Architecture NZ

DUCKS IN THE DECORATED SHED

Returning from a study trip to the USA and eager to impart stories of our adventures, I happened to be sitting beside Ashley Cox on the NZIA Napier Branch tour bus visiting houses by the late Steve McGavock. Ashley was up for hearing of our exploits so I started, not with the Farnsworth House, Fallingwater or Taliesin East but the Margaret Esherick House, designed by Louis Kahn with the help of a then-young Robert Venturi, in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia.

After viewing this house and was grateful to view the house, albeit in a limited way. As we walked the extensive front lawn, he pointed out a line of small yellow plastic ducks and a solitary black one on the kitchen window sill – the type of duck that kids play with at bath time.

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