Building Spelunking

Spelunking is the technical term for cave exploration. Building spelunking is what I call picking through the dark recesses of old basements. Sometimes they're so dark you literally can't see your hand in front of your face. And other times there's just enough light to creep you out. Many times I don't know what I'm shooting until I see the image on the camera.

Yeah, it's fun!

Be there

Was at Mount Moriah Cemetery this afternoon right after the rains for another project and HAD to stop and shoot their mausoleum. I've wanted to photograph this building for several years now but only spent a few minutes grabbing these shots. The stone work is amazing . . I'll be back; hopefully sooner than several years from now!

f-stop in New York City

Last week I was hired by Rosin Preservation to photograph two buildings in Herald Square and parts of the Empire State Building. We were in NYC for a week and I took close to 2,000 shots, both for work and fun. I won't bore you with a lot of general tourist stuff, but here are some of my favorites from both categories.

We stayed on the 33rd floor of a condo on the upper west side, two blocks from Broadway and about 6 blocks from Central Park. Here are some views from our windows.





Rosin Preservation is preparing an application for Historic Tax Credits for the owner of the buildings and my photos were to show the completed rehab/restoration work.




Same story for the Empire State Building. Here's the restored main lobby.



OK, ONE touristy shot . .



I had a great time and very much hope to go back soon!

Sometimes . .

Sometimes, despite your best efforts and intentions, a building can get away from you. The Atkins-Johnson Farm restoration project being undertaken by the city of Gladstone, Mo., is going fantastically well. The main house and root cellar are beautiful. However, in the time it took to complete the exterior of the house the smokehouse (which was in bad shape before) deteriorated beyond hope.

It's an interesting contrast. A few more years and the main house would likely have suffered the same fate.





Note the use of logs (now collapsed) as ceiling beams.

Ya never know what you're gonna find!

Everybody who knows me knows I collect Tiki stuff . . artifacts from the Mid-Century-Modern, Polynesian Popular Movement (Poly-Pop for short) exemplified by restaurants and bars decorated in exotic island themes. Well, the movement didn't start with bars and restaurants. It started with home bars in WWII veterans' basements; with their desire to recreate the South Pacific they'd experienced during their military service.

At least, that's what I've been told. I'd never actually seen a vintage home Tiki bar.

Until today!

While photographing a house for pre-restoration documentation we found enlarged scrapbook pages taped on the wall of the living room for the new owners to enjoy. Among them were these:







I couldn't wait to see how much, if anything, was left of the Hawaiian Room! To my surprise, there was more then I expected!






How cool is this!! THEY DO EXIST!

Keep looking . .

DISCALIMER: The following is simply my personal opinion based on years of observation and is directed at NO ONE in particular.

I have some advice for those of you with means who are considering purchasing a historic home; keep looking.

In my experience, I rarely if ever see historic houses and/or buildings horribly remodeled by the poor. Neglected, often yes, but the structure and it's details usually remain intact. It takes people with money to replace windows, rearrange interior walls, "update" kitchens and bathrooms, build additions, etc.

Now things like insulation, high efficiency heating and cooling systems, plumbing and electrical updates obviously make sense in today's world, and those things can be done with minimal intrusion. I'm talking about esthetics here.

So here's a short, non-comprehensive list of things you may want to consider before buying a historic home:

1. If the house isn't quite big enough and you'd like to put on an addition, KEEP LOOKING.

2. If the rooms in the house don't have the "flow" you'd like, KEEP LOOKING.

3. If the bathroom isn't big enough for your Jacuzzi, KEEP LOOKING.

4. If you believe that new sinks, toilets and light fixtures will work better than the home's original fixtures, KEEP LOOKING.

5. If the "space" doesn't feel right it isn't your job to "fix" it, it's your job to KEEP LOOKING.

6. If you feel the need to do anything to the house that can't be classified as restoration and can't be easily UN-done later, KEEP LOOKING.

Sure, it's YOUR house and you can do anything you want with it. But if you follow these simple guidelines the odds of future owners cursing your name long after you're gone will be greatly reduced.

I lived here . .

A few years ago I had the opportunity to photograph my old apartment building for pending historic tax credit restoration work. It had been twenty or so years since I'd lived at Clyde Manor on the corner of Armour Rd. and Gilhman, so I was really interested to see what it looked like. Well, it hadn't changed much, just gotten a bit more run down.

Today I got to go back and shoot it after all the work has been completed. What a difference! The units, in general, are larger and everything is clean and fresh looking. Nice!

Here's the main lobby: