A house in heaven or Hell

 

 

Thanks to the Vieux Carré Digital Survey, I was able to retrace a piece of the history of my great-grandparents in New Orleans. On Saturday, April 25, 1857, my great-great-grandfather Joseph Fassy of New Orleans inherited the property of his brother Vincent Fassy located at 940 Saint-Louis St in New Orleans.

 

Following the evaluation of the Vieux Carré Commission, the house was and still is a two-story brick commercial building in Creole style from 1830 built on land forming the corner of Saint-Louis and Burgundy St measuring F.M. 29' 10" frontage on Saint-Louis by 84' on Burgundy. It was a house with four apartments (rooms), a gallery and two wardrobes, built in half-timbering and a wood-fired kitchen."
Thirty-one years later, on Monday April 30, 1888, my great-grandfather Albert and my great-great-aunt Octavie Fassy, in turn ,inherited from their father Joseph. In 1896, 18 years later, on Monday July 27, Albert and Octavie sold the house to a certain Mr. Augustin Nicolas Tourné.

 

In 1857, Joseph also bequeathed to his son Albert and his daughter Octavie a property located at 430 Burgundy St. which he himself had inherited from his brother Vincent.

During my research, it appears that Vincent Fassy had bought this house in 1839 from a certain Mr. Antoine Roubet, a slave owner for the sum of $950.

 430 Burgundy St.

For those who know me, you can easily imagine what this kind of research can do to me. You will of course tell me that it was another era, other mentalities but still... If I manage to retrace, more or less, the history of my family I cannot help but wonder what what happened to these five slaves. I managed to find the trace of several slaves bought or sold by this Mr. Roubet, these were :

- Constance, aged 30, mother of two children, speaking French, purchased by Mr Antoine Roubet on April 6, 1815. Constance was sold in 1818 by Mr Roubet to Mr Debuys.
- Théodore, Constance's son, was bought by Monsieur Roubet in 1815 and sold to Monsieur Debuys in 1818.
- Désirée, Constance's daughter, was purchased by Monsieur Roubet in 1815. 

Thank God I did not find Fassy's name on the list of New Orleans slave owners on the Afro-Louisiana History and Genealogy Database but the fact remains that this "testimony" should not make us forget what those troubled times were and what they led to a whole generation of Americans fighting against each other.

When we say "if the walls could talk", some would tell stories that we would prefer to forget but which must be remembered

Can Ras, Mallorca

Can Ras, Mallorca by Fran Silvestre Arquitectos. Made to disappear. This is how the concept for this house on the island of Mallorca is presented, a few meters from the shore of the Mediterranean sea. The house is made up of a set of pieces that move in one direction, offering exterior spaces as patios between the various volumes that contain the different interior uses. Thus, with this movement, a volume is fragmented into small parts, giving each of them a unique character and their own autonomy. The house is conceived with natural materials, but built with current technology, paying attention to economy, precision and continuity. The lay-out on the ground floor maximizes the relationship with the exterior and prioritizes the views of the sea through large openings protected from solar incidence by eaves that generate large exterior terraces.

Son Brull Mallorca

Located at the foot of the Serra de Tramuntana, close to the town of Pollença, in the southernmost tip of Mallorca, Son Brull is a five-star hotel located in an old Jesuit monastery from the 18th century, and which was carefully restored in 2003 by its owners – a local family with a long experience in the hospitality business – to turn it into one of the most luxurious touristic complexes on the island, guaranteeing the preservation of the old building as part of the historic heritage. The brief called to extend and refurbish the complex. The owners of the property wanted to renovate and enlarge the spa of the main building, and to build four new villas on the land next to it. The project aims to be part of the territory, to be landscape. It doesn’t try to occupy the territory, but rather to build it, create a large garden, a landscape for walks.

Art in Mallorca

 

The gem of the Mediterranean sea, the largest of the Balearic Islands is best known for its sun, its nature, its beaches, its unspoilt coves and its small villages. Its cultural and architectural heritage, much more discreet, is nevertheless very rich. If the sea, the people, their dialects and customs, as well as gastronomy are part of the daily delights of Majorcan life, art, architecture and crafts also have an essential place. A real heaven for creators, the island has hosted "Art Night" in Palma since 1997. The event, particularly popular with amateurs and professionals, enlivens the entire historic center over a long weekend (which begins on the third Thursday in September): galleries and museums are open until late to the public; artists and pop-ups take over workshops, shop windows, restaurants, bars, roofs of buildings; when curators organize guided tours... 

