Beautiful Charleston

Dear Imaginary Friends,

I was lucky to have visited Charleston, South Carolina, this week, and was met with 70 degree weather, bright sunshine, and gentle breezes. The city was blessed with blooms. It was the perfect stage for the Historic Home and Garden Tour, which raises funds for preservation efforts across the city. 

Charleston is a gracious city enhanced by fresh spring weather and delicious architecture. It is not unlike its sister city New Orleans, in its embrace of southern food, hospitality, and preservation of its storied buildings. 

Fried green tomatoes at Blossom were outstanding!

Rainbow Row

Prague Architecture

A stunning city, rich in history, captive of many aggressive invaders, Prague is a miracle of preservation and fabulous architectural features.

Gracious Architecture

One of my favorite endeavors while touring the Deep South is admiring the wealth of beautiful architecture. From creole cottages to Greek Revival, I love it all. These pictures are all of the tiny but mighty Charleston, South Carolina.

Miami Glamour: The Architecture

Art Deco construction in South Beach

Classy and glassy

jazzy new parking lot in South Beach on Alden Road

Van Dyke Cafe on Lincoln Road; reclaimed by vines

Miami, Florida, is a fairly new city. It was established around 1900, with loads of landfill building it up from the swampy shores of the Atlantic Ocean. Because of hurricanes, non historic architecture is constantly being torn down, and rebuilt. Consequently, there are numerous new buildings of striking architectural styles from Art Deco to yesterday all over downtown and South Beach.

What is cool there? Everything but the weather. The famed Route One which is a mile from my house ends in Miami. And then shoots up north past Alexandria all the way up to Maine. That is one very long road!!

The most devastating hurricane to ever hit Miami in our lifetimes was Hurricane Andrew, which flattened Homestead, FL, just south of Miami, on the way to the Florida Keys. Hurricane Katrina did some serious damage to Miami before it made its more famous landfall in Louisiana and Mississippi.


Believe it or not, the Everglades, which are just to the west of Fort Lauderdale and Miami, are actually a river, albeit a slow moving one. When hurricanes are scarce, the Everglades  become dangerously dry, and there are brush fires every few years from the dry heat. Hurricanes and large tropical storms help flush the water from the wetlands and bring fresh nutrients.


More than you wanted to know!
Patsie

Fabulous Facade in Nice, France

One more reason why Nice is nice: Fabulous facades.

On top of that, it happens to be part of the French Riviera. Enough said, ne c'est pas?

Sagrada Familia, by Antonio Gaudi

Still Under Construction

Sagrada Familia Cathedral by Antonio Gaudi, still being built, over 100 years of slow progress.

Gaudi in Barcelona

A fixture in Casa Batlo'

Dear Imaginary Friends,

If you love architecture, you should consider a trip to Barcelona, Spain, to see the many glories of Antonio Gaudi. He created the very famous Sagrada Familia Cathedral, Casa Mila, Casa Batlo, and many parks and assorted spaces. His influence in Barcelona is pervasive. He is a revered designer. Not only did he create the structures, but also all the ornamentation.

He was ahead of his time in conserving energy, designing light and air shafts for natural ventilation and lighting. 

He was a product of the Art Nouveau movement, in which nature and plant forms were subsumed into structural designs.

Don't take my word for it! Check him out.

Your imaginary friend,

Patsie

Fallingwater by Frank Lloyd Wright

Fallingwater is a private home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, commissioned by a wealthy department store owner. I think it is FL Wright's greatest accomplishment because his design integrates into nature more than any of his other homes. The cantilevers mimic the falling of the waterfalls, cascading through and under the house.

Sadly, Wright was a heinous person who did not pay his assistants or workmen, always missed his deadlines, and was an altogether disagreeable human being.

 

This ingenious home in Pennsylvania sprang many leaks. One was made into a fountain, despite the fact that it is inside the home. The structural engineer told Wright that his design was wrong; it was not structurally supported sufficiently in the cantilevers. Wright stuck to his guns, and years later, the engineers' opinions came true and the owners had to constantly shore it up.

A work of art made by a piece of work.

Your Architecture fan,

Patsie

Second Street in Historic Lewes, Delaware

Dear Imaginary Friend,

Here we have another charming old home with a quirky, fun paint job in the seashore town of Lewes, Delaware. When one sees this combination of colors, it begs the question as to whom might live there.

Someone original, no doubt!

Your Imaginary Friend,

Patsie

Chicago!!! The City of Broad Shoulders

Corn on the Cob Buildings, Chicago

In November 2009, Virginia and I trekked to Chicago. It was our first time visiting. And that is when I fell in love with both the city and the people.

 

The shrimp risotto was an epiphany at Quartino's. Volare's was yummy. Lunch at the Drake Hotel was elegant and so tasty, with a view of the Beach on Lake Michigan.

 

Virginia and I walked everywhere, and visited Michigan Avenue's Magnificent Mile, window shopping in fabulous stores, buying Frette linens, walking in the lovely area where a Frank Lloyd Wright miracle-of-futuristic-thinking sits cheek and jowl with a turn-of-the-century typical brownstone in the tony part of Astor St. Also on Astor St. are billionaires' residences and the previous den of iniquity known as the Playboy Mansion. Hef since has moved on, but his roots are in Chicago.

 

We elbowed our way thru the American Doll Store, uncertain if we would ever reemerge. It has a fetishist quality.

 

One highlight of our trip was our Architectural boat tour, 90 minutes of breathtaking architecture, as seen from the Chicago River. Wow, the views were awesome! The breeze was chilly, but worth every minute of icicle feet.

Virginia at Millennium Park, reflected in the Bean

 

Another highlight was the Art Institute. Where else could you see "Van Gogh's Bedroom," "La Grand Jatte," "American Gothic,"

"Nighthawks", etc., etc., all under one roof? Nowhere else.

 

Amazing fact: the Chicago residents are some of the friendliest people I have ever met. They are just as friendly as Southerners, maybe more so. It led us to ask, why? And how soon can we persuade them all to move here? As soon as we landed in DC, it all reverted back. Everybody rushing home. I miss Chicago...

 

Love,

 

patsie >^..^<

Welcome to My Studio!

Dear Imaginary Friends,

You are now looking at my studio, and at a large oil painting that I completed last year entitled Grand Canal.

This painting is a biggie, measuring about 30" x 40". No doubt, you have noticed that it is a familiar view of the breathtaking city Venice. My husband and I took a Mediterranean cruise that ended there about 2 years ago. 

It was not our first visit. There is no substitute for the first time that one sees the watery city, with its impending doom hanging in the air. The grandeur of Venice is incomparable to any other city I have ever visited. It is a living breathing architectural museum. She is a lovely lady past her prime, but full of guile and charm.

I could not possibly do Venice justice, the way that Caneletto did.

Venice reminds me of my home town New Orleans, in that there is a commonality of danger from water. Both are gorgeous architecturally, draw tons of tourists, and celebrate great food.

A toast to my two favorite cities!
Love,

Patsie