AWSI: Active Exploration - Part 2

In our previous post, we noted the importance of Active Exploration (AE) for everyone. Here are some really cool things that we discovered which we might have missed if we weren’t in that AE mindset.

In the May issue of the NY Times “T” Magazine there was a piece about Kendrick Bangs Kellogg. With a last name like that, you’d think it was about cereal. But what caught our eye wasn’t the name. Rather it was the pictures of the “rock house” he built for Jay and Bev Doolittle on the edge of Joshua Tree National Park.

A Rock House??

“…a nearly 5,000-square-foot marvel of engineering in which every inch, inside and out, including the furnishings, is hand-hewn from natural materials using soaring, twisting, curvilinear forms that are at once trippy and ambitious and — perhaps surprisingly — serene.

The pictures fired up our collective imagination and ignited our curiosity.

Who the heck is Kendrick Bangs Kellogg?

An architect from San Diego, now in his 80s (born 1934) known for being an innovator in “organic architecture.”
He met and was inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright.
His buildings are studies of layered, segmented, and unfolding space.
He is related to Frederick Law Olmsted, “The Father of Landscape Architecture” (of the 1800s), who was a cousin to Kellogg’s grandfather. Olmsted’s landscape designs were curvilinear and irregular, a significant break from the formal symmetrical patterns of the time, a practice which Kellogg sees himself continuing.
He worked for people who could afford copper, well-poured concrete and the best craftsmanship available (no doubt this is why his work was featured in the “T” section that skews high income).

Want to see examples of his work? A trip to La Jolla may be in order since two on the kendrickbangskellogg.com website are there: Surfer House La Jolla and Lotus House La Jolla.

Surfer House in La Jolla, CA

You can spend hours studying his work (Doc and Joey said easily days with breaks to ponder what you’ve seen).

Check out this video:

For more on Mr. Kellogg, check out this link.

And if you really want to have fun, here’s a link to where you can learn more about Kellogg’s inspiration –Frank Lloyd Wright.

See! Active exploration for everyone is a great thing. We would not have known about Kellogg or the Lloyd Wright connection if we hadn’t given ourselves time to wander through the Times “T” section.

Try it for yourself and if you want, let us know how it goes.

Next up, another San Diego discovery.