sandr018

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of touring the US State Department Reception rooms and collections with the Mid-Atlantic chapter of the ICAA . The ICAA offers frequent lectures and tours here in DC that are always lots of fun!  Of course seeing the picture above and knowing Washington, DC you think - oh whats so special about another Classical 'ye-olde' set of fancy rooms ? Well the special and surprising thing here is that these rooms are housed in the 'modern' building above. YES, no lies!  They have been designed over the past 5 decades in order to provide a suitable place to entertain visiting dignitaries and share the history of our country through design. I don't think one is intending to fool visitors that these spaces are in any way antique or aren't a part of the modern office building they are housed in. Since 1965 when architect Edward Vason Jones started designing historically appropriate rooms to house the collection of important artifacts they...

I'm sorry for such a long absence between posts but sometimes real life gets in the way of a virtual, blogging life.  I recently heard from my Australian Penpal though reminding me of my duties and I wanted to share his favorite country house (and it may JUST be mine as well) - Berrington Hall in rural England. Designed by noted architect Henry Holland between 1778 and 1781, it was built as a house to retire into for politician Thomas Harley .  Holland was the son of a well known builder so had excellent connections to politicians and the aristocracy needing his services and had a distinguished career. The house itself isn't overly large -you can see it in the floorplan above towards the bottom -with a large service courtyard with dependencies housing the servants and kitchen spaces. Now the courtyard houses a cafe, giftshops, etc, as the house has been owned by the National Trust since 1957. The lives of these types of service courtyards today are much different than they w...