DAVID PATRICK KELLY Outsider Architecture and Historic Preservation (Under the Direction of MARK EDWARD REINBERGER)
Outsider architecture is a type of architecture that features unique designs made
by builders with no formal training. Outsider architecture also functions as the
physical/architectural manifestation of the ideology of its builder, which is more often
than not eccentric by conventional standards. What constitutes outsider architecture is
of issue in this thesis, as is the history of outsider architecture and the historic
preservation movement that accompanies it. This thesis also suggests ways to improve
the outsider architecture preservation situation, and to use outsider architecture as a tool
in improving both social welfare and the built environment.
INDEX WORDS: Outsider architecture, Historic preservation, Amateur building,
Simon Rodia, Pasaquan, Bottle houses, Eccentrics
OUTSIDER ARCHITECTURE AND HISTORIC PRESERVATION
by
DAVID PATRICK KELLY
B.A., The University of South Carolina, 1992
M. AS., The University of Alabama, 1998
A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial
Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF HISTORIC PRESERVATION
ATHENS, GEORGIA
2001
2001
David Patrick Kelly
All Rights Reserved
OUTSIDER ARCHITECTURE AND HISTORIC PRESERVATION
by
DAVID PATRICK KELLY
Approved:
Major Professor: Mark Reinberger
Committee: Pratt Cassity Megan Bellue Henry Parker
Electronic Version Approved:
Gordhan L. Patel Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia December 2001
DEDICATION
This thesis is dedicated to Erik Satie and Olivier Messiaen, whose music saw me
through many unfulfilling hours at the computer keyboard.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank Mark Reinberger, Pratt Cassity, Megan Bellue, and Henry
Parker, the good folk who make up my thesis committee, for indulging me in some off-
the-wall subject matter. Special thanks go to Gwen Martin, caretaker of Pasaquan, who
was kind enough to spend a day showing me around Pasaquan in the autumn of 1996.
Some thanks are also due to Dr. Albert Hoffmann. Finally, I would like to thank my
parents, Reginald and Susan Kelly, for never once flinching while their middle son went
through many trying stages that were linked only by an appreciation for the bizarre.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................ v
CHAPTER
1 INTRODUCTION AND DEFINITIONS ..................................................... .1
The name game ............................................................................................. 9
Why outsider? ............................................................................................ 14
Not quite outside ........................................................................................ 22
Location of outsider sites; nationality of outsider architects...................... 24
2 A SURVEY OF OUTSIDER ARCHITECTURE: FORMS AND SITES....... 27
The castle.................................................................................................... 27
The bottle house ......................................................................................... 36
Outsider architecture environments ........................................................... 41
Beyond architecture the outsider inside and at the drafting table ........... 53
3 THE HISTORY OF OUTSIDER ARCHITECTURE PRESERVATION
IN THE UNITED STATES ............................................................................ 61
The first battle ........................................................................................... 64
Documentation as an outsider architecture preservation tool ................... 71
Tourism as an outsider architecture preservation tool .............................. 74
Failures in outsider architecture preservation ........................................... 76
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4 NEW STRATEGIES IN OUTSIDER ARCHITECTURE
PRESERVATION........................................................................................... 79
The four horsemen of the outsider apocryphal-ypse............................... 88
Integrating outsider architecture.............................................................. 94
The true outsider architects place .......................................................... 98
BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................................................................................................... 101
1
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTIONS AND DEFINITIONS
Look! Look! Look! Look!God Almighty, has anyone living or dead done anything like this?
Would you believe that I done all this?1
In 1968 Clarence Schmidt made the above exclamation about his "House of
Mirrors," a complex of structures and gardens on Ohayo Mountain in upstate New York.
Speaking proudly of his achievement, he was unaware that he also spoke for a small but
significant group of architectural "renegades" dispersed throughout both the United States
and the world. Schmidt was right in one sense, no one had created anything quite like his
rambling, seven-story, solo-built conglomeration of wood, tar, glass, and aluminum that
rose from the hillside like an organic growth of discarded construction materials. Still,
there were others elsewhere who were kindred spirits, who worked in a similar manner to
equally unique ends.
Schmidt was but one of a group of non-architect builders creating fantastic works
of architecture over long periods of time while foregoing the rules and precedents of
standard architectural style and practice to forge a distinct "other" in the built
environment. What is more, these builders worked alone or, on rare occasion, with only
the peripheral help of amateur construction assistants. Along with Clarence Schmidt this
group of amateur architect-builders includes noteworthy representatives Ferdinand
Cheval of Hauterives, France; Tressa "Grandma" Prisbey of Simi Valley, California; St.
1 Clarence Schmidt, quoted in Gregory Blasdel and William C. Lipke, Schmidt (Burlington, Vermont: Robert Hull Fleming Museum, University of Vermont, 1975): 46.
2
EOM (Eddie Owens Martin) of Buena Vista, Georgia; and Simon Rodia of Watts,
California to name a handful.
These "outsider architects" and their works of "outsider architecture" were only to
be linked after the fact.2 There was no movement from which they arose, no manifestos
announcing their agenda, and no school from which they graduated.3 They were unaware
of one another's creations and, as evidenced by Schmidt's quote, believed themselves to
be doing something unprecedented and isolated. When the claim is made for the
existence of outsider architecture, it is made from a vantage point that allows essential
common denominators to be identified within the various examples a rhyme and reason
in what otherwise appears chaotic and, at best, coincidental.
Works of outsider architecture conform to no specific shape or size nor are they
governed by any other set of physical specifications. Simon Rodia's Watts Towers
features spire-like towers ten stories tall whereas Tressa Prisbey's Bottle Village
buildings are squat, one story constructions. Both of these sites occupy lots that are less
than one acre while Nek Chand's Rock Garden in the northern Indian city of Chandigarh
takes up over twenty-five acres. Outsider architecture appears as tower, castle, pagoda,
roundhouse, shack, and everything in between. It is a shape-shifter and a chameleon. The
presence of signature features (fanlights or symmetry, for example) as dictates of style
has no bearing upon outsider architecture. Indeed the concept of style itself is
problematic, as each work of outsider architecture develops its own style.
2 The nature of these terms and the author's choice to use them will be discussed in an upcoming section. 3 It is frequently argued that outsider architects and outsider architecture do originate from a "movement" of sorts the folk art tradition. This claim is neither wholly true nor false and will be discussed in an upcoming section.
3
Figure 1.1 Clarence Schmidts House of Mirrors. From Maizels.
4
While the envelope and appearance of outsider architecture are quite fluid, there
are characteristics and conditions that govern this architectural realm. First, outsider
architecture relies on the outsider architect, its "one-man-band" who serves as architect,
funder, and builder. Outsider architecture sites are the sole creation of their architects,
from vision to realization. Although some outsider sites have involved the labor of
others, their
