Arts & Crafts Homes Summer 2015

SOME MISCHIEVOUS, CONTRARIAN impulse must have led me to run this issue’s two main features together. Under the heading RESTORATION, we tour a 1911 house in Minnesota. When it comes to NEW WORK, Donna Pizzi takes us to a recently completed rebuild in Oregon. Nothing diabolical there, until you look at the houses. The new one features pegged joinery and sawn rafter tails, Pewabic tiles and Stickley furniture—even a cozy breakfast nook. A low-slung house with airplane gables, it might have been built a hundred years ago by Greene & Greene or one of their acolytes. Instead, it’s a modern revival home. Yet almost anyone would call this a period house; many would mistake it for an original. Now on the other hand, our featured old house is a restored…

Open View The unusual pull from the Horse Chestnut collection features leaves and seedpods around an open center. Pulls are 5" x 17/8" and sell for $44–45. The 1½" knobs are $16 to $28, depending on finish. From Notting Hill Decorative Hardware, (262) 248-8890, nottinghill-usa.com Snow of a Different Color Create a rhythmic snowflake pattern in any color combination with these 1" hexagonal tiles. The porcelain tiles come in more than two dozen colors in glazed and unglazed finishes. The pattern shown costs about $24.50 per square foot. From Subway Mosaics by Heritage Tile, (888) 387-3280, subwaymosaics.com Clover Blossoms The Happy Anniversary floorcloth is from the Next Collection, inspired by the Art Deco-influenced stencils of Alfred Rasmussen, active 1900–1940. In ochre and other rich colors, the floorcloth measures 3' 6"…

Seattle Transitions The new executive director of Historic Seattle is Kji Kelly, who has been with the preservation group since 2005. He takes the place of Kathleen Brooker, who has a new role as director of the Historic Seattle Preservation Foundation. Kelly began work at Historic Seattle as asset and property manager, then became director of real estate. Most recently he served as deputy director. He brings extensive expertise in real estate and construction management, especially in the restoration, adaptive re-use, and maintenance of historic buildings. Kelly’s goals for the organization include saving and adapting more historic structures throughout the area. Since its inception 40 years ago, Historic Seattle has helped save and restore two dozen historic structures for a variety of uses. In her new role, Brooker will manage…

A new book on Tudor Revival houses comes from our colleague, photographer Paul Rocheleau. Considering the popularity of the style—interpreted for country estates as well as early suburban enclaves— Tudors haven’t had their due. This volume showcases high-style mansions, including Akron’s Stan Hywet Hall, but it doesn’t leave out more modest examples. One category-defying example is Frank Lloyd Wright’s Nathan Moore House, a design that borrows from Price’s homes at Tuxedo Park, but is a tour-de-force of Wright’s Modern geometry, Author Kevin D. Murphy introduces the antecedents, going back to the 16th century. Then he walks us through old houses in New York and Philadelphia, in the Midwest, South, and West. Rooms inside range from neoclassical to Storybook, with elements medieval, Tudor–Gothic, Jacobean. Some houses evoke the English and American…

JUNE 4–7 Open Pottery Pewabic, the historic Arts & Crafts pottery in Detroit, Michigan, will hold a weekend of special events as part of an annual house and garden show. Up first is a party and fundraiser on June 4, featuring a preview of recently introduced ceramics. The pottery will be open to the public June 5–7, with ceramic work by more than 80 artists, demonstrations, workshops, docent-led tours, and a beer garden. Preview tickets, $35 to $75. (313) 626-2003, pewabic.org DEADLINE JULY 1 See a Castle Step back in time on a Historic Seattle day tour of Westhome, a superb vestige of the Arts & Crafts movement in Yakima. This mammoth stone-clad castle was designed by Minneapolis architects Kenyon and Maine for attorney Chester Congdon and completed in 1916.…

OWNERS GAIL WESTLIN AND JOE MAITA inherited a kitchen remodeled in the 1980s, and it wasn’t working in this transitional Victorian-era farmhouse that dates to 1894. The Portland, Oregon, homeowners contacted an architect, but “after viewing those first plans,” Gail says, “we realized we wanted a bigger vision, and so we called our friend Bo Sullivan, who is both an architectural historian and a designer.” Sullivan began by asking the couple to write a mission statement for the project. “It was a soulful process when Joe and I sat down to decide what our goals were for the kitchen,” says Gail, who called on her Swedish heritage to introduce a common thread in the design. the company DESIGNER Bo Sullivan, ARCALUS PERIOD DESIGN, Portland, OR: (503) 997-8616, arcalus.com CABINETMAKER Dan…