Wrought Iron Gates
Wrought iron and 59th annual Azalea Garden Tour
Admire the Blooms
59th annual Azalea Garden Tour takes off
by Linda Grattafiori
Azaleas or no azaleas, there will be thousands of blooms in 13 luscious landscapes to visit on the 59th Azalea Garden Tour, kicking off on April 13th. The passionate designs behind these wonderlands of color, texture and artistry vary widely from garden to garden, but all aim at pleasing the public eye. Cape Fear Garden Club Chair Karen Smith has done an outstanding job in the selection process and is receiving calls as far away as Michigan and California. One garden club from Wisconsin has already booked their flight, van and hotel.
The three-day tour makes its debut on Friday during a ribbon-cutting ceremony at Ronnie and Cyndi McNeill’s antebellum home, which is secluded on Greenville Sound and overlooks the inland waterway. Its well-established Formosa azaleas are protected by a bank of large oak trees. The Cape Fear Garden Club Azalea Belles, numbering more than 100 and dressed in handmade antebellum gowns, will grace the lawn, escorted by the Citadel’s Summerall Guards. Azalea Festival Queen Ericka Dunlap will cut the ribbon, encouraging tour guests and visitors to enjoy refreshments and entertainment of the Stevenson/Stohl Suzuki Studio, and to explore the magnificent grounds.
Each of the 11 private and two public gardens will offer different delights. Smith says the landscapes run the gamut from whimsical cottage to formal design, and feature a wide range of unique outdoor living spaces.
Phyllis Buie (Garden #10) has made “a heaven on earth” from a potting shed acquired from Cape Fear Community College. Buie’s husband Donald had the 12×12-foot structure placed in their backyard and used his carpentry skills to turn it into a tea room for his wife. He installed a ceiling fan, wrought iron fixtures and a front porch complete with pansy-laden window boxes. The shed matches the Buie residence at 724 Wilderness Road and is painted creamy yellow with deep red shutters. The Buies enjoy the view of the shed from their sunroom, which also looks out on a lovely water feature. The pond is surrounded by rhododendron, George Tabor azaleas, King Sago palms, re-blooming hydrangeas, camellias and more.
A Yoshino cherry flanks a glass dollhouse made of old windowpanes, which houses a delightful garden angel. Large beds of KnockOut roses, yellow in the front and pink and red in the back, are maintained by the Buies. This year they spread 220 bags of mulch to decrease weeds and enhance moisture for the flower beds. “We have painted or mulched everything that does not move,” Buie says.
Airlie Gardens and the NHC Arboretum, the two public gardens on the tour, are also deep in the dirt sprucing up their respective grounds. Both gardens have benefitted from grants given by Cape Fear Garden Club, the oldest and largest garden club in NC. Airlie, the quintessential southern garden, features 100,000 azaleas, statuary and camellias, the 464-year-old Airlie Oak and 10 acres of freshwater lakes. Airlie will be open Saturday, April 14th only.
The Arboretum showcases six landscapes, including the Japanese garden, which will be rededicated from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, but is open all three days of the tour. This landscape has a redesigned water feature funded by the Cape Fear Garden Club. Fortune’s Osmanthus shrubs represents mountains. The teahouse, overlooking seven waterfalls, sits on the inside curve of a stream for good luck.
After the tour, lucky applicants who have applied online may receive one of the Cape Fear Garden Club’s grants for horticulture and beautification. Last year, $83,000 collected from the tour was given in grants, scholarships to UNCW and CFCC students, and conservation efforts at Battery Island, a National Audubon Society bird sanctuary.
from encorepub.com
Wrought iron and the Mission Revival style
Good architecture was their MISSION
Mark Landis
The Mission Revival style of architecture has become a mainstay of American Southwest culture, and it originated in Southern California in the early 1890s.
The now classic architectural style was inspired during the Mission Romance period that was swept in by Helen Hunt Jackson’s wildly popular book “Ramona.”
Published in 1884, the book is a romanticized account of a young Indian orphan girl growing up among the ranchos and missions of Southern California in the mid-1800s.
The newly-piqued interest in the California Missions was especially strong among the eastern transplants who poured into Southern California during the great land boom of the 1880s. Incorporating the Spanish architecture of the old missions into new homes and businesses became a popular trend, and a new style of architecture was born.
Architect Arthur B. Benton could rightfully be described as the father of the Mission Revival style. He collaborated with some of the most unique and influential Southern Californians of the period to promote the Mission Revival style. Several of Benton’s famous buildings were built in the Inland Empire, and some are still standing today.
Arthur Burnett Benton was born in Peoria, Ill., April 17, 1858. He graduated high school in Peoria, and went to Morris County, Kan., from 1879 to 1888 to take up farming. While in Morris County, Benton married Phillipina Harriet Schilling Von Constat of Johnstown, Penn. The Bentons had one daughter, Edith Mary Benton, born in 1884 in Morris County.
Arthur gave farming a serious try, but he found it was not his passion. In 1888, he went to work as a draftsman in the architectural department of the Santa Fe Railroad in Topeka, Kan. During this time, he attended the School of Art and Design at Topeka. In 1890-91, he moved to Omaha and worked as a draftsman for the Union Pacific Railroad.
