Our friend Vanessa de Vargas let us know about a great project she is involved in called Family Shelter and they need help. Here is her description of the project:

I just recently came on as Lead Interior Designer/Coordinator for this fantastic new 18 room shelter project called Upward Bound House in Culver City. I have organized 17 other Los Angeles based interior designers, who like myself are all putting in our time and effort to decorate our own room for the new shelter.

Each designer essentially adopts an apartment for a year that will help with temporary housing for 4 families.
The shelter will be opening its doors Feb 1st, so we are working around the clock to get the rooms designed in time for the new families.

We are in need of donations to furnish each of the rooms that include chairs, tables, shelving units, side tables, lighting etc. And are especially in need of new bathroom and bedding accessories.
Each designer has to come up with their own donations (we do not have a decorating budget) so I am asking you to please help us with a small donation.

All donations are tax deductible, just provide me with your address I can mail out a receipt for each donation.
Cash, checks, any products and gift cards ie Ross, Bed Bath and Beyond, Marshals, TJ Maxx, Home Goods etc. would be perfect stores that we can purchase from.

You can make the check or gift card out to:
Vanessa De Vargas
633 Palms Blvd. Unit A
Venice, CA 90291

Thank you for taking he time to read my note and hope that with the support from our friends, family and colleagues we can create a beautiful space for these families!

To read more about the project and to learn how you can get involved, read this article at California Home and Design and learn more about Upward Bound House, click here.

You may purchase the caravan here for $8295. Hey James, I think you need to step up your game and find Design Public some antique outhouses, igloos, arks, sweat tents or yurts made out of twigs!

I poke fun with love. I’m crazy about retail websites with rare finds. This framing model is one of the many unique objects in the Rare Finds section of Jayson Home and Garden, and it’s definitely on my wish list:

So is this Vintage Convent Photograph:

images from Jayson Home and Garden

I first heard of Yestermorrow Design/Build School via Karrie Jacobs’ The Perfect $100,000 House.*  It sounded so great to me, then I forgot all about it until I saw it mentioned in Metropolis recently. I used to know how to draft but I’ve always sucked in woodshop and I sure don’t know how to build – it sounds like a great experience – a diverse group hanging out at summer design/build camp in Vermont. During the courses, students learn all about creating their own space, how to render it as an architect would, and partake in building projects at the same time. There are 1-3 day workshops, 1 week courses, and 2 week courses. If you’ve ever dreamed about architecture or building and didn’t know where to start, this is a great place to dip in a toe before you take the plunge.*

Here’s their philosophy:

Yestermorrow’s courses are specifically designed to demystify the designing and building processes using hands-on, experiential learning to teach students the art and wisdom of good design and the skill and savvy of enduring craftsmanship as a single, integrated process.

This creative process offers students unique insight into the oftentimes disparate worlds of the architect and the builder. Architects are routinely trained without any building experience that might inform their designs, and builders are trained to execute without a sense of the overarching purpose or design of the project.

Combining design and building offers numerous advantages and promotes the creation of intentional and inspired buildings and communities that enhance our world. From the professional design/builder to the do-it-yourself design/build homeowner, every designer should know how to build and every builder should know how to design. This philosophy sets Yestermorrow apart from other educational institutions.

Something about their vibe reminds me of Sambo’s Rural Studio, probably because most of their built works benefit communities.

* I really enjoyed Jacobs’ book when I read it, it was a quest for a place to call home set in that American On the Road kind of format, which is ironic, but it works. I found myself longing for a few things: 1) PHOTOGRAPHS of the places she visited. The few sketches in the book were charming, but an architecture critic, no matter how good her written descriptions are, should know that her readers are thirsty for images 2) For Jacobs to repeat her journey in 2008. Prefab architecture has become much more prevalent and costs have gone way down in the few years since she started her research. At the time she wrote the book, she was on the cutting edge of the current prefab movement. 3) For Jacobs to actually (SPOILER ALERT!)  find the perfect $100,000 house and freaking buy it/build it and live in it already! Maybe it was the Keroac-ian love of the road that kept her from putting down roots.

