THYME Magazine: The Power of Inspiration III

Citizen Journalism with a Better Flavor


Volume IX, Issue IIIa

Julian Abele, Architect

The great architects of the Beaux Arts tradition relied heavily on the power of their own drawing ability to visualize their unfolding design process. Julian Albele (1881-1950) was a master of this craft. His surviving drawings of what many consider to be the most beautiful building in the state of North Carolina would be impressive for their archival record alone. Abele  is a man who deserves to be studied further for his accomplishments; for his is one of the great stories of America.

Albele was born in 1881, the youngest of eight children in a Philadelphia family. He showed great abilities in mathematics as a child and attended the Quaker-run Institute for Colored Youth, which later became Cheyney University. He completed a two-year architectural drawing course at the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art, earning the nickname: "Willing and Able." Julian Abele was the first African American student to enroll in the Department of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania, and became the department's first black graduate in 1902. His studio partner was Louis Magaziner, the only Jewish student in the department, who was of Hungarian descent. The two became lifelong friends.

In 1906, Abele joined the firm of Horace Trumbauer as assistant to chief designer Frank Seeburger. In 1909 Seeburger left the firm and Abele became the chief designer in his place. He was the second highest paid employee in the firm. During the years of the Great Depression and the World War, commissions were few and far between. but in Durham, North Carolina, the Julian S. Carr and Washington Duke family fortunes would fund the Duke Endowment. A great gothic campus would be build, designed by Julian Albele, in a commission won by the Philadelphia firm.

In the segregated South, the impeccably dressed francophile, Albele, was once reportedly denied lodging by a Durham hotel. In those days attribution was scarcely given to team members so the Trumbaurer firm name was credited as the architect of record. It wasn't until late in the Twentieth Century that proper attribution was accorded Albele and a portrait of the architect was displayed at the university. His legacy is an incredible one. The chapel he designed is considered by many one of the most beautiful buildings in the region!


Julian Abele's rendering for the tower of Duke University Chapel in Durham, North Carolina.


Julian Abele's rendering for the interior of the Duke University Chapel.


Julian Abele's rendering of the Duke University Campus.

Rebuilding Lives and Communities

Boaz and Ruth Ministries in Richmond, Virginia

A Milestone Monday Feature


A formerly condemned house is now home to five people restoring their lives.


Firehouse 15 Cafe and Catering provides employment and training for food service careers.


Sunny Days Thrift Clothing draws students from University of Richmond on shopping outings.


"Dino" stands watch outside Harvest Thrift Furniture.

It was a bright sunny day in early February and I was off to Richmond to begin a project with one of my favorite clients. We would be creating a visual representation of the vision Martha F. Rollins has for her little corner of Highland Park. Taking its name from the redemptive story of Boaz and Ruth, this unique ministry seeks to Restore lives, restore communities and restore relationships for people coming out of the prison system.

Knowing that many offenders simply fall through the cracks, and neglected neighborhoods become areas of high crime, Boaz and Ruth have set out to reclaim the street and the people. I visit Harvest Thrift Furniture where restored furniture is offered for sale. In a room behind the sales floor two young men sit intently at computer screens learning how to write resumes and check job listings.

I have lunch with Martha in the Firehouse Fifteen Cafe, enjoying a delicious stuffed chicken breast which is the day's special. The staff is friendly and attentive. Boaz and Ruth currently provides about 100 paid positions. They have their own construction crews and have renovated eleven properties to date. People move on with proven skills after employment with the organization. Nearly 30% of ex-offenders in the state of Virginia and 5o% nationwide return to prison, but at Boaz and Ruth less than 12% of their graduates have returned to prison!

But Boaz and Ruth has an even bigger vision -- to take back the street! I'm shown the spot where a fifteen year old boy was shot to death in front of Harvest Thrift Furniture, and a dream is shared for creating a street full of start-up businesses. Saying: "The establishment of positive commercial activity in Highland Park is needed to provide jobs and draw resources from across the metropolitan area," Boaz and Ruth has plans to remake Meadowbridge Road as a safe and thriving center. The Kirchman Studio is pleased to have a part in painting the vision.


