Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Cambridge Cornices 1984


I lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts for about 13 years, some of those times suffering in grad school dorms. The rest were spent in an 1890 vintage house only a few yards from Harvard Divinity School. During the 1980s I studied architectural drawing at Harvard's Graduate School of Design and did numerous studies of older Cambridge housing. My neighborhood was full of these wooden houses, many of them in poor repair. This one above was in better shape. I love the elaborate woodwork and cornices above the door and upstairs window. Houses like these exist all over America especially in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic (Pennsylvania and New York, for instance) states. Here in Northern Virginia most of the old houses have been whisked away to be replaced by nondescript apartment complexes, McMansions, and glassy office buildings.

Black ink on illustration board, about 8" x 10", summer 1984.

No blogging for the next few days, I'll be on vacation.

1 comment:

Tristan Alexander said...

And this is another sexy building, you give such life and feeling to these structures. There are so many people who can't make people or anything else look half as alive as you make buildings look.