Turnverien, Bellville,Austin County. 1885. Turnveriens were gymnastic clubs started by German settlers in the 1850s. This hall is twelve-sided and rests on a stone foundation. I cannot think how this was laid out – a system based on three, 60* angles rather than octagonal halls based on 90*. 12 devided by 3 = 4 quarters, then divided in 3 again. And every side is exactly 21’-2. From corner to centre is 42’. Their measuring unit appears to be 21’. Below is the central queen post, supporting the roof and ventilation lantern at the top.
Baca Pavilion,Warrenton, Fayette County.
Is the 1935 Baca Hall, now used exclusively for antiques fairs, still a dance hall? Formally, yes: pivoting shutters, cross breezes, ventilated floor. Functionally, no. It is not the centre of a local, geographically defined community. It maintains the now fictional landscape of these huge bell- like volumes in fields of grass and stands of oak, while actually servicing a dispersed community from Houston to Dallas bound together only the quest for patchwork quilts and primitive furniture. Is the green metal shed out on the highway a dance hall? Functionally, yes. It has a stage, a dance floor, a beer stand inside, a barbeque pit out in the back. Formally, no. It could house machine shop equally well, and in many places, does. The disjunction between form and function is characteristic of the hybridizing late twentieth century. It is not unconnected that the great discussions of typologies that occurred over the last twenty years established a sentimental affection for the look of the past divorced from use. The erosion of a vernacular building type happens as much from this detachment of function from form, as from wind, weather, termites and desertion.
Stephanie White, editor of On Site review, is an architect living in Calgary.
23
ON SITE review 5
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator