Museums, Historic Houses, & HOME

Opening doors that separate worlds.

I did not grow up going to many museums. They were around but there were other things that caught my interest back then. When I moved to the Bay Area of California, the Oakland Museum of California History became a sort of artistic and spiritual home for me.

Being built in the early 1960’s, the style of the building was called Environmental Modern. From my volunteering I began to get a more in-depth view of early California history, including Native American, and Spanish. The local Historic houses were just as delightful. They gave a look at how certain peoples of the area, may have actually lived in their houses. I made it a point to take as many architectural history tours as I could find. The gift shops always seemed to have great background materials as well.

About this time, I began to sense that the classically designed museum building and contents formed more of a complete package for me. My deep interest in contemporary and modern architecture was moving aside to allow in more of the old and ancient.

Why is it that some places and buildings trigger such a feeling of comfort, and even grandeur, while others leave us cold or uninterested? Could it be our age, experiences, or certain times in our lives? I know there are those who love modern/contemporary, and detest anything more than a few years old. Some would not even glance at a Pueblo Indian house or West Indian Hip-roofed house, but would go wild over a contemporary villa, even in old Provence. I had been very much into modern myself, so what can I say?

In the early 80’s I spent some extended time in New Orleans, which is where my parents had been born. In fact, my father’s family had been heavily involved in the building trades there, and I wondered if this trait had touched me, but in less hands-on way?

Compared with California architectural history, New Orleans, or NOLA, as the locals call it, was ancient history. I had grown up under the impression that much of the city and it’s architecture was French. In fact, designated a city in 1716, New Orleans, and that of the French Quarter as it stands today is not actually French.the city having burned and flooded many times in the course of history. Even today, The Quarter is mainly Spanish overlay on the old French designs. The rest of the city is an amalgamation of many styles, based on various cultures living there…at least it was before the devastating hurricanes of 2005.

Louisiana plantations along the Mississippi River, built mostly by wealthy landowners, brought a mixture of styles including European, based on the travels of these people. They had to adapt their designs for the climate and weather, but Paris and France, were highly regarded in their decision-making.

Again I sought out the historic museums and houses, and took architectural tours when possible. One was a fabulous Courtyard Tour of famous houses in the Quarter that people were still living in. To see how these had stood up to time was truly wonderful an inspiring.

Before leaving, I shipped many BOXES of great books back to California!

Now I was back to San Francisco to look again with a more developed eye at what I felt was French architectural design.

The City Beautiful Movement of 1880-1917 produced the first City Hall, which was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake. The 1915 glorious version we have now was designed by a local, Arthur Brown Jr., who studied at Ecole de Beaux- Arts, Paris, and modeled this new building on Garnier’s Opera House. If you see both, you can almost guess this.

The California Palace of The Legion of Honor had two architects; local, George Applegarth, (Ecole de Beaux-Arts, trained) and Henri Guillaume, Paris. Our Legion is a 1924, ¾ scale adaptation of the 18^th C. Palais de la Legion d’Honnoeur, It is dedicated to California soldiers who lost their lives in WWI in France. It houses many of Rodin’s sculptures, including a reproduction of The Thinker. This and others were purchased by San Franciscan, Alma de Brettville Spreckles and later donated. She was the founder of the museum.

I also feel very much at home at the Palace of Fine Arts. Yet another Beaux-Arts trained local, Bernard Maybeck, was the architect. It was designed for the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition with a classical, “decaying” Roman rotunda, and a surrounding lagoon. This jewel was only meant to be temporary, but was so loved by people that it was eventually “sured up” and remains today, a genuinely romantic setting.

So, now, nearly 20 yrs. Later, it was time to go to Paris….. Looking for your personal roots of ideas…can take you in a lot of round about ways. I was not disappointed though! There is something about Paris, and the way it is laid out, that connects with my spirit and all of it combines to feel like HOME.

I first noticed that the Rue de Rivoli Arcades reminded me of New Orleans down by the French Market. There were many imperceptible things that I felt…perhaps it was the Spirit/s as I toured Garnier’s Opera House, Le Louvre, the historic musee houses of Jaquemart-Andre, Nissim Comondo, Carnavalet. I found Saint Chapelle and the Gardens of Versailles mesmerizing in their beauty….

Though I am more in tune with the older buildings, I must say that Paris has done some wonderful rehab work, combining old/ancient facades with contemporary interiors. My personal favorite is Musee D’Orsey. Now, that is a wonderful way to keep an older building going in style. The more I read about Paris architecture though, the more layers of archaeological history come to the surface. Lately it is the layers of Le Marais that intrigue me.

Have I found My French Architecture? Well, that depends. I have found things that satisfy my curiosity…for now. Will I keep searching? I await the magic.

“What is essential to French art is that it absorbs all others.” Andre Chastel.

M. Chastel, 1912-1990… French scholar of the Renaissance & Art Historian was also involved in architecture and the field of city planning. I can appreciate his scholarship, and his breaking with traditional ways of looking at things. I am not a scholar as he was. I am a person who is following a path where my feelings count, along with my intellect…and both give great joy in my searching, and absorbing.

“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly: what is essential is invisible to the eye.” Antoine de Saint. Exupery, The Little Prince.

“There is no end, and the beginning has not started yet.”