Project

House and Spiritual Retreat for Mary LaMar

1993 to 1995

Lake Tomahawk, WI, U.S.A.

Residential, Designed , Not built

Vacation house overlooking Tomahawk Lake, on a site with pronounced slop and existing cottage. The wish of the client, to preserve part of the cottage, was seriously considered and it was incorporated successfully into the design of the new house. The final design was completed, and the construction works reached a halt after the demolition and earthworks works.

Client:

Mrs. Mary LaMar and Mr. Michael Price

C.E.S. staff:

Christopher Alexander, Randall Schmidt, James Maguire, David Soffa

Project stages:

Preliminary Design

Contents

Construction Innovations

House and Spiritual Retreat for Mary LaMar: Wood carving 1994

Work of Art for Project, Ornament

Created by:

Christopher Alexander, Randall Schmidt

Hand-curving of an ornamental floral pattern on the exposed surface of the wooden columns, running along the three building volumes .

Correspondence

SEE ALL Correspondence

Drawings

SEE ALL Drawings

Reports

Records

SEE ALL Records

Photographs

SEE ALL Photographs

References

Scientific Research

The Layout Process of Buildings on the Land - Visualization at Full Scale on Site

Areas of focus:

Design and Building Process

Guiding idea:

Step by Step Process

Each act of building needs to have a positive effect on its surroundings; to complete them, preserve their structure, make them better, by creating strong centers in them and next to them. Each new building is more alive when it ...

Correspondence

Invoice for work hours spent on design and engineering studies on three different projects 21/06/1994

C.E.S. Office, Financial, Notification

Sender:

Randall Schmidt, Center for Environmental Structure, Berkeley, CA, U.S.A.

Medium:

Letter

Records

Photographs

House and Spiritual Retreat for Mary LaMar: Wood carving 08/09/1994

Construction Innovation, Mock-up

Photographer:

Randall Schmidt/C.E.S., Berkeley, CA, U.S.A.

Source:

Print

Characteristics:

Color

Three images depicting two stages of a 1:1 scale pencil defined design and its subsequent carving on a wood-plank mockup. Mockup tested the time necessary to hand-carve 1 1/2 sq. ft. surface segment using router only. .