“Music is liquid architecture; architecture is frozen music.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe During the polar vortex, the Chicago River froze solid. Needless to say, I did not take my hands out of my pockets on those -20-degree days! But I found myself on the river walk a day later and ended up walking a… Read More The Chicago River: Frozen Music
Most people don’t go to a natural history museum to see art, particularly if there is a world-class art museum just blocks away. Despite my attachment to the humanities, I come from a family of scientists, and I am an equal-opportunity museum goer. I am always game for a trip to the Field Museum. But… Read More The Art Behind the Science: Artists of the Field Museum
Just a mile from downtown Austin, Texas, in the heart of the 358-acre Zilker Park, is a half-mile-long swimming hole known as Barton Springs. The Springs have been popular for hundreds of years, serving first as a camping location for Native American tribes and later a site for a temporary mission established by the Spanish… Read More Barton Springs: Where Nature Meets City
Elisabet Ney (1833-1907) was no stranger to castles, so perhaps it should come as no surprise that when she built a house in Austin, it was a castle. Ney, a German-American sculptor, began her career in Germany where she sculpted the likes of Otto von Bismarck, King George V of Hanover, and Ludwig II of Bavaria… Read More A German Castle in Austin, Texas
Above: the ‘Sconset bluff walk As 2018 draws to a close, I’ve been looking back at everything that happened this year. I left my job at the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust (loved it there!) for a position as a historic preservation urban planner that I love even more. I also got married (in a historic… Read More Best of 2018
Happy Holidays! In honor of the season, I’m sharing some photographs from the Gold Coast neighborhood in Chicago. It’s one of my favorite neighborhoods for exploring architecture. It is home not just to the National Historic Landmark Charnley-Persky House (above), but the entire Astor Street Historic District. The Gold Coast sits between Lincoln Park and Streeterville,… Read More December Decor in the Gold Coast
In Chicago’s Gold Coast neighborhood, just down the street from a historic wood alley, is a rare example of design from another time period: the Art Moderne style Fisher Studio Houses. The building, built in 1936, is an example of pre-World War II modernism and is compromised of 12 residential unites on a interior courtyard.… Read More Art Moderne on State Street
In the mid-20th century, the United States had its gaze steadfastly fixed on the future. Just look at Tomorrowland in Disneyland, which opened in 1955, with the Space Age quickly on its heels in 1957. Two decades earlier Chicago hosted the 1933 Century of Progress International Exposition, a world’s fair with a theme of technological… Read More The House of Tomorrow Today
Edgartown, MA, sits on the eastern coast of Martha’s Vineyard. Its clustered houses all look toward the water and in the center of town you can catch the Chappy Ferry—a “three-car, three-minute” ferry to Chappaquiddick Island. Where Oak Bluff’s is Queen Anne style and colorful (more on that in this post), Edgartown is whitewashed and… Read More Edgartown, MA, and the Blue Porch Ceiling
When I visited Newport a few weeks ago, our main goals were to (1) go sailing and (2) walk the Cliff Walk. What we didn’t know was how many great things we’d find in between! We ended up making an impromptu stop at the Breakers because we wanted to see the view from their back… Read More Ceilings of the Gilded Age
Susie Trexler 