Because I Could Not Stop For Death

An early evening stroll through the Athens, NY cemetery behind our house was filled with gothic brooding and contemplation.  With many headstones from the late 19th century into the early 20th, the history of this town's inhabitants is a keen reminder that our life is a fleeting reflection of a moment in time.  Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) provides the appropriate words to match this sentiment.

Because I could not stop for Death-

He kindly stopped for me –  

The Carriage held but just Ourselves –  

And Immortality.

We slowly drove – He knew no haste

And I had put away

My labor and my leisure too,

For His Civility – 

We passed the School, where Children strove

At Recess – in the Ring –  

We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain –  

We passed the Setting Sun – 

Or rather – He passed us – 

The Dews drew quivering and chill – 

For only Gossamer, my Gown – 

My Tippet – only Tulle – 

We paused before a House that seemed

A Swelling of the Ground – 

The Roof was scarcely visible – 

The Cornice – in the Ground – 

Since then – ‘tis Centuries – and yet

Feels shorter than the Day

I first surmised the Horses’ Heads 

Were toward Eternity – 

In Praise of the Old

Athens, NY, circa 1875 

Eastlake details on the porch railing 

Original bannister and front door 

 Incredible Hudson Valley light

Jackson and Clara enjoying a moment on the antique couch

What is it about old homes that makes so much sense? Is it the attention to detail, or the efficient use of the site?  Having chronicled the Hudson Valley for several years now, I'm impressed at how the area never ceases to offer up fascinating discoveries in terms of charm, character, aesthetics, and history. One of our recent finds is this house, situated on top of a hill in Athens, NY with a view of the Hudson River.   

The house is a new journey for the Bouler family as we explore every element, sort out what's less than resolved, and get to know our new neighborhood.  Built in 1875, it survived a fire 30 years ago and several ill-conceived renovations.  Walking around the rooms, we envision those who built it, wondering their names and careers.  Were they in shipping, maybe exporting ice, as many did in the Athens area? Perhaps an artist from the Hudson River School? How many servants did they have?  When did the home get electrified? Snooping through town records can certainly help piece together the answers, and we are grateful and thrilled to be adding our family's history to the genealogy to the house. 

Platonic Ideal

Ask any child to draw a house and you'll find the classic gabled roof.  Despite the variety of houses they've seen, engrained in our consciousness is the triangular roof and straightforward facade. Here are two examples-- George Washington's house at Valley Forge, PA, and the other a Presbyterian church in Old Scotland, AL.  Divided by geography, function, materials, and about 50 years, they nevertheless retain the same ideal form.  Don't be surprised if both wind up as the subject of my next two paintings.

Save 35 Cooper Square!

Photos by Louise Millmann
Just as the great Jane Jacobs fought tirelessly to save Greeenwich Village from destruction in the 1960s, neighborhoods all over NYC continue to battle demoliltion in the name of so-called progress. Despite the cold, the Bowery Alliance of Neighbos, Historic Districts Council,
Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, Lower East Side Preservation Initiative, nine other community groups, Assemblymember Deborah Glick, Senator Tom Duane,a rep from Sen. Squadron, poet Hettie Jones, historian Joyce Mendelsohn &
area residents came together on Friday afternoon to urge landmark designation for the endangered 35 Cooper Square, the oldest building on the Square. This event was called because despite a joint appeal from BAN, HDC,GVSHP, LESPI and Councilmember Rosie Mendez, the Landmarks Preservation Commission refused to grant even a public hearing on issue.
Has NYC learned nothing from the lessons of the past? The demolition of the original Pennsylvania Station, and the preservation of Grand Central should be a clear reminder why we need to save historical structures in NYC. The city's landscape is a fabric of complex textures that most American cities lack. Without that historical context, the city will become a bland, homogenized version of its former self. To help save this building, please consider signing the online petition.

