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Saturday July 5th, 2010 San Diego's first mid-century modern theater, The Capri, became an unlikely outpost of San Diego modernism. In fact, the Capri became a showcase for some of San Diego’s most progressive artists of the era. Beyond the building’s facade appearing to be a Mondrian painting; and Miró-inspired mosaics in the bathrooms, the lobby became a curated gallery, displaying work by important local artists. Read more HERE. Pablo Picasso’s 1963 painting “Tete de Femme (Jacqueline)” fetched 8.1 million pounds ($12.9 million), twice the presale top estimate, at Christie’s International in London as telephone bidding from Russian buyers boosted the market for 20th-century European art. The head-and-shoulders portrait of the artist’s second wife, Jacqueline Roque, had been estimated at 3 million pounds to 4 million pounds. Read more HERE. The Palm Springs City Council voted to designate the 1962 Royal Hawaiian Estates condominium complex, designed by Donald Wexler and Richard Harrison, a historic district. Read more HERE. Below is the schedule for Palm Springs Modernism Week. Apparently two hotels have already been booked to capacity; all days, except Monday, are sold out for the double-decker bus tour; and tickets to the event's annual gala also are selling at a brisk pace. Attendance is expected to top 10,000! Learn more HERE. Feb. 12 London’s Tate Modern is currently hosting a new show "Van Doesburg and the International Avant-Garde: Constructing a New World." This is the first major exhibition in the U.K. dedicated to the Dutch artist Theo van Doesburg (1883-1931), who beyond his own art was, the founder of De Stijl magazine (as well as the ‘movement’). The show includes Doesburg’s stained glass, Bauhaus designs, De Stijl furniture including works by Gerrit Thomas Rietveld. Additionally, the visitor will experience examples of commercial and popular art, as well as excursions into Dada, Constructivism, film and musical composition and much more.
Saturday January 30th, 2010 Attention shutterbugs! Can you all help me out by roaming the county and surveying/photographing some buildings for me? Sometime around 1960, the "Architects of San Diego AIA" published a little tri-fold brochure titled "Buildings of Interest in San Diego California". Many of the addresses and architects are unfamiliar to Modern San Diego and we would like your help gaining a better understanding of what is at these sites today. Please e-mail me any information you gather and photos (at least 600 pixels wide and 72 dpi) and I will update the masses. If anyone has a copy of the brochure I would love to get a photocopy of it. Chula Vista City Heights College Area Downtown/Midtown Escondido La Jolla La Mesa Linda Vista Mission Hils National City North Park Oceanside Pacific Beach Point Loma
Saturday January 16th, 2010 Apologies for being absent from posting much lately -- between quitting a job, taking the holidays to re-group, starting a new job and juggling MercerYork and my family, ModernSanDiego took a bit of a backseat these last weeks. But... I am back. We heard late in the week that Clare Crane was not able to give her Frank Lloyd Wrigth lecture at the Point Loma Branch Library. Let's hope she gets well soon and reschedules. It may not be a surprise, but my wife and I have been good friends of Huell Howser's for years now (he served as our secular wedding officiant). He is selling one of his homes -- and this one is spectacular. Check out the photos HERE. Through April 8th, The Drawing Center in New York City is hosting “Iannis Xenakis: Composer, Architect, Visionary.” Read more about his connection to Le Corbusier, and his efforts to realize the Phillips Pavillion for the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair HERE. Keep tabs on the San Diego Museum of Art, they're new show "Art in the 20th Century" featuring works by Frank Stella, Robert Delaunay, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Diego Rivera opens in mid-February. On Sunday, January 24th Modern San Diego will be discussed on "Inside Art" at 6 p.m. on KSDS/ Jazz88.Host Dave Drexler will also be chatting about Palm Springs Modernism (coming in February).
Thursday January 7th, 2010 The first post of 2010. There has certainly been a lot of activity lately -- most notably our slide show of Julius Shulman's San Diego images following the Ken Cinema's presentation of the film "Visual Acoustics" on the 1st. It was wonderful to see so many folks we have met through Modern San Diego present in the theater. Mercer York is off to a great start -- we already are representing three significant projects by Russell Forester, William Lewis and Homer Delawie. Check out the site HERE and tell a friend. If you have time on Wednesday January 13, 2010 at 6:30 p.m. Please join me (and others) for what should be an interesting lecture by our friend (and architect Loch Crane's wife) Dr. Clare Crane. Her lecture, "Frank Lloyd Wright and the Taliesin Fellowship by Clare Crane"will "include memories and slides of Dr. Crane's two summers living at Taliesin and studying art, music and architecture." The lecture will be held at Hervey Point Loma Branch Library, 3701 Voltaire Street, San Diego, 92106. The evening is presented by Peninsual Arts.
