Passive Architect
Upon our return home, I bought three roses and a trumpet vine that would eventually uproot the house, said my husband before giving it away. I had to fill myself with the beauty I’d experienced in Italy.
Neptune stood in a still pond. We walked through arbors trained to grow over our heads in arches. We took in the sight lines and focal points where busts of noble men were carved. Pea gravel gardens rose and fell. A cedar lined alleyway was cut back and forth with less severe paths. There was an elevated marble stage floating. Lemon trees in terra-cotta pots were vibrant and pungent. The fruit bursting, just like the roses in rows and rows at the nearby greenhouse. Terra-cotta pots sat everywhere along the pea gravel paths. Rose vines were overwhelming the iron balconies. Grottos hid behind the branches. Topiary vines six inches in diameter followed the exterior wall.
We crossed the Arno over the Ponte Vecchio bridge again the next day and walked up lanes of a residential district. Streets dead-ended into steps. Other roads came down at acute angles. Skooters were always going by and the sidewalks to move out-of-the-way were not more than a glorified curb.
We are on our way to the Boboli gardens not knowing what to expect. The first glimpses to the sunken maze garden beyond the palace are incredibly intricate -roses in full bloom. A magnificent view of the Duomo holds the landscape from our vantage, just a hill above downtown Florence. The gardens are large! Open swaths of a graded landscape, clear through the center and leading dramatically up to a lovely sculpture surrounded by a pool compete for our attention.
My husband and I bought a home last summer. It was built in 1906, and we have converted most of the yard into new planting beds and a garden. These images show the start of our summer -one that we hope will be fruitful!
The things I love about Morgantown have everything to do with where I am in the US. I love the mountainous state I live in, and enjoy the places I can be in a few hours. This spring my husband and I found ourselves at Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh, where Spring was in full bloom. My husband is a part of the design team working on the Spring Show for 2016.
Since laying my eyes on this variegated hibiscus, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it.
I found this image off of Wiki, which shows the part of the plant I most enjoy -the leaves.
I encourage you to enjoy where you live, beginning right now.
The Morgantown WV Marriott is taking shape. Not only is this site unique – above the Monongahela River, across from WVU’s iconic coliseum, and nearby to the new WVU/ West Virginia’s Black Bears baseball stadium, but the way this project started construction is also exceptional.
The project broke ground in January, five months before it was issued for 100% Construction Document completion. Which meant for the architect (Mills Group) and the general contractor, (Waller Corporation) we were reviewing construction details and fabrication drawings before we finalized the design. To say the least there were a lot of moving parts and I had to be very organized! The players that make up the design team are structural engineers, mechanical, plumbing, electrical engineers, landscape architects, civil engineers, our owners, Marriott team collaborators, and more. For this project we are using Oldcastle bathroom PODS, prefabricated bathrooms, which will be delivered by crane later this fall and rolled into place within the building.
It’s June and the first level of masonry has gone up, the steel has been erected and in the last week the first level floor planks were installed by an over-sized crane. Photos are by the Waller Corporation team, who has the best seat in the house. The job trailer resides about 30′ above the hotel ground floor on the adjacent lot and a quick view out the window provides an assurance of the job progress.
After 100% Construction Documents are issued the architect goes into what’s called Construction Administration, or CA. We attend bi-weekly meetings with construction sub-contractors, we coordinate collaboration with the owner, check shop drawings, and continue to assist in equipment and furnishing details.
We contracted the FFE team American Hotels for this Marriott hotel, and their team has been working to price the new Courtyard by Marriott decor for our project. The new Decor Package rolled out in January and our hotel will be one of the first to show off the new look.
I’ve worked with Caitlin for about two years now. She interned at Mills Group before receiving a full-time position and is now the Interior Designer of Mills Group.
Caitlin’s background includes a degree from West Virginia University. She graduated from the Interior Design / Davis College in December of 2013. She brings her good spirit, talented eye and hard-working manner to our team of young professionals. In the past year she has assisted countless people ranging in hospitality work with two recent hotel projects to designing the Mills Group window for Arthurdale, WV this past Christmas.
Caitlin assists in marketing with her graphic design proficiency and is involved with countless residential projects which push the boundaries of her interiors expertise. Recently she has been focusing on NCIDQ certification which includes 3 examinations and 3,500 hours of professional work. Caitlin is also learning to use a program called Lumion. With Revit, the BIM modeling program that Mills Group utilizes to complete design and construction documents, Caitlin can import 3D models and create life-like interiors such as below. The result, as you can see, is an incredible design tool that simplifies collaboration with clients.
What more could I want out of a hotel where I could walk barefoot over cool decorative tiles and hear other travelers sing together in the shower bathroom? We walked the well-lit streets home that first night. They were glowing from the rain. My brother bought a red bottle of wine that we would split into the six plastic cups. The vendor had given us an extra one to include himself! People here were feeling festive, and this of course included tourists staying at our hotel. The traveling Canadian hadn’t exposed himself to us too much yet, but we’d get to know him better over breakfast the next morning.
Dinner was an easy choice –ZaZa- recommended by our proprietor and by my cousin, Dominic. This piazza had a newly renovated busy market place where we heard techno music. We were brought in to the large-table room at ZaZa. English-speaking people were discussing wine nearby. (We would soon turn into these snobs ourselves!) Our waiter was so friendly –bringing extra cheese or patte when we commented how delicious it was. A bust of a bronzed Churchhill was in the corner. This was the first place that sharing an appetizer worked! In addition we split a few tables wines and Dad started telling jokes. Between he, my brother, and husband my stomach was really hurting. We stayed late, just as Italians do, turning the dinner hour into the entire evening.
We crossed the street to the side of the river and got our first glimpse of Ponte Vecchio. Because I had read Dan Browns’ Inferno my mind was racing about secret passages over the bridge, from Boboli Gardens to the Uffizi. We walked across the old bridge of shops, small jewelry boxes being closed for the night by intricate hardware mechanisms from above, like an old roll top desk.
Easy espresso breaks were often and once we crossed over the river we spotted a gellateria for one. We walked down to the Boboli gardens, though they were closed. The intricate carvings, wooden revolvers, coat of arms, stone buildings, the stores that sold leather and linens. The Medici family’s wealth had washed over the entire city and they were so rich that even 300 years later it was still detectable.
