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Tag Archives: architecture

Cambridge is so frickin’ pretty

18 Wednesday Apr 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Uncategorized

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architecture, Cambridge, eden project, entertainment, history, Jesus College, travel

I’ve done a series in this blog where I’ve chronicled tiny little bits of Cambridge – doorknockers and address plates and signage – and I’ve neglected the biggest things in Cambridge – the colleges, and the churches.

Cambridge University is composed of 33 colleges, each of which have their own walled campus with residences, dining halls, libraries, common rooms, and bars (open to college students, alumni, and their guests).  The colleges are the defining urban design determinant in the city; most of them (especially the old ones, in the city center) are walled, which gives the city a strange character.  Its especially amazing because, as you walk around the city, you don’t realize how vast and opulent and beautiful all these places are – and then you step inside and its a whole different world.  And its not like Cambridge is a crime-ridden ghetto.  The colleges are oases within an oasis, which is really saying something.  There are no bikes or cars in the colleges; the only detractor is the slouchy teenagers that get to live in all these places.

The collage has photos of Jesus College, the Cambridge Seminary (unaffiliated with the university – I didn’t even know it was there until we were inside), and an arts and crafts church that doesn’t look like much from the outside.  I’ve been saving my College Photo collection for rainy days, and seeing as it is supposed to rain tomorrow, it seemed like a good time.

On Friday, I’ll be posting my experience watching the Romseytown RollerBillies, Cambridge’s roller derby team.  And this weekend I’m headed to Cornwall (again) to check out Falmouth and go walking and see some seabirds and, if I’m lucky, to go to the Eden Project, a famous botanical garden.  And also try not to kill myself and others driving a rental car.  Wish me luck!

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Mosaic Love

21 Wednesday Mar 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Uncategorized

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Tags

architectural details, architecture, Cambridge, design, England, entertainment, historic architecture, travel

So a couple weeks ago, I walked to yoga instead of cycled.  And that’s when I noticed became obsessed with the beautiful mosaic pathways in front of the Victorian houses on my route to yoga.

The most amazing and embarrassing thing is, if you’d asked me what my front path looked like before this project, I would have told you it was a concrete pad.  I would have been wrong.  Its black and white tile.  Ian and I never use the front door – it was sticky for the first 5 months we lived here – but still.  BUT STILL.

As always, I’d love to hear your suggestions for what other Cambridge stuff I should chronicle.  I don’t know how much longer I can keep this up without some reader participation.

I love old buildings!

07 Wednesday Mar 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Uncategorized

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architecture, Belgium, Ghent, historic architecture, historic preservation, travel

This is the last post (probably) on our trip to Belgium, and I think I’ll let the photos speak for themselves.  Ghent is incredible.

Beer & Art Nouveau

02 Friday Mar 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Snacks

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architecture, Art Nouveau, Beer, Belgium, Brussels, design, historic architecture

This is my third post about my 4 days in Brussels, and I haven’t even talked about the Tintin Museum (or the weird city, Nouvain le Neuve, where its located) or Ghent, which is possibly one of the most beautiful places in the world.

While in Brussels, we searched for every Victor Horta building we could find.  Apparently the city went through a heritage-trashing phase in the 1960s, and a lot of incredible old buildings were lost.  But many have been reused – an old department store became the Comic Book Center, and the Musical Instrument Museum, which is surprisingly cool, is in an old Horta commercial building as well (that’s the floor in the lobby on the bottom right, above).  And some of the detritus from the buildings that were destroyed have been re-purposed, most notably in the Horta Metro Station (above).  I couldn’t believe how many beautiful details there were on even the more mundane buildings – incredible balconies, transom windows, doors, ironwork…its so sad that Art Nouveau was so short-lived as a movement, even if it is decadent and wasteful.  I love it.

