God is in the Details...

This is the famous quote from Mies Van der Rohe, the Modernist architect of the 40's to 60's. His concern was that to have clean, simple lined buildings meant very carefully thought out minimal connections.

The Victorian residences of the nineteenth century

had just the opposite ideal ....

(drawing from the Victorian Alliance)

I feel fortunate to live in Northern California for many reasons. One reason, for an architect, is that there are so many incredible Victorian houses around the cities.

While I love the whole facade layout of these structures, I have begun to be really intrigued by the insane details.

I add digital effects to these photos to emphasize the design.

These photos come from San Francisco and Alameda, but you'll find great examples all around the bay.

During the heyday of the Victorians, San Francisco had over 200 mills which produced thousands of patterns of wood carving and turning (ah...the lathe was invented just before -an American named David Wilkinson (1771-1852) developed a screw-cutting lathe that may have been based on drawings by Leonardo da Vinci - Wilkinson eventually produced a general purpose lathe in 1806.)

How about a button...?

no touching !

. . .