Yesterday was D-Day with Dick Hudgens, the second year professor for Architectural History and Materials and Methods. Every Thursday we spend the entire day from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. with Dick. The length of the class ensures an educational and exhausting day. In the mornings, we spend time reading through our textbooks, taking a test, and usually looking at slides of varied historical architecture. After lunch we all hop in our cars and follow Dick to some city in Alabama. Yesterday we went to Demopolis, the city of the people, where we visited the Bluff House and Lyon’s Hall. The Bluff House was a Federal Style home with various Greek revival characteristics. Our tour guide and Dick made sure to point out every single architectural detail of the period (1800’s). Most of the furniture and many of the artifacts like the kitchen tools, and even the clothes, were all original. It was interesting to unearth the history (more like un-dust) with Dick and the tour guide. After the tour we drew an elevation of the western wall in thirty minutes and then drove to Lyon’s Hall. Lyon’s Hall was one of the best antebellum homes we have been to yet. Much like Bluff Hall, Lyon’s hall was also a Federal Style antebellum home with Greek revival characteristics. An interesting feature is the pyramid shape of the door frames which is said to have derived from the egyptians. This is the only home, that we have visited (as of now), that had been handed down from generation to generation until the late 1900’s. All the history was still preserved in the house by the inhabitants so there was a plethora of artifacts telling the story of the house. One important discovery in the house was the family Bible, which held in its contents the records of all the marriages, births, deaths, and things of that nature. The tour guide did an excellent job telling the story of the house. After the tour we drew an elevation of the eastern wall in thirty minutes and handed our sketchbooks to Dick. Another trip with Dick was finished, and the exhaustive, heated, informative day was complete.

On our trip to Moundville, Cassandra, Nicole, Courtney, and I found a lot of useful information. Actually going to an archeological park was really helpful in seeing how they have taken their historical land and developed it for visitors to experience. In our visit we discovered good ideas and bad ideas for our proposal for St. Luke’s at Old Cahawba. We also discovered how important signage and staff are for a park. There were lot’s of signs that had interesting information about what used to be there, archeological findings that lead to that conclusion, a picture of what they found or what it used to look like, and how it got to it’s current state. BUT the signs that were directing us along our self-guided tour weren’t nearly as good and usually more than a little confusing in which way we should be driving. Parking in an actual spot was extremely limited and there was no staff at the entrance and no signs pointing to where the museum was in order to find staff to help us. The actual attractions varied in what we liked and disliked. The Nature Trail was not maintained to the standards of their boardwalk, and even though they had a boardwalk that seemed to be handicap accessible there was no way for someone with disabilities to get on the boardwalk. Their native american huts were very disappointed in what they were made of. The one on top of the mound had a fake door painted on to the front, sticks seemingly thrown on the roof and covered with chicken wire, and the walls were purely plastered and cracking. The Native American Village was the same make but you could go inside where they had wax displays set up. Overall it was a very useful trip. we were able to collect the information we needed to start working on our proposals for finding a future use for St. Luke’s that works with each orientation.

Ok. So after a nice long weekend and a day of playing in the sand we decided to get back to work. We are still broken up into several groups. This afternoon a few of us went out to Moundville to research nature centers and historical landmarks. It is just one step closer to settling on a permanent site for the church.
The rest of us are hard at work up at the Red Barn either doing AutoCAD drawings or working on cost estimates for the takedown process. Things are slowly coming together and by the end of the week we should have a date set for the structural scafolding company to come out to the site. In the meantime it’s site proposals, documentation research, and many more AutoCAD drawings.

Jason decided yesterday that we should show some teamsmanship since we have not had much time to hang out together outside of studio (which tends to be monotonous). Anyways, we all left Newbern to go to Perry Lakes park, the site of recent rural studio projects such as the toilets, the bridge, and the birding tower (all fantastic in my opinion, having experienced them all myself). But that is beside the point since our destination was the beach. We all ate lunch by the river in the sand, and played in the water a little.

After lunch Jason divided us into two groups and told each group to build a sand castle that should withstand a battle from the opposing team. The ammunition… rocks, the building materials… anything directly available to us on the beach. Both teams began vigorously digging and creating using rock and sand mixtures as concrete and sticks as retaining walls. Three hours was the time limit. When time was called we spent a few moments looking at the beautiful constructions, and then demolished them with rocks. The “free day” was much needed and extrememly refreshing for the group. Team work is one of the most important and one of the most difficult things here at the Rural Studio. Having 17 classmates to answer to requires a great deal of patience and respect towards one another. And this is no ideal world, arguing and bickering does happen, but it’s good to get out of that routine and have a little fun once in a while. Thanks Jason.