More eagle photos can be found here

These are from Mark Fadely's visit to the site mentioned earlier.

Helmut Fortense' Traders Point area house featured in Indy Star Today

At Home with Helmut Fortense - More IndyStar Galleries

View this gallery at IndyStar: At Home with Helmut Fortense

Beauty meets utility

If it isn't both, it doesn't fit, according to this homeowner's philosophy

By Cathy Kightlinger
cathy.kightlinger@indystar.com

The things that are absent from Helmut Fortense's 1,400- square-foot Northwestside home are almost as important as those that are there.

Knick-knacks, decorative pillows and even window coverings are nonexistent.

To Fortense, the owner of modern furniture store Form + Function, such items don't have much purpose beyond decoration, and so they don't have a place in his home.

"There is nothing I don't use. Otherwise, it wouldn't be here. I have things that are beautiful, but you don't just hang them on the wall or display them. It's something you sit on and you eat from, and you cook with and eat with."

Fortense, 67, discusses his mid-century modern home and its decor while seated at his dining table. Featuring rectangular glass atop an abstract sculpture-like trestle, the table epitomizes the simple European designs Fortense considers his life's passion.

He bought the piece -- a reproduction of a table designed in the late 1940s by Italian Carlo Mollino -- in about 2001. In 2005, an original sold at Christie's for more than $3 million.

Hanging overhead is another simple piece: a pendant light with a red glass bowl.

While talking about furniture and art, Fortense sips coffee made in a French press. He drinks from a white-and-black china cup, part of a set he uses daily.

"I think this cup is probably the most beautiful cup I've ever seen," he said. "It's not shiny. It's not bright. It has such humanness to it."

He does the same thing at work.

At Form + Function, Fortense and business partner Nikki Godersky eat their lunch with flatware from Italian design house Alessi.

"It makes eating even better," said Godersky, the showroom manager.

Fortense's five-room home is full of simple European aesthetics: a coffee table that can be converted into a cafe table, a kitchen filled with German cabinetry, and a wooden rocking chair with clean lines and mother-of-pearl inlays.

The flat-roofed house was built in the 1950s from a design by Indianapolis architect Edward D. Pierre. Fortense is the second owner of the place, which is filled with windows and surrounded by woods.

Inside, an array of artwork melds with the natural environment.

In the bedroom is a portrait purchased at the Talbott Street Art Fair. Of an original 1962 abstract painting by Alexander Calder hanging in the living room, Fortense says he probably shouldn't have bought it in the 1970s when he had a young family and a new Mercedes- Benz dealership. But it was too beautiful to pass up.

"There were much bigger priorities in my life," he said.

But by then, Fortense's love for high-quality things was embedded. It started when he was a child in Germany.

Fortense, who in his 20s immigrated to Chicago to get in the Mercedez-Benz business, was part of a four-member family living in a small apartment in post-war Germany.

The family was impoverished but lived well, he said. Flowers were on the dining table, and education and culture were prized.

When it came time to buy anything new -- from shoes to furnishings -- they searched for the highest quality they could afford. Their idea: The better the workmanship, the longer it would last.

"When we needed a new chair . . . it was a big event," he said. "It was a necessity of life, and it was a luxury. It was picked out with great care. We were so poor, so everything we bought had so much meaning."

That is a habit that has never left Fortense, who says his home decor is a work in progress.

It likely always will be.

The reason: Fortense is uncompromising. So much so that he would rather do without than buy something he doesn't love. "I would rather sit on an orange crate than on a cheap chair," he said.

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Mark Fadely, Eagle Photographer

I met Mark this morning and we were entertained for over an hour by warm weather and the eagle flying over head. As we were leaving, a second eagle appeared and Mark returned to the field to snap a few more. He will be forwarding a link when he loads the photos to his site and I will post it here. In the meantime, a couple of my shots from this morning of Mark and the eagle in the Asher's back forty.

More on Eagle Photograph

Mark Fadely, local nature photographer, has granted reproduction and display rights for this eagle photograph taken last week on the Asher property on Moore Road. Mark reports that his camera is a Canon Mark III with a 400 mm lens, 5.6 f stop.
Wow, what a majestic bird. If I hadn't seen the eagle with my own eyes and spoken directly with the photographer about this, I am not sure I would have believed this was shot in Indianapolis!

Historic Asher house on Moore Road to be demolished?

The eagle's nest is in a tree located on property owned by Anna Mae Asher of Chesterfield, Missouri. She and her husband Jim had lived on the property until he passed away a couple of years ago. Mrs. Asher and I have spoken regularly since her move regarding our plans at Old Pleasant Hill Cemetery to receive his cremains. But it had been several months since we had spoken so I called her Saturday to make sure she was aware of the eagle's nest. During the course of our conversation she shared with me that dealing with tenants and property taxes for their farm house is a burden she can no longer endure and last Thursday she signed a demolition permit and mailed it to her attorney. That order will probably arrive in Indianapolis today. The tenant has moved out and she and her advisors have concluded that the costs of owning the home now exceed its benefits. She shared with me that destroying the house is not what she or Jim would have wanted. The late Dr. Jim Asher was an avid outdoorsman. He loved to fly fish in Alaska and he would no doubt be very excited that an eagle has chosen his property for a nest. It is possible that the demolition order can be stayed. In addition to the eagle's nest there is more news related to the Asher property. This coming Wednesday our neighborhood will be formally designated by the U.S. Department of the Interior as a Rural Historic District. (Indiana Department of Natural Resources recommended this designation to the feds several months ago and Wednesday is a formality). This designation essentially names Traders Point as the largest rural historic distric in Indiana. The only other area so designated is northwest of Bloomington, Indiana. This designation is the culmination of years of reseach which included the identification of all historic structures in the area. The Asher residence is one of the oldest built structures in Pike Township, dating to the Civil War. Losing it (and the Ropkey House) are sad reminders of how rapidly change can occur. A small group of neighbors has already started working on saving the house from the wrecking ball. (For those of you who love irony or coincidence, it is almost too much to ponder the odds of a conversation about an eagle's nest resulting in the revelation of one of the area's historic gems being destroyed at the same time the area is designated a rural historic district in no small part because of homes such as this.)

More on Bald Eagle's Nest in Traders Point

Saturday was a great day. We gathered up some relatives, filled the vehicle, and headed off in search of the eagles nest. Little did we know that we would find both the nest and see the eagle in flight. The nest was situated about 60 feet above ground in a sycamore tree of 100' plus.

Week 8 bridge photos

Bald Eagle soars over Traders Point!

Bald Eagle

My son Zach has forwarded this link. He and a Moore Road neighbor witnessed this Bald Eagle in its nest high atop a Sycamore tree on Eagle Creek south of West 86th Street. The photograph was taken by a professional wildlife photographer and I have linked to his site so that you may see his other photos too.

Several weeks ago I learned of another Bald Eagle's nest on the westside of Eagle Creek near West 62nd Street in Eagle Creek Park. But the nest on Eagle Creek near 86th Street is the first time in my 20+ years living in Traders Point that an Eagle's nest has been sited outside of the park. This is great news!!

Week 6 Bridge Photos

Week 5 Lafayette Road Bridge Photos (taken today)

Nothing as dramatic as weeks 1-3 but it appears most of the old structure has now been removed from the creekway. I assume the ponding on the eastside of Lafayette Road will be resolved when the new bridge is completed but there has not been any work yet to alleviate that problem as demonstrated by the above photos.