First trip to the Wichita Mountains

Click on the image to see the my album from this day trip to the beautiful Wichita Mountains in southwestern Oklahoma.

Order outside the court

Had a few adjustments made to the front of the house...

Below is how it looked before:

You can vote!

How the new electrical revealed a termit party

We opened up the wall where the electrical panel was located,

To find studs and plates that looked like this.

Luckily, the party took place years ago, and the house was recently treated , but still, a classic nightmare!

The challenge to the electrician: which wire goes where? So far there is only one mystery circuit...

Zoom

Looked especially fashionable on a bed of packing paper...

And can always accurately pinpoint the center of any space.

The Moving Crew

Shot by Ann before the guys could get away!

Skyspace at night

Here's the view of the full moon from the courtyard "Skyspace." There was some remarkable planet hanging out to the right, but I neglected to check StarDate to see what it was...

This is a view looking into the front entry hall from the courtyard.

And the moon, the scene-stealer.

Oklahoma!

Our transit across the flatlands was punctuated by two things that stand out in my mind: fins for wind machines and a truck stop west of Amarillo, Texas where we found the perfect post card (soon to be scanned a published). Actually we had seen the wind machine fins all along our route, but they were especially dramatic in the open plains. A sign of the times; wind farms, and a beautiful one, indeed. It's one thing to see the farms with their windmills, standing like colonies of insects from outer space, performing silent and graceful ballets
in the landscape, and quite another to see the fins themselves being transported. They are huge! Often mounted as a pair on either side of a giant I beam, they are easily the most beautiful cargo on the highway.

We entered Oklahoma at sunset. The sun was at our back, an orange globe that moved slowly towards the netherworld, and the evening was ahead of us, in shades of warm blue and purple. As we drove along with that huge expanse of Oklahoma sky above us, it felt as though we were traveling in the chariot with the universal and ancient gods who bring night to the land every day of our lives.

It was like this until we hit the suburbs west of Oklahoma City, and then on the drive down to Norman, this is what we saw: the gods of commerce in control! Washingtonians would cringe at the unbridled enthusiasm for advertising here. In some ways it reminds me of my early days in LA. I especially like how the big lights of the car lots and other commercial centers came out in these photos taken while we were moving along the highway.

Well, that's it for now! I'll be back soon with more about what's happened after Ann and I arrived in Norman, and other events after that. I've been feeling like every day has been a little battle to keep ahead of the game, but now that I finally have a refrigerator, everything seems OK and I can relax. I will explain. In the meantime, I want to thank everyone for all their help during my move, and also tell you how much I miss you all!

The Journey Part III: New Mexico

These were the views coming down out of the high desert of Colorado into New Mexico. The photos don't do justice to the brilliance of the yellow aspens that lit the landscape like molten gold. Ann and I stopped at Taos for our final night on the road so that we could visit our friend Linda, and we stayed at a wonderful place called the Sagebrush Inn (http://sagebrushinn.com/sagebrushinn/index.html. ). The next morning we headed out for the final push across Texas and into Oklahoma...

Morning inside the mesa

In the morning Ann and I hightailed it back to the cliff dwellings where we toured "Spruce House," one of the largest complexes in Mesa Verde. It was built between 1211 and 1278, so it's contemporaneous with my beloved town of Cordes in France! It has 130 rooms and 8 kivas, and is thought to have housed 60-80 people. What a place to live! One has shelter, but there are also distant views down the canyon out into the surrounding desert. The canyon contains a great variety of trees and shrubs, a remarkable contrast to the stark nature of the rock dwellings.

The Journey Part II: The Far View Inn on the Mesa

After our visit to Arches, we headed down the highway to Mesa Verde, where we were able to reserve a room at the Far View Inn, 12 miles into the park. The road wound steadily upwards from the entry to the top of the mesa, and man oh man, what views! It seemed that we could see for hundreds of miles in every direction, and we were blessed with benign weather so it was comfortable to get out and walk around. We were astounded to see that the Far View Inn sat at the highest point on the mesa, so that all motel rooms had sweeping views of the surrounding desert. Below is a view of the motel units, which were built mid-century and merge with the mesa-top form pretty well, in my opinion.