Jim Depasquale's design of Martha Rollins' vision for Meadowbridge Road in Highland Park. Rendering by the Kirchman Studio.

Renderings for the Clean Energy Company

New Corporate Headquarters in Hiroshima, Japan

Penthouse view of the building.

Rendering of Recycling Facility in Hiroshima

Concept for the New Office of an Existing Facility


I overlayed the rendering of the new office section on a photograph of the existing plant. 

Everyday Life in Modern Day Coruscant

Asian Megacities as Political Theatre


What Le Corbusier would have wrought in Paris has become the new reality of Bejing and Shanghai.

Le Corbusier once wrote of his Plan Voisin for Paris: “Since 1922 [for the past 42 years] I have continued to work, in general and in detail, on the problem of Paris. Everything has been made public. The City Council has never contacted me. It calls me ‘Barbarian’!” -- Le Corbusier’s writings, p. 207.

Fast forward to the Twenty-first Century and Shanghai [Le Corbusier on steroids]. It all seems like the realization of the fictional Coruscant from Star Wars... a completely urban environment that stretches as far as the eye can see. The entire planet of Coruscant is one continual city.

Guy Sorman discusses the rise of Asian 'Super Megagopolises' [click to read] in City Journal. Looking at the Mega-model of Shanghai, one could begin to wonder: "can Coruscant be that far off." Sorman points out, however, that Shanghai is largely a political creation...designed to create the impression that China is ready for business with the world. [1.]

Every day the city teems with life and every night the workers necessary to make it function vacate the pristine city. It is like Disney World, where the 'cast members' descend into 'Utilidor,' remove their costumes, and disappear to homes elsewhere.

For Shanhai workers, 'homes elsewhere' often means crowded andsubstandard. Just as China's factories are seldom seen by Westerners,those who maintain the stage for world commerce live in a vastlydifferent world than the one they 'portray' in their 'day jobs.'

Or perhaps, the Death Star in Star Wars is a better analogy. Its scale is way beyond human. It is intended to convey a sense of awe. Might we be looking at the work of some latter day Nimrod, seeking to elevate himself to the heavens?

Sorman points out how the mad rush into the 21st Century has obliterated the traditional spaces of Shanghai and Bejing, which were much more human in size and scate. Again Star Wars comes to mind. Green beautiful planets like Naboo and Alderon risk elimination as the Empire expands its grasp.


This scale model of Shanghai dwarfs the people in the room...


...and calls to mind the fictional city of Coruscant.

In the 'Sixties America sought to 'remake' her major cities. Le Corbusier style housing blocks were constructed to elevate the urban poor. Many of these 'projects' have since been torn down. While we were building them Moscow was building similar blocks of apartments. Today in Moscow, urban youths flock to the rooftops. [2.] Called 'Roofers,' these young people seek the rooftops simply for the openness and the view.

How to Return to the Village
Returning Government to the People in the 'Audience'

Nineteenth Century America was a nation of villages. Great centers of commerce existed, but they were fed by a vibrant countryside. When Thomas Jefferson created his ideal 'Academic Village' to house the University of Virginia he purposefully left one side open to the surrounding agricultural land. From the steps of the Rotunda one could look upon the rolling hills of Albemarle County.

Architect Stanford White convinced the University to fill the void with Old Cabell Hall a long time ago. The recently completed South Lawn attempts to recreate a space leading off into the trees of Charlottesville. The challenge of getting back to the garden is ever before us.

Rooftop Gardens [click to read] offer one method of getting people and open spaces together. Reclaiming existing environments is another. Aging strip malls could be recycled into village centers for the surrounding suburban homes, offering a place residents could walk or bicycle to. Vacant lots and neglected riverfronts can become parks and gardens.


Proposed Renewal of the Crozet Shopping Center.

