Wonderful Wychwood Park

We took an excellently guided architectural ROM walk through Wychwood Park on the wettest day of the summer so far. There is something very beautiful about taking pictures in the rain. The monsoon-like deluge was a relief from the thick, blanket-like humidity that had been dogging us all day. Everything was lush, green, tropical and dripping. I had shelter with my pink umbrella, and a small caterpillar took shelter under a leaf (illustrated below). Wychwood, an enclave of Arts and Crafts architecture, is a beautifully maintained private neighbourhood. Oh, if only all neighbourhoods had this magnificent foliage! Sometimes it makes it challenging to see the houses through the trees, but that's a small price to pay, and I'm sure the inhabitants like it that way.

September Trip Highlights

I've changed this post. It became apparent there were way too many pics and I'd be here for days. So instead of a day-by-day, here are the highlights of our nine-day tour of Frank Lloyd Wright (FLLW) architecture and other Arts and Crafts-related sites.


The "Craft in America" exhibit was taking place at the Cranbrook Art Museum in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. What a stunning campus of gardens and magnificent buildings.




This was the last blue sky we'd see for a few days:

In Grand Rapids we saw the Meyer May house, designed by FLLW and latterly bought and restored by Steelcase. They've done an admirable job. This was the only major home we didn't get to see inside during the trip. I hadn't seen one of FLLW's homes "in person" in a while. I am always amazed at how radical they must have been for the time, and was reminded once again of his trademarks: shallow roofs (which had a habit of leaking), cantilevers, art-glass windows, horizontal lines, almost-hidden front doors, and oppressive entrance halls that opened up into welcoming living areas.

As we drove across Michigan into Illinois, and towards Chicago, Hurricane Ike was moving north to meet us.

I've wanted to visit Chicago for years, ever since reading the V. I. Warshawski novels by Sara Paretsky. And here I was! We walked down the Magnificent Mile and came across this 20-foot-or-so-tall statue of King Lear, by J. Seward Johnson. He's located in Pioneer Court, next to the Tribune Tower, and seemed braced to withstand the blustery wind and rain about us. We were lucky. So many in the area and elsewhere got flooded out and battered very badly due to Ike.








Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow!
You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout
Till you have drench'd our steeples, drown'd the cocks!
You sulphurous and thought-executing fires,
Vaunt-couriers to oak-cleaving thunderbolts,
Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder,
Smite flat the thick rotundity o' the world!
Crack nature's moulds, an germens spill at once,
That make ingrateful man!

King Lear, Act III (Shakespeare)


Seeing Chicago first in the rain and mist was quite wonderful. It seemed a gentle introduction to this magnificent city, which has become another item on my list of life experiences which exceeded expectation. I was lucky to meet the charming and glamah-rous Coco and also to be toured around by a dear friend.

Just south of King Lear was this famous cluster of skyscrapers and I was quite dazzled. My camera just doesn't begin to do them justice. The dark green tower with the golden top, second from the left, is the Carbon and Carbide building, now home to the Hard Rock Hotel, and the subject of a future post.




Then, finally, the same scene in the sun, as Ike passed over:




Damn, I loved these skyscrapers!

Sometimes I remembered to look down, too:




Bruce met some friends at the very cool Puppet Bike. He looked more startled than usual at their friendly embraces.

We visited the Robie House (FLLW) and were impressed - again - by the determination of those who save and restore these precious buildings. They fight such an uphill battle...




I love how the different colour mortar creates the horizontal lines in the brick work, not to mention the art-glass windows:




We visited the Charnley-Persky House and had fun determining which bits were designed by Louis Sullivan (the official architect) and which by FLLW (who was Sullivan's chief draughtsman at the time).

A stunner turned out to be the 2nd Presbyterian Church at 1936 S. Michigan Avenue. The church has been untouched for decades, which - on the one hand - means it retains its treasures, but they are now in dire need of repair. Those treasures in include nine stunning stained-glass windows by Tiffany, and two designed by Burne-Jones and executed by Morris and Company. Once on the church's site, pleace click on "Art and History", then "Windows" to see those treasures, and on "Angels Fund" if you feel you can help in some way.




Here's Bruce at a corner of Millenium Park, past which you can see the old Chicago Public Library which is now the Chicago Cultural Center. There we enjoyed an extensive exhibit of Marilyn Monroe as interpreted by artists in photograph and illustration.




In the Cultural Center, under the recently-restored Tiffany dome, we heard a noon-hour chamber recital of Ferenc and Schikele.

The mosaic-inlaid walls and ceilings shimmer slightly. BPG is also a bit of a magpie so I was dazzled and somewhat hypnotized by all of it.




Cloud Gate (more fondly known as The Bean):






The beautiful Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio in Oak Park, among many other lovely homes:




We then headed out of the city into Wisconsin. Dawn in Spring Green, from our hotel room balcony:




FLLW's home, studio and school at Taliesin:

Hillcrest School, which is part of the Taliesin complex:

Macro time:




Bruce hanging out at the Taliesin visitor centre, formerly a FLLW-designed restaurant. Part of it still is so we ate and also... shopped. Yikes... so many souvenirs!




We visited the S.C. Johnson Wax Building (FLLW-designed) but no photography allowed. We also visited Johnson's FLLW-designed home, Wingspread, my favourite house of the lot.

Some wacko tree-hugger at Wingspread:

Bruce enjoyed hanging out from the grape vines.

A Usonian house in Milwaukee. FLLW-designed for the everyman. :)

Macro shot in Wisconsin:




The view from our hotel room in Racine. This was a good way to wind down the vacation.




And of course, we remembered International Talk-Like-a-Pirate Day AND scored some drink and watches at Duty Free. Arr...