Muralist Richard Haas toured Lakewood on February 1 and 2 to experience the city’s character and to research its history in preparation for two original interior murals he will execute on canvas for installation in the Grand Reading Room of the expanded Lakewood Public Library on Detroit Avenue. Spanning fourteen feet high by thirty three feet long, the two oils on canvas murals will be affixed to the east and west walls inside the Grand Reading Room.

The generosity of benefactors, including a significant bequest from Doris Burkley, who taught at Madison School for many years, and support from the Lakewood Public Library Foundation, has made the commissioning of two murals by Richard Haas possible.

While Haas has created exquisite interior murals for New York Public Library and Nashville Public Library, he is best known for his exterior architectural murals, which create magnificent and expansive illusions on entire buildings. Haas has transformed cityscapes with his trompe l'oeil murals in such places Chicago, Fort Worth and New York City. According to the New York Times, he is “the great architectural muralist of our time.”

"The selection of a nationally recognized artist for the Grand Reading Room murals is consistent with our vision to create a world class physical environment to reflect the extraordinary service levels of Lakewood Public Library. Richard Haas' work will be the ideal complement to the landmark architectural quality of the Robert A.M. Stearn designed building currently under construction." says Mary Anne Crampton, Foundation trustee and co-chair of the art committee.

Haas was born in Spring Green, Wisconsin. There Haas felt the presence and work of Frank Lloyd Wright to be an inspiration. The initial terms for a lifelong contemplation of architecture in relation to place were nurtured for two summers Haas spent as a young intern at Frank Lloyd Wright’s complex at Taliesen where he wandered the grounds and studied his drawings and watercolors. Haas also felt an affinity with the emotional intensity of German printmakers and studied with Robert von Neumann.

Haas presented a copy of “The Prints of Richard Haas: 1970 – 2004” to Lakewood Public Library on his recent visit. The beautifully produced book provides a detailed explanation and presentation of his compelling prints, which combine painstaking technical craft with an empathetic light on buildings and cities.

“I look at architecture and try to see it in its unique urban setting – what is it that defines a place, a town, a region or a city,” Haas once explained in a lecture. “I see cities as jewels and rough gems and within cities I see icons and urban amenities.”

Haas began his search for Lakewood’s jewels with passage over the Emerald Canyon on his way from Cleveland Hopkins Airport to Lakewood Public Library. From Winton Place, he viewed Lake Erie and the city below, thanks to the hospitality of Lucy and Tony Sinagra and Martin Hoke. At the Old Stone House, Mazie Adams, Director of the Lakewood Historical Society, shared jewels from the archive along with an informed perspective on the formative personalities in the city’s early history. After a view of the Grand Reading, Haas set out on a motor tour with Gary Rice. Their stops included Lakewood Park and the Metroparks Valley. Over dinner at Three Birds, D.L. Meckes, a student of Haas at Bennington College in the seventies, provided insights on cultural life in the city.

There is no doubt Lakewood’s distinctive housing stock is a treasure trove of jewels. Upon learning that Haas hoped see several architecturally significant Lakewood homes from the inside, Rhonda Loje, President of the Lakewood Historical Society, quickly organized a tour for the next day. Lakewood’s spirit of hospitality quickened with less than a day’s notice and neighbors invited Haas into their homes.

Michael Fleenor warmly welcomed Haas to his Grace Avenue Mansion. Linda Baker opened the door to a fabulously light and airy Clarence Mack ‘Eclectic French’ style home on Edgewater Drive. On a visit to the Loge’s beautifully restored Clifton Park home, Rhonda explained the nautical and Mediterranean elements that create a warm feeling of fullness to a home she believes was originally a summer place. Jack Rupert provided not only fascinating details about the house he moved but a rich narrative history of all Clifton Park to accompany a drive in the snow to the Lagoons.

Traveling the south-side streets of the city on the way to Birdtown evoked for Haas memories of Milwaukee and the inner ring of West Allis where he moved at age seven. Haas, who now lives in Yonkers, New York, an inner ring suburb of New York City, has a firm sense of the educational and social challenges faced in communities of mixed economies. He was impressed with Lakewood’s financial commitment to building new schools.

Haas spotted a jewel in the canopy of Lakewood Firestone on Madison and Bunts. "I just love those old Firestone canopies," said Haas.

On the south side of Madison, Haas was impressed with how well the housing and neighborhoods are being maintained, especially given the economic challenges of the post-industrial Midwest.

“You must be doing something right,” Haas mused.

While the period of 1870 to 1925 is the golden age of home construction in the United States, Haas could see that from Olive to Edgewater even Lakewood’s infill homes were characteristically distinctive.

“Lakewood has the densest accumulation of great American homes from the greatest period of building American homes that I’ve ever seen. Lakewood was lucky to have been born at the right time and to stop growing at the right time,” Haas explained, clearly satisfied he had discovered numerous jewels on his first visit to the City of Homes.