Fondation Pilar and Joan Miró

Since 2004, the Art Palma Contemporani association has orchestrated this Art Night, as well as the Art Palma Brunch in the spring, which brings together a large number of galleries revealing their new exhibitions and offers an abundant supply of outdoor art. The still significant presence of a painter such as Joan Miró (1893-1983) is another sign of the importance of art in Palma. Half-Catalan, half-Mallorcan, he moved there in 1956, at the age of 63. His mark is everywhere, between sculptures and frescoes that the artist offered to the city. Inaugurated in 1981, the Pilar i Joan Miró foundation has thus endowed the capital with a teeming cultural center where the painter's career is honored with no less than 6,000 works (paintings, drawings, etc.). The building was designed by Spanish architect Rafael Moneo. Another must-see is the artist Antonio Gaudí, responsible in 1903 for the (unfinished) renovation of La Seu Cathedral. In the Chapel of San Pedro, the 300 square meter ceramic mural, made between 2001 and 2006 by Miquel Barceló, is impressive. 

Es Raco d'Arta

Majorca still hides many other gems. Thus Studio Weil, dedicated to the American artist Barbara Weil (1933-2018), in Port d'Andratx, where she lived from 1972. The place, all curves and concentric circles, was designed by the architects Daniel Libeskind and Jaime Vidal Contesti. A little further inland, the CCA Andratx, the largest contemporary art center on the island, and one of the largest in Europe 4,000 square meters shared between an exhibition hall, art gallery and café, has also hosted artists in residence since 2001.

Thus Studio Weil in Port d'Andratx

In Alcudia, in the north of Majorca, the Museo Sa Bassa Blanca delights lovers of art, architecture and nature. The garden, where one could spend hours, houses more than 100 varieties of old roses and an animal park of granite works. The place also includes an observatory from which you can admire various installations, a library with more than 7,000 works, etc. A total art concept for this building, the main part of which was designed by the Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy (1900-1989). 

Museo Sa Bassa Blanca

The houses of the Dane Jorn Utzon (1918-2008), famous in particular for having designed the Sydney Opera House, are also worth seeing: Ca'n Lis (1972), a family summer house with a sea view that he had to abandon it as it attracted curious people and lovers of architecture, now hosts the Utzon Foundation, which organizes, among other events, workshops and residencies for artists and architects for nine months of the year. Can Feliz (1994), also built using traditional Mallorcan construction methods and local materials, is located in the mountains, but its location has remained a secret ever since. In the heart of the old town, Ca’n Vivot already seduces from the outside, thanks to its magnificent patio. Once inside, you enter a palace whose last renovation dates from the 18th century. The only concession to modernity is that electricity has been installed in each room, lit by elegant Murano chandeliers. The library and common areas have been honored by visits from kings and queens from Spain and Europe, but also from Japanese emperors and Indian maharajas. The city-owned Palau Solleric is now an exhibition center. Its architecture and facade, in Italian style, are remarkable. A former palace turned theater, Rialto Living is now a store, exhibition center and café. The Palau March, for its part, displays sculptures by Henry Moore, Auguste Rodin, etc.

Ca'n Lis 

But these days, the new architectural gems are the hotels designed by local builders. For example, Es Racó d'Artà, by Antoni Esteva: in a spectacular setting, in the heart of the vast natural park of the península de Llevant, on the wild east coast, the place, which offers spa, infinity pools, guided hikes , yoga classes and daily workshops (beekeeping, art therapy, etc.), invites you to reconnect and find inner calm. Designed by Sergi Bastidas, Can Ferrereta, housed in a 17th century mansion in the village of Santanyí, is a refined boutique hotel. Opened in spring 2022, in the lands of the south-east coast, it evokes a large Majorcan summer house and allows you to discover this little-known part of the island. Overlooking the bay of Palma, Cap Rocat, property of Antonio Obrador, who is also its architect, is a place of unique beauty. Situated in the middle of a fortified citadel, completely renovated, it invites you on a journey back in time.

Cap Rocat

KinoMa Japan

 

KinoMa, rebuilding an ancient farm house in Japan by Mateus Bagatini and  Kana Suzuki

Follow their amazing work at Insta : https://www.instagram.com/kinoma_project/

M5 Sail Yacht by Vosper Thornycroft

 

M5 (ex Mirabella V) is a sloop-rigged super yacht launched in 2003. At an estimated cost of over USD 50 million, she is the largest single-masted yacht ever built.

The 77.6-metre sailing yacht M5 (formerly Mirabella V) has emerged after her extensive refit at NCA Refit (2019) part of The Italian Sea Group. Having been originally built for Joseph Vittoria, the former CEO of the Avis Rent-A-Car company, and was first launched in 2004 and became a record-breaking sailing yacht.
Designed by Ron Holland and built by VT Shipbuilding, she was the largest composite yacht in the world with an 89-metre rig. Her 151-tonne lifting keel varied the draught from 4 to 10 metres.