We arrived just in time to visit the museum and get a look at the cliff dwellings that we would visit the next day. That evening we attended a lecture on the history of the dwellings and the Indian cultures of the area, and afterwards we had a most delicious dinner in the Inn restaurant. Our dinner included local specialties such as mole sauce, corn pudding, and prickley pear relish. Get thee to the Far View Inn! http://http://www.visitmesaverde.com/accommodations/far-view-lodge.aspx

My cat Zoom was anxious to see the views too. In the middle of the night I got up to get something out of the car and he escaped, running away from me as fast as his legs could take him, with his tail up and his loose belly fur swinging merrily side to side. I despaired of chasing him, and sat down on the stoop in front of our room. It was a beautiful night with a million stars gleaming. I would have been completely at peace except that I could also hear rustlings that suggested horned owls on the prowl. Occasionally I called "Zoom, Zoom!" and finally he did appear and I buried my nose in his fur with relief.

Cliff dwellings seen in the evening, and below, Ann offering you a bite of trout.

The Journey Part I

Ann Hirschi and I left Seattle Thursday morning, September 30 to head for Oklahoma via the Southwest. The Subaru was stuffed with all sorts of things that I thought would be necessary for our trip and for our survival in Oklahoma until the time the movers arrived. Turned out that the only thing that really came in handy was the electric hot water kettle. The back of the car was devoted to cats and plants. Zoom and Beryl rode out the trip in their cat carriers like veterans of travel, although this was the first time they had been on a journey longer than the 5-minute trip to their vet. The first day we pressed through to Ontario, Oregon, where we stayed in a nondescript motel and enjoyed a Mexican dinner with some very good margheritas.

The next day we drove down through Idaho and into Utah. It was a second day of steady driving, as we planned to dally later in lower Utah. The most remarkable thing that happened this day was that we experienced the worst traffic jam either of us could remember as we crawled from Ogden to Provo. It was three hours of stop and go, and there was no exit. Highway 15 is the only was to move between the mountains and the Salton Sea, and we strongly recommend that you avoid it at all costs. However, once we escaped this torture, the landscape we were driving through at sunset (along Highway 6) was gorgeous. By nightfall we had arrived at Price, proud home of more than 57 varieties of immigrants (no kidding; one of the sights promoted in local literature is the cemetery where the smorgasbord of names can be seen on the gravestones!), and we found a local brew pub for our dinner. Our motel hosts were Polish, and had Polish dresses on display in their lobby. Breakfast was very good!

The third day we finally enjoyed some spectacular scenery. Our first stop was at Arches National Park where these pictures were taken. We were there around noon, so the light was high, but still the landscape was magnificent. Ann spent more time in the museum that I did, as I was occupied with my feline charges, and she may have some information to add to this post, but we both agreed that this was a place to return to!

God's Golf Course

Apologies: some of these images no longer show, and I have yet to figure out why, so rather than have them appear as blank boxes I've eliminated them, although the descriptions are still here. Ugh! Blog management...

This one is not my image, but I show it because my camera, in a most diabolical mood, told me I had used up my memory by the time I was ready to shoot big skies and landscape. And the landscape is what this day trip was all about--although, as you will see, I couldn't resist some buildings.

About noon today I headed southeast in 95 degree heat (which didn't bother me in the least) to discover the southeast and visit a place called Supher, where there are springs sprinkled throughout limestone formations. On the way south I took I-35, the main north-south corridor in Oklahoma, and I saw horse and cattle trailers that I had never seen before; I mean, these were trailers with air conditioning and lounge chairs for the animals, and classy graphics on their exteriors identifying the ranches! But the view I took in during my drive that was most impressive was the landscape. It was green everywhere, and rolling (the photo doesn't do it justice), with stands of trees liberally sprinkled about, and (like the photo) beautiful cloud formations . It was drop-dead gorgeous! It really looked like a giant golf course, hence the title of this blog (don't worry, I'm not converted to the First Baptist Church yet!).