Benton moved his family to Los Angeles in 1891, and in 1893 he became a partner in the William C. Aiken architectural firm. When he arrived in Southern California, Benton became intrigued with the missions and he had the opportunity to incorporate the Mission style into his designs.
In 1894, the Aiken firm was commissioned to design a two-story addition to the Federal Indian School at Perris built in 1891-92 (the campus was later moved to Riverside and renamed the Sherman Institute). The addition was to match the unique California Mission style of the existing buildings at the school, so this was likely Benton’s first commissioned work of this style.
The year 1894 proved to be important for Benton’s career and the future of the Mission Revival style. That year, Benton met up with publisher Charles F. Lummis, and they joined well-known architect Sumner P. Hunt and other volunteers to form the California Landmarks Club.
The men were all enamored of the California Missions, and the club was formed to protect and restore the historic structures. Lummis was president of the club, and Benton served as secretary and consulting architect.
Charles Fletcher Lummis was born in 1859, in Lynn, Mass., and his life seemed to unfold as a series of lively adventures. Lummis attended Harvard and was a classmate of Theodore Roosevelt’s until he dropped out to pursue his love of writing.
In 1884, Lummis accepted a job at the Los Angeles Times and proceeded to walk across the United States to take his new post. His 3,500-mile trek from Cincinnati to Los Angeles took 143 days, during which he sent weekly dispatches to the newspaper chronicling the journey.
In 1894, Lummis took a position as the editor of a regional magazine called Land of Sunshine (renamed Out West in 1901), and he used his post to promote the preservation and restoration of the missions. Arthur B. Benton wrote several articles on the subject of Mission Revival architecture for the magazine.
The Landmark Club and its prominent members Lummis and Benton can take a great deal of credit for preserving the missions. Benton personally supervised the reconstruction of the San Diego and San Juan Capistrano Missions. He was an adviser and vocal advocate of other mission restoration projects including San Luis Obispo, San Fernando and the Pala Asistencia.
In addition to the mission projects, Benton stayed quite busy designing numerous churches and civic buildings. Benton’s greatest claim to fame came in 1901 when Frank A. Miller, owner of the Glenwood Inn at Riverside, commissioned him to design a large addition to his hotel in the Mission Revival style.
Benton’s unique designs for the early portions of the Mission Inn set the standard for the Mission Revival style. On successive additions, the inn took on a more formal Spanish design with cathedral-style bell towers, arched buttresses, stained glass windows, and wrought iron balconies. Benton and Miller collaborated on the ever-evolving architecture of the Mission Inn for more than 25 years.
In 1904, Benton was commissioned to design the new Arrowhead Springs Hotel built in the foothills above San Bernardino. The impressive 3-story structure was designed in the Mission Revival style that was becoming Benton’s trademark.
The Arrowhead Hotel shared some of the same features as the Mission Inn, including an overhanging roofline with exposed rafter beams, and red roofing tiles extending over the Spanish style upper balcony.
The Contemporary Club of Redlands also hired Benton in 1904 to design a new clubhouse for the prominent ladies organization. The two-story building was a unique combination of Mission Revival style and Tudor style architecture. The building stood at the southeast corner of Vine and Fourth streets until it was demolished in 1971.
Some of Benton’s larger and more noteworthy designs were the YMCA and YWCA buildings in Los Angeles and the magnificent Arlington Hotel in Santa Barbara.
Late in his distinguished career, Benton was the architect for the San Gabriel Mission Playhouse, which opened in 1927, and the Riverside Municipal Auditorium, which opened in 1928.
Arthur Benton died at his home in Los Angeles, on September 18, 1927, at the age of 69. His splendid Mission Revival designs became an architectural legacy that can still be seen throughout Southern California.
Some of Benton’s finest designs can be visited in Riverside at the Mission Inn and the nearby Riverside Municipal Auditorium. Both are on Mission Inn Avenue, just west of the 91 Freeway. The San Gabriel Mission Playhouse can be seen at 320 S. Mission Drive, in San Gabriel.
from dailybulletin.com
The new Apthorp wrought iron gates
Take a peek at the new Apthorp
By Roslyn Lo
One of the last great all-rental Manhattan masterpieces, The Apthorp is slowly but surely carving out a new position in the city’s history as a gilded condominium residence.
A sale of the 163-unit gated haven in 2006 heralded a new beginning for the landmark building as much as it marked an end of an era of rent regulations that had been in place as long as folks could remember.
And despite an at times acrimonious transfer of status, the folks now running the show at The Apthorp have managed to sell almost half the homes to well-heeled buyers after launching one of the most expensive conversions in New York history (according to the New York Times) and offering a whole new generation the chance to create the home of their dreams.
“It’s a completely unique way of selling a building,” said Justin D’Adamo, a Corcoran Sunshine executive who is the director of sales at The Apthorp.
He’s referring to the option buyers have to work out their own, unique floor plan from the plethora of original apartment layouts that are updated as they are sold.
