Beautiful Doors

Boston Public Library

Many of you know that I live just outside of Boston and I consider the city my home (and I really appreciate those of you who emailed me to make sure I was ok).  I love this city, the architecture, the history, the vibe given off by the people.  For me, downtown Boston isn't an area to be avoided because of traffic, crime, or parking difficulties.  It's a place I frequent - with my family and friends, for work, or on my own.  I have never worried about my safety.

By |2013-05-01T19:20:04-04:00April 16th, 2013|Beautiful Doors|9 Comments

Public House

As always when I travel, I've been on the lookout for interesting doors during my trip to Las Vegas.  I saw these last night at dinner.  They're beautiful (and huge!) carved wood panels, hung on center pivots which are offset from the edge.  When the doors are closed (see below), there is a gap at the hinge edge.

By |2013-05-01T19:22:04-04:00April 9th, 2013|Beautiful Doors, Road Trips|6 Comments

Everywhere I Go – Church Edition

My husband has grown accustomed to me yelling, "Stop the car!" when I see a door of interest.  We actually had to circle the block and come back to this one in Nashville, Tennessee.  Judging from the entrance, I thought there might be some nice doors...I couldn't process what I was seeing in time to get him to pull over.  This is not code-compliant, people!  The elevator door was purty though.

The Tampa Bay Hotel (Interior) – Tampa, Florida

I'm back in the snowy north, hunkered down while the snow piles up.  This is my last post from my trip to Tampa.  For next week I'm working on another post about glass (yes, there's more!), as well as a post about school security - particularly the "creative" and often non-code-compliant methods I've seen a lot of lately.  If you've run into any interesting security modifications for schools, send them along!  Have a great weekend all!

By |2015-12-30T09:44:39-05:00February 8th, 2013|Beautiful Doors, Road Trips|7 Comments

The Tampa Theatre – Tampa, Florida

This is a travel week for me - I'm in Tampa, Florida for the winter meeting of the Builders Hardware Manufacturers Association (BHMA - check out their new website!).  I have more posts in the works on school security and wired glass, but while I'm on the road, you know that I like to share the cool doors that I see with all of you.  I'll get back to the code-related posts next week.

By |2014-11-25T23:27:35-05:00February 5th, 2013|Beautiful Doors, Road Trips|6 Comments

Bok Tower Brass Door – Lake Wales, Florida

On my way back from Bradenton to Orlando, I had to stop and see the gorgeous door at the Bok Tower Gardens.  The gardens have to be one of the most beautiful and tranquil places I've visited...luckily I was there early, before the families started arriving or it may have been less tranquil.  The 50-acre garden was established in 1929, by Edward W. Bok as a gift to the American people, and was designed by noted landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead Jr.

By |2013-08-01T15:25:59-04:00January 22nd, 2013|Beautiful Doors|5 Comments

Architectural Salvage

Sorry for the interruption in my series on wired glass - I will continue it shortly.  But this is a travel week for me, and I couldn't fly to sunny Florida without a quick trip to see my mom.  Today I dragged her to an architectural salvage company to see if they had any interesting old doors and hardware.  They had A LOT of doors - some really ornate and huge, and a room full of hardware...

By |2013-01-19T23:19:08-05:00January 19th, 2013|Beautiful Doors, Means of Egress|8 Comments

Starry Night

I think this is the longest I've gone without posting!  I hope you all had a great New Year's Eve!  I figured I could get some good relaxation time in during the holiday week, then I promptly injured a ligament in my ankle, which led to a major bout of sciatica that flattened me for days.  I'm hoping 2013 gets better!

By |2016-11-23T20:17:40-05:00January 2nd, 2013|Beautiful Doors, Locks & Keys|10 Comments

Boston’s Old City Hall

This week I've been spending some time with Karina Guadencio, an Ingersoll Rand Security Technologies specwriter from Brazil.  In addition to lots of discussion in the office, we've been to a Boston Chapter CSI meeting, had lunch with the master specwriting team at Kalin Associates, conducted a punch list at Harvard Law School, and visited Columbus Door (thanks everyone!).  It's been a whirlwind tour!  Add the cold and last night's snow, and I think she's ready to head south (especially since she's having dinner with my family tonight! :D).

