Rowland Design

For a number of years, Rowland Design has participated in the St. Margaret’s Hospital Guild Decorators’ Show House and Gardens.  This year’s featured residence is the historic Schnull-Rauch House, just north of The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis.  When this historic Meridian Street home opens for tours from April 27 to May 12, approximately 35 interior spaces and 10 landscape areas will be showcased.  All proceeds will benefit Wishard-Eskenazi Health.

After touring the home and submitting area preferences, Rowland Design  was selected to do Area 28, the stairway from the 1st floor reception hall to the lower level billiards room, which includes a side vestibule and lower level landing area.  This project required a creative transformation to turn the nondescript transitional space into a chic Moroccan-inspired oasis.

Tickets can be purchased at the door or online at www.showhouseindy.org.

Switching hats from architect to wordsmith, our own Eric Rowland is a featured guest blogger for the IMA today.  He continues a series of blog posts on acquisitions for the IMA’s new Design Arts galleries, opening in fall of 2013.

You can read additional posts from this series here: http://www.imamuseum.org/blog/

My first project in architectural school was drawing a house designed by Mario Botta.  It was an exercise designed to teach us how to draw isometric images, and I think the Botta house was selected because it was such a simple form.  It was a long narrow house that looked like a shoebox on its side, with irregularly shaped openings cut out of it and stripes across the sides.  I loved it! I had never seen a house like this and I was immediately interested in finding more of his work.

Mario Botta, Single-family house in Ligornetto,Ticino, Switzerland, 1975-1976.

Botta’s roots in Lugano, Switzerland certainly reveal themselves in his work.  Lugano is in a mountainous part of the country, with tranquil lakes and an amazing alpine skyline.  The proximity to Italy no doubt allowed him to be exposed to the work of Carlo Scarpa, an architect whose attitudes to masonry, geometry and precise detailing seem to be reflected in Botta’s work.  While the majority of his work is in his native region and includes single-family houses, vacation houses, offices religious buildings and even warehouses, his best known work in the United States is the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Mario Botta, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1992-1995.

I think Botta is a good example of an “architect’s architect.”  His work is precise and tailored, sensitive to context, but bold and self-assured.  Symmetry and texture play an important part in his work, and his vocabulary generally consists of a masonry shell, cracked to reveal its jewel-like contents as though you took a band-saw to a geode.  Strong striping and simple geometric forms define its character.

Mario Botta, Tesi table, 1985.

This table acquired by the IMA is an evolution of that architectural vocabulary and an extension of his materiality.  Like the center of a geode, the Tesi materials are multifaceted and shiny.  A simple metal triangle extrudes to create a minimal base.  Bold metal stripes articulate the support of the rectangular glass top.  The Tesi table is a great piece of interior architecture that fittingly represents Botta’s bold body of work.

Sometimes a great idea needs a little time and a little faith to come to fruition.  In the case of the Guggenheim Museum, it took 16 years, a bit of stubbornness, and a lot of patience.  This time line documents the museum’s design and construction process and demonstrates Frank Lloyd Wright’s exceptional energy while navigating the complicated and ever-changing challenges that the museum posed.  Besides being the museum’s architect, he was its biggest booster- particularly at moments when the project looked certain to go unrealized.¹ 

Keeping Faith with an Idea: A time line of the Guggenheim Museum, 1943-59 

Frank Lloyd Wright, Hilla Rebay and Solomon Guggenheim with a model of the building.
Photo ©Solomon R. Guggenheim Archives

1. Excerpt from Keeping Faith with an Idea, “Introduction“

How much space do you need to live comfortably?

10,000 square feet?  1,500?  What about a mere 420 square feet?  In cities like New York, San Francisco and Chicago, where square footage is at premium, residents are focused on increasing functionality in tighter quarters.

Graham Hill, entrepreneur and founder of treehugger.com, took his vision for an ideal New York apartment, one with a small physical and environmental footprint that matches the beauty and functionality of a place much larger, and transformed this 420 square foot box into a space with 8 adaptable rooms.

With a simple push, pull or swipe of one or more multipurpose elements, the room can easily change function from sleeping, to dining, to entertaining.  Take a tour to see how it’s done: 

The idea is simple: connect homeowners, home design enthusiasts and home improvement professionals across the country and around the world.  From decorating a room to building a custom home, Houzz is an online resource for home remodeling and design, providing visitors with ideas and inspirations for their own projects.

