Reading recommendation: Yankee Modern: The Houses of Estes/Twombly

cover photo via amazon.comSomeone asked me if I like Modern houses the other day. It was a simple enough question, but I found myself delivering a convoluted answer. 

What do we mean by Modern? What does liking it or not liking it mean? Does the answer classify me as a member of one camp and not another?

I offer you Yankee Modern as a partial answer. It features ten houses by the Rhode Island firm of Estes/Twombly Architects. Both principles are fellow RISD alumni, with Estes graduating 20 years before me. 

Their work, by their own description, portrays a "quiet modernism, rooted in New England tradition". It's simple, straightforward, spare, and regionally inspired in design and material.

It's neither Modern (of the mid-century variety) nor traditional.  It is of today and of its place. And, yeah, I like it.

I like the photo-centric book too.

by Katie Hutchison for House Enthusiast

Polly Hill Arboretum Stewartia

Click on this photo to see it in the KHS photo note cards/prints gallery.Some landscapes enthrall visitors season after season. Polly Hill Arboretum on Martha’s Vineyard is among them. I’ve featured gems from the 20-acre cultivated grounds before. Remember the robust outdoor fireplace?
 
During my most recent visit, I rediscovered the leathery, peeling bark of the Stewartia. The eye-catching bark is but one highlight of this stunning specie which offers mid-summer blossoms and colorful leaves come fall. Polly Hill Arboretum boasts twenty Stewartia varieties, clustered in groves and featured as specimens. 

Visit the Arboretum any day between sunrise and sunset to take in the breadth and beauty this Island respite offers. The Visitor Center is open Memorial Day weekend to Columbus Day, and informative daily tours are available between those dates. Mark you calendars.

by Katie Hutchison for the House Enthusiast

Backyard retreat web tour, house tour, and garden tour all-in-one

Did you see The New York Times article last week about the garage retreat near Seattle?  It's a fun and sophisticated 250-square-foot getaway.

A small space of one's own, beyond the hustle and bustle of everyday life, can remind us of life's simple pleasures. Such little buildings generally tread lightly on both the environment and our pocketbooks, while recharging our spirits.

The design of small retreats, backyard and beyond would be a great topic for a book, don't you think?  I thought so and was working on such a book a couple of years ago. Unfortunately, it fell victim to the publishing industry's downsizing which began in mid-2008. I still believe there's a book there, waiting to be discovered.

You can sample a Katie Hutchison Studio small retreat design by visiting the Manchester Garage/Garden Room page in the KHS architectural portfolio.

I imagine my fascination with the topic started with my childhood backyard retreat and was reinforced by my mother's current, petite summerhouse in her Connecticut village. I wrote about her garden and her little retreat in a House Garden Primer.

Get a peek at her garden summerhouse in this short Flip video.

by Katie Hutchison for House Enthusiast

Historic Salem Jail finds new life as apartments, restaurant, and exhibit space

Old Salem Jail complex, now 50 St. Peter, seen from the cemeteryI arrived for the open house a little late.  This wasn’t your typical open house; this was the big house, the Old Salem Jail.  I found a line two- to three-people thick starting at the c. 1813 jail entrance, trailing past the c. 1813 jail-keeper’s house, and turning at the new carriage house which stands on the footprint of its barn predecessor.

From the excited chatter in the line you might have thought we were queuing up to see a prestigious show.  Instead, we were eagerly anticipating the transformation of the jail’s three-building complex into 23 rental units, a restaurant, and jail exhibit.  I was among, what Merry Fox Realty estimates to have been, 3000 curious visitors. So what’s all the fuss about?

“I think any time you have a quality building that’s built from this early of an era, it’s exciting to those of us who are really interested in historic architecture,” explains architect Jim Alexander of Finegold Alexander + Associates Inc. who teamed up with developer New Boston Ventures LLC and Metric Construction to bring the complex, renamed 50 St. Peter, to reality.

Open HouseSince it was vacated in 1991, the hulking granite and brick jail had been lurking behind a razor-wire fence and aggressive weeds on prime property.  In 2005 New Boston Ventures LLC stepped in with a mixed-use proposal that included market-rate condominiums.  When the economy stumbled in 2008/2009, so did the project. As a result, the developer switched gears and secured alternative financing via historic tax credits administered by the National Park Service in order to develop rentable apartments which will be eligible for condo conversion in five years. Now those apartments are scheduled for June 1 occupancy.

“What our goal was, and I’m hoping we accomplished, is to offer the highest level of finish ever offered in a rental development on the North Shore,” says David Goldman a principal at New Boston Ventures and its affiliate Old Salem Jail Ventures LLC.

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