“In truth, building codes were created for the most part to protect mortgage and insurance companies, but why is the bar set so low? As my builder friend John Abrams once said, ‘When someone says that everything they build meets code, what they are really saying is that if they built it any worse, it would be illegal.’”

—Rudy Christian, noted head of the Preservation Trades Network, in his latest blog about the formidable and enduring values of traditional building techniques

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“[Wright]. . .embraced the future in ways that did not willingly disrupt the balance of nature. Though the results were imperfect, his lessons endure, and are a stark rebuke to the notion that ‘green’ must be an aesthetic or even a debate.”

—Lynne Lavelle, editor, Clem Labine’s Period Homes magazine, in a review of a new book on the lessons Frank Lloyd Wright’s work and views hold for today’s proponents of sustainable design

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“There’s no style I specialize in. I like being a good chameleon. I love the challenge of diversity, and I believe that the best architects know how to conquer all styles.”

—Mark P. Finlay, AIA, president and founder, Mark P. Finlay Architects, quoted in a recent profile of his firm appearing in the latest issue of Clem Labine’s Period Homes magazine

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“You can make boxes all day long, but to have a client say, ‘We want to do something special’ — that’s when the fun comes in.”

—Vincent Chicone, Chicone Cabinetmakers, quoted in a recent article on traditional-style cabinetry in Clem Labine’s Period Homes magazine

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“Yet the more that was added [to McMansions], the more everything started to look the same. The best way to differentiate a home is to calm down the design and offer elements that you can touch and feel. One front porch creates more identity than 50 gables.”

—Marianne Cusato, author and designer, writing about the “just right home” in the latest issue of Clem Labine’s Period Homes magazine

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“Emerson said that the reason for learning a discipline was to understand new metaphors. Knowing how a toilet flushed was making me a better person.”

—Maile Meloy, writing in the Wall Street Journal about how renovating an old bungalow in Los Angeles helped restore her confidence as a novelist

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“When the American Institute of Architects (AIA) proudly describes its selection for the 2013 AIA Gold Medal as ‘the bad boy of Los Angeles architecture,’ it’s clear the establishment is still determined to reward bombast rather than civility.”

—Clem Labine, blogging about the joys of discovering a new book celebrating the elegant details of traditional architecture and about the difference between civil architecture and much contemporary design

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“Our most successful projects are those where no distinctive architect’s mark is visible. The house looks like it has always been there.”

—David Neumann, AIA, managing partner, Neumann Lewis Buchanan Architects, quoted in a profile of his firm from the January issue of Clem Labine’s Period Homes magazine

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“Some say beauty has lost its seat among our core values, which is perhaps related to the fact that others say it is entirely subjective, being left to the eye of the beholder. The former may be true, but the latter is not.”

—William Barry, director of preservation, John Canning
Studios, writing in the January issue of Clem Labine’s Period Homes magazine

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“We live in a world where it is difficult, if not impossible, to recognize the hand of man in the modern things that surround us. Oftentimes, it seems that there is an automatic assumption that if something was made by hand, it must be old, an assumption that is anything but odd considering the fact that things that are old are the very things we associate with craftsmanship.”

—Rudy Christian, blogging about the ever-changing and diminishing perception of craftsmanship in the contemporary world

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