Seatuk's Grand Opening

The Seatuk Environmental Association recently opened their nature preserve in Islip, NY, hosting a ribbon cutting ceremony Thursday and an eco-carnival yesterday. The foundation, now housed in the former Scully estate, is situated on 200+ acres along the Great South Bay, and features a growing selection of hiking trails. The variety of those trails is rather impressive. Moving from hard woods to salt marshes, the birdwatching is extraordinary. Egrets, osprey, red-shouldered blackbirds, cardinals, and of course the standard waterfowl of Canada geese and mallards pepper the property. The house itself, with its wonderful slate-roof, is also a treat to explore. Upcoming events include yoga and meditation, as well as showcasing a current photography exhibition.

The carnival, a charming low-tech affair featuring eco-friendly booths like wild animal rescue, face painting, and worm production, had a huge turn out of people from all over the area. It was great to see, especially with the threats to the NYS parks system's budget looming in Albany. But what could be a better way to build community and environmental awareness than having families meet up at the local nature preserve? That sounds like a worthwhile investment of public funds to me.

Saving the Bowery

This coming Monday, September 28th at 7:00 pm, Dixon Place is hosting The Vanishing City Forum Series Part III: "The Historical and Cultural Price of the Changing Bowery." The night should prove to be a celebration of the Bowery's richly diverse heritage, and a cautionary tale on how overdevelopment can threaten the integrity of a neighborhood. With a panel of zoning experts, film directors, public advocates, historians and journalists, the discussion will probe the side effects of poor urban planning: displaced residents, the loss of small businesses, and diminished cultural diveristy, not to mention destroying historic charm.

Praising Jane

I may be starting the Jane Jacobs fan club soon. I have always admired whistleblowers who step up and defend what is right, though their adversaries may have been rich and powerful. Jane Jacobs' 1961 book The Death and Live of Great American Cities was part of a civil activism not unlike Rachel Carson's Silent Spring or Ralph Nader's Unsafe at Any Speed where Jacobs used her skills as a reporter to preserve Manhattan as we know it. The clash between developer Robert Moses' vision of elevated superhighways through lower Manhattan versus Jacobs' tenacious battle to save Greenwich Village is the subject of a new book Wrestling with Moses: How Jane Jacobs Took on New York's Master Builder and Transformed the American City. It makes me queasy to think that Washington Square Park, Greenwich Village, SoHo, LIttle Italy, and Chinatown could have been razed in order to make way for "progress."
I know cities evolve and what's outdated sometimes needs to make way for buildings suited for modern lifestyles. Otherwise we'd all still be cooking in an open firepit in our hoop skirts. However, it is important to retain some of the character of the landscape, even manmade streetscapes, if they work for people. The scale of mixed use neighborhoods, the placement of parking and town centers, and the ability to walk from shop to cafe to apartment are elements essential to future urban development, and yet one of the most influential builders almost destroyed that exact model to make way for the car. Even today, many communities allow sprawl as the most immediate form of development. But once it starts, the tide is hard to quell. Before you know it, the landscape is cluttered with billboards and parking lots where you'd have to be sort of nuts to risk walking anywhere.
So I offer this maxim for future development: Buildings should give a nod in some way to the location-- either in historical detailing or in addressing the site. Buildings should add to the landscape while being completely functional. Thus, scale is incredibly important -- a building can be completely unique aesthetically but remain contextual in scale, thus giving the streetscape texture without overwhelming it. Ultimately, buildings should tickle the brain, challenge the senses, create their own atmosphere, and surprise the inhabitant. Those seem like developments Jane Jacob would support.

Olana on the Hudson

Everyone who has traveled over the Rip Van Winkle Bridge notices the large home perched on top of the hillside, Olana, the Persian-inspired residence of Hudson River School artist Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900). Church designed the home and its surrounding landscape on the site where he painted as a young man with his mentor Hudson River School founder, Thomas Cole. The residence, equally impressive close up as from a distance, remains as it was during Church's lifetime thanks to its stature as a National Historic Landmark.
The building's exterior is a bit intimidating on several elevations, but is softened by the ornate details of the crown moldings and the Moorish doorways. Not surprisingly, some of the best angles of the building are the ones facing the Hudson due to the porches and balconies meant to capitalize on the stunning view.
A walk through the grounds shows an equal attention to details. With its well-tended flower gardens and its specimen trees, it didn't disappoint us too much that the house wasn't open to the public when we showed up on a Monday. Instead, the kids and I delighted in watching the butterflies flutter around in the sunshine. The interiors will have to wait for another day.

