As many of you know, I took some time off last week. The plugin I had installed to scroll random posts broke my mobile site so I had to uninstall it. Hopefully you all read that last delayed egress post in depth to keep you occupied. :-)
I coincidentally received these two sets of photos on the same day. Who knew there was such cool hardware in Indiana??
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.
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).
Here's the latest batch of photos sent in by blog readers. Thanks everyone!
I spent last weekend in Stowe, Vermont with one of my BFFs and we stayed at an "inn," which seems to mean bigger than a bed and breakfast but not as modern as a hotel. As my friend said, "I got the keys...they're real keys - how quaint!" I won't get into how the lock on our room had to be unlocked with the thumbturn before you could turn the knob for egress, but I will share the completely inadequate mini-closer on the exterior door adjacent to our room. The door never closed and latched, and the kitchen staff hung out on the landing smoking butts (not the hinge kind). Good thing we had the high-security privacy chain on our room door.
I love this building - Flint Memorial Hall. It was built in 1875 as "the largest, most elegant, and most modern building North Reading had ever seen."
I saw this church from the highway on our way into Roanoke, Virginia last week - it's St. Andrews Catholic Church, and I just knew it would have some nice doors. As soon as I approached the building from the parking lot, I spotted the meeting stile gasketing. Most people would probably see the building as a whole, or maybe the beautiful pulls, but I couldn't get past the gasketing.
Today I had the pleasure of visiting the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina. My trusty guide for the tour was Rachel Smith of Karpen Steel, who suggested the Biltmore as a stop on my road trip and then arranged for the visit to the estate.
Wow! Feast your eyes on this retrofit 994L lever trim for a Von Duprin 98/99 device. It was made by Cirecast, for the Kansas Statehouse. Gorgeous!
I have always loved Rocky Mountain Hardware, so when I received an invitation to visit their manufacturing facility I was really excited! Unfortunately, I don't have plans to go to Idaho any time soon, but the good news is that RMH has a video on their website that details their manufacturing process. It's almost like being there!
We headed to Ogunquit, Maine for Father's Day...Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!
I've been in the door and hardware business for a long time - almost 25 years. While I'm still passionate about the products, the industry, and our customers, there are some days when I'm not quite as excited as I once was. It's kind of like the old, "I love you but I'm not in love with you," line. I'm sure you can relate...we all have those days.
Scott Foley of JC Ryan EBCO sent me this photo he took in Rome and wondered what the decorative metal components in the corners are. Anybody know? What's their purpose and what are they called?
I know some of you will remember "Chip Falcon's Road Trip" from a couple of years ago. For those of you who weren't readers of this blog back then...I usually go on a road trip with my family every summer. In the summer of 2009, I had to take a Falcon 25 series panic device on the road trip so I could show it to a specwriter who had moved to South Carolina. Since I was dragging the panic device (nicknamed Chip Falcon) around, I wrote a series of posts about the various places that we visited on our road trip and wrote about some of the features of the 24/25 series which had just been introduced.
Eyal Bedrik of Entry Systems Ltd. sent me a plethora of photos recently. I think he sent his entire "Creative Closers of Israel" file. :-)
The hotel in Las Vegas where we had our sales meeting had a Moroccan theme...I felt right at home since my husband is originally from Morocco and I love that style. The entrance doors to the ballroom had a pattern created by contrasting stain and oversized metal brads. They're labeled doors so I wonder whether the brads were considered plant-ons or whether they required any special testing or approval.
Considering how many photos I took of doors during my Mommy's weekend at Foxwoods, it's a good thing I'm not a gambler. I wouldn't have had any time to check out the doors if I was stuck at the slots. I can't imagine what Las Vegas will be like...I hope I don't get arrested like this guy. Now go get a cup of coffee while these 22 photos load.
The first time I ever saw a wicket door, it was for a post office project and I was working on the shop drawings. I haven't run into a whole lot of them since, but I saw a pair last weekend and risked the embarrassment of my friends to take some photos. The employee at the door said that I wasn't the first. :-)
As promised, I have some photos to post from my recent trip to Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Connecticut. I don't typically mention the locations of the photos I post, usually because I don't want to get in trouble for showing their code violations. Well, I'm not a gambler so I had plenty of time to look at doors, and I have no non-compliant door photos to post. I was pleasantly shocked. I saw two propped-open bathroom doors that had labels, but that's it. I don't even know why those particular doors were labeled, but in a facility with thousands of doors, thousands of building occupants (one website estimates over 40,000 visitors per DAY), and special security concerns, they're doing a great job with their fire and egress doors, as well as accessibility.
