Visiting John Hutchinson’s workshop outside Columbus, Ohio, was an unusual experience. And he wanted it that way.
To get to his shop, you left his home and set off down a path through the woods. Then you encountered a stream and had to jump over it. Eventually you arrived at a small cabin surrounded completely by woods.
The shop was cozy, well-lit and wonderfully equipped. And whenever you looked out the windows, all you saw were trees.
Hutchinson, a prominent Ohio architect, wanted it this way. He wanted the trip to his workshop to require you to encounter and deal with nature. And as you worked, nature was everywhere you looked.
I know a lot of woodworkers who would build the same sort of shop if they could. But I thought it was odd. Sure, I love trees and nature and birds and deer scat as much as the next woodworker. But I don’t look at trees and say: “Eureka – there is an idea for my next cabinet!”
Instead, I have always been inspired by good architecture. Good buildings. Thoughtful details. Window layouts. Overall proportions. These things are an endless diet of good design.
Yes, you can visit beautiful cities to get a taste of it before returning to your rural or suburban home. But it is another thing entirely to live surrounded by buildings and have them seep into your skin. Good architecture – like good furniture design – requires you to live with it for a while to really understand the patterns behind it. And to see the details that escape your first (or 10th) viewing.
The short film above is adapted from a piece I made a couple years ago for the furniture conference at Colonial Williamsburg. It offers a short architectural tour of Covington and shows how some buildings have directly influenced my designs.
This is why I live in an old (for America) city.
I am sure that other woodworkers can take inspiration directly from nature. And I think that’s great. But I have always relied on architecture. And here’s a look at how that works.
– Christopher Schwarz
Points well taken, I have seen a lot of beautiful things in cities, Chicago is just amazing as well as New York City. Thanks for sharing this.
Here in Austin, I should try to design a piece that looks like a craftsman home being loaded on to a trailer so that a modern monstrosity with can replace it.
Great video, Born and raised in the Cov it is a great place to roam. Everything from Churches, like the Cathedral to the spaceship up on the hill
Your description of Hutchinson sounds like the intro to woodwrights shop
Is that church one of the ones designed by Richard Upjohn? Sure looks like it
Excellent video. Wonderful music. Easy to follow narrative. Inspirational. Important facts, and dang well presented.
I’ve read and followed your works since 2012 , this is one of your best.
I’m seventy and traveled half way around this world.
Cheers !!! “With hopes on meeting to thank you personally and to see Covington someday.”
Walking the surrounding streets during your open day this past August was really cool. The maze like street layout of Covington is very interesting. The narrowness of the streets lends itself to slow driving which cascades across the different elements of what makes a good city. One of the most memorable aspects of of your city for me was eating and reading in that outdoor sitting area on the main stretch and seeing a giant connect four game set up with kids playing at it. I think the good design and architecture you showed there creates a foundation for the other reasons Covington is an interesting place to visit. Makes people feel good about living there. I think parts of Cincinattti have that too. It is probably my favorite metro area in the country. We don’t have that where I live. We are trying though. Thanks for the tour. You chose well for a place to set up.
Inspiration comes from almost anything if one lets it: a child, a brook, poems, air, leaves, dirt. Let it flow.
I enjoyed the presentation, but was actually expecting some photos of John Hutchinson’s workshop. If I were to take inspiration from the architecture in my little town, I’d make Strip Mall Chair 1, 2, etc.
Spectacular video – thanks for calling attention to it. A wonderful tutorial in inspiration.
Interesting. I’ve been reading your articles for years and didn’t think you were in a city, but in a quaint town.
Great presentation. It will prove helpful to many who think homesteading is the ultimate life without counting the cost.
Thanks Chris for the beautiful video! It jump started my heart!