Bowery Preservation

When I think of Jane Jacobs preserving the West Village against highways proposed by urban planner Robert Moses, I can't help but be thankful. By keeping the streetscape intact, that neighborhood retains the character which makes New York City a special place. Photographer Louise Millmann shared with me some recent preservation activity in the East Village. In trying to prevent the entire neighborhood from becoming a homogenized block of glass buildings, the community has been organizing a series of protests, including a clothing line of soiled underwear right outside an upscale lounge for tourists. She and her husband, David Mulkins who has been a teacher of history and cinema studies at the High School of Art and Design for 20 years have been long-time residents of the neighborhood. Mulkins, co-founder of the Bowery Alliance of Neighbors, a community preservation group, is organizing a celebration of history and culture of the Bowery and a cautionary consideration for the future sponsored by East Village History Project and Bowery Arts and Science. It should prove to be an interesting battle to save the very essence of the neighborhood which made it appealing in the first place.

Setauket Addition

When faced with updating a historic residential structure, it is a complex balance of meeting the client's needs while maintaining the historicity of the structure. Here are computer renderings of Bouler Design Group's proposed renovation/addition to a mid 1800s farm house in Setauket which is about to go to the town of Brookhaven's historic board. By matching the existing siding and trim of the original house, we felt that the lines of the modern addition were more in keeping with the massing of the existing house, and provided a better complement to the existing design rather than repeat a taller series of gables and reverse gables. Often these original houses have ceiling heights that do not meet current code, so any addition can be out of scale with the existing residence.

The clients like the fact that the new design reflects three centuries: the original house built in the 1860s, the garage added in 1970, and the proposed addition in 2009. Each design reflects the time in which they were designed while remaining part of a cohesive structure.

The curved roof,situated over the master bedroom and sitting room, will be expressed structurally, perhaps finished in bamboo, a renewable resource. In terms of sustainability, we are looking into solar thermal for hot water heating, and tankless hot water heaters for the hydronic heating system and domestic hot water.
Hopefully the historic board will be as excited about the potential of this design as we are.

Last Time 'Round

With renovation about to begin again upstate, I reflect on our last renovation project: our house in Islip. The house, the first home on the block, started as a two bedroom cottage built in 1925. From there it began to grow-- breakfast nook, family room, second story, decks.
When we bought it, the house was actually a "mother-daughter" with the upstairs and downstairs functioning as fully separate spaces. Once we stripped the plaster walls of calico wallpaper and repainted all the mouldings, our next step was to make the house unified, which turned the upstairs kitchen and living room into two more bedrooms, giving us a total of five. Bouler Design Group, however, still needed space, so a handful of years later, we completed an addition to serve as an office. The biggest trick was to make the house look as if it had always been there. We did this in a few ways. We used the same materials and style: cedar shingles, copper gutters, heavy trim. We also used a complex color scheme to integrate the addition with the existing house. But it was the rear elevation of the house which really pulled the project together. The complexity of the gables, the cloistered space of the meditation garden, the removal of a detached garage transformed the back of the house completely. The rear elevation shows that renovation can be done in a historically sensitive manner by retaining the charater of the home while offering additional space.
Completing a renovation while living in the space (and working in the space, as Bouler Design Group continuted to function during the process) can be tricky. Every day crews would traipse through the house, leaving us in different levels of disarray, which can be rather disconcerting to one's sense of well-being. Almost like childbirth, once the house is complete and functioning, you forget those labor pains and enjoy the end result, so much so that you'll even contemplate doing it again elsewhere.
Of course our goal for Potic Cottage is to create more space while maintaining the integrity and character of the original space. It's our next baby.