Another note: After reading about her Yestermorrow experience, I was pretty shocked that someone who was such a well known architecture critic (NYTimes, Dwell, H&G…she rocks) didn’t even know how to draft or how to begin designing a space. With so many precedents in her brain to find inspiration from, she really didn’t even know where to begin. I know that’s the norm, that art critics aren’t Picasso, or music critics Stevie Wonder, but it still surprised me. On the flip side, a lot of architects can’t write or critique worth a damn and they seem completely unaware of this as they wax unpoetically in a bunch of archi-speak mumbo-jumbo. Anyway, then it hit me that the architecture critic knows how to EXPERIENCE and APPRECIATE the space, and that is what counts. Just sharing my catharsis with you – sometimes I’m a little slow to understand these things!

all photos from yestermorrow.org.

A few months ago, Andrew Garrison saw my post about Project Row House and sent me a copy of the documentary he directed called Third Ward TX. This is a project that is so genius and moving to me; I’ve been following its progress for years. If you’d like to catch up, you really need to screen this film. I’ve dreaded and thus procrastinated writing this review for months because I know that words can’t do it justice. The last time I was moved to tears by a project or an exhibit was Gee’s Bend Quilts. It doesn’t happen often to this old cynic!

In 1993, Rick Lowe founded Project Row House. He was struck by how much the dilapidated shotgun shacks in the city of Houston reminded him of John Biggers’ paintings. He calls the shotgun shack “a humble abode and a temple.” As Lowe and a group of artists renovated the homes, they created a community where artists-in-residence would come stay and exhibit. Thus, the artists engaged the community and brought attention to a place that had been abandoned by many. Once a neighborhood with a small town feel, the area had fallen on hard times.

The first major result of PRH was eight exhibition houses housing two different artist per year, with exhibitions and exhibitions in progress showing for six months a year. The doors are open for people to walk through. Exhibits range from portraits to this 2001 Walter Hood installation:

After reaching this success, Lowe realized it was only the tip of the iceberg in helping the community. Thus, The Young Mothers in Residency Program was born. Single mothers were able to live in housing that is part of the project, and they are aided by mentor moms. They live rent free for two years while completing educations. These families become part of a thriving community. The amount of dignity this effort brings to people seems too powerful to describe.

Perhaps the best analogy comes from an interview with a local found object sculptor and funny character from the neighborhood. When describing his own art, he says he “takes nothing and makes something of it.” Although this is the way PRW’s site may have seemed before the project began, I believe there was always something there. The energy and spirit from the old community had been stifled in the abandoned houses, but Rick Lowe sensed it and found a vent through which he freed it.

The documentary is so well done, from interviews with Lowe, artists, residents, community leaders, community characters, and even spec real estate developers. The film also finds wonderful images from the days when this was a strong African-American community as well as people who remember what it used to be like. Ironically, the success of the project has caused its next challenge; PRH has brought so much positive attention and improvement to a previously ignored area that real estate prices are rising. This means that property taxes are becoming unaffordable in an area where the average family of four has an income of $13,500 a year.

I can’t think of another project that compares to this one; at the heart of it is community, its other parts include art, historic preservation, urban planning, social work, culture, history, and architecture. The results of these parts working together are respect, dignity, strong families, education, true community and pride. John Biggers, one Lowe’s original inspirations for the project said it best: “Art will save your life.”

Thank you so much to Andrew Garrison for capturing this project so well on film and for sharing it with me. This is the perfect film to screen for artists, urban planners, mayor’s conferences, architecture school lectures, professional design associations, Brad Pitt, the list goes on. If you are interested in arranging a screening, contact Third Ward TX here.

To see a trailer, to purchase the film, or to arrange a screening, click here.

To learn more about The Row House Community Development Corporation, click here.

To learn more about The Young Mothers Residential Program, click here.

To learn more about John Biggers, get this book.

•First two photographs and the Young Mothers program photograph from ProjectRowHouses.org,

•John Biggers painting from The Art of John Biggers: View from the Upper Room

•Black and white photos from The Third Ward TX Gallery

•Walter Hood installation photo from wjhoodesignn.com

Thanks to Rhea for leaving the following information in the comments section of the post about Samuel Mockbee:

There is an exhibition called Southern Exposure: Contemporary Regional Architecture which features the work of the Rural Studio at the Virginia Center for Architecture through June 8. It features the Yancey Chapel as well as several other projects. The exhibition also highlights the work of other contemporary architects practicing in the Regional style, including Marlon Blackwell, Frank Harmon, W.G. Clark, and the firms of Lake|Flato and Mack Scogin Merril Elam Architects

On Thursday, May 1, 2008, Jason Coomes, a faculty member of the Rural Studio, discusses the ongoing work of the studio.

