Charles & Henry Greene spent a large part of their childhoods in St. Louis and then attended the Manual Training School of Washington University. The Manual Training School, and others like it, were founded on the belief that head and hand should be trained together, that a purely academic education was not sufficient to train young men (and only young men) for careers in an industrial society, particularly engineering careers. Founded by Calvin Milton Woodward, the first Dean of Engineering at Washington University, the Manual Training School existed for roughly 35 years. The university archives contain significant records about the school. Unfortunately, during my time at WashU I hadn't yet discovered Greene & Greene and was unaware of their affiliation with the university. It's always about timing.
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Design is a tricky business. The designer must: constantly innovate and reinvent to avoid irrelevance and excessive self-reference; simultaneously maintain an identity, an aesthetic sense of their own; create objects that please their clients. The first two points might seem contradictory -- designers need to stay fresh while also creating a brand. Though it is unlikely that Charles and Henry Greene thought in terms of brand creation, they somehow managed to walk that line, to stay familiar while innovating.
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One of the most difficult tasks I faced in writing Poems of Wood & Light was winnowing the huge pool of photographs down to a still-too-large-but-not-obscenely-large set of candidates from which we chose the images that are in the book. Some good photos didn't make the first cut and some very good photos didn't make the second. This blog gives me the opportunity to share a few of those left on the metaphorical cutting room floor.
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Another project I'm working on has gotten me thinking about the nature of art. This isn't the first time I've considered that topic. While I was teaching at OSU, I took an Art class just for fun. On the first day of class, the instructor asked us to write a definition of art. This exercise has, I am sure, been repeated countless times over countless years in countless art classes, and for good reason. It is very effective. What is Art? People far more knowledgeable than I have wrestled less than satisfactorily with the question.
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The work of Charles & Henry Greene is well represented in American art museums. Their furniture and decorative arts objects are on display literally from coast to coast. The Gamble House, the intact and best known example of the Greene & Greene genius is the center of the universe and must come first in any discussion of venues where one can view their work. Anyone with more than a passing interest in architecture, design, the Arts & Crafts or things beautiful, owe it to themselves to make a pilgrimage to that hallowed place.
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To a greater degree, perhaps, than any other architects before or since, Charles and Henry Greene unified the various components of the houses they designed. Exterior, interior, furniture, decorative arts and gardens were harmonious, all part of a single vision. Each piece was beautiful but also served the whole. M.H. Baillie Scott referred to this aspect of unified design as "exquisite appropriateness." What follows is an excerpt from the introduction to Poems of Wood & Light in which this aspect of Greene & Greene design is discussed.
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In a recent post on Facebook, I asked readers to name their favorite piece of furniture by Greene & Greene. In a sense, it's a silly question, a variation on the "What's your favorite [movie/song/band/...]" discussions many of us had in our youths. And that's probably where such discussions belong -- in the lives of the young. Youth allows for a degree of certainty that becomes more difficult with age. The black and white, so clearly delineated years ago, become grayer with time. Absolutes are harder to come by.

So, I don't know if I have a favorite piece of Greene & Greene furniture. As with movies and songs and many other things, I have a set of well-loved examples any one of which could serve as favorite. While a teenager might consider this indecisive, I think it is sensible. How can one compare God Only Knows with Like a Rolling Stone? The Godfather with Lost in Translation? Lasagna Bolognese with aloo gobi? The Thorsen living-room table with the Freeman Ford dining-room chair? Why choose one favorite when many will do?
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"Ultimate Bungalows" is a wonderful phrase, both straightforward and descriptive. Without proper context, one may not understand the intricacies implied but the gist is clear: the homes in question are superior examples of a beloved style. The "proper context" in this case is the architecture of Charles and Henry Greene.

The term Ultimate Bungalows was created by Randall Makinson and Robert Judson Clark to describe a small set of houses that are the ultimate expression of the unique design aesthetic developed by Greene & Greene. There is general agreement on a number of points. Each Ultimate is substantial. Each Ultimate contained many pieces of furniture, and other decorative objects, designed by the brothers. Each Ultimate is perfect in every detail. What is less commonly agreed upon is this: how many Ultimates are there?
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Something I read on the web this morning made me think about this short piece I wrote several years ago for a woodworking website. So I dusted it off, did a little editing and posted it here.

You don’t meet many people named Harry anymore. I don’t know if it was ever a common name but it’s certainly less so now than it used to be. It was my maternal grandfather’s name. I was named after him and though Harry is my first name, I don’t go by it – even my parents have never used it. But it fit my grandfather – it’s a salt-of-the-earth name and he was a salt-of-the-earth man.
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