September 29th 2016 – The Red Top Motor Inn is located in the village of Iron Bridge in the Municipality of Huron Shores.
The The Red Top motel’s website claims ‘Our unique main building, designed in the Festival Style and opened in 1961, is a landmark on Highway 17′. Festival Style is not a common architectural term. Doing a Google search today, no specific entry can be found online – Wikipedia or otherwise. The fact that background information on the Hog’s Back Park pavilion (see below) and the Red Top Motor Inn both reference the term, and that there is some aesthetic alignment between the buildings, could suggest that it is just a question of time before Wikipedia catches up. Two buildings do not make a phenomenon, but it’s likely additional examples could be easily found. That being said, Festival architecture is essentially a minor variation in modernism’s development but is still of some interest – and as with any style, the quality of design and execution will vary widely.
The photos below are images of the Hog’s Back Park pavilion that were taken last fall. An additional more recent photo of the pavilion, and reference to Festival Style, is included in the previous post on this site.
September 9th, 2017
October 15th, 2017
November 12th, 2017
*****