Miami

Tony in Miami 💓 

I was going to title this blogpost "A List Is Not a Story."  I have been absent from Blog World for a while.  Mainly because I couldn't formulate an interesting post in my mind--a story, that is.

Since I got back from Budapest, I have done a lot of things.  Some have been wonderful, others mundane.  But all of them added up in a kind of one-thing-after-another way.  Not a good way to organize a blog post; not a really good way to organize one's life.  Nevertheless, stuff happens.  I am not going to rehearse here the mundane stuff (nothing horrible but the mainly the necessary indignities being older--or really of just "being." ) I will make note for the record of the nice things we did: a trip to friends in SC, a visit from Tony's sister Mary, a gorgeous wedding in SC, and a trip to Miami.  Mainly I want to say for myself that I need to return to a narrative of retirement.  I need both rhythm and focus.  Happily I am leaving for the lake in two days, so things should settle in nicely and interesting blogposts will once again occupy my mind.

However, this blogpost has to be about something, so I am going to feature here one of the best experiences of the last few months (and the one where I have the best pictures), our trip to Miami.

We went to Miami for a long weekend to attend my nephew Aaron's senior recital.  My sister Sandy rented a house, and she and her husband David and all of her sons were there, as were my brother Ben and his wife Nina, and David's brother Bobby and his wife Marilyn.  So Aaron had all his aunts and uncles there.  As Sandy said, with bar mitzvahs over for a while and weddings not really in sight, there are few opportunities for families to gather like this.  It was wonderful for lots of reasons.

We went to the beach:

We went to the Everglades where saw critters, water, and trees.  (Ben and Sandy and I lived in Miami in the 1950s, and though I think I was the only one of us who remembered this, we used to visit the Everglades with our parents.)   

Debra and Tony almost done in by the heat.

My sister Sandy 

My brother Ben and his wife Nina

We walked around Little Havana. 

But the absolute highlight was the recital.  My nephew Aaron Mutchler, Jazz Trumpet Extraordinaire!

Aaron, third from the left.

Marcell Komor and Dezso Jakob: The Liget Sanatorium and Its Dazzling Interior

 

The second iconic building we saw on our last day walk in Butdapaest is the Liget Sanatorium, built on Benczur utca 47 in 1907-1908 by Marcell Komor and Dezso Jakab.

I first discovered the architecture of Marcell Komor and Dezso Jakab in 2009, when I was in Timisoara Romania accompanying Tony on his Fulbright at the University of the West.  That spring, I saw their relatively simply but stunning bank in Timisoara, as well as the Cultural Palace and City Hall they built in Targu Mures and the homes and shopping arcade, the Black Eagle, they built in Oradea.  Later I saw their beautiful synagogue in Subotica in Serbia, as well as the town hall and other buildings in that city.  All of these are on my blog, as are most of their buildings in Budapest.

Komor and Jakab worked first with Odon Lechner before opening their own architectural firm.  And you can see how much they absorbed from Lechner.  They are perhaps the "sons" who most closely worked in Lechner's tradition.  I thought I had seen most of their important buildings but just on this trip I discovered another:  atorithe Liget Sanum .  This was my last great get, because I was again welcomed inside.

The Liget Sanatorium is a kind of luxury hospital retreat--the sort of builing that became more and more popular across Europe at the turn of the century.  It is adjacent to City Park, Varosliget, and is where Ady Endre, one of Hungary's most famous poets died.  It is thus a monument in several senses.

The entrance to the building is decorated to an extraordinary degree in some of the most beautiful (and expensive) Zsolnay tiles to be seen in the city.  Komor and Jakab use Lechner's tradition of lining the edges and filling in spaces with decorations.   The details are extraordinary.  Also beautiful is the wrought iron staircase with its cascading feathers and peacock feathers.  The Liget Sanatorium was the last building we saw on this Budapest visit.  It was a fabulous finale.  

#KomorAndJakab

LigetSanatorium

ArtNouveauInterior

Zsolnay