As the first post for our blog on our new website, it seemed useful to answer a question that we’re often asked. Why Blackbird? The intent for our blog is to cover a wide array of topics that are on our mind, so while the origin of our company name is a bit esoteric, it’s one way to begin to talk about what we do.

Though song references like the Beatles “Blackbird” are a common guess, Blackbird is a reference to the poem “13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” by Wallace Stevens. The poem is listed below for all to form their own impressions. To us, the thirteen stanzas speak toward a way of looking at life thoughtfully, and to the act of seeking and creating meaning both through our surrounding environment and in our relationships.

We feel that the practice of architecture is by nature a collaborative effort, and always larger than a single person. When principal and founder Ken Radtkey started the firm, he intentionally steered away from more conventional surname-based titles for these reasons. We’ve used our name as one means to inform our efforts and allow everyone within our practice to endeavor toward the creation of inspired, sensitive design.

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird

Wallace Stevens

I
Among twenty snowy mountains,
The only moving thing
Was the eye of the blackbird.

II
I was of three minds,
Like a tree
In which there are three blackbirds.

III
The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds.
It was a small part of the pantomime.

IV
A man and a woman
Are one.
A man and a woman and a blackbird
Are one.

V
I do not know which to prefer,
The beauty of inflections
Or the beauty of innuendoes,
The blackbird whistling
Or just after.

VI
Icicles filled the long window
With barbaric glass.
The shadow of the blackbird
Crossed it, to and fro.
The mood
Traced in the shadow
An indecipherable cause.

VII
O thin men of Haddam,
Why do you imagine golden birds?
Do you not see how the blackbird
Walks around the feet
Of the women about you?

VIII
I know noble accents
And lucid, inescapable rhythms;
But I know, too,
That the blackbird is involved
In what I know.

IX
When the blackbird flew out of sight,
It marked the edge
Of one of many circles.

X
At the sight of blackbirds
Flying in a green light,
Even the bawds of euphony
Would cry out sharply.

XI
He rode over Connecticut
In a glass coach.
Once, a fear pierced him,
In that he mistook
The shadow of his equipage
For blackbirds.

XII
The river is moving.
The blackbird must be flying.

XIII
It was evening all afternoon.
It was snowing
And it was going to snow.
The blackbird sat
In the cedar-limbs.