Jax Stumpes: Kentuck Knob (10/12/2014)

Sunday, October 12, 2014

Kentuck Knob (10/12/2014)

Sunday, October 12, 2014

Morning fog in the Laurel Highlands

This morning we had reservations for the 9:00 in depth tour of Kentuck Knob.

Purple martin house village at Visitor Center

Kentuck Knob (1953-1956) was also designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, and was listed on the National register of Historic Place in 2000.

Two wings of the house, plus the carport
and studio are on 4 sides of a hexagon

Carport; the house is built into the hillside

Dentil moulding and celestory windows (KSS)

Frank Lloyd Wright's signature tile (KSS)

Terrace with hexagonal skylights

Hexagonal skylight

This house was full of hexagons, parallelograms and triangles!

View from the terrace

Side patio with a man-made waterfall and a wind chime:
Sonambient (1970s) by Harry Bertoia

Listen to the wind chimes (sorry for the sideways view):

The Overlook of the Laurel Highlands
and the Youghiogheny River valley

A maple tree allée

The current owners (Lord Peter Palumbo) of Kentuck Knob had an extensive art collection both inside and out.

Bailey (1971) by Anthony Caro (KSS)

De-Creation (1978-79) by Michael Warren

Kent at Floodstones Cairn (1991-2003) by Andy Goldsworthy

The Sculpture Meadow:

Red Army (1991) by Ray Smith

Red Army (1990) by Ray Smith (KSS)

Kent poses at the Vespasienne or pissoir from Paris

Torso (1988) by Allen Jones (KSS)

K6 Telephone kiosks (1935) designed by Giles Gilbert Scott

Finial from Number One, Poultry
(1870) in London

Untitled (1967) by William Tucker (KSS)

Section of the Berlin Wall

Room (1992) by Andy Goldsworthy (KSS)

Troilus (1999) by Wendy Taylor (KSS)

Apple Core (1990) by Claes Oldenburg

Painted plows at Visitor Center

Now we had to backtrack past the Days Inn and north to Polymath Park. Had a quick lunch at Tree Tops Restaurant, where we were to meet for the 12:30 tour.

Lighting fixture at Tree Tops Restaurant

There are small LEDs for illumination

Polymath Park was to be a planned community with homes designed by a Frank Lloyd Wright apprentice, Peter Berndtson.

Only two homes were built.
A Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Usonian home, the Donald C. Duncan House (1957) was disassembled in Lisle, IL and moved to Polymath Park.

Donald C. Duncan House (1957), reassembled in 2007 (KSS)

The house was re-assembled according to the original plans, using local Pottsville stone instead of the cost-cutting cinder blocks used in 1957.

Photo at the original location (KSS)

Usonian (from United Stated Of North America) is a term Frank Lloyd Wright used instead of "American" to refer to his designs for middle-income homes.