Robinson & Bours House in Milwaukee

June 24, 2011 by 1 Comment
Robinson-Bours House and Garden

Robinson-Bours House © 2011 Bo Mackison

One of the homes featured on the Wright & Like Tour 2011 in Milwaukee was the Dr. T. Robinson & Emma Bours House designed by once Wright associate Russell Barr Williamson. The home was constructed in 1921-22 and is Williamson’s best example of the classic Prairie-style architecture. The home has been carefully preserved and maintained, and remains true to Williamson’s design except for the two enclosed porches and bathrooms and kitchen remodeling projects.

Some of its more notable Prairie style features are the low-pitched terra-cotta roof, the strong horizontal lines and overhanging eaves. Further decorative details include long horizontal brickwork, the brick pilasters, cast planters, and stained glass windows set on concrete lintels.

Robinson-Bours Garden

Robinson-Bours Side Garden and Planter © 2011 Bo Mackison

The garden, designed and carefully tended by the current owners, complements the exterior of the home. The pink poppies and pink/yellow lupine contrasted beautifully with blue and purple iris. What a fantastic display of color!

Wright-Like Garden Fence

Wright-Like Red Garden Fence © 2011 Bo Mackison

The garden is partially surrounded by this handsome red wrought iron fence, designed by Williamson, but so much like the wrought iron work Wright often designed. Even the color — Cherokee red — is a Wright favorite.

Williamson worked with Wright from 1912-1918 and managed his Chicago office. When Wright was in Japan, Williamson supervised the construction and completion of many of Wright’s buildings in the Milwaukee area.

Classic Prairie-style. A handsome house, inside and out.

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Bo Mackison is a photographer and the owner of Seeded Earth Studio LLC.  She is known for her botanical photography, but Prairie-style architecture is another of her favorite subjects.

 

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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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Off Kilter

March 16, 2010 by 10 Comments
Another Metaphorical Self Portrait

Self Portrait?

Another self portrait in metaphor.

Not quite in balance.

Need a bit of freshening, but an hour’s work would take care of those smudges, straighten the tangled cords of the window blind.

And a bit of sanding and a fresh coat of paint would hide those worn areas.

Like I mentioned before–metaphor.

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The View from Harbor 550

August 29, 2008 by 5 Comments
A View from Harbor 550

 View of Milwaukee Art Museum from Harbor 550 © 2008

This lovely brick patio is right on the edge of Lake Michigan. We visited the Harbor 550 on an early morning, but I want to return for an evening visit so I can sit around the brick fireplaces, which are strategically placed along the shoreline, and look out over Lake Michigan and Milwaukee’s lakefront.

Delicious!

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The Calling – A Point of Debate

August 25, 2008 by 6 Comments
The Calling by sculptor Jeff di Suvero

‘The Calling’ by sculptor Jeff di Suvero © 2008

Another one of my visits to Milwaukee produced some photos of one of the cities’ main and oldest streets, Wisconsin Avenue. This huge sculpture is at the top of the street near Lake Michigan, and across the street from the Milwaukee Art Museum.  When it was erected by American sculptor Mark di Suvero in 1982, it overlooked the street and set off a nearby blue building , and of course, complemented the blue/green shadings of Lake Michigan.

Since the addition of the Santiago Calatrava’s addition to the Milwaukee Art Museum in 2001, opponents have occasionally requested that the steel orange sculpture be re-located. Critics claim ‘The Calling’  – which most Milwaukeeans refer to as ‘The Sunburst’ – blocks the view of Calatrava’s movable winged ‘architectural sculpture.’  Some suggest that the industrial sculpture be moved to a sculpture garden on the museum’s site. Others even recommend its movement further east – about 500 feet further east – which would drop it square under the surface of Lake Michigan! Still others advocate leaving it as it is. Here is a view of the entire sculpture and a panoramic view of the sculpture and the downtown buildings overlooking the lake.

Such is the life of a piece of public street art – always up for a strongly contested and opinionated debate. And that is good. People are looking, evaluating, thinking about the art they see in their environment. They are making an effort to decide if they like individual pieces, choosing if what they see they consider art – which is entirely within their rights.

People debating art.Seems like a good thing to me.

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