2016 Greetings for a Budding New Year!

John Vinci's House & Garden: Crabtree Farm plus Sullivan, Nickel, Adler and Shipman

The day before the icy storm hit, I was lucky enough to visit Crabtree Farm with some colleagues. Having only been there about 15 years ago, it was a real treat, especially this more recent building, Crabtree Guesthouse. I was surprised and pleased to learn the architect was John Vinci, principal of Vinci Hamp Architects, an old family friend who designed my father's gravestone (as well as their dear friend, the Louis Sullivan champion: Richard Nickel's) at Graceland cemetery where you can also see the grave of my dad's mentor, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy. [The landscape at Graceland was designed by the great O.C. Simonds.] Above is the view out onto the pool and fields at Crabtree Farm. It's hard to see but, you can make out the perfect garden structure there in the image below.

Of course, Crabtree Farm abounds with history. You can catch a glimpse in this view through a current veggie garden towards the indoors tennis court (one of a dozen in the U.S. from the 1920s) by architect, David Adler.

And this bench anchors a section of the original garden by Ellen Biddle Shipman next to the Adler-designed residence from the 1920s. I was so impressed by her work, I hungered for a decade before finally visiting the garden on the cover of the above book, at Stan Hywet in Akron, a few years ago. Homes and Gardens wear, styles change, but it is still moving to see how certain visions and concepts retain their power.

This post should have enough links even to engage Lynn, my inspiring neighbor of architectural expertise. 

Holiday Greens through the Gates of the Lord

You have through Jan. 3rd, 2016 to see this fantastic show at the Art Institute!

Meantime: Enjoy The Holidays!!!

This is a family tree...

What's with the horse and elephant?