This is a view of the "falls" at Chickasaw National Recreation Area, where there are lots of cool limestone formations and hiking trails, and on Sunday, lots of screaming kids and families with barbeques. The view below shows you an insidious vine that has beautiful oak-like leaves and rose-like thorns that gives a jungle-like feeling to this area.

This is the building that houses the Sulpher Times-Democrat, to show you that not everything in Oklahoma is Republican.



Below, the Sulpher bank, showing the tendency of Oklahoma Main Street buildings that find themselves on corners to address the center of the intersection.

Below, the bank in Tishomingo that is found on the main street that leads to the Chickasaw Nation Capitol building. Built with the same granite that came from a nearby streambed.

And the Capitol Building, with its blinding white metal roof and gables with stamped Indian motifs.

I had two more sections that I wanted to add here, but I confess, the mysteries of placing images in blogs have defeated me tonight. I'm trying to learn HTML on the fly, and it's a killer! So you'll have to wait for tomorrow to see the Cooter turtles...except as a departing view!

Intermission

The past two days I've been absorbed in meetings at the University (OU), and I haven't had time to fulfill my idea for the next blog entry, so this will have to tide us over: an image from my dissertation topic, the town of Cordes, and written entries about happenings. Perhaps this is a fitting image for the passing of Professor Folke Nyberg (of the Department of Architecture at the UW), news that I recently received. The two hybrid creatures on either side of the spandrel seem to clutch the moldings for dear life, and life is indeed dear. Many people knew Folke much better than I did, but he made a big impression on me. I remember his seminar on Nordic Classicism as a turning point in my life, because it was the first time a professor had said, "I don't know about this topic, and we will explore it together." Of course, he knew plenty about it, but he gave us the sense that we all were in the detective work as a team. What better gift to give students than this sense of confidence that their findings were as worthy as those of the professor! The other thing I knew about Folke was that he could be counted on to write an article for Column 5, the in-house publication of CAUP that I helped launch with Rebecca Barnes, and then went on to produce for several years with the students. His articles were always dense and needed editing, but they were fascinating, and filled with marvelous surprises of illustrations, like the chunks of unidentified fruits that you find in pistachio ice cream. Jennifer Dee was a genius with the editing of his articles, and my job was mostly to make them fit and use the illustrations to best advantage. I really think his long list of Column 5 articles would make a great collection for a book.

I have attended two extended faculty meetings so far, and met my three colleagues who were hired this year: Lisa Holliday, who's teaching Structures; and Daniel Butko and Stephanie Pilat who are teaching lecture classes and studios in Architecture along with me. Stephanie and I form the "History and Theory" department, although Stephanie is much more suited to take on the Theory component, and I will happily pass that baton to her (although there were theories in the Middle Ages about art and architecture!). She and I are looking forward to working together, and her web site is: http://www.reconstructdesign.com/. She and her husband (also an architect) were working in the Detroit area and there is a project on their site that compares possibilities for Detroit housing with the ina-casa projects of post-war Italy. There are many interesting people here that I am looking forward to learning more about, including Hans Butzer, who with his wife designed the Oklahoma City Memorial. I saw it recently, at night, and it was spectacularly beautiful. I loved the contrast between the clarity of the monument design and the chaos of the mementos left by friends and relatives of those killed on the chain link fence at the streetside. Here is a good website to see some views: http://www.daxx.net/MemorialNite.html.

On another topic, I had wanted to post some photos of lesser-known Bruce Goff houses, photos that I had taken while I was here in April being interviewed, but alas, they are not in this computer, so I'm going to re-take them and do a post devoted to the guy, who was one of my heroes in the late 70s. I also want to tell you about the upcoming exhibit and conference here that is a commemoration of his work, and also about how the Seattle architect Grant Gustafson is connected to him (if you don't already know). And, I'd like to post some photos of Oklahoma-the-land , which I intend to visit this weekend. Those are the coming attractions...

