23 August 2007

Kirkwood Moderne For Sale


This Streamline Moderne home on South Geyer Road is presently for sale. While it has many characteristics of homes by Harris Armstrong, it was apparently not one of his designs.

The website with the real estate listing includes interior and exterior photographs. I encourage anyone interested in the house to visit and take a look for themselves.

In years past, the condition of the house (particularly the exterior white painted brick) was deteriorating, stained, and flaking. It has more recently been tuckpointed and repainted. The landscaping has been updated and it seems the overall condition of the house improved.



Photograph by Andrew Raimist, 2006.

11 August 2007

Shanley Building -- perspective


Perspective.
Uploaded by Andrew Raimist.

Armstrong's rendering of the Shanley Building is taken from a somewhat unusual point of view. The geometry of the construction puts the viewer just below the top of the wall. This is evident by the alignment of the horizon line (at the left and right sides of the background trees) and the three ventilation grilles located above the long horizontal strip of glass blocks leading from the planter on Maryland Avenue back to the cantilevered canopy over the inside corner entrance.

The position of the viewer horizontally is also far from coincidental as it aligns with the face of the floating garden wall. This view allow Armstrong to reveal both sides of this long narrow space leading from the sidewalk directly southward toward the entry. On your left as you enter the garden gate is a largely blank white stucco wall relieved by a long horizontal strip of glass blocks set flush with its surface. This line of glass gives the wall a sense of dematerialization by denying any visual suggestion of structural support for the portion of the wall above.

The three ventilation grilles punctuate this wall with a rhythm echoing the visual structural supports creating the illusion of a floating garden wall. The vents allow for fresh air between the interior ceiling and the shallowly sloped roof (hidden behind the flat parapet).


Drawing courtesy of the Harris Armstrong Archives, Special Collections, Washington University in Saint Louis.