CAMELOT CASTLE
Is located on Weatherby Lake which is located midway between
Downtown K.C. and the airport [MCI]
We also own the six [6] lots across the street
which affords us privacy.
Before starting the project we employed an architectural artist to create an architectural rendering before we turned any dirt:
The electric entry gate that is controlled by telephone from anywhere in the world.
I am often asked about the many thousands of decisions we had to make for the project. As people know my propensity for perfection so they inquire if there is anything we would do differently. YES, we installed the mailbox at the exit gate thinking that as we came home we would simply pull alongside and retrieve the mail.
In actuality, Joyce retrieves the mail by walking clear around through the entry gate. With foresight we could have simply installed a chute from the mailbox at the entry gate to terminate at the rear of the support column. However, not a bad batting average for our first effort.
The actual building of Camelot
Castle began in 1990 and took approximately 3 years to complete.
The preparation however took place well over 10 years previous to the actual construction. Laura and I traveled extensively through Europe bicycling and taking photographs of castles as well as collecting photos from books. We acquired various items for the Castle that would ultimately be incorporated in the ultimate design. For example we acquired two [2] fire surrounds. One for the great room and the other for the formal dining room. Both of these fire surrounds are almost as old as this country.
As it turned out, we closely resemble Ashford Castle, Cong, Ireland.
As you can see, we came pretty close. What we lack in size we make up in
spirit:
The Queen has raised over $7,000,000 for charitable purposes by using her castle.
We hired an excellent
architect, perhaps one of the best in the country, Howard Nearing, and he was
able to incorporate these acquisitions into the final Castle plans.
Speaking of the plans, we had
a stroke of good luck at the beginning since we had originally designed an
indoor racquetball court that would've made this project one third larger. As
fate would have it my arm failed me and I had to give up racquetball.
Fortunately we eliminated the court from the project. We saved enough to pay
for the land acquisition as well as the architect's fees.
We had the good fortune of
retaining Jeff Martinique as the builder. We quickly nicknamed him "Merlin
the Magician" since there was virtually nothing that Jeff could not
accomplish.
N.B. It should be noted that
Jeff is the builder of the home of Pete and Lynn Pierce on our Lake. He also
built Charles Garney's dream home in Briarcliffe.
As you look at the outside of
the castle you will notice two very unusual features. First, the stone that
makes up the bulk of the exterior is quite unique. Most stone homes built in
the Midwest are built from Kansas limestone.
Kansas City is known for its underground
storage caves and our stonemason, John Scafe, and
his father-in-law, Jim Long, were able to take a layer of stone that was well
below those excavations. Thus, this stone is a much darker gray in color and is
50% harder than your typical stone thus allowing a steeper pitch to the faces.
The other thing that one
notices about Camelot Castle is a great amount of trim stone. You will see this
on the corbelling and the arches. We were lucky in that a 100+ year old
Carthage marble house just north of the Country Club Plaza was torn down in
order to make way for Crosby Kemper's Modern Museum of Art. I was able to
acquire all of that stone and this was later turned into the finished product
that you see on the Castle.
N. B. There was not a large
enough piece of marble to cover the front threshold of the main doors. As luck
would have it my old high school was being torn down at Linwood and Indiana. I
was able to acquire the threshold piece from Central High School and it is now
in place in front of my huge front double doors. Some of my
old classmates and I laugh about the fact that I was frequently expelled from
Central and they would've thrown me out over this threshold many a time.
On the subject of the double
doors it should be noted that every single door [and there must be hundreds] in
the Castle and all are hand-hewn one-of-a-kind.
INTERIOR
OF MAIN ENTRANCE
N.B. Note the huge dead bolt.
Howard Nearing warned us at the beginning of this project that a project his
huge might produce serious disputes for us. Divorces have come from such
projects. As a precautionary measure Laura & I agreed that any serious
differences of opinion would be divided between Function & Form. Function disputes would be resolved by Howard Nearing. Form
by John Rufenacht
our designer.
Unresolved disputes settled by
Merlin the Magician, Jeff Martinique.
I contended that the massive
wood dead bolt was obviously a functional item & Laura thought it was an
ugly stick. Jeff came down on the side of function.
Of the thousands who have
toured Camelot Castle it has been interesting to note the number who have
looked at the doors and commented on how perfect and attractive the "Dead
Bolt" is. I always smile & wink at The Queen.
