreshing departure from uncountable boxy, flat-roofed dwellings!

Photo by Will Austin

Our verdict? We hope they ramp the discussion up next year and find a way to involve more audience participation. I think this is an excellent forum for intelligent and active community members to interact with design professionals. Adam and I are eager to come back in 2010!

Future Shack 2009

How is it that a long weekend makes the following week seem even lonnnnnnngerrrr?

I'm definitely ready for my weekend. I'll be:

• Hitting up Greenwood Garage Sale Day to see if there are any finds to be found.
• Enjoying the 80º weather while it lasts!
• Attending the AIA Seattle Future Shack event...

You might recall my post this summer about the house on my street that I have a little crush on.

I admire it each time I walk by. It's modern without feeling sharp, it's compelling without being jarring. It's a home, not an experiment. Remember that I wished for more information on the project?

Well, happy birthday, myself: turns out that this house is amongst the projects submitted for Future Shack, and we can all take a little peek inside!

Image by Frank Jenkins

Image by Hutchison & Maul Architecture

What is Future Shack? This is a competition started this year by the AIA and the Seattle Times to celebrate architectural projects that approach urban living from a progressive angle. The projects have been reviewed by two separate juries- one made up of community members, the other of design professionals. Selected projects will be featured in Pacific Northwest Magazine.

You know that I'm a girl who loves all things vintage and quirky- but I'm intrigued by the approach that Future Shack is taking with modern architecture. One of the criteria for submissions was "Past Forward: designs that incorporate the historic fabric into a forward-looking housing solution." Whoah. They had me at "historic."

Sunday's event will be a discussion between the juries and the audience about the merit of these projects and their impact on our city. Can modern innovation work around the constraints of city living without being sterile?

If you're a Seattle resident who plans on twiddling their thumbs this Sunday evening, I suggest you head on over to Future Shack! For more information, and to purchase tickets, visit the AIA website.

If you see me there, say hi! I'm hoping for a lively debate!

Inspiration: Less is More

I don't get the "less is more" thing. Don't play your word games with me- more is more, and we both know it. Modernist aesthetic and recession be damned, give me more.

And yet... I love this.

It's less, it's more, it's the destruction of my design philosophy.

This home in my neighborhood fascinates me. The ultra simple barn structure in matte charcoal gray... the row of square windows with brick-red trim... the no-nonsense concrete wall paired with the bare picket fence... and of course, the mounds of lavender.

It's tradition reduced to its most basic, graphic forms.

Just a perfect, harmonious chord.

What I wouldn't give for more information... or a look inside this house!

It's All in the Details

Hello friends!  

I'm about half-way through burning the edges of my piratey picnic invitations, but I had to take a little break. What am I learning from this project?  First, that cardstock doesn't burn easily.  Second, that my thumbs don't take well to an hour of clicking a lighter.  And last, that I could be in danger of becoming some sort of crazy PTA party-planning mom when I grow up.  It may be unavoidable.

Anyway.  When I haven't been crafting corsair cards, I've been finding treasure in my own neighborhood.

The weather was just nice enough yesterday for Adam and I to enjoy our Sunday pastries at a favorite haunt... 

Wallingford's Meridian Park.

The entrance to the park- an arch, a winding path, an intricate shell & stone collage.

 

The park is lush and green in the summertime, with lots of knotty old trees for shade.

 

Wallingford is decked out in some of my favorite colors.  

LOVE that combination of pink and velvety black.

And then, on a whim, we decided to walk past one of my favorite houses in the neighborhood. You might not guess it- but it's actually an apartment building!  Dedicated landlord, eh?

I took this picture on an evening stroll last week.  

(I was just glad to see that someone else put twinkle lights up for the summer!)

I was excited to show you the sky blue porch ceilings.  

What a charming idea for Seattle, where our gray skies can be a deterrent for enjoying the outdoors!

As I was snapping pictures something caught my eye.  What an interesting stair rail...

Snake!  Snake!  Oooh, it's a snake!

So fantastic it just makes me shiver.  *whew!*  I wonder where one buys a serpentine handrail?