Modern museum

Colorful Leon, Spain Museum

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Modern museum

The MUSAC museum in Leon, Spain

The Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, AKA the MUSAC, is a contemporary art museum in the city of León, Spain. The building is celebrated for its avant-garde architecture, and it has been awarded a number of prizes incuding the 2007 European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture.  Designed by the architectural studio of Luis M. Mansilla and Emilio Tuñón, the multicolored panels that adorn the exterior resemble the stained-glass windows of a cathedral. The architects drew their inspiration for this work from the main rose window (called The Falconer) at the 13th century Gothic cathedral, Santa María de León. It is a “Museum of the Present”, in the words of its curator Agustín Pérez Rubio, and collects artworks only from the period between 1992 and 2012. It is a visual landmark in the city and seeing it person was a thrill. The exterior is exciting and is as imposing as a large cathedral. The colored panels do remind me of those paint slips you get when you are considering colors for your house.

 

Shingle Style

Shingle Style Historic Homes

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This past year I’ve had a large number of clients with what architectural historians call “Shingle Style” homes. These were generally built in the latter part of the 19th century and the first few years of the 20th. This influx got me thinking of what color choices people in that time period had. In my research collection I came across an 1899 Cabot Stains brochure with actual stained wood samples, as well as a few pictures of stained homes. I was not surprised to see the normal run of brown offerings. But what struck me was the brightness of the green offerings. These do match up well to modern day paint and stain colors so that today’s home owner can have an authentic look. It’s always interesting to go back in time to see what was happening with house color over a hundred years ago.

wood stain

Cabot Stain wood sample from 1899

 

Painted Ladies 2014 Winner

Chicago Award Winner

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I received an email this past week from a former client who lives in Chicago. They informed me that their house, on which I consulted, had won an award. They were the winners of the 2014 “Chicago’s Finest Painted Ladies.” This award is issued annually by the Chicago Paint and Coatings Association.  As soon as I receive pictures from the owners I’ll post those in the Portfolio section of this web site.

If memory serves me correctly, this is the third of my homes that have won this award. I want to thank those client for choosig me to assist them build an exciting color scheme for their historic homes and for entering them in the contest.

Congratulations to the Berry family!!!

2014 Painted Ladies Grand Prize Winner

2014 Painted Ladies Grand Prize Winner

 

Oswego, NY streetscape

Oswego, NY “Paint It” program

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Oswego, NY streetscape

The “Paint Oswego” program is one arm of a multi-faceted revitalization effort for the City of Oswego in upstate New York. The Oswego Renaissance Association offers many services, such as matching grants to homeowners for exterior improvements, streetscape and park improvement funds.

The goal of the Paint Oswego program is to provide Oswegonians with an opportunity to complement their historic homes by choosing from among the rich history of house colors that existed in 19th and early 20th centuries.  The coordinated paint schemes developed by Historic House Colors provide ready, at-hand options. The ORA provides incentives to local homeowners in areas targeted for revitalization to choose among these color options. Custom color assistance is available if desired.

Historic House Colors created 60 historically correct period color schemes for Oswego separated into four historic periods. Homeowners can choose from the preset schemes or work with HHC to develop individual house specific colors and color placement.

UPDATE:  In 2015 HHC partnered with the Oswego Renaissance Association to add 30 additional colors to the available stock of historic paint schemes.

Rob Schweitzer – Historic House Colors

Mobile Historic Homes tour 2014

Mobile, Alabama Home Tour 2014

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Mobile Historic Homes tour 2014

Mobile, Alabama Historic Homes Tour
Sponsored by the Historic Mobile Preservation Society
Held annually in March for the past 45 years, it provides an opportunity to see inside some of the lovely older homes in the city.  This year’s 8 homes were centered around historic Washington Square in the Oakleigh Garden Historic District.  The tour was entitled “Contemporary Living in Historic Settings.” Homes from the 1850s to the early 20th century were on display. For this Northerner, it was a thrill to see into the gentile Southern life style so uncommon up here in Michigan.  I was struck not only by the beauty of the homes, loving restored, but the fine furnishings and knowledgeable guides. I never saw so many grand pianos in one small location – likely a tribute to the Antebellum Southern culture where musical proficiency was an essential skill.
If you are in the South in March I highly recommend attending this well-organized tour that will allow you to brush up on your refinement techniques!

Rob Schweitzer – Historic House Colors

1905 house colors

Interesting old photo

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1905 house colors

1905 House Photo

I was looking through some old photos I had bought at an antique store and came across this one. It is dated 1905, and from the cloths the couple have on that seems about right. What is interesting, from a house color perspective, is the dark columns on the porch. Even though this is gray-scale photo you can clearly see the house gables with a different color than the house body, and what looks to be a different color on the porch parts. Historically the Greeks painted their columns, so they were not the common white we associate with columns today. In fact the idea that columns should be white is probably a misnomer. The white we associate with porch columns comes from our nations “Classical Revival” period in the early 19th century. Those building designers were looking at information from archeological diggings that were taking place in Europe. What scientists found there was clean/ white or natural marble columns, thus the thought they were white originally. Research today disproves that theory. So seeing these dark columns in 1905 reminds me that any historic house can have non-white columns and in part be correct.
Rob Schweitzer – Historic House Colors

National Lead color card

Kicking off a new web site

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After having the same basic web site for over 17 years I felt it was probably a good idea to modernize. That is an issue our Victorian and early 20th century ancestors did not have to tangle with. I bet they would likley feel lucky about that. It is a massive undertaking. If you don’t know anything about web page redirections, consider yourself fortunate!
All that said, the new site should better and more visually appealing. Now let’s hope that there is an up-tick in new clients to correcpond to the work that went into what you are seeing. In the coming weeks I’ll be posting on a hopefully wide variety of topics that people painting historic houses would find interesting. As always, for the past 17+ years, you can contact me via eamil at: robs@umich.edu