Suburb bashing has always been a fashionable intellectual pastime.That is one reason I like Robert A. M. Stern. He sees the reasons people seek out single family dwellings of a traditional form. I have a friend who lives on the upper West side and his penthouse with a view of the Hudson is very nice but give me my gardens.People put up with the wretched infrastructure overload and strip centers because the village is still appealing. The residential areas become landscaped oasis for their residents. Kids play outside the house in view of the kitchen window. People visit at the back fence.Moreover the suburbs are seen by their dwellers as affirming opportunity and safety. If people had no emotion for their homes they would be fine with Le Courbusier type high rises but that is simply not the case.The problem is really one of infrastructure and public space [or lack therof]. Strip malls and box stores create a sterile wasteland but they may become the village centers of the future.

Time magazine once featured a piece called 'Repurposing Suburbs' which shows some fine examples of recreating this type of public space. This Crozet project turns a tired strip mall into a village center. One cannot wait for Crozet's redesigner to get his creative hands on some of the new "Town Center" projects which are now just collections of big box stores. Some time ago I drew a concept where the CSX tracks between Staunton and Charlottesville became a light rail line connecting Staunton, Fishersville, Waynesboro, Crozet, Ivy, The University of Virginia Medical Center and Downtown Charlottesville. The result would be a series of village centers and a better utilization of existing infrastructure.

City Journal's writers draw conflicting conclusions. Houston is touted as encouraging its middle class while Gotham offers limited options. Dense urban areas do tend to create energy efficiency. The trick is to see opportunities to improve the communities we have already created.That would certainly involve offering condominiums and a pedestrian friendly center to suburban communities and reclaiming all those wonderful old low density neighborhoods of our cities.

There is more to solving this problem than finding architectural solutions. Redemption too, must begin on a human scale. In a future post I will explore the role of 'New Monasticism' and activists like Star Parker in this aspect of redemptive work in our culture.

Next: Counterpoint to Coruscant [click to read].
___________________________________________________

Clubhouse at Harbor Village

Painting showing the Building and the Interior


Here the challenge is to show a number of aspects of a very nice clubhouse in one painting. Painting by Mr. Kirchman

Working Weekend

Finishing a Big Project, Considering the Lillies


Putting the final touches on a village center.


There is always time to enjoy the bright maple...


...and to 'consider the lillies.'

Model for Hugh Newell Jacobsen

Riggs Alumni Center, University of Maryland


A few years back we built this model for Hugh Newell Jacobsen's office of the proposed Riggs Alumni Center at the University of Maryland.


Detail of the Riggs Center garden.


The model in its plexiglass case.

PNOVS National Veteran's Center

Helping to Create a Vision for Veteran Services


Depasquale Delph Gentilhomme Group Architects asked me to illustrate the new center for Premier Network of Veteran Services. Photo by E. Strong.

"Dear Bob,

I wanted to thank you again for the amazing job you did bringing PNOVS National Veteran’s Center to life. You have captured the spirit and intent of our vision beautifully. Thank you for your passion and great work!"


Depasquale Delph Gentilhomme Group, Illustration by Bob Kirchman.

Some projects just grab you. PNOVS [click to read] was one of those... an opportunity to put some substance to the gratitude we feel for our troops.

Virginia's Tomorrow

With the Right Vision it Could Be Bright Indeed!


Innovative structures might house offshore energy workers. The towers turn to catch the advantage of sun and wind...

Virginians resoundingly voted for a new tomorrow [1.] this past November.The election of Bob McDonnell alone would signify that. The sweep byMcDonnell, Bolling and Cuccinelli is more like a mandate. There is clearly support for a Reagan-like revolution in the direction of stateleadership. Here is a look at what the future might hold for the Commonwealth.

1. A Push for Energy Independence

It’s no secret that Governor McDonnell wants to see Virginia’s natural resources, including offshore drilling rights, fully exploited. In a letter to Ken Salazar [2.] he makes that very clear. Offshore drilling can be done safely and would provide new jobs in the energy sector for the state. Drilling revenues would energize the state’s economy and, if managed well, lead to sustained economic health.

