Every once in a while when I comb through my stacks of newly arrived shelter magazines, I think it’s time to reduce my subscriptions. I weigh which to eliminate, often zeroing in on the somewhat staid cover of Old-House Journal. Then I read the cover lines and find my curiosity piqued, and before I know it, I’m engrossed in a story.

The October issue (in print and online) has an interesting feature about a 1932 Frank Lloyd Wright house in Minnesota that’s being repaired by its private owners. As seems to be common with many of Wright’s houses, there were some practical failings from the get-go, mainly in the form of infiltrating water. When the original owner brought the moisture problem to Wright’s attention, he recommended the old standby solution: seal with goop. More specifically, OHJ reports Wright instructed, “The tops of the chimney and walls should be coated twice with rubberoid mastic. This will solve your problem.” OHJ notes “It didn’t.”

The article relays in some detail how the offending exterior components were recently addressed. I wish they had included floor plans and interior photos, but they understandably steered toward a more narrowly focused story. In the print edition there are some reproductions of original elevations and detail drawings for those who, like me, find such things intriguing. It’s enough to keep this subscriber coming back. See what you think.

by Katie Hutchison for the House Enthusiast

These two bracketed bay dormers are uniquely distinctive hybrids. Like more traditional dormers within a larger sloping roof, they introduce vertical relief which provides daylight and headroom. Yet by breaking the plane of the surrounding exterior wall they also provide additional lateral relief, the way a bay does. The brackets beneath highlight the depth of the bay dormers while transitioning back to the main wall. By interrupting the eave line and projecting forward like bug eyes, the bay dormers call attention to themselves, challenging the usual hierarchy of the primary roof’s dominance. They are two upstarts with personality worth noticing.

For additional dormer commentary click here to see a PDF of a Drawing Board column I wrote and illustrated for Fine Homebuilding about shed dormers.

by Katie Hutchison for the House Enthusiast

At MoMA until October 20, 2008

For many, prefab connotes something akin to a glorified trailer. Recently Modernists have been working to beat that rap with entrées in the market like the NextHouse from Empyrean created in collaboration with Dwell magazine, the Sunset Breezehouse designed by Michelle Kaufmann Designs with Sunset magazine, and FlatPak by Lazor Office. For those with less Modernist taste, the Katrina Cottage 1 designed my Marianne Cusato, available soon through Lowes, has been doing its part to rehab prefab. Cusato’s design is the result of Andres Duany’s idea to provide “a dignified alternative to the FEMA trailer,” according to the Cusato Cottages, LLC website. Remarkably, at MoMA’s “Home Delivery” you don’t learn much about the new directions these current prefab ventures are headed. Instead you explore prefabs of yesteryear, options currently available only abroad, or contemporary one-offs commissioned specifically for “Home Delivery.”

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There’s been progress over at Salem’s timber-frame project on Derby Wharf. Since I last wrote about the Pedrick Store House, much of the two-story, six-bay structure has been raised. It still awaits the rafters and ridge. A close look reveals where the more than 200-year-old, hand-hewn timbers have been patched as part of the National Park Service’s conservation efforts. Despite a little twisting here and there, the structure appears remarkably square overall. Stop by and take a look.

Also, if you're free Saturday, October 4 at 1:00 or 3:00 pm attend a timber framing demonstration on the Wharf. 

My photo of a meadow on Martha's VineyardThe New York Times highlights the hard work that goes into creating a perennial meadow and speaks with Larry Weaner of Larry Weaner Landscape Design Associates about the process. Weaner has been designing meadows for over two decades and is the founder of New Directions in the American Landscape, a nonprofit. Weaner explains that a newly planted meadow will take years to mature and “is not a thing of beauty in its first year.” With proper planning, preparation, upkeep, and patience it can become one though, as the photos that accompany the article can attest.

My mother designed and created a meadow in her backyard around the time Weaner began to study them in the early 80’s. Her meadow was a lush mix of hardy blooms and field grasses, billowing beyond the increasingly smaller area of lawn near the house. Though it probably occupied less than an acre, when you wandered through her meadow you were sure it was larger. It felt wild, free, and exhilarating. I’d like to create a meadow too; wouldn't you?

by Katie Hutchison for the House Enthusiast