The other highlight of the time in Brussels was the beer.  Belgian-style beers are called lambics, and use open-air fermentation.  That means they just let the beer pick up whatever yeast happens to be floating around in the air and ferment that way; the result is a sour sort of flavor (seeing as its the same process used to make sourdough, that’s not surprising).  Lambics are often sweetened with sugar or fruit, but we brought home 5 bottles of the darker stuff (our favorite, Faro, can explode if not consumed in 2-3 weeks, so maybe its just as well that they were sold out).  The drinking in Brussels was awesome.

We went to the Carillon brewery (loved it.  Amazing.  Don’t miss it); the Delirium Tremens complex (five bars adjacent to each other, all selling Delirium products); and to a number of other more low-key establishments, including a crepe place where I got cider in a teacup.  I thought that was delightful.  We also tried ginevre, a Belgium gin-derivative that is delicious if you like the taste of paint thinner.  And the best part is, it was super cheap (the beer, not the paint thinner). I hadn’t anticipated taking multiple trips to Belgium, but we are talking about a trip to Luxembourg via Belgium, if only to stop off and bring more beer home with us.

Belgian Details

29 Wednesday Feb 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Uncategorized

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architectural details, architecture, Belgium, Brussels, design, entertainment, expats, Ghent, travel

As I mentioned a few posts ago, Ian and I were recently in Belgium, where I took 676 photos in four days.  It made me realize how quickly Cambridge has become my home – while I’m certainly not immune to its charms, it very quickly became just the place where I happen to live.  I saw all sorts of mundane things in Ghent and Brussels that completely delighted me. The best example was the door handles/letterboxes that I saw on lots of the doors, particularly while doing the Victor Horta walking tour.  The variety was incredible, and some were so intricate and Art Nouveau.  I couldn’t get enough.

In fact, I had been taking photos of balconies (not sure that’s gong to yield a good collage yet…) when I pointed the door handles out to my husband.  He said “why don’t you make a collage of those?” and I said “I will, but you’ll be sorry” – we zigzagged the street looking at door handles for the rest of the weekend, until I finally just gave up and walked around like a (sort of) normal person.

Enjoy!

Back from the Hedonistic Holiday

22 Wednesday Feb 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Snacks

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

architecture, Beer, Belgium, Brussels, churches, drink, entertainment, food, travel

Over Christmas, my sister and I talked a lot about how organizing a holiday around food was a completely reasonable thing to do.  I decided to treat my long weekend in Belgium as a test case and I can tell you that, while my cheeks are fuller than they were four days ago, it was an absolutely brilliant time and I can’t wait to eat my way through somewhere else.

We spent two days in Brussels and two days in Ghent.  Brussels is a city that reveals itself slowly; I think living there is probably much more fun than visiting – which is saying something, because visiting was great.  Above, photos from the Comic Book Museum, a Victor Horta Art Nouveau staircase, Cathedrale de Saint-Michele-et-Gudules, a waffle, the Carillon Brewery and the Delirium Tremens Bar.

A Week in the Life

17 Friday Feb 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Uncategorized

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architecture, baking, entertainment, food, Harry Potter, John Lewis, Kings College, shopping, travel, yoga

When we first moved here, being unemployed was depressing and boring.  But in 2012, my social has really picked up steam, and we joke a lot now that I could never find the time to have a job (not that I’m not still looking…)

This was a particularly good week in the Life of a Woman of Leisure, even with my Woman of Leisure Walking Tour (see post below) cancelled for half-term.

Sunday: I went to yoga, then went to John Lewis and bought a new lamp, rug, and wastepaper bin.  I decided that, rather than pick something up later, it would be a good idea to bring all three home at once.  On my bike.  In the snow.  For a mile and a half.  I looked like an idiot, and all my new stuff turned out to be pretty heavy, so by the time I made it home I was as sweaty from carrying my new housewares as from the yoga class.  Then Ian and I bought a new carpet for the living room, and I went to circus school.  You know, just your average Sunday.

Monday: I interned/volunteered with Shape East, a planning organization in Cambridge.  I really like the people who work there (some of whom have started reading this blog, which is the fastest way to my heart these days) and I’ve finished the project where I had to cold call people and take a survey, which was useful but not super fun.  Then I went to yoga.

