I’m pretty far behind the blogging curve, this being only the third item I’ve written.  And thanks as always to Kate, without whose help I would still be working on the first one!  I mention this lack of tech savvy because it was very much on my mind when I received a request to give a tour of the Miller House and Garden to a group of architectural bloggers whose itinerary and experience were being arranged by the Columbus Area Visitors Center.

Michael Shapiro of ModernCaptital (left) and Barrett "Baz" Crites of Atomic Indy (right)

Taken together, the participants constituted a pretty impressive group. (By the way, has there yet been coined a word for a group of bloggers?)  Atomic Indy’s Baz was there, along with the Urbanophile (that’s some SERIOUS blogging), Apartment Therapy, and many others, about 15 in all.  I had visited some of their blogs prior to the June 12 tour, but my own digital world is on the narrow side, I have to confess, so most were new to me.  Suffice it to say that as folks were introducing themselves, I could only smile and nod, and reflect inwardly on my opportunity to see the Miller property act as one of the agents that would transform – if only for a weekend – a virtual community of iPhone-addicted hipster inhabitants of the blogosphere into a real-time, flesh-and-blood fellowship of Columbus, Indiana, architectural enthusiasts.  Read the rest of this entry »

The Miller House and Garden in Columbus, Indiana, is a truly remarkable place, notable for embodying outstanding work of its architect, Eero Saarinen, its landscape architect, Dan Kiley, and its interior designer, Alexander Girard.   Here, the stains of mid century modernism strike a chord whose resonance few others can equal.

Its visual resonance is amplified by having been recorded by two of the most important architectural photographers of the twentieth century, Ezra Stoller (1915-2004)  and Balthazar Korab (1926-  ).  As we work to understand the property and the changes it underwent, to have the photographs taken by these men is to sift a treasure almost beyond one’s wildest hope. Many preservation projects must rely on much less for visual documentation.  Imagine being immersed a career of genealogical and historical research and suddenly working on an individual whose every portrait had been taken by Cecil Beaton or Irving Penn!

Monica and Balthazar Korab, Photo by Mark Zelonis

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I joined the IMA staff in 2000 when the museum was already well along with its project to renovate and reinterpret Oldfields, the former home of J. K. Lilly Jr.  The house was a construction site from top to bottom, and indeed beyond its walls, with many of its interior features and surfaces hidden behind protective coverings to prevent the damage that comes so easily when tools, ladders, materials, and equipment are constantly on the move.  While things were thus covered, we planned for the appearance of the house when it would reflect the early 1930s, the time the Lilly family first lived there.  An image of the house slowly came into focus as we made final selections of paint colors, furnishing choices, and textile selections.  It was an exciting process, one rare enough in one’s career to be especially savored.

Lilly House at the IMA

Interior view of Lilly House

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