All of the metal strapping,
the metal hinges and door handles are one of a kind made for Camelot. For that
matter every single light fixture is one-of-a-kind made for Camelot Castle.
Our lighting designer won a
coveted award for this project based on whole house computerized lighting:
The floors are either stone or
quarter-sawn oak plank.
Of course the stone floors
& the granite floors in the master bath are heated in winter.
The slate roof is the heaviest
slate ever used on a home in the K.C. area.
All of the castle windows are
architecturally designed one of a kind.
Another source of wonderment
to Architects & Builders is this view to the right of the main entrance
hall. They marvel at how this difficult space was so adroitly handled.
The 6,000
bottle wine cellar is circular and built under the formal dining room.
It surrounded by earth and has a thick concrete ceiling. It is also our tornado
shelter.
This is the potting room. Note
the details of the work table.
And naturally this leads us
into the five formal gardens [this one in the front drive].
The Greenhouse is one of The
Queen's favorite rooms. In winter it is full of plants.
The stained glass in the
Greenhouse, Kitchen, Dining Room & Office was done by Kathy Barnard.
We are home to flocks of
Purple Martins which Kathy features in our kitchen
windows. Note the small insects in the right piece.
I belong to a group of the 500
best Trial Lawyers in the world, the International Academy
of Trial Lawyers. Our meetings take us all
over the world. When in England we are with the top Barristers & naturally
with The Queen. In South Africa we induct Nelson Mandela.
This brings us to Italy and Gandolfo and our
time with Pope John Paul:
Which in turn brings us to one
of our beautiful art objects:
Which came from Mosaic
Art Source.
When one tours St. Peters Basillica and views the magnificent oil paintings on the
walls, you do not realize that these are mosaics.
Some other unusual art pieces
flowed from the fact that it is very difficult to buy gifts for me. My 2nd
aerobatic airplane was a Christen Eagle:
This was a perfect invitation
for gifts of eagles:
THE POWDER ROOM
Of the 10 bathrooms this one
gets the vote of most visitors as the best in the castle. An artist painted the
ceiling with our Zodiac Signs, Gemini & Libra. The gold is 24K. The silver
crackled canvas wallpaper is one of a kind. The mirror was purchased on a visit
to Venice.
Speaking of wall coverings,
the entirety of the castle walls were created through a five step process that
took forever to complete but well worth the time & expense as the interior
walls appear to be 100s of years old.
N.B. At a social function our
architect, Howard Nearing, looked at the Great Room beams and ruminated about
what condition they might be in a couple of hundred years in the future:
He was amazed to learn that
Merlin, our woodworking genius, had fabricated these out of separate pieces of
wood.
Camelot Castle took
approximately 3 years to complete. It is built like a commercial building. There
are six separate HVAC zones that control the geothermal efficiency system. The
sound system is distributed by over 10 miles of speaker wiring through 12
separate sound systems that can be turned on independently or all at one time.
And of course you can see Laura's fine hand as the Interior Designer:
FORMAL DINING ROOM
Lancelot & Guinevere are oil on canvas by a Broadway Set Designer.
CHRISTMAS IN THE GAME ROOM
THE MASTER BEDROOM
Merlin turned the 90" bedposts out of single pieces of wood. He broke four [4] lathes in the process.
ENTRY HALL
The chandelier came from a real castle and is one piece we did not have to invent.
Gates, fences, stairs & all of the iron
work was one-of-a-kind designed for Camelot by Austin Iron Works.
CAMELOT MIRROR: 7 principal characters of the Camelot legend
are hand carved ivory. The 2,000 lb. project took two [2] years to complete in Pietrasanta,
Italy.
"The area, like most of Tuscany in general, has long enjoyed the patronage of artists. Pietrasanta grew to importance during the 15th century, mainly due to its connection with marble. Michelangelo was the first sculptor to recognize the beauty of the local stone."
Giancarlo cast the 2,000+ lb. mirror in one piece. The ivory carver was Jill Burkee who was the primary ivory artist for Buccellati.
A self piece of Jill Burkee created by Jill out of Carrera Marble
And then there is "Mimi of Paree", my massage therapist, who kept me going back to do battle for those many years. Mimi is happily married and living in, guess where??
Of course the one who keeps it all running smoothly is Joyce, The Guardian of Camelot, my housekeeper for over 30 years.
JOYCE IN ASPEN
JOYCE AT HOME