Tuesday: Yoga in the morning.  Then new friend Robert and I attempted to make macarons.  He’s done it successfully several times before, but these were a pretty sad little fail.  Still, afternoon well spent.  In the evening, Ian and I met a friend for High Table at King’s College.  Despite having eaten at Christchurch in Oxford, where the dining hall scenes of Harry Potter were filmed, this is probably the closest I’ll ever get to eating at Hogwarts.  With the professors.  I sat next to a retired lawyer, now a photographer, who was very earnest about the need to help lawyers (who typically retire in their 50s here) find a second career.

Wednesday: A friend and I went to Letchworth, one of Ebenezer Howard’s two garden cities.  It was a nerd pilgrimage, but I was ultimately kind of disappointed.  Radburn, in New Jersey, made for a much better nerd pilgrimage.  Still, I’d been  wanting to go.  In the evening, I went rock climbing and then to the Emmanuel College Bar with climbing compatriots for Wednesday funk night.

We also saw the UK's first roundabout. Woot!

Thursday: I’m working on a design competition in Shanghai with an architect at Wolfson College, so after a morning spent puttering around the house, I met up with her for a work session followed by a zumba class.  Later in the evening I ended up at a pub with Ian and a friend playing a game called “War on Terror,” which would be more fun if we fully understood the rules, but I plan to play again anyway.

Lauren made that face on purpose.

Friday: I’m meeting a friend for lunch before hopping a 15:15 train to Brussels for a weekend of eating and sightseeing with the hubs, followed by a one-night stay in Ghent.

Have a great weekend!

When it snows in England, everything shuts down

10 Friday Feb 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Uncategorized

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

architecture, Cambridge, England, photography, snow, United Kingdom, winter

This past weekend, it snowed in Cambridge, which happens once a year if we’re lucky.  In the middle of a driving snowstorm, I dragged my poor husband – who was on a huge deadline at work – outside for a walk.  The man is a saint.

I hopped out of bed the next morning and wandered around Cambridge for three hours with my camera the next morning, although not much of the snow stuck to the buildings – which made it less scenic than I had hoped.  The city was pretty quiet, especially when I first headed out the door at 9 am, but by noon every open space was covered with people making snowmen, from the cemetery to the sidewalk.

I was so busy taking photos that I forgot that I had pledged to spend Super Bowl Sunday eating.  Oops.

Addresses in Cambridge

08 Wednesday Feb 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

architecture, Cambridge, design, England, entertainment, Mill Road, terrace houses, travel, United Kingdom

Because my doorknockers of Cambridge post was such a smash hit (biggest day yet! 20 likes! thanks, y’all!), I’m going to do my best to make it a series – weekly when possible, but every other week at least.  I’m going to try to find some recurring architecture detail around the city and post a bunch of photos.  I’m not sure how long I can keep it going, so I’m eagerly soliciting suggestions.  What do you want to know about Cambridge?

I chose address plates  for post #2 because once you start noticing them, you really cannot stop seeing what an incredible variety there are.  They don’t have the same visual impact as the doorknockers did, but there a whole lot of different fonts and styles represented.  Americans will also notice that the address numbers are low – Brits, on the other hand, don’t understand a grid system.  I gave someone my parents’ address, and he looked at it and said “Four numbers? there are over a thousand houses on your parents’ street?”

Doorknockers of Cambridge

25 Wednesday Jan 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Uncategorized

≈ 13 Comments

Tags

architecture, Cambridge, design, doorknockers, England, Mill Road, placemaking, urban planning, vernacular

I live in a terrace house in Cambridge, which means that my house was probably built sometime in the 1880s, is very narrow and is sited very close to a narrow sidewalk and narrow street:

This is the view from immediately in front of my house.

I met someone recently who described my neighborhood as “gritty,” which I guess it is a little bit.  But I love it.  And one of the first things I noticed as we were getting settled in is, when your front door is inches from every passerby’s face, doorknockers become an important means of home decor.  The doorknockers in my neighborhood are amazing.  In a twenty-minute walk yesterday, I counted 38 distinct ones.

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