Browse our projects, save images to your online ideabooks, then share and collaborate!

What do you get when you combine two cute and cuddly English Bulldogs with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Foursquare and even Pinterest?  In the case of Butler University, a very well executed social media plan.

There are so many things to love about this social media strategy (and no, I’m not biased at all).  Mascots Butler Blue II and Blue III,  known around campus as Trip, handle the social media accounts with a little help from their owner, Butler’s director of web marketing, Michael Kaltenmark.  Through the pair of Bulldogs, Butler is able to deliver content that is not only endearing and entertaining, but more importantly, informative and relevant.  Presenting information from a “dog’s-eye view” is an ingenious way to engage students, alumni and friends of the university, while simultaneously attracting a new contingent of Bulldog faithful.

Recently social media news outlet Mashable featured an article inviting readers to “Meet the Adorable Bulldogs That Rule College Sports Social Media,” highlighting the success of Butler’s campaign.

Look out internet, these dawgs are everywhere! 

Butler Blue II and Blue III  have taken the social media world by storm with their lovable charm, witty musings and playful antics.  Currently on their “Big Dawgs Tour”, you can follow Blue II and Blue III on Facebook and Twitter to track their adventures.

A glimpse into the world of Blue II and Trip, as tweeted by the duo:

Um, can we get the #BigDawgsTour started back up today or what? Let’s go!

The lookout over Cincinnati at Devou Park. Here we come, Cincy! #BigDawgsTour

Showed up at @AntiqueArchNash and they put me to work at the counter. #BigDawgsTour

@sluggernation let @ButlerBlue2 and me in the vault! This stuff is really old. Like Blue. #BigDawgsTour

Images ©Butler Blue II and ©Butler Blue III

Goodbye, tangerine tango.  Hello, emerald green.

This year Pantone has selected emerald as the Color of the Year for 2013.  A lively, radiant, lush green, expect to see shades of emerald trending in home decor, fashion, beauty and product design.

“Green is the most abundant hue in nature – the human eye sees more green than any other color in the spectrum,” said Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute®.  “As it has throughout history, multifaceted Emerald continues to sparkle and fascinate.  Symbolically, Emerald brings a sense of clarity, renewal and rejuvenation, which is so important in today’s complex world.  This powerful and universally appealing tone translates easily to both fashion and home interiors.”

Retailers and designers are already embracing emerald.  In February, JCPenney will debut emerald tone bedding, accessories, pillows and towels.  Sephora will follow with a limited edition 2013 Color of the Year beauty collection, featuring emerald eye shadow, nail polish and accessories in March.

From stylish shoes and dramatic draperies to bold furniture and funky accessories, some emerald inspiration for the new year.

Are you excited about emerald?

Researchers at Technion use new 3D printing technology to recreate “impossible” M. C. Escher drawings as real, tangible models.

Learn more about their process, and see how it’s done, on Object’s blog.

Turquoise, purple and orange.. at Christmas? Yes, it’s true! These these fresh, bold hues make a great addition to the traditional holiday color palette, or can be used alone for a fun new look.  This color inspiration already has me conjuring up decorating ideas for next year!

When once asked to describe his art style, Harper replied, “When I look at a wildlife or nature subject, I don’t see the feathers in the wings, I just count the wings.  I see exciting shapes, color combinations, patterns, textures, fascinating behavior and endless possibilities for making interesting pictures.   I regard the picture as an ecosystem in which all the elements are interrelated, interdependent, perfectly balanced, without trimming or unutilized parts; and herein lies the lure of painting; in a world of chaos, the picture is one small rectangle in which the artist can create an ordered universe.”

Charley Harper is an American artist best known for his highly stylized wildlife prints, posters, and book illustrations.  In a self-described style of “minimal realism”, Harper saw his subjects as “hard-edge shapes of flat or textured color with enough lines added to complete identification.”  With the aid of  drafting tools, like a compass, T-square, and triangle to ensure crisp corners and perfectly straight lines, Harper’s world of geometric birds, fish, wildlife and insects came to life.  And what a bold,  playful, colorful world it is.

Framed prints can add a touch of color and whimsy to any room in your home.