The Norman-style homes of Architects League past member, Carl Kemm Loven, AIA, are being featured on a September 16th, 2023, walking and driving tour in Ridgewood and Glen Rock, NJ.
The prolific architect was the creator of more than 500 designs, mostly in Bergen County, between the 1930s and his sudden death at age 58 in 1965. The tour will visit the exterior of more than a dozen homes, which range in size from a cottage of about 1,800 square feet to a stone mansion of about 4,000 square feet.
Loven, who studied in Europe, included details such as dovecotes, turrets, leaded glass windows, half-timbering, embossed copper gutters, gargoyles, balconies, courtyards, terra cotta roof tiles, and hand-forged hardware in the homes he designed. Such details lend the homes a magical, fairy-tale quality.
The tour will meet at Graydon Pool Parking Lot at the corner of Linwood Avenue and Northern Parkway in Ridgewood at 8:30 am for carpools to form, and then the group will drive together to each neighborhood, walking to the houses being discussed, and then drive back to the meeting site around noon.
The tour will be offered rain or shine, participants should be prepared to walk and either drive or be a passenger in someone else’s car. We are trying to limit the total number of cars in the carpool to be considerate of the residential neighborhoods.
The tour will be led by Xiomara C. Paredes, AIA, Archivist of CKL plans in GR Historical, Preservation Society, and Stacey Ruhle Kliesch, AIA, Ridgewood Resident, CKL Fan and experienced tour leader.