“It lets people see how one space can transform in so many different ways,” explained D’Adamo. “Developers tend to have a formula; when you get to a certain size, you need to have a certain bedroom count. But buyers have specific needs, and we work with them on the floor plans. The beauty is, you can have whatever you want.”
For an example, two buyers opted for different visions on the same ninth floor residence: a 5,877 s/f space. One couple planned to showcase their art collection in an en filade around the center processional. Wikepedia tells us that’s a fancy word for “a suite of rooms formally aligned with each other.”
The other couple sound more like party people: They spread out six bedrooms and entertainment suites all accessible from the foyer.
The Apthorp was built in the Renaissance Revival style by architects Clinton & Russell for absentee landowner William Waldorf Astor between 1906 and 1908.
Millions of New York eyes must have peered through the iconic wrought-iron gates since then to catch a glimpse of the courtyard around which the apartments were built on a full block between Broadway and West End Avenue, 78th and 79th Streets.
It was named after Charles Ward Apthorp, a gentleman farmer who first worked the land back in the 18th century, and is adorned with the kind of great stone embellishments that make little girls wonder if that’s where the mayor lives.
Apthorp Associates LLC — the official name of the partnership comprised of Africa Israel Investments and “several individuals and entities” that now owns the building — brought in some of the best in the business to turn the grande dame into a diva.
BP Architecture designed the major renovations that include the less-than-glamorous things like new HVAC, wiring and plumbing, but also the modern touches that include the new spa and fitness center, yoga studio, entertainment suite and children’s play room as well as the magnificently restored lobbies.
Stephen Sills, the famous interior designer whose client list includes Vera Wang and Anna Wintour, is in charge of interiors.
His most recent models gave us a glimpse into a standard unique home (yes, there is such a thing at The Apthorp.) The entry hall — called a processional there — has a marble mosaic tile floor, and the original details — like mother of pearl switches, fireplaces and cornicing — have been masterfully revived into a fresh, modern home that has garnered Sills as much praise from his peers as it has won over buyers.
Of the 161 units in the building 40 percent of those are occupied by renters (and won’t be available); another 40 percent have been sold; and the remaining 20 percent are available for sale, according to a spokeswoman for the ownership. Prices are averaging around $2,000 per square foot.
Beth Fisher, senior managing director of Corcoran Sunshine, is convinced the options on the table are what is helping The Apthorp mend its somewhat tarnished reputation and attract the kind of buyers who will continue to revere the building’s history while appreciating its re-emergence as a must-have New York address.
“The classic architectural detail changes from room to room,” said Fisher. “One apartment alone features French detail in one room, and Elizabethan detail in the next.
“At this price point, people have very specific preferences. They like the basic framework, and they like the fact they can make slight changes without having to hire a construction crew. It’s a service not typically found in the market.”
from rew-online.com
Chateau Artisan : a castle with wrought iron gates in Miami
Miami’s Real-Life Castle, With Moat
By Krisanne Alcantara
Like any aspiring young princess, I’d always dreamed of living in a fairytale castle — turrets, buttresses, moat and the whole shebang. Over two decades later, I’m still no princess, but I’ve found a real-life castle that looks like it was plucked straight from my childhood dreams.
The newly-listed, $10.9 million Chateau Artisan in Miami, Fla., sits in the middle of its own private lake that boasts a moat and bridge. Designed by celebrated Miami-based architect Charles Siegel of Sieger Suarez, the behemoth of a home was built completely symmetrically, from its diamond-shaped courtyard to its matching concrete gazebos and its twin fountains and paired royal gardens (see below right).
It’s been called everything from a “magnificent castle manse, serving as a lesson in dynamic lines and flawless symmetry” to a “hulking 10,124 square feet of fantastic and possibly questionable taste,” but I give it a huge thumbs up. Chateau Artisan is the closest thing to a real-life American castle that you could possibly get. And come on, it has a moat.
The Chateau also boasts mammoth, black, wrought-iron privacy gates, and is accessible by a long, tree-lined driveway with an enormous obelisk focal point in the middle. If you want a taste of what it would feel like to drive up to this ridiculously swank home via said tree-lined drive, watch the first 26 seconds of the “Fire Flame” music video by rapper Birdman, who featured the Chateau prominently throughout.
Chateau Artisan also features eight bedrooms, eight bathrooms, a swimming pool, a boat house, a huge koi pond, vast lawns, countless fountains and a maze.
from realestate.aol.com
Wrought iron gates for Plumbago
Five-star, but it’s affordable
Your five-star experience with affordable rates. Only 20 minutes from the Kruger National Park and close to the Panorama Route.
Through the wrought-iron gates at the end of a bougainvillea-lined drive you will find Plumbago – as pretty as the flower that shares its name.
Set on an avocado and banana farm, it sits above the plantation looking out to the Kruger National Park in the distance.
The pool and sauna in the beautifully tended bird-filled garden allows for relaxation.
Beauty treatments, activities, transfers and safaris can be arranged. Children and pets by arrangement. For lunch and dinner, bookings are essential. Fully licensed.
For members, a 20 percent discount on the existing rate at the time of the booking request ending December 2012. Proof of membership must be presented on arrival. Terms and conditions apply.
from iol.co.za