The current owner (who acquired M5 in 2012) wanted to change the transom shape and extend the aft deck to carry a Carbon Cub seaplane. The works to achieve this began with Pendennis who saw to her new stern, major engineering upgrades, new Carbo-Link rigging and a refreshed interior by RWD in 2014.

Having noticed some problems with the newly-altered yacht – particularly in the way the raised keel box generated a lot of noise in the owner’s suite – the NCA Refit yard together with Rob Doyle Design were chosen to take on the next phase of the refit. The team cut the keel in half to move the ram housing forward, then oversaw the yacht’s exterior colour change.

The now three-tone metallic grey also sports a new composite hardtop to replace the soft bimini on the flybridge, recaulked teak decking to match the silver paintwork, new interior flooring, carpeting and fabrics, new finishes in the bathrooms, and a marble bar in the main saloon.

“M5 has been a challenging project from both an engineering and logistical perspective, but the results speak for themselves,” says Giovanni Costantino, chairman and CEO of The Italian Sea Group. “The refit market is important in its own right, but the experience and know-how we gain from these complex projects can be transferred to our new-builds, and vice-versa.”

Frank Lloyd Wright’s cars

Frank Lloyd Wright’s passion for cars took many forms. Tucked into the McDowell Mountains is Taliesin West. Taliesin West was the winter quarters of noted architect Frank Lloyd Wright, where he also founded the Taliesin Fellowship, an apprentice program, in 1932.  Frank Lloyd Wright, his wife Olgivanna and their architectural apprentices traveled to Arizona from Taliesin, the architect’s summer home and studio in Wisconsin, often utilizing a number of Wright’s prized vehicles, including a 1937 AC 16/80 Competition Sports and five 1949 Crosley Hotshots for the journey.

Like his appreciation for fine architecture and art, Wright loved automobiles that represented thoughtful design, elegance and performance. Over the years, these included cars from Jaguar, Packard, Cadillac and Mercedes-Benz, as well as a 1953 Bentley R-Type, a modified 1940 Lincoln Continental and sentimental favorites of Wrights, two Cord L-29s (Phaeton and Cabriolet). The 1929 Cabriolet, as well as a 1952 Crosley Super Roadster owned by Wright, are now part of the permanent collection at the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum in Auburn, Indiana. 

In 1924, he designed the Gordon Strong Automobile Objective, an entertainment facility for the motorist that featured a planetarium inside and an incredible spiral roadway on the outside. Later that decade, he developed a plan to build standardized gas stations nationwide, a franchising concept that was ahead of its time. Wright designed two filling stations: One, designed for downtown Buffalo, New York, was never realized but lives on in the city’s Buffalo Transportation Pierce-Arrow Museum, and the other, built in the 1950s, still exists in Cloquet, Minnesota. 

As early as the 1930s, Wright began using the carport as a means of protecting automobiles efficiently and inexpensively, and in 1945 – again, ahead of his time – he came up with a plan for an unrealized drive-up laundry that offered speedy curbside service. He also visualized drive-up banking way before it became a reality, although his 1947 plan for a Tucson, Arizona, bank was met with less than enthusiasm by conservative bankers, who thought it preposterous to think anyone would conduct banking business from a car.

Wright also designed two automobile showrooms, one for a Packard dealer in 1947 and another for a New York City-based importer of Jaguar and Mercedes-Benz vehicles in 1954. Sadly, the latter, which featured a spiral ramp and turntable interior, was demolished in 2013. The architect also developed several innovative concepts for cars of his own design. In the 1920s, he sketched out a vehicle he referred to as the “Automobile with Cantilevered Top,” which featured a horizontal bar, anchored to the trunk, that cantilevered toward the front, supporting the roof. Among the car’s innovations were headlights that turned with the steering wheel and louvers over the driver’s window and the windshield.

Later, in 1955, the architect designed the “Road Machine.” More taxicab than personal car, the vehicle was based somewhat on an International Harvester tractor that Wright owned on his farm in Wisconsin, with one center wheel in the front and two larger wheels in the back. There was a separate compartment for the driver, located behind and above the passengers. Wright said at the time that his general goal was to produce a vehicle that had more flexibility in traffic. “Most American cars are designed like shoeboxes going down the highway,” he once said. “But a car should be designed with sleek lines, like fish in a school of fish.” As an early Wright apprentice, John deKoven Hill, once told a reporter, “The car was part of his stance, his outward appearance as far as the world was concerned. It was a matter of his persona – how he looked, what he stood for – his artistic judgment. The cars he drove and the way he dressed were all part of a general picture of presenting himself and his work in the right light.”

If you get the chance while attending the Scottsdale Auction, a trip to Taliesin West is well worth the time. A variety of tours is offered of the site, varying in length and scope, with full descriptions and reservation information available at FrankLloydWright.org/Taliesin-West.

words by Barbara Toombs via : https://www.barrett-jackson.com/

Thanks to Tom Sappington