Cast Iron Storefronts

I found myself presented with a project of designing an old Store front. A clients wanted to build an office space next to a historic Blacksmith that he had purchased. He wanted this new office space to be a compliment to the blacksmith. He acquired an old building in another city that need to be demolished, salvage all the brick he could from this building to construct this new office space. All this so the new building would have that patina of age from day one. I was set to task to create the character of the store front that would be convincing as an old building not a new one. I began my research and discovered Mesker. Mesker? Mesker was the number one producer of metal store fronts. They offered the fronts in catalogs. You would give them measurement of your front and they would create the dramatic store fronts. They used cast iron for the main level, Windows, trim etc.. and then the upper detail were created in sheet metal. Incredible more economical and light weight. They could simulate the heavy look of the cast stone on more auspicious building for a whole lot less. They epitomize what we think of as an old main street building. At one point there were over 45,000 Mesker building in the US. with the highest concentrations being in IL and IN where the plants were located. In 2006 they had a nation wide search to locate as many of the still existing ones that are left. About half are still out there. more that have not been identified yet. In fact if you go to http://www.gotmesker.com/, you can download a google earth file that shows you the location of the all the Mesker that have been located. It's fun to drop to the street level and look at them. You can also download the old catalogs. I found these to be invaluable in my research. Unfortunately there is noone making any of these products anymore. I did do a little research and find that one of the only companies making cast iron store fronts was right here in my own state. Hence they will be creating the store front for this project. My research payed off.

One House, Many personalities

Color is a powerful thing. Recently I was helping client to select the exterior colors on their new home. They wanted red shutters. that was really the only thing we were set on. I went to work, and as you can see, just changing the colors around can give it a very different feel and personality.

Architecture Alphabet

recently discovered the work of Johann David Steingruber. This collection of architecture designed around the letters of the alphabet. I happened see them in the Ballard Design catalog. It peaked my interest. So thanks to the wonders of the Internet I was able to read up on these designs. They were publish in 1773! You have to agree they are interesting an unique even for being 238 years old. No letter "J". I wonder why? His own name started with "J". You would think that would have been the first one he did. NEWS FLASH. I found prints available at a price even I can afford. SEE HERE

Eatable Architecture

How do you take this old picture of the Carson Mansion in Eureka, CA and.........

....turn it into this?

It's the work of one man. John Learner of Stow,Ohio.

I spotted some pictures of this creation on the Martha Stewart Message boards. My jaw dropped.

What impressed me more was that it was a guy... Despite what some people think we men are capable of creative thought. I contacted John and got permission to show some of the pictures of his work and ask a few questions of this master builder. He has taken first place in every competition so he truly deserves the title of master builder.

Who doesn't like Victorian houses?!
1. How did you get started Making gingerbread Houses?

8 years ago I started a father-daughter project to use up all of the leftover candy and food that no one would eat, had gotten stale, nobody liked, so it wouldn't have to be thrown away. We had leftover pop tarts, old cereal, Halloween candy, Easter candy, old tins of popcorn, etc. I made a cardboard house to make it easy for the girls to visualize the end product, and we just started gluing food and candy decorations on it using hot glue and royal icing. The result was amusing and spectacular. I took it to work, and showed it off for a month during the Christmas season because my wife didn't want to see it around home. Everyone liked it so much, I decided to save it to use as a Christmas decoration every year and to add a new one every year so I would eventually have a village. Now I have 8.
When I had four houses in my village, people suggested that I enter them into contests. The next year, my dad sent me an ad from the Cleveland paper announcing a competition at the Cleveland Botanical Gardens. I registered and entered and won first place. And now I have won first place 4 years in a row. They have a very nice competition and a nice facility. Their competition rules are reasonable. I've checked out other competitions, and found that many of them are fund raisers where the houses are sold off. I want to keep my houses, so I don't enter those competitions. The national competition is at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville NC, but I don't want to make two round-trips that far, so I don't enter that one.

2.Do you use gingerbread?

Yes. The Kent Victorian weighs 65 lbs, which is mostly solid gingerbread. The St. Ignatius weighs 85 lbs, which is mostly gingerbread. The Carson house has only 10 lbs of gingerbread, as decoration.

3. Do you use royal icing as your glue??

Yes, and hot glue.

4. Do you start with some sort of practice model?

No. I take an 8x 10 photo of the house and draw lines on it to make a graph over it. Then with a ruler, I transfer it to the real gingerbread house. A standard gingerbread house uses a single piece of gingerbread for each wall, with icing at the corners. I prefer to layer my gingerbread like plywood and make thick walls, layered like a stack of pancakes. It takes a lot of gingerbread, but you now have a strong structural wall that you can carve deep into for windows, doors, and details. A lot of the work is tedious, like unwrapping 700 sticks of chewing gum and carving a scalloped edge on each one. Or sanding candy cigarettes down until they're flat and thin to use as window frames.

5. You obviously try to copy the real structure as best you can. do you use just photos as your reference material?

Yes, just one or two photos is all it takes.

6. What are some of the most unique candy /food items that you use?

Swedish fish, cherry lifesavers, ring pops, ice cream cones, chewing gum, twizzlers, pop tarts, hard tack candy, jolly ranchers, candy cigarettes, fettuccine noodles. Never use chocolate; it distorts over time. (M&Ms pop. Hershey kisses explode like jiffy pop over time.) Pop tarts are a better building material than they are as food. They can be mitered, beveled, tongue-and-grooved, and they come with icing on them that looks like snow. So they're good for roofs. I used M&Ms and Hershey kisses on my first house, and after a couple years, the chocolate turned to powder and made a dusty mess on my house, which i tried to vacuum off. Don't ever vacuum up chocolate dust! The dust turns back into chocolate in the hot motor and ruins your vacuum. I had to clean the dust off with my leaf-blower. Don't use chocolate wafer cookies; they look good, but they separate into layers after several years.
I go to candy stores looking for colors and shapes, something that will work as pillars and window frames. It's hard to find candy that looks like doors. I mentioned to you about HirstArts.com and the molds you can buy there. They sure help with the fine detail, although the scale isn't always accurate.

