Category: Architecture

As a design and architecture journalist for more than two decades, I have seen quite a few built environments in my career so it takes quite a special project to get me excited. When I see something that stands out to me, I enjoy writing about it.

I would say about half of the architecture I’ve written about is modern. In fact, my only architecture book is titled Four Florida Moderns and it is a survey of how modernism founded by the great modernists made its way to Florida. Le Corbusier is one of these greats, of course, and his book Creation is a Patient Search is a wonderful read for anyone who wants to know how a visionary of his stature thought. I find the book in the Bienenstock Furniture Library at High Point and use it as inspiration for a post featuring his tiny cabin—Cabanon in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France—and his thoughts on creativity.

One of the architects in my book, Alberto Alfonso, was an avid believer in Corb’s version of modernism and I was able to witness a powerful piece of architecture he created at Streamsong near Tampa, the building so robust, it inspired a poem from the architecture’s point of view. An Italian modernist that I had the great pleasure of interviewing, Michele De Lucchi, impressed me greatly with his quite wisdom. My diary entry sharing the conversation with my readers is indeed A Conversation of Soul.

When I received the Rizzoli book Grand Bordeaux Châteaux, I was bowled over by the way architects had gracefully added modern additions to the grand neoclassical châteaux in Bordeaux so I knew I had to write about them so I could share the stunning visuals. The only question was whose literature would fit with the idea? When I found out the intrepid Stendhal had visited one of the wineries, I knew his travel writing about touring the area would be perfect (and it was); for proof take the time to read Architecture with Heart in Bordeaux!