Cheaper, locally produced energy must be a priority. North Anna’s remaining reactor needs to be built. A healthy mixture of ‘new’ and old technologies must be put into play to ensure reasonably priced and readily available power.

2. Leaner Government Expenditures

The states in the Union with the worst economic situations such as California and New York are the ones with the most unsustainable spending. The only alternative to cutting spending is a round of job-killing tax hikes which create reduced revenues in the long run as industry is hobbled by rising costs.

With surveys showing that the average government worker salaries are higher than those in the private sector it is time for some wage freezes in government. Some functions would be more affordable if outsourced to private contractors. A hard eye needs to be applied to requests for ‘new’ computer systems to ‘increase efficiency.’ Often the new system creates learning curve inefficiency and incompatibility issues. It might make more sense to procure smaller ‘off the shelf’ solutions for known issues. By doing so you reduce the learning curve loss to one department and target the solution. The ensuing ‘compatibility issues’ are of a much more manageable size.

3. Private Enterprise Taking Over

In the socialist country of France, one sees fine highways and bridges that have been built and are operated through private companies that are contracted to build and maintain them. Virginia already has the Dulles Toll Road operating under a similar contract. Interstate 66 from the beltway into Washington presents a similar opportunity.

A private contractor should be charged to operate the facility with congestion tolls and elimination of the HOV only status. Additional lane capacity should be considered and paid for by bonds to be retired through the toll.

Privatization of ‘public’ transportation should be considered as well.

4. Freedom and Market Principles in Education

Educational choice should become a real force in Virginia’s preparation for her future. Tax credits for those pursuing alternatives to public education would put real market competition into play. More importantly, this move would put real opportunity inthe hands of Virginia students.

5. Medical Reimbursement Reform on a State Level

The state can promote policies such as tort reform and increased market competition in the insurance industry. Medical savings accounts should be not only encouraged but rewarded through tax treatment.


...and provide new alternatives to building on agricultural land.


Virginia's greatest resource is a creative and diverse population. Xaver Wilhelmy, a transplanted Austrian, developed these innovative glass organ pipes...


...and even envisioned them integrated into church windows!


This piece of innovative architecture captures water that would ordinarily be lost to the street and storm drain.


Projects like the Village at Afton [3.] would create jobs and encourage tourism in our area.

1. Based on 'New York's Tomorrow' special edition of City Journal. Many of the principles outlined therin would be applicable to Virginia's future.

Study Model

Making an Addition/Renovation Understandable


This model was constructed to show how some interesting use will be made of the interior spaces.

Virginia's Open for Business

Time to Roll Out the Welcome Mat!


Concept for reuse of the old Martha Jefferson Hospital... Your new corporate headquarters?

It's time to get ready. Virginia will soon be promoting its pro-business atmosphere to the world. Here are some examples of concept development that I've done for reuse of existing properties that are opportunities waiting for people to come and fill. When you are ready to promote these opportunities Concept Development Services [click to read] give you an affordable way to give prospective clients the big picture.

This is going to be an exciting year...

Morning in Ellicott's Mills

Site of the First Terminus of the B&O Railroad


B&O Station.


Patapsco Hotel.


Arch of the old railroad bridge.


Floods of the Twentieth Century.


Cornerstone of the railroad bridge...


...still carrying Chessie System trains today.

Yesterday morning I was in Ellicott City to make some changes to the model of the town as it existed in the Nineteenth Century. It was a lovely sunny day so I walked around the center of town and enjoyed the play of sunlight on quarried granite. When the site manager of the museum arrived I set to work adding stables and reshaping some topography to make the model more accurate. The museum opened at 10:00 am but they assured me there would not be too many visitors. School was back in session.

My first visitor was Billy, a young Marine who was studying at a journalism school at Ft. Meade. "Would I mind if... " Next thing you know I'm miked and describing what I'm doing as Billy rolls tape. Billy said he'd send me a copy. After the interview I'm wishing we could replace the whole MSM with a few good men like Billy.

