Flat, rectangular boxes, usually weighing a couple of pounds: that's what's under the architecture lover's tree every Christmas. Let's see, is it a new coffee table book on Frank Lloyd Wright? Even something as dreary as a sweater or socks would be a respite from all the books.
Sound familiar? It doesn't have to be this way. If you're an architourist like me, clip this column and leave it on your significant other's pillow; if you're the significant other, read on, because there are many gifts—at all price points—that will send architourists over the moon. We'll start with the expensive stuff.
For the past few years, I've enjoyed giving "experiences" rather than physical objects since, as the saying goes, you can't take it with you. So, with Frank Lloyd Wright in mind (and what architecture lover doesn't love FLW?), what about renting one of his houses for a few nights? A few years back, my wife and I drove to Willoughby, Ohio, and stayed at the Louis Penfield house. Built in 1955, it's one of Wright's "Usonians" and has been available for $275 (U.S.) per night (two night minimum) since Mr. Penfield's son, Paul, inherited it and had it restored in 2003. You can cook your own meals, read by the fire, play board games or drive into Cleveland to see I.M. Pei's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame or Ralphie's house from the 1983 movie A Christmas Story (www.achristmasstoryhouse.com). It's closer than a trip to Montreal and the last time I checked www.penfieldhouse.com there were still a few weekends in March 2011 available. The next closest FLW house for rent is the Duncan house in Acme, Pennsylvania (www.polymathpark.com; $399 per night) and, after that, the Haynes house in Fort Wayne, Indiana (www.hayneshousellc.com; $275 per night).
Less expensive is a day-trip to Buffalo to see the ongoing restoration of FLW's Darwin Martin house. No, you can't stay the night at this massive Prairie-style home, but it's worth touring if only for the rebuilding of some previously lost elements such as the covered pergola and carriage house (www.darwinmartinhouse.org). There is also Mr. Martin's other home, Graycliff (www.graycliffestate.org). And no visit to Buffalo would be complete without popping into the Albright-Knox Art Gallery.
If you'd rather stick closer to home, what about a promise to one another to take advantage of Heritage Toronto's free walking tours, which run from May to October? In 2010, topics ranged from Atop the Davenport Hill in the 1920s and Baby Point: 10,000 Years of History to Library to Library in Riverdale (www.heritagetoronto.org). While you're at the site, you can also download the self-guided "iTour" I did for Heritage Toronto on the history of Don Mills.
In addition to what's available from Heritage Toronto, there are paid walking tours. Angus Skene offers $20 walks at www.architours.wordpress.com, and the indefatigable Bruce Bell offers $25 walks at www.brucebelltours.ca.
For the little architourist in your life, LEGO hopes to inspire future architects around the world with its "Architecture" series. Available are FLW's Fallingwater and Guggenheim as well as Rockefeller Centre and Seattle's Space Needle (can the CN Tower be far behind?). Since a call to Mastermind Toys turned up empty, call LEGO's Richmond Hill office to see if they're available in Canada: 905-764-5346. If not, check eBay and purchase for next Christmas. Heck, while you're surfing eBay, look for a vintage Kenner "Girder and Panel Set" to unleash the inner Mies van der Rohe in big and little architourists alike.
What's trash to demolition crews is treasure to architourists. I've always been a fan of architectural remnants, especially old metal letters (or even entire words) that have been stripped from buildings. Imaging finding something like Skylark Apartments under the tree! Good places to check are retailers Smash at 2880 Dundas St. W. in the Junction and, in Cobourg, Legacy Vintage Building Materials & Antiques at 540 Division St. Or, should you be walking by a demolition site of a building you once admired, try slipping a hard-hatted fella a couple of twenties; the vintage 1950s pendant lights in my bathroom came out of the old, two-storey Page and Steele building at 76 St. Clair St. W. when the interior was ripped out in the early 2000s by doing just that.
And if you absolutely must buy your architourist a book, pick up Place, Race, and Story by Ned Kaufman (Routledge, 2009). A small confession: The column you're reading was supposed to be a book review of this title, but the busy season got the better of me and I'm only a third of the way through. Still, this packed-with-ideas, 421-page tome is the best book I've ever read on the heritage preservation movement, and I predict it will give the same shot in the arm to twenty-first century heritage soldiers as Jane Jacob's Death and Life of Great American Cities did for those of the early 1960s.