By |2017-11-11T17:30:24-05:00November 8th, 2012|Beautiful Doors, Historical|2 Comments

Mission San Xavier Del Bac, Tucson

During a break in today's BHMA meetings I took a drive south to see the Mission San Xavier Del Bac.  The mission was founded in 1692, and the current church was built between 1783 and 1797.  It is located in the center of a Papagon Indian settlement.  The mission has been constantly maintained and periodically restored, so it's in beautiful shape.  You can read more about the history of this gorgeous building here.

By |2012-10-11T03:14:25-04:00October 11th, 2012|Beautiful Doors, Road Trips|0 Comments

Curtain Door, Matharoo Associates

Mary Hinton of Mulhaupt's sent me a link to check out a one-of-a-kind door, and she was right - it's amazing!  The door is on a single family home in India called "House with Wall of Light."  It was designed by Matharoo Associates, for Dilip Sanghvi, a diamond merchant.  The architectural firm won the Architectural Review's Emerging Architecture Award, when they submitted the door design.

By |2012-09-24T14:24:10-04:00September 24th, 2012|Beautiful Doors|12 Comments

Worcester State Hospital

In addition to beautiful doors and interesting locks, I love old architecture and the amazing photography that captures the decay of these crumbling structures.  I look forward to new photo essays posted on the Kingston Lounge site, and the most recent was especially exciting because it's very close to my town and an important part of Worcester, Massachusetts history.

By |2013-02-13T18:49:18-05:00August 14th, 2012|Beautiful Doors, Historical, Locks & Keys|0 Comments

Hassan II Mosque, Casablanca Morocco

I mentioned these gigantic doors in an earlier post, but I went back to see them again since we're in the neighborhood.  The mosque wasn't open for tours when we were there (the only way non-Muslims can go into a mosque), but I sent my husband in with a camera and he came back with photos of panic hardware.  He's learning!  :-)

By |2012-07-19T06:06:47-04:00July 19th, 2012|Beautiful Doors, Panic Hardware, Road Trips|2 Comments

Bahia Palace, Marrakech Morocco

I hope you're not getting tired of posts about beautiful Moroccan doors because I know I'm not tired of seeing them.  There are amazing doors EVERYWHERE in Morocco - adorned bronze, carved wood, hand-painted...absolutely gorgeous.  Yesterday I dragged the family to Bahia Palace in the 100-degree heat.  They were good sports about it and I think they actually like roaming around old architectural marvels with me.  Once we finally find them in the depths of the medina, that is.  It's not easy to get around in the old city, or the ville nouvelle for that matter.

By |2012-07-12T18:44:24-04:00July 12th, 2012|Beautiful Doors, Road Trips|10 Comments

Medersa Abu al-Hassan, Salé Morocco

As many of you know, I am in Morocco for some vacation time combined with some work, and also working on some family issues with my mother-in-law's estate.  We have made the most of each day, and I have seen (and photographed) lots of amazing doors.  I hope you don't get sick of seeing them..."Darn!  Not another beautiful door!!"  I have also had requests for non-door photos so I will show you some of this beautiful country too.

By |2012-07-08T22:42:54-04:00July 8th, 2012|Beautiful Doors, Road Trips|0 Comments

St. James Cathedral, Seattle

Last week I was a panelist for the BOMA Every Building Conference and Expo in Seattle.  It was a pretty busy couple of days but I was able to sneak out each day to see a little of the city, or visit the guy who was LockedInAHouse.  I LOVED the Pike Place Market...I was there early in the morning as the vendors were bringing in their flowers, seafood, vegetables, etc. for the day, and it was a sensory feast!  I wish I could start each day that way.

