tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44553303670065361452008-04-17T22:00:06.807-04:00James M. Crisphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01882499683763658885noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4455330367006536145.post-48156042157939573012008-04-10T17:54:00.006-04:002008-04-17T22:00:06.839-04:00

Sometimes change is just what the doctor ordered. In our case even more so. Although it has taken a while to get settled, our new space fits us well. Again we owe a debt of gratitude to all the people worked with us on our new office.

James M. Crisphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01882499683763658885noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4455330367006536145.post-69382481749012118712008-03-03T21:52:00.002-05:002008-03-04T10:22:50.328-05:00

Today’s garage, in some ways, is simply an update of the nineteenth century carriage house. Compared to today, those structures seemed more important and therefore more time was taken for planning both the look of the buildings and their relationship to the home. Often the carriage house was part of a barn or stable and occasionally included living quarters above. I consider the character and

James M. Crisphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01882499683763658885noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4455330367006536145.post-46000753997865535302008-03-03T21:17:00.003-05:002008-03-03T21:51:56.440-05:00

A Room for Mud Living through the seasons in the Northeast reminds me of my daughters’ favorite book ‘Going on a Bear Hunt’ where the father, the kids and the dog go looking for a bear and when they find one, they run home through the snow storm (Hoooo woooo), the forest (Stumble trip), the mud (Squelch squerch), the water (Splash splosh) and back through the grass (Swishy swashy). They then

James M. Crisphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01882499683763658885noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4455330367006536145.post-2552591960734632522007-12-20T21:23:00.000-05:002007-12-20T21:47:32.754-05:00

Something that architects and contractors take for granted but that homeowners rarely experience, is the construction site. When it is your house being built or added onto, I recommend that you spend as much time as possible with the “insides” of the place that will become your home. Having said that please be sure to watch your step. It is a bit like viewing the inside a person during an

James M. Crisphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01882499683763658885noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4455330367006536145.post-8102502617938768012007-10-29T17:19:00.000-04:002007-11-03T11:49:09.868-04:00

As much as I love my routine, we are about to begin a new one in a larger more beautiful space just down the road from our old office in the village of Millbrook. We are still in town (just outside the village) on route 44 heading toward Amenia. As you can see in the photos, we are moving into the space recently used by Arrowsmith forge as their showroom. They have moved a part of their showroom

James M. Crisphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01882499683763658885noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4455330367006536145.post-87033112387952266022007-08-23T22:40:00.000-04:002007-08-24T10:52:57.911-04:00

One of my favorite times in the kitchen is Saturday afternoon, all by myself, making a big mess preparing Creole and Cajun dishes. Whether I’m trying to cook my roux(flour and oil) to the perfect nutty brown for Gumbo, or making a simple pot of Red Beans and Rice, it is my place to unwind and anticipate the good food to come. At our home like most of the homes we design, the kitchen

James M. Crisphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01882499683763658885noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4455330367006536145.post-2763092663213227112007-03-19T15:53:00.000-04:002007-03-20T09:45:20.945-04:00

For almost as long as I have written this column about architecture, there has been a line at the end mentioning the upcoming publication of On the Porch written by Sandra L. Mahoney and myself. As the days draw near to this momentous event in our lives, my editor at Dutchess, Kate Goldsmith, asked me to write something about the book. Our becoming authors did not follow the standard arc of

James M. Crisphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01882499683763658885noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4455330367006536145.post-39559320090110681812007-01-13T14:51:00.000-05:002007-01-27T07:31:54.487-05:00

The master architect, A Hays Town was a friend of mine. He passed away last year at the age of 101. Although in recent years he was not as well known nationally as he deserved, he was the master of Southern(especially Louisiana) vernacular architecture. At a time when traditional architecture was frowned upon by the architectural elite, he was its greatest proponent. In the 1930’s Mr. Town

James M. Crisphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01882499683763658885noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4455330367006536145.post-85078804356225593862006-12-06T20:43:00.000-05:002007-01-30T22:11:05.859-05:00

My college architectural history professor would repeat this phrase as if it were the key to Architecture itself. This quote is attributed to renowned modernist architect, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. I believe he meant that the true beauty of a structure can be found in the details of that structure. His steel and glass structures are elegant and graceful at a distance and maintain that beauty

James M. Crisphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01882499683763658885noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4455330367006536145.post-88452542142331132132006-11-02T06:05:00.000-05:002007-01-30T22:13:37.869-05:00

One of my least favorite parts of a project is it's end. During the process of designing and constructing the home, we have built special relationships with home owners, contractors and craftspeople which inevitably must change. Often those business relationships become friendships, but there is nothing like being part of that creation(ask any mother). We work together as a team for as much as

James M. Crisphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01882499683763658885noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4455330367006536145.post-27259313106905193002006-10-14T13:10:00.000-04:002007-01-30T22:16:31.435-05:00

Dutchess county has had a love affair with porches that goes back centuries. Although few of the earliest Dutch and English colonial homes had porches, it wasn’t long until they were added to the beautiful stone and wood houses. Like most of the country, there were few homes built from the mid nineteenth century until after World War II in Dutchess County that didn’t have a porch. From Greek

James M. Crisphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01882499683763658885noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4455330367006536145.post-21232574422801339192006-10-04T10:34:00.000-04:002006-10-04T10:42:42.322-04:00

It has been said that Writing about Art is like Dancing about Architecture. Rest assured there will be absolutely no dancing in this Blog. Instead I will share my thoughts about architecture in general and home design in particular. I am an architect, and have been one for over 20 years. Writing, for public consumption, is relatively new to me. But somehow after writing an article about porches,

James M. Crisphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01882499683763658885noreply@blogger.com