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In reverse chronological order, the changes
and additions to this site since the conclusion of The Grindstone.
12.6.2008
- Bit the bullet and put up a donation
button. The cost of maintaining access to this site for thousands of
people has become an issue. There is no free lunch, true enough. Someone
somewhere is always paying for whatever. My expenditures here in the past
seven years have come to nearly $10,000, much of which exists as debt.
Astonishing to realize that, especially when I am faced yet again with an
email from the web host saying my payment is past due. I remain skeptical
that this donation option will produce any result, but sometimes life has
happy surprises.
- Added
three exterior photographs of the A.
B. C. Dodd house taken recently by Richard Kronick. Thanks, Dick!
10.7.2008
- Started conversion of the site to CSS, with
the concomitant redesign so long wished. The new look will reflect more of the
P&E graphical standards for publication, such as they can be rendered in the
present medium.
10.5.2008
- Numerous link fixes, error corrections, and
various small adjustments; cosmetic as well as functional repairs. One thing
led to another over a couple of weeks; invisible but worthwhile.
9.18.2008
The final chapter on Elmslie in the "Review of Gebhard Thesis"
contains some remarkable passages concerning Sullivan and Elmslie, with
notes on drawings as a means for conveying ideas, and the real scope of the
"form and function" organic philosophy as a community identity rather than
the literal pass through of structural engineering. Purcell states pointedly
that there is "just no relation of any kind between L'Art Nouveau and the
organic and spiritual values of Sullivan and Elmslie. I don't think they
gave two looks..." WGP also reviews the economic rational for the use
of rectilinear furniture forms, and the practical point behind high back
dining room chairs in a candlelit environment. Everything starts off with a
straightforward statement about Elmslie being responsible for the design of
the Owatonna bank, and moves on to the afore noted conversation on organic
design by saying that it was "Sullivan's re-expression on an architectural
base of what Whitman was trying to say." Nice to have it all out in the
open. Purcell concludes with this meditation: "But architecture is poetry;
its subject is Man, and to him it is addressed. The Function of architecture
is to express Life -- all of it."
- Interleaved
note: Data for Dave [Gebhard] (October 24, 1955), contained within the
sequence of essays of the thesis review, is a brief comment by Purcell
concerning Elmslie's later accounting system that touches also on the
intermission in their friendship and the intermittent conclusion of their
partnership.
Prior
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