Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church, a Frank Lloyd Wright Design

September 22, 2011 by 3 Comments
Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church and Entrance

Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church © 2011 Bo Mackison

The Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church, one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s last architectural designs, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Designed by Wright in 1959 shortly before his death, the building was completed in 1961. The church is located in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, a suburb of Milwaukee just west of the city, though often the site is incorrectly given as Milwaukee.

Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church with Rose Garden

Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church with Rose Garden © 2011 Bo Mackison

We visited the church in June of this year, during the Wright and Like 2011 Tour, and were able to tour and photograph both the exterior and the interior of the building. All Greek Orthodox churches have domes, and this church is no exception. I think this dome is especially lovely, matched against the bright blue summer sun.

Detail of Dome of Annunciation Church

Detail of Dome of Annunciation Church © 2011 Bo Mackison

The Church is beautifully done, both the exterior and the interior. The dome’s support is very modern in style and part of its weight rests on a concentric concrete form.

In 1958, when the leaders of the church went to Spring Green to discuss the plans of the church with Wright, they were sent away several times without any definitive answers. Finally, in desperation, the men said they had to have information about the church or they would have to consider hiring a different architect. So the story goes, Mr. Wright looked at the assembly of church leaders before him, took his coffee cup and saucer, drank the last of the coffee, and then turned the cup upside down and placed it on the saucer.

“There,” Wright said. “There is your church. Your church will resemble this cup and saucer.”

Evidently, that was enough of a plan for the men from the church, Wright went ahead with the commission, and the next time they met, Wright had plans drawn up that they could examine.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.

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North Point Lighthouse

June 15, 2011 by 4 Comments
North Point Lighthouse and Queen Anne-style Keeper's Quarters in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

North Point Lighthouse and Queen Anne-style Keeper's Quarters © 2011 Bo Mackison

The North Point Lighthouse and Quarter’s Keepers was the headquarters and first stop on the Wright and Like Tour held the weekend of June 10-12, 2011 in the Milwaukee area. The tour, an annual affair sponsored by the Frank Lloyd Wright® Wisconsin Heritage Tourism Program, Inc., included tours of buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and other related architects. In addition to the lighthouse, there were thirteen homes on Saturday’s tour.

The North Point Light Station is in Lake Park, a north shore park, and situated on the bluffs overlooking Lake Michigan. It consists of a 74-foot lighthouse and two and wood-frame, Queen Anne-style Keeper’s Quarters.

Lake Park, with the lighthouse as its central structure, was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted in the 1890s. Olmsted also designed New York’s Central Park and the grounds of the 1893 Chicago Exposition and was a leading American landscape architect of that era.

North Point Lighthouse Circular Staircase with Port Hole, Milwaukee Wisconsin

North Point Lighthouse Circular Staircase with Port Hole © 2011 Bo Mackison

This is the second lighthouse on this site. The original lighthouse, built in 1868, required replacement because it was not high enough to provide an adequate warning light.

Construction of the North Point Light Station was built in 1887-88. The lighthouse was placed atop a 39-foot high octagon shaped structure constructed entirely of bolted cast iron sections. The 1868 lens was placed in the new Lighthouse.

Foggy, Rainy, Through-a-Dirty-Window View of Lake Michigan from the North Point Lighthouse in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Foggy, Rainy, Through-a-Dirty-Window, View of Lake Michigan from North Point Lighthouse © 2011 Bo Mackison

North Point Lighthouse and the Keeper’s Quarters were placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. The U.S. Coast Guard removed the lighthouse from service in 1994 and the original Fourth Order Fresnel lens was removed and stored by the U.S. Coast Guard in Milwaukee. The lighthouse was restored in 2007 to its original glory by the North Point Lighthouse Friends, Inc. It is open for weekend tours, and well worth the nominal cost.

We climbed to the top of the Lighthouse tower — certainly not for the view as it was foggy and rainy, and the windows had a layer of dust that obscured the view, even if it had been a clear day. No, we climbed the circular staircases for the thrill of climbing six flights of stairs in very tight quarters. Good for challenging both my claustrophobia and Sherpa’s acrophobia.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.

 

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Frosty Morning Handiwork

October 25, 2008 by 12 Comments
Queen Anne with Frosty Lace

Queen Anne’s Frosty Lace ©2008 Bo Mackison

Here’s the Queen with a bit of decorative hat. There is beauty even in the changes of the seasons, though I am fond of autumn’s color and mildness, and haven’t yet had my fill. I will have to keep autumn’s memory close by being satisfied with the photographs that stay – no matter how wild the weather gets outside.

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Portrait of a Peacock

March 2, 2008 by 19 Comments

PLUMAGES

We’ve been wearing a winter coat
like drab and tired feathers
and an old beaten hat
like a drooping crest.

Grey days, grey skies, grey hearts.
Barnyard birds of routine,
low horizons, chicken wire souls.
We peck at what’s given us.

Why don’t we wake up early
tomorrow and catch the sun
in the drop at the end
of the drain-pipe?

Why don’t we sing to the moon
for a change and ask foxes
to dance their tangos
and wild tarantellas?

And then let’s change clothes
with phoenixes
and steal thunder
from the peacocks.

Then we’ll stand arrayed in opal
and emerald plumage,
in scarlet and tangerine
and pinions of azure and silver.

Then we’ll be kings and queens
among daisies and irises,
in poppy-fields and thyme-gardens,
through the bluebells
and even among the roses!

Then we are the crested emblems
of life in the air,
life among flowers,
life even in the barnyards
and the crates off to market.

Let’s never take off
these beautiful clothes.

from my poetry friend, Kate Chadbourne

photograph, Milwaukee County Zoo
Milwaukee, WI

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