7. How long does a house the size of your Carson Mansion take to complete?

Carson took me 6 months in my spare time. St. Ignatius took 6 months. Both would have taken longer if I was the one baking the gingerbread, but I barter for my gingerbread from a baker I know.

8. Did you have an interest in Architecture before you started making gingerbread houses? Your creation suggest a understanding of geometry and model making.

Yes, who doesn't like Victorian houses?! My real hobby is making model ships. I'm working on my sixth one.

9. Where do you get you inspiration from?

They are fun and easy to make.

10. Do you have any other creation in the works?

I have, in my head, plans to make the Flatiron Building on 23rd & Broadway, and Stan Hywet Hall in Akron OH, and a traditional German building.

Here is John with his St. Ignatius creation. Truly a wonder! Then some pitures of several of his works on display for competition.

Thank you John for allowing me to share these with my readers. It truly is a work of candy art. Keep up the good work and we look forward to seeing your next creations. What better way to celebrate the Christmas season than with my two favorite things. Candy and Architecture. Eatable Architecture.

PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT FOR THE MASTER BUILDER..

Good Job John!

Merry Christmas To ALL....

Peppard Cottage revisited.

You may remember my post back in October about Peppard cottage? Here is proof that if you wish for something hard enough it will come true. Over a year ago I posted on here and on some British forums requesting pictures of this house from anyone willing to share. Then my lucky day came. Sean Menzies happened to do a search for Peppard Cottage and found my little blog. Sean had actually been to village where Peppard cottage is. I receive these emails from him. He shared some interesting bit of knowledge about this little English gem.

Hey Derek, I found your blog by doing a search for Peppard Cottage. After having visited the house, I was curious if there were any references to it online OTHER than it having been used in Merchant Ivory's film. Most of it was about the Bloomsbury Set and the film, of course. I did see it used once, a few years ago, in a Mystery on PBS.

I've attached as many of the giant photos of the place I took as I can. It is really a lovely house. I think a one Lynda Rothbarth lives there now, she's a horsewoman. The young caretakers, a couple who live in back, were very nice to me and let me take pictures of the place. I wanted to see if the teeth were still in the chestnut tree, but we ran out of time.

Anyway, hope you enjoy the pics.

Cheers,

Sean.

I love this shot. It shows a view of the west side of the house that we never see in the movie.

Of course I was absolutely giddy to see these pictures. I wrote him back begging for any other pictures he might have, and permission to post them here. He responded with more pictures and trivia.

Go ahead, Derek, post away! I've attached some others, too. I took a lot but didn't realize until I looked at the pics later that most of them were from the front! I regret not getting a photo of the metal plaque that says "Peppard Cottage" which is affixed to the fencepost next to the gate (the one Emma Thompson barges through in the film to go save Helen). In the film, it has been removed and one can see the rusty square where it usually resides.

The white poles in one of the pics I sent are goal posts, plastic. There were a lot of children's toys in the front yard and I tried to shoot around them. Also of interest is the fact that the owners have kept all the production design put in by Luciana Arrighi. The dining room is still painted red and the acorn wallpaper is still in the front hall, I could see that much through the windows.

I've attached the wider view of the front of the house and the fuzzy pic I took of the chestnut tree. All the foliage had been cut back for the Winter so the wisteria was hacked down and the chestnut tree looks like a stump! It was very cool to go up to the front door and touch the wooden railings and cold iron door handle and to knock on the glass. The atmospheric sounds of the wind and the birds are exactly as they are in the film, which reproduced it accurately. Also, it is surrounded by other houses, which you've seen from the Google shots, and there is a pub, The Red Lion, within walking distance!

Oh and the last pic is of Henley-on-Thames, right down the road. It's the most beautiful place I've ever been, at least in the past couple of years. You walk along the Thames, before it is polluted by London, on a tremendous wooden boardwalk that at one point goes out into the middle of the river then back. Just beautiful. ALSO again: the bluebell wood that Leonard walks through is literally at the bottom of the road; the road, once it goes past the house, drops down drastically into a thick wood the is full of bluebells every May. We were there in March, so it was all damp and moldy.

Enjoy!
Sean

Thanks Sean For sharing these with me... anytime you want to become my out in the field reporter you can have the job.

Curb appeal revisited

Some of you may remember the post I did back in the spring about this house. A reader from Hooked on Houses. emailed me about giving her home a virtual makeover. It was a fun little project. I reved up the photoshop and dived in.

This is the original photo that she sent me.

I started by putting a darker color on the roof. Beefed up the porch pillars.

Just for fun I added a gable to the brick section of the house.

Here I removed the Portico and inserted a pediment door surround,

and for even more fun extended the gable out to create a two story portico.

I also removed some of the over grown landscaping

She recently sent me some pictures of the finished project. I have to say it is a stunning transformation. Some relatively small changes made a huge difference. Now when I say "small" changes I am in no way belittling the amount of work it took to make the changes. I merly meant that it wasn't necessary to make drastic changes to get this great new look.

Beefing up the columns, a new BLACK front door, new light fixtures and a dark colored roof.

Look what a difference it made.

The front portico looks substantial and formal.

New light fixtures can help any entry. These are perfect.

And you can't go wrong with a black front door.

I congratulate the home owners, and their contractor on a job well done.

Gothic Revival Eye Candy

Some photos from my research file. Enjoy!