By |2014-11-25T23:24:30-05:00July 2nd, 2012|Beautiful Doors, Road Trips|9 Comments

Universal Studios Orlando

When I was in Florida a couple of weeks ago for the IAPSC conference, it also happened to be school vacation week so I brought the kids along for a visit to my parents' house.  They all survived while I was in Miami Beach, so when I got back from the conference I took them to Universal Studios Islands of Adventure in Orlando.  One of our Florida specwriters, Steve King, had written the hardware spec for the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and I couldn't pass up the chance to check it out.

WWYD? Concealed Closers at the Peabody Opera House

I recently received an email from Steve Needy, who maintains the beautiful and recently-renovated Peabody Opera House in downtown St. Louis.  During the renovation, many of the original (1932) LCN 206 concealed closers were rebuilt and reinstalled.  Steve's problem was that the spring power made some of the doors difficult for some visitors to open, particularly the restroom doors.  Steve asked me how to adjust the closers or if that was even possible.

By |2012-04-24T10:31:37-04:00April 23rd, 2012|Beautiful Doors, Door Closers, WWYD?|26 Comments

Ca’ d’Zan Mansion, Ringling Museum – Sarasota, Florida

Since this is school vacation week and I had to work in Miami for a couple of days, I flew the kids down to their grandparents' and now I am taking a few days "off" in sunny Florida.  As most of you know, I'm never completely off...I'm always taking care of email and keeping my eyes open for doors of interest.

By |2012-04-23T11:23:16-04:00April 19th, 2012|Beautiful Doors|1 Comment

Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem

A story arrived in my inbox today, regarding the tradition of the Holy Fire at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.  The day before Easter each year, clerics emerge from the small room believed to be the site of Jesus' tomb with a flame which is then spread among the pilgrims crowding the church and out to those gathered on the street.

By |2014-04-26T19:37:19-04:00April 15th, 2012|Beautiful Doors, Historical, Means of Egress|3 Comments

1,000 Door Building by Choi Jeong-Hwa

Maybe I'm becoming too predictable.  Two people sent me links to information about this 10-story building in Korea covered with 1,000 recycled doors.  I love it!  It kind of reminds me of my visit to Greenwich Lock and Safe, with the facade covered in keys.  In both cases the creators are artists, sharing their art with the public.

By |2017-12-07T22:58:12-05:00December 28th, 2011|Beautiful Doors|0 Comments

Mouldering State Hospital

After the post on smoke doors I know I was ready for a break and I thought you might be too.  I love photographs of urban decay, and Ward9 features some amazing photos of really interesting and often beautiful architectural ruins.  I asked for permission to share a couple of the photos with you...go check out WardNine.com to see the rest and read a little about the history of these amazing places.

By |2014-11-13T16:51:32-05:00December 12th, 2011|Beautiful Doors, Urban Exploration|2 Comments

WW: The Greatest Step is Out the Door

I'm getting ready to teach a code class for the Massachusetts Locksmiths Association (anybody want to play Code Jeopardy??) so I don't have a lot of time to post tonight, but thanks to Bob Borson (Life of an Architect), Ginny Powell (A Cracked Door) and Martin Badke (Laux Myth...Thoughts From a Locksmith), I ran across a site mentioned on Twitter that will keep all of you door lovers entertained for most of the day.

By |2012-01-27T21:57:04-05:00October 12th, 2011|Beautiful Doors, Wordless Wednesday|0 Comments

“¿Donde estan los churros?”

This weekend I left my computer at home (yes, really!) and headed to Cape Cod for my brother's wedding.  The wedding was held in North Truro, and the kids had heard me say several times that we were going to "Truro."  Well, my kids go to a bilingual school and are fluent in Spanish.  All along they thought we were going to "Churro," and expected to see a slew of the cinnamon-sugary donut-stick type pastries on arrival.  The disappointment didn't stop there - we didn't see any sandwiches in Sandwich, and luckily - no obvious pee in P-Town (the common nickname for Provincetown, Massachusetts).

By |2017-01-04T21:43:47-05:00September 25th, 2011|Beautiful Doors, Means of Egress, Road Trips|2 Comments
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