View from campsite. R campground.
Drying out after the rain.
Arrival at Miller House (view from adjacent park). The house embraces the shoreline of the Cedar River.
Miller House. Entry. Overhanging eave above calls attention to threshold.
Interface of stone and wood. Windows project outward beyond face of stone, a reverse base/shaft effect wherein the windows function visually as a part of the roof system (refer to Moore House in Oak Park, 'roof cap project'). Window modules call to mind the Erdman Prefabs as seen in Madison.
Macro-scale wood horizontals underscore the horizontal thrust of the stone. They thus function (from a visual/conceptual standpoint) analogously to the projected stone units.
Detail. Skylights at overhang.
Contrast of coarse to smooth further integrates house into site. Heavy stone masses produce a visual anchor, attesting to its geological history, while smooth floor-to-ceiling glass reflects the river and surrounding natural elements, folding these areas into and around the stone, creating an 'island effect' of sorts in which the stone masses become 'lived in' ruins (a chronological oxymoron). This only begins to touch upon the poetics of the tactile contrast, as well as the intuitive effects of entry / barrier, as rendered from the stone and glass.
View of bike/pedestrian bridge over Cedar River. As fate would have it, I ended up inflating the bicycle tires of the gentleman that wrote the grant for all the bike paths in Charles City. It was a great conversation and opportunity to learn of the waterfront development along the Cedar River within the city. In fact, just last week they (the city, in conjunction with R Campground) opened a kayak rodeo park, already attracting attention from Colorado and Wisconsin, among other states.
Steeple. Immaculate Conception Church. Charles City, Iowa.
Mailbox detail. Tractor land.
I can't think of anything more appropriate for an exit path from Iowa than a newly paved road surface with starkly contrasting black, gold and white colors. The Hawkeye State.
Up?
June 21. First day of summer with appropriate cumulus cloud coverage.
Elam House. Austin, Minnesota. As viewed from street. One of the most brilliant architectural features of the house is the primary projecting eave (to right, see below). In my opinion, the brilliance is not so much that the roof line has long projections (though I do think this interesting in terms of a 'roof folding into earth' idea, part of a longer elaboration). Rather, the means of producing the effect interest me. Observe the step-back of windows (the corner glass just left of the right stone pier), which amplifies the effect by pulling back the masonry from the overhang. A subtle gesture with profound visual effect.
Detail, primary projecting eave. Dramatic overhang predating the contemporary aggressive works of Zaha Hadid, Daniel Libeskind, or Jean Nouvel.
Primary projecting eave. As viewed from ancillary entry.
Red roof lines dancing above of the earth.
Ancillary dwelling space to rear of site. Roof line swells out of site and nearly touches to distant right (not shown here).
View of sun reflecting on Oakland Avenue a la film noir (its use of wet streets to enhance light conditions).
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