Monday December 28th, 2009Modern San Diego will present a Julius Shulman lecture and slideshow following the 7:30 p.m. screening of "Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman" on Friday, January 1st at Landmark Theatre's Ken Cinema. Buy advanced tickets HERE. Stay tuned for more details on Angela Carone's Culture Lust blog. The good folks at Mr. California have finally moved beyond the prototype stage of their clothing line. As of 12/12/09 a selection of the new Mr. Cal products is available exclusively at: Durante’s Menswear at 1412 Camino Del Mar in Del Mar. For more info check out their site HERE. Richard Neutra’s Nash Residence at 35 Marine View Drive in Camarillo, CA is for sale. Built in 1957, now at 2,800 square feet on 4.6 acres, with mountain and ocean views, this Neutra design is remarkable. With the exception of some remodeling that can be undone, the home is original. Neutra’s son, Dion, now head of Neutra Associates Architects, Los Angeles, has offered to assist the new owner with restoration. Contact MercerYork if you want to learn more about the sale. The 2010 20th Century design auction calendar is filling up. Here’s just a snapshot of what’s on the horizon: Rago’s Mid-to-Late 20th Century Modern Auction – Sunday January 17, 2010 Treadway Toomey Galleries 20th Century Art and Design Auction - March 7, 2010 Wright’s ‘Modern Design’ Auction – March 23, 2010 Wright’s‘Eames Auction’ – March 25 Los Angeles Modern Auctions' Spring 2010 Auction – Date TBD Wright’s‘Post War & Contemporary Art’ Auction – April 27, 2010 Treadway Toomey Galleries 20th Century Art and Design Auction - May 2, 2010 Wright’s‘Modern Glass’ Auction – May 4, 2010 Wright’s ‘Scandinavian Design’ Auction – May 25, 2010 Wright’s ‘Important Design’ Auction – June 8, 2010 Wright’s ‘Mass Modern’ Auction – June 26, 2010 Treadway Toomey Galleries 20th Century Art and Design Auction - September 12, 2010 Treadway Toomey Galleries 20th Century Art and Design Auction - December 5, 2010
Tuesday December 22nd, 2009 The film "VISUAL ACOUSTICS: THE MODERNISM OF JULIUS SHULMAN" opens on Friday January 1st at Landmark's Ken Cinema. This exclusive engagement will be highlighted by ModernSanDiego offering a slideshow of Julius' San Diego projects straight from the architectural photographer's archive. PLEASE JOIN US FOR THIS SPECIAL EVENT. Julius Shulman was, as many experts agree, the world's greatest architectural photographer. Narrated by Dustin Hoffman, Visual Acoustics celebrates the life and career of this brilliant artist and highlights not only the iconic images that made the man, but the magnetic character behind those images. Shulman captured the work of virtually every modern architect since the 1930s, including Frank Lloyd Wright, Richard Neutra, John Lautner and Frank Gehry. His work epitomized the singular beauty of Southern California's modernist movement and ushered modern architecture into the American mainstream. This fascinating portrait is a testament both to the evolution of modern architecture and to the joyful, whip-smart gentleman who captured its indelible images. Taking its aesthetic cues from Shulman's own sensual and nuanced photography, the narrative of director Eric Bricker's film is built from a blend of Shulman's own images as well as in depth interviews with architect Frank Gehry, designer Tom Ford, artist Ed Ruscha, actress Kelly Lynch, writer Mitch Glazer, publisher Benedikt Taschen, Academy Award-nominated cinematographer Dante Spinotti, and a host of others. More information is HERE. In the curious pantheon of obscure, local mid-century art venues, a place called Vroman’s holds a lofty position. It wasn’t a gallery. It wasn’t a museum. Vroman’s was a bookstore that gave many of the young lions of San Diego painting a chance to exhibit when most of the commercial galleries (and there weren’t many – we’re talking late 1950s) wouldn’t go near them… Read the rest of Dave Hampton’s latest article HERE.
Monday December 7th, 2009 This Saturday (12/12), there is a lot of modernism in the air. The Mingei International Museum's sold-out modernist house tour will travel from Mt. Helix to the shore visiting great examples of local modern architecture. Late in the afternoon Mercer York Real Estate is hosting open houses for William Lewis' Milne Residence and Homer Delawie's Cate Residence. If you want more info, check out that site HERE. And as you can see (above) Design/One is hosting their annual holiday party at their store. 'Tis the Season!
Saturday December 5th, 2009 Ever wonder if, and when, a 'furor' over modernist art gripped the citizens of San Diego? How John Mclaughlin and Harry Bertoia pushed the locals' buttons? Read more HERE. The LA Conservancy is supporting Miracle Mile residents to stop a developer from turning the 1965 Columbia Savings Building into a 482-unit apartment building on La Brea Avenue. Read more HERE. The Los Angeles Conservancy's 'Sixties Turn 50' campaign is offering up nine months of tours, discussions and online activities designed to celebrate and preserve L.A.’s modern architecture. Learn more HERE.
Sunday November 22nd, 2009 As the weather
cools down, maybe it's time for a holiday road trip. What follows
is a list of Frank Lloyd Wright's California buildings. Atherton: The Arthur
C. Matthews Residence (1950) Bakersfield: George
Ablin Residence (1958) Beverly Hills: Anderton
Court Shops (1952) Bradbury: Wilbur
C. Pearce House (1950) Carmel: Mrs. Clinton
Walker Residence (1948) Hillsborough: Sidney Bazett Residence (1939) Los Angeles: Aline
M. Barnsdall House “Hollyhock House” (1917) Los Angeles: Charles
Ennis Residence (1923) Los Angeles: John
Storer Residence (1923) Los Angeles: George
D. Sturges House Los Angeles: Samuel
Freeman House Malibu: Arch
Oboler House, Gatehouse & Eleanor's
Retreat (1941) Modesto: Robert G. Walton Residence (