A few railfans with huge cameras trickled through. It was a quiet day. Those guys just want to get pictures of trains. I modelled furiously and reached a point where things just had to dry.

I took my afternoon meal at a little tavern/grill across from the station known as the Phoenix. I found the name interesting as the business had arisen from the floodwaters of the Patapsco rather than a fire. It was a busy place and I was amazed as one young lady covered the entire dining area by herself. The sandwich fare at the Phoenix is delicious. The decor is stained-glass transoms from turn of the century houses.

Back at the museum things were drying up nicely. I added some paint and again had a short drying wait. I gave an impromptu 'tour' of the model to a nice homeschooling family from Pennsylvania. I learned where they were from as I explained how the Ellicotts had come from Bucks County PA to settle on the banks of the Patapsco. They seemed to enjoy learning about how the Quaker Ellicotts settled in the midst of Catholic Maryland and convinced Charles Carroll to diversify his crops and use limestone on his fields.

A little before the museum's closing time I was finished. We put the plexiglass case back over the miniature town and I packed up my tools to leave. It had been a long day and Virginia was still a long drive away.

Virginia Dare and the Gosmic Triglor IV

Sand Sculpture...


A gull visits the pyramid. Photo by R. Stern


Church.


Detail of the Church.

Sand castles are a serious pursuit in our family. You would think that after creating architectural renderings and scale models all year this would be too much of a busman's holiday. No, we usually have at least one day of 'serious' sand modelling.

This trip found us building the usual architectural fantasies. My son's girlfriend caught the photo of the seagull perched on an Egyptian pyramid.

The Village at Afton

Needed Now More than Ever...


The Tourist Information Center will soon move to other quarters. There is no running water and guests must use portable toilets outside the facility.

Dear Mr. Dulaney,

My family just spent a wonderful week on vacation and I was impressed with the visitor information facilities one finds on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Well maintained facilities with clean rest rooms make a wonderful first impression. Coming back into Augusta County on the way home I was impressed in another way. Rockfish Gap, the entrance to the beautiful Shenandoah Valley, Skyline Drive, Shenandoah National Park and the Blue Ridge Parkway... is falling into ruin! Once the Gap boasted a Howard Johnsons and a flagship Holiday Inn. The numbers would seem to be there, but this valuable piece of real estate resembles Bosnia Herzegovina after the war. What a sad first impression for our visitors!

While I an a believer in private property rights, it just seems that this current economic crisis would be an ideal time to begin to build something wonderful on top of the pass. Many talented people could be employed by a project such as The Village at Afton [click to read]. I think there are people who would find such a development an attractive investment.

I have created The Village at Afton Concept [click to read] to fit into the existing infrastructure in the hopes that people of vision will rise to the task and create a World Class Entrance [click to read] to our beautiful part of the world. I implore you to take a look and see if you might agree that this would be a great blessing to your neighbors in this difficult time and yourself as well.


Ruined motel units at Rockfish Gap...


...and a vision for tomorrow.

Olive Branch Baptist Church

Client Comment:

"I wanted to tell you how much we like the rendering you did for Olive Branch. You captured the feel of the place perfectly. The owners likewise are delighted.

Thank you!" -- E. Strong, DG Group

Concept for Civil Rights Museum

Visualizing Gallery Designs


A gallery display to be set into a historic school building.

See More Pictures [click to view] at Case Studies.

Our client needed visual materials for planning and fundraising purposes. It was also critical to show how the displays would fit into a historic school building.

Finishing Touches

Historical Display Ready to Go


Here I am adding the finishing touches to our model. It travels to Baltimore tomorrow morning.

Reconstructing a Nineteenth Century Town

Ellicott City, First Terminus of the B&O Railroad


Shops in the center of town.

More Pictures [click to read] of the model we are building.

Greenscape Parking Lot

Parking Lot Study for Charlottesville Project


Greenscape inspired by Bouchart Gardens.

Parking Lots Don't Have to be Ugly [click to read]. In the hands of great designers they can become a garden.