The Virginia Center for Architecture is located in Richmond, Virginia. If you’d like more information, please visit www.virginiaarchitecture.org.

Also, I found that Rural Studio has fantastic blogs that feature current projects.  Check them out here.

photos are from the Rural Studio blogs 

I’ve been meaning to tell you about this great book my Mom brought me as a hostess gift about a year ago. It’s a monograph of the work of Samuel ‘Sambo’ Mockbee, appropriately titled Rural Studio: Samuel Mockbee and an Architecture of Decency. I kept putting it off, because frankly, scanning stuff is a boring chore, plus, it’s really hard to pick just a few projects from this book. I doubt I can summarize it better than the book jacket:

For almost ten years, Samuel Mockbee, a recent MacArthur “genius grant” recipient, and his architecture students at Auburn University have been designing and building striking houses and community buildings for impoverished residents of Alabama’s Hale County. Using salvaged lumber and bricks, discarded tires, hay and waste cardboard bales, concrete rubble, colored bottles, and old license plates, they create inexpensive buildings in a style Mockbee describes as ‘contemporary modernism grounded in Southern culture.’”

This is the first project from Sambo I remember seeing back in architecture school. It’s The Cardboard Pod and is made from baled sheets of corrugated wax-impregnated boards:

This is the incredible Yancey Chapel, built around an existing rusted trough and constructed from 1000 dirt-filled used tires:

This property near The Yancey Chapel is called The Goat House, a former shed for animals that Rural Studio originally planned as part of an artists’ colony. The colony never, um, colonized, and the building is now a residence. You see the Chapel aesthetic influence on the structure:

Anyway, I was catching up on my pile of Metropolis magazines over the weekend – I tend to let them stack up because I like to read all of the articles, and I tend to save them for airplanes or vacations. Anyway, I almost fell over when I saw this house featured. It’s a few blocks from my house in the Virginia-Highland neighborhood of Atlanta, and I’ve admired it on walks many times. “The second burning of Atlanta” has been happening in my neighborhood in the form of teardowns – cute little bungalows and cottages that give the neighborhood its charm are decimated so that square-footage monsters can use up every inch of each lot. I’ve always admired this addition as an appropriate and really interesting to look at; in fact, I’ve always wanted to knock on the door and ask if I could check out the interior, but I’m just not that aggressive.

Well, to make a long story longer, Sambo and his Rural Studio designed this addition to a 550-square foot former dairy barn in exchange for two canoes. The job was finished by Lloyd Bray and Durham Crout of Atlanta. According to the article, they used copper cladding, pegged cypress and traditional Japanese joinery techniques. The meticulous work has paid off. The color has a warm glow, and I love the contrast between the materials they used and the wild garden is remarkable. By the way, this shot was taken level with the house, but it sits below the street level, so the height of the addition doesn’t give that overshadowing hideous, “I’m too tall for this neighborhood and I belong in Alpharetta” look that most of the teardowns in my neighborhood have.

Though Sambo is not with us anymore, his good works live on. For more information on Rural Studio, click here. Their website is really good. If you’d like to join in the Outreach Program, click here. To donate to Rural Studio, click here.You can catch the full Metropolis article in a much better format than squinting at my scan right here.• Top three images from the above-mentioned book, taken by Timothy Hursley• Bottom two images from Metropolis magazine, photos by Michael Griffeth

I am almost as obsessed with fashion magazines as I am with home magazines (it used to be the other way around). The delivery of the huge W every month is always exciting and this month it is incredible. I am so glad to see that some people are working hard to make sure the rest of us do not forget that New Orleans is still in dire straits. The April issue of W has an amazing 60-page spread of New Orleans shot by Bruce Weber. Since shotgun houses have been on my mind this week (and I’ll be sharing some more about some other shotgun houses next week), I thought I’d share this image with you today. So many houses like this one were lost in Katrina. Let’s make sure they are not erased.

To learn more about how to help rebuild the 9th Ward, check out The Make It Right Foundation. This is a really cool project that deserves its own blog post, so I’ll tell you a little more about it next week. Explore the site – the pink project (the color is so very Christo) and the tour of the affordable housing is very cool and inspiring.

Also, on a disaster-related note, for those of you in the Atlanta area who would like to help out with the tornado recovery in Cabbagetown this weekend, click here for more information.

photos by Bruce Weber for W magazine