Residential Architecture and Design in New York’s Westchester County… and Beyond
Sometime you just need to stop and really count how many blessings have been granted to you.
Stop what you are doing. Go here. Buy cookies. (If you did not click the link and buy cookies, go back and click the link.)
Then, count your blessings… and while you are at it, say a prayer for Liam and his family.
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Thanks Julie for letting us all help. Please tell Liam’s parents that we’re praying for them.
Dad Mom sent me this great slideshow of Frank Lloyd Wright homes.
From MSN:
America’s most celebrated architect, Frank Lloyd Wright pioneered the idea of “organic architecture”—structures that would promote harmony between human habitation and the natural world. Today his buildings host hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.
Thanks Dad Mom.
When we drive past the duck pond and into town, my kids start to wiggle in their seats. They push their faces against the glass and eagerly await the point on the bridge where they may look out the windows and view, what looks like, all of Chappaqua through the open ironwork of the bridge’s guardrails.
If the bridge is rebuilt using the current DOT design, future generations of Chappaqua children (as well as adults) will miss out on the opportunity to experience Chappaqua through the open rails.
It is my hope that the Town Board and NYSDOT might reconsider the plans for the bridge, and that the historic character of the hamlet’s gateway might be preserved.
Chuck Napoli requested that I post a link to a petition sponsored by The Chappaqua Hamlet Partnership; a group of concerned New Castle residents, business district property owners and members of the Chappaqua merchant community. The petition is intended to allow the public to officially “make comment” on the current plans and future of the Chappaqua Bridge.
From Chuck:
Neighbors,
We do have a voice; we will be given a chance to use it.
There is still time to complete the public comment requirement for the Bridge Project. Final DOT plans have not been completed nor have they been shown to the public.
By joining and passing on the online petition found at the link below, all our requests, comments and concerns will be delivered to the town officials on December 14, 2007.
Click the petition link to add your voice.
Please, add your comments regarding our Bridge, the civic property we all share, and choose how you want it to look and function.
From the petition:
We must ask the Town Official’s by the third week in December to STOP bidding The Department of Transportation’s three (3) lane highway and highway bridge that is neither in context nor compatible with the character of the Chappaqua Hamlet and misses badly to be sensitive to the architectural history of the bridge being replaced due to, but not limited to, a massive 264′ retaining wall, holding back tons of land fill and concrete pavement over the tree lined grassy hillside facing the station, for a right hand turning lane ending at Greeley Avenue. the highway and bridge structure is as long as 2 football fields and is enclosed with 4 feet high solid stone barrier walls that obliterate any view of our town from your car. This 2 part, Big Highway/Big Bridge, solution engineered to span over the Metro-North RR and Allen Place, aimed at the heart of the Hamlet, becomes a highway with extra wide shoulders resulting in wider concrete surfaces then striped with required yellow or white painted caution markings to split the surplus pavement into four travel lanes past the triangle.
Perhaps most important to our request to stop the bidding is the fact that this Big Highway/Big Bridge project fails to document any effective traffic flow solution at the triangle intersection or through the business district but instead further congests the heart of town with a fresh supply of vehicles into the already non-functional traffic problems of the hamlet. Concurrently yet totally independent, efforts dubbed “community place making”, concentrating on our shop-keepers needed Foot Traffic and the quality of pedestrian shopping and gathering places is working to provide a safe, intimate pedestrian experience at the very same locale, the entry to the heart of the shopping district and the gateway into our town, the triangle. It seems the two efforts are out of sync, each as far apart as can be; safe small town feel in one camp, the other, Big Highway and Big Bridge vehicle centered; two independent objectives when merged, become dysfunctional.
Action needed; our local elected officials need to intercede with NYSDOT to have alternate solutions considered with public participation.
Some unanswered questions.
1. How will traffic congestion be mitigated and what are the delay projections?
2. What is the updated cost of the Proposed Bridge Project including the extra Highway work needed for the Retaining Wall and at the Tri-angle Intersection?
3. What is the design and cost for Alternative 2: Bridge Rehabilitation that maintains two lanes of traffic at all times?
Ready to add your comments to the petition? Click here.
From K+BB Green:
The American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) Foundation and the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) have partnered to create the first nationwide green residential remodeling guidelines for existing homes. The guidelines, comprised of best practices using a “whole-house” approach… [read more]
For more “green” posts click here.
New Castle NOW tells us all about ‘em…
So, why would I feature a house built in Virginia on a blog called Living Well in Westchester? Well, to be honest, I want to brag a bit. Annmarie’s brother James moved from New York to Charlotte, NC about a decade ago. Since then he has built his company from a dump truck and some labor to one of the top custom masonry contracting companies south of the Mason-Dixon Line.
This month’s Southern Accents magazine features the Homestead Preserve in Hot Springs, Virginia. Icon Custom Masonry is responsible for all the stone veneer, all the chimneys, all the flat work (pavers, patios, etc.) and all the fireplaces found at the showhouse featured.
Be sure to check out iPIX Virtual Tour.
James is a perfect example of what one can do with dedication, persistence and lots and lots of hard work. I truly respect what he has done with his business and look forward to seeing where he goes from here.
Not only is he the king of luxury lifestyle, Ralph Lauren is also the proud owner of a world class automobile collection. The current issue of RL Magazine features several of his favorites.
These vehicles are truly works of art. In fact, back in 2005, Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts presented an exhibition of the collection.
Keep a look-out when you’re passing through Katonah (he’s the next-door neighbor to Martha). You may catch a view of Ralph himself tooling around the Westchester back roads, enjoying one of his priceless rides.
Yes… today is the day to use that room you have been dusting for the past 11 months. You know, that room between the kitchen and living room (the other room you haven’t used much lately).
In honor of this annual festive day of dining, I direct you to one of my very early posts; The Dining Room Dilemma.
Happy Thanksgiving to you all.
If you liked the photos of Shaun O’Boyle, you’ll love the portfolio of Bernd and Hilla Becher.
From Fine Art of Photography:
Bernd Becher was born August 20, 1931, in Siegen, Germany. He studied painting and lithography at the Staatliche Kunstakademie Stuttgart from 1953 to 1956 and studied typography at the Staatliche Kunstakademie Düsseldorf from 1957 to 1961. Hilla Becher was born Hilla Wobeser on September 2, 1934, in Potsdam, Germany. She studied painting at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, where she met Bernd Becher. The two artists first collaborated in 1959 and were married in 1961. They began working as freelance photographers, concentrating on industrial photography.
From their first series of photographs of water towers, the artists have not veered from architectural portraiture subjects, using both industrial and domestic structures such as gas tanks, silos, framework houses, and the like. They were given their first gallery show in 1963 at the Galerie Ruth Nohl in Siegen and by 1968 were exhibiting in the United States as well as in European cities outside Germany.
Thanks Bjorn, for sharing.
