architecture (573)

SunRay Kelley Revisited

December 14, 2012 at 8:37 pm

On November 29, I posted a link to a large New York Times article on SunRay Kelley. In retrospect, it’s not really good or fair reportage on SunRay; it doesn’t do him justice. Part of it is East Coast reporter snark about West Coast free-spiritedness. Part of it is that the reporter just didn’t get SunRay— that he’s not only an artist, designer, architect, and inventor, but a master builder. His mortise and tenon joints, even with gnarly lumber, are tight. He’s a carpenter whose buildings soar. There’s a joy and a spirit in both builder and buildings. The NYTimes reporter missed all this and focussed on a bunch of trivialities.

    And there was a very weird interview with SunRay’s ex-wife, who came up with some mean-spirited comments. This shouldn’t have been included in the article. Cheap shot, ex-wife-wise and journalistic-wise.

   SunRay’s way better than you’d get from this account. In my opinion, there’s no other natural materials builder in the world who’s combined such ecology, design, and craftsmanship in so many buildings on the American landscape.

   Just settin it straight…

    For anyone interested in SunRay and his work, we have posted a PDF of the 27 pages we did on him and his work in Builders of the Pacific Coast in 2004. (We do—ahem—a way better job on builders than does the New York Times.)

   For the real SunRay, click here. (To get this in Acrobat, you may have to right-click and save linked file in downloads folder.)

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Art & Architecture in San Francisco

November 10, 2012 at 5:45 pm

Early start Saturday morning. I get so excited in the city (Manhattan as well).  That’s the old Marwedel Building with its unique glazed tile surface, on Mission St. In the ’40s and ’50s it was where we bought copper and leather and other art/craft items. Further on down Mission, the graffiti is just wonderful. Here are just a few shots (I shot a ton of great art in about 15 minutes). Country yokel bedazzled by urban creativity…Sending this off from Ritual Roasters on Valencia, a place this morning full of kids and their parents/sunlight streaming in, rocking music. Barista heaven. Now over to the Green Festival.

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Wonderful Little Book of Shelter Drawings

September 8, 2012 at 12:30 pm

This is an exquisite little book! The drawings are outstanding, and consistent. A primer on simple construction in a very small package. I just ordered 3 more copies. It’s made me check out (and order) other books by Wooden Books, Ltd., a wonderful collection.

https://www.woodenbooks.com/browse/index.php

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