My Birthday Present

Is there ever such a stressful process as buying a house to live in? I think I realized that I was in love with this Walnut Avenue house the moment I saw it, but my practical side kept me from thinking about it romantically. "You can make do with anything decent," I kept telling myself. But really, it's like when I had my 1968 Volvo 1800: every time I saw that car I felt a little thrill at its beauty. That sight alone seemed to make life worth living. Come to think of it that's probably how men feel about trophy brides. I knew that every time I drove up to this house I would feel that thrill. Finally, I did make an offer, and was waiting for the seller to respond, which they did within 36 hours. Then, I had to decide if their counter-offer was OK with me. I had just had lunch at a Thai restaurant (and that's another post all of its own; the Norman restaurants, which are many and excellent), and I got a fortune cookie that said, "You shouldn't overspend at the moment. Frugality is important." So I was driving around town again, weighing the pros and cons. A banker's advice tipped me: "No one EVER sells a house in this area," he said, and so I decided that I should go the extra mile. The spring was sprung. So much for fortune cookies.


Late this afternoon I received the news that the seller accepted my offer! Yikes! There had been a similar offer, but they were excited that an architect would buy it. I can't believe my good fortune, and what a cool project I have on my hands! Tune in for the next installment...

Pay dirt?

Here's some Oklahoma dirt for you. Red clay. For rivers and lakes, just imagine the water image magnified a million times. Not all water here is red, of course, but that shown here gives you a good idea of what 80% of the homes look like, and this is cool. Because...it results in consistency. Block after block of houses share similarities of color and materials, qualtities related to the earth about them, and their unique qualities are found in their forms and the vegetation that surrounds them. I like this. It reminds me of what I see everywhere in France, where stone is a commonly used building material and one can see that it comes directly out of the surrounding earth. In the Northwest, our use of wood, requiring protection through paint, results in a real collage of colors that can sometimes be chaotic. I'm becoming an Okie snob! Now as far as the pay dirt part of it goes, I have no idea what the best color for oil-rich soil is? Do you? And by the way, I'm learning to say "ahlll" for "oil."

Housing

This house on Walnut Avenue in Norman does not have a storm shelter, but it will get one if I buy it. It was built in 1963, designed by an as yet unknown architect, and has a beautiful and simple layout, with Roman brick walls, floor to ceiling windows with 1/4" thick glass, and slate floors in the entry and dining room. It has a few problems, but the attractions outweigh them, and the location is perfect; I could walk to campus and the houses nearby are beautiful and well-maintained. On the opposite side of the street the houses back onto a creek where there is a community swimming pool, and it seems that the soil here is well-draining sand and gravel, the legacy of an old river bed. This is important, as most of the earth in Oklahoma is red, red clay (of such an amazing color that I will post a photo), and dense and difficult for plants.

Between Thursday evening and yesterday, I looked at about 30 houses, and quickly eliminated any that didn't have mature trees on the property. It was great fun looking at all these houses, and I amused the realtors by insisting on going into the storm shelters. Of the 20 houses that I actually went into, only about 5 had storm shelters, and they varied in their locations and details. All of them except one were in back yards. They all had heavy wooden or metal doors about 4' x 8' that were hinged on the long side. The best ones had a weight and pulley system that made them easy to open. I understand that the new ones have hydraulic lifts inside so that if you need to get out and your house has moved over on top of the shelter it will enable you to escape--maybe! Most of them had concrete stairs that went down into a chamber, either a concrete chamber or a metal cylinder like a culvert, and they are vented, so you see the little vents poking above the ground outside. They had varying degrees of moisture in the bottom--there is frequently a high water table here (blame that on the clay), so it's difficult to keep below ground structures dry. They all had spiders. One, the nicest, was dry and clean and the owner had plastic boxes with the emergency essentials stacked below. That was my model for what I will have.

I've learned that the winds come from the north and south and the heat comes from the west (as it does everywhere), so the ideal orientation of a house would be a diamond shape on a lot that following the US grid system. There is actually a part of Norman that shifts the grid (just as Yesler and Denny do in Seattle) so for this requirement that would be the perfect part of town to live in to protect yourself from weather. But that part of town is commercial and close to the RR tracks, so no dice. However, the Walnut Avenue house is oriented pretty well for protection, so I'm happy--or will be if I get it. If my offer on this house isn't accepted, there are a few other options that will work, but this is by far the most interesting of the lot, and in the best location. Wish me luck!