Reminds me of Duluth; but dang, it’s very hard to look past all that paint that needs to be stripped. They finally got rid of the paint on the Whitehouse and discovered amazing details in the millwork. But it would probably be less work to send people back to the Moon than clean up all the old paint. 😛
Thoughtful and caring homage to our region. I’m personally pleased to have never touched the designs of any of your contemporary examples. There’s so much to be inspired by what remains in our cities, and Covington is a great example of this. This tour is a touching tribute to what makes a place special.
Your post brought to mind an experience I had with beauty, art, and history. I was in Madrid and walked into the Prado Museum, and witnessing this beautiful museum and the large canvasses by Goya, El Greco, and Velázquez brought me to tears, and nearly to my knees.
My wife and I had the same experience.
Nicely done. Even a new city like Los Angeles has classic buildings worth appreciating. The old banking district on Spring street has some glorious buildings. The only challenge is the details on a 20-story building are often best viewed from the 20-story building across the street. That’s often not possible..
A wonderful and inspiring presentation. Thanks for sharing it.
This is such a great video, thanks!
Really good video. One thing that surprises me is that with your obvious interest in ornamentation, you do not use it in your furniture, even in an understated way. Thanks for sharing!
“Fun fact: prostitutes love to watch you turn on the lathe.” That might be your funniest observation, ever.
Maybe you should get Peter Follansbee to offer a class at the storefront. “Spring-pole turning for hookers.”
Reminds me of this:
https://www.craigslist.org/about/best/sea/398050816.html
I’m very disappointed there was no picture with that ad.
Cool video. Covington reminds me of Newark, NJ and certain parts of Boston, both of which get a similar (and totally unjustified, at least in my experience) rap for being “dangerous”.
Anyone else having unusual buffering issues with this?
I stopped and tool a screenshot of that note card with the whole number ratios.
Dead simple, easy to use and portable.
“To get to his shop, you left his home and set off down a path through the woods. Then you encountered a stream and had to jump over it. Eventually you arrived at a small cabin surrounded completely by woods.”
This is basically the opening to ‘The Woodwright’s Shop’
I loved this video and your style of presentation. You inspired me to not just look but think about what we are seeing. It seems that architecture that is “good” looks good. If only I could design something that looks good enough to me that I can call it good. I need examples like you have shown us to find the secret. Thanks for a great video and your narration.
A wonderful video. We should all be such lovers of our communities. Thank you.
I am watching this with my sweetie on Valentines Day. She says you Chris have a very soothing voice. Music great, was that DocBoggs leading off the tour music? Oh yeah!
I enjoyed your tour and commentary. In my travels in North America and the Nordic countries over the years I have seen many architectural details that inspire my design details. Very simple embellishments and lines that please the eye and connect the viewer with the piece are subtle triggers to enjoyment and appreciation of the piece be it furniture or a building and the ways of working that produce the object and provide the connection between maker and object and those viewing the object.
Two things came to mind when I watched this: the title (and the spirit) of Austin Kleons’ book “Steal like an artist” – that one can borrow from everywhere – nature or architecture or breakdance tricks. Secondly, the difference between looking and actually seeing.
I love this video essay. I am usually more of a reader than video watcher, but this post was fantastic. Chris’s narration and the video edit together were greater than the sum of the parts. Here’s hoping for more of this kind of creative exploration as Megan shares the daily operations at LAP.
Your choice in music shows how Led Zeppelin was inspired by roots music.
Thanks to the interstate expressways, most people pass by cities and never see the street view (much less walk them). Beltways like I-275 assure that most people never see 100 year old homes and buildings.
Thank you for choosing the old city, living and working inside the beltway and for being a genuine Anarchist.
Holy moley- Covington should paying you for this content. Your description of how cities (and people) feed your work rings so true (from a KY ex-pat over here in Brooklyn, the Covington of New York City!)
Great, just great. Thank you for sharing this.
I’ve been similarly inspired by architectural details while living in Montréal – from French Imperial mansard roofs to Brutalist fallen Jenga block condos. As to your pumpernickel, we had “Pets de sœur,” puff pastry.That’s one to look up…