Last spring, one of my friends sent me a link for a "den-cam," where Lily the black bear was hibernating and eventually gave birth to her cub, Hope. There were over 20,000 people watching the den-cam for the big event. I was not one of them (although someday I would love to have enough leisure time to watch a den-cam), but I did become Facebook friends with Lily the Black Bear and the North American Bear Center.
I've been to Nashville a few times, but somehow I missed seeing the replica of the Parthenon while I was there. Luckily I received some reader photos of the gigantic doors there, and I also found some photos on Flickr and obtained permission to share them here.
I have received SO MANY reader photos lately - THANK YOU!
Someone sent me this photo of the custom door pulls made by Tice Industries for the Danner Shoe Manufacturing Company, and I thought they were so cool that I asked Scott Tice to send me more photos of their custom door pulls. They have other custom capabilities as well, so check them out!
A couple of weeks ago I got a notification that someone wanted to connect with me on LinkedIn, and it turned out to be an architect that I worked with on several projects many moons ago, Reese Schroeder. When I checked out his profile I found that he is the co-founder and Director of Product Development for RM Global. The company creates and manufactures absolutely gorgeous art glass, including glass doors. Their secret process results in a resolution of 4,000 dpi at 36 billion color potential - far exceeding the range of the human eye.
Unfortunately, these door photos from Ireland are not mine, since I'm currently on a stay-cation in the 95-degree heat. I received them from Bob Caron of Kelley Brothers of New England, and they were taken by his niece, Emily Hogue, on a recent trip to Ireland. Thanks Emily!
I'm really starting to think that between photos from readers and the way the internet connects me to the world, I could just stay in my house and still have plenty of doors to write about. I'm currently at our "camp" which depending on where you are in the country could be defined as a cottage, lake house, summer home, etc. I usually call it our shack in the woods, because it's tiny, it needs work, and it's in the woods. Anyway, you get the picture.
Last night's CSI meeting was a tour of the recently-completed Shalin Liu Performance Center in Rockport, Massachusetts. It was kind of a hike especially with the threat of traffic problems, but I thought I might be able to get some good door pictures.
I haven't thought much about these since I was in DHI school (a really long time ago), but today I saw two types of paumelle hinges along with some olive knuckle hinges in the same facility. Beautiful hinges, but a very tough door and frame prep.
It's been almost a year since I started keeping track of which countries have visited this site, and the count currently stands at 110 countries. WOW! The visits from new countries has slowed dramatically since there are already so many on the list, so I thought it might be fun to post a door photo from each new country as they're added.
I spent the weekend in Portland, Maine, and I think I may be in love. What a beautiful city! I was there for my sister-in-law's baby shower and I think I made my brother and SIL a little nervous driving and door-hunting at the same time. It was kind of a rainy weekend so I'll do a more extensive post when I become an aunt in a couple of months, but here's a preview of some of the gorgeous doors around town. It's sad that the doors being installed today are so plain and generic. The door bloggers of the future won't have any cool photos to post!
It has been a while since I've received a new batch of photos from Israel but these were worth the wait. The Hurva is a reconstructed synagogue in the Old City of Jerusalem, with a long, storied history. Construction on the original synagogue began in the early 1700's, but the unfinished building was destroyed in 1721. It was rebuilt in 1864 and destroyed again in 1948. The most recent reconstruction began in 2005, and the reconstructed synagogue was officially opened on March 15, 2010.
Last week I attended a security meeting for a new horticulture building at the Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I've written hardware specs for hundreds of projects but never a building for a cemetery. I had never been to Mt. Auburn, so I looked it up on Google Maps, my first clue that this was not your typical cemetery.
Yesterday we went to Caño Negro, a wildlife refuge near the Nicaraguan border. I saw no doors of note, but I did see a mother sloth with her baby, which was SO COOL!! We saw tons of other animals including iguanas and other lizards, caymans, white-faced and howler monkeys, at least 20 different kinds of birds, and 3 other sloths. It was a really great day.
I think I may have found the perfect hobby for myself. Not that I need anything else to keep me busy, but I recently discovered the art of Urban Exploration, which combines my love of photography, architecture, and adventure. According to Wikipedia, Urban Exploration (AKA urbex or UE) is "the examination of the normally unseen or off-limits parts of urban areas or industrial facilities."
In honor of *Turkey Day*, here are some absolutely gorgeous "Doors of Turkey":
I have visited 10 countries in Africa, so in honor of the first African country to host a visitor to this website (the 38th country to visit the site!), I decided to post an African door photo from my collection. I searched through the albums of my trips and found hundreds of photos of elephants, lions, and my fellow campers behaving badly, but hardly any photos of doors! I will eventually find and post my photo collection called the Doors of Zanzibar, but in the meantime, here are a few shots of the doors of the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca Morocco. To give these openings some scale, that's me sitting in front of a GIANT door, beside a door similar in size to the one in the close-up.
