Wooden Chapel on the Site of Old Belozersk. First mentioned in Russian chronicles for the year 862 A.D., the town of Belozersk or “White Lake” was abandoned and relocated several times. The original settlement, commemorated here by a small nineteenth-century wooden chapel, was on the north side of the White Lake in north central European Russia.
Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii.
A Chapel on the Site Where the Old City of Belozersk Stood, 1909.
Digital color rendering
This is from: https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire/architecture.html.
The whole digitized collection of thousands of photos can be found at https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/empire
Sent us by Kevin Kelly
From Boing Boing, posted by Cory Doctorow yesterday (Perfect timing for me, since I’m taking off this weekend for the Book Expo America convention and a week in NYC, one of my great loves.)
“How To Be a Retronaut has a large gallery of images from Store Front: The Disappearing Face of New York, a new book by James and Karla Murray that documents the vanishing golden-age shop signs of New York City, including interviews with the shop owners. The Associated Press review says, ‘They tell the story of the 20th century in New York, with wisps of the 19th and hints of the 21st. If you want to understand the aesthetics of the country’s most famous city at street level, this is the best way to do it short of actually going there.’
“During the eight years it took James and Karla Murray to complete this project, one third of the stores they featured have closed”
– Newsweek
https://www.howtobearetronaut.com/2011/05/the-disappearing-face-of-new-york/
“The Langston Hughes Library is a private non-circulating library designed by Maya Lin (most famous for her Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial in Washington DC), and located on the Haley Farm in Clinton, TN. It contains a 5,000-volume reference collection focusing on works by African-American authors and illustrator, and books focused on the Black experience.…
An 1860s refurbished barn and two corn cribs comprise the exterior skin of the building. The rustic exterior, which evokes the ‘architectural vernacular of 19th-century East Tennessee, a plain language of silvery, time-worn siding, rough logs, and minimal geometries,’ is melded with modern Shaker-like simplicity on the interior.
Maya Lin pointed out that the function of the exterior and that of the interior were different and thus she ‘wanted to make a real cut between outside and inside…there didn’t seem to be much point in preserving the rustic feel of the barn’s interior.’
…A striking aspect of the design (is) the glass-encased corn cribs that act as a base for the cantelievered barn that sits atop them. Margaret Butler of Martella Associates states that the glass between the logs ‘glows like a Chinese lantern’ at night…”
Abovehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langston_Hughes_Library
Maya Lin’s website: https://www.mayalin.com/
Master natural materials builder SunRay Kelley and his partner Bonnie have just returned from a 6000 mile trip to Mexico in their in-process solar powered biodiesel Toyota camper (see https://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=10883512 for stuff on my blog about SunRay).
SunRay’s looking for a project. The last one he did was a beautiful little sculptural timber-cob studio in Northern California, which I photographed for a feature in our forthcoming tiny houses book. He brought all the wall and roof sheathing with him, cut and milled on his Washington property, then got posts and beams in the local woods. He told me a few days ago that things were slow in Washington and he was looking for a project. He’s done projects as far away from home as New York state and Mexico.
I couldn’t recommend anyone more highly. His structures utilize almost all natural materials in ingenious ways, are beautiful, and finely crafted. Call 360-333-0364 or email Bonnie at sunray@sunraykelley.com.
By Santa Barbara (Calif.) architect Mathew Hoffman
https://is.gd/airstrremodel
While looking at some of Yestermorrow’s projects just now, I spotted another tree house:
This morning, Louie, his friend Suzanne, and I walked down to the Gualala beach after breajfast. Huge crashing waves, tons of driftwood, and this perfect little driftwood tipi.
Healdsburg, northern California yesterday afternoon. Check scroll work at gable.
Barn on road from Healdsburg to Forestville.
The Hop Kiln Winery. Louie says they probably dried apples and other fruits, as well as hops. Look at this stonework.
Got over to the coast around 8PM, went to the recently refurbished Timber Cove Inn to get a couple of draft Boont ales and great hamburger with as-good-as-they-get fries. I knew the architect, Dick Clements, back in the early ’60s.; I cut shakes from a deadfall tree on his land.
Back then I didn’t realize what a great building this is. The place fell into disrepair over the years and was recently bought by people who obviously love it, and they invested a lot to resuscitate it. It’d be a great place to hole up for a weekend away from the city. Right on the ocean, fires burning in bar and restaurant. Good food.
The storm was just blowing in as I got there. Exciting!
After beer and burger, I drove north along the coast as wind-whipped rain pelted the truck.
Sending this out on 2nd day of trip from the Arena Market and Cafe in Pt. Arena. On the way into town this morning was Shake, Rattle and Roll by Big Joe Turner. What a great song! One of my favorite songs when I was 18.
…get in that kitchen, make some noise with the pots ‘n pans.
So gender-incorrect in these times…
I drove along the coast yesterday morning, heading for Berkeley. A big storm was brewing out in the Pacific and the air was supercharged. Crows and turkey buzzards were soaring in the updrafts, swooping with the wind. Later in the day, near the Home Depot in El Cerrito, there were like 100 seagulls wheeling around in the air, shooting up and floating and diving. They were playing! You think of dogs playing, but birds do too. The joy of being carried about by the wind. Oh to have wings!
I go to the East Bay almost weekly now and always take a little time out to drive through the residential neighborhoods and along the streets looking at houses and stores. More interesting than Marin with its exquisiteness and preciousness. Oakland, El Cerrito, Richmond — the real world.
I gotta tell you, I love doing this blog. Wish I had more time. I also wish I could do a quick layout of a few pages, say of yesterday’s excursion, with photos and text, but I’m limited to stacking pics on top of each other for internet expediency. Here are a few from yesterday.
Above: check out tiny 2-story house on left. I love the brick red color. All of our many doors and windows on the homestead here are painted this color.
Witty architecture in Berkeley
Nice solid old house
This was either in San Pablo or Richmond.
“Yestermorrow Design/Build School, located in the Green Mountains in Vermont, offers over 170 hands-on courses per year in design, construction, woodworking, and architectural craft and offers a variety of courses concentrating in sustainable design.
Now in its 30th year, Yestermorrow is one of the only design/build schools in the country, teaching both design and construction skills. Our 1-day to 12-week hands-on programs are taught by top architects, builders, and craftspeople from across the country. For people of all ages and experience levels, from novice to professional.”
https://www.yestermorrow.org/
Wooden Chapel on the Site of Old Belozersk. First mentioned in Russian chronicles for the year 862 A.D., the town of Belozersk or “White Lake” was abandoned and relocated several times. The original settlement, commemorated here by a small nineteenth-century wooden chapel, was on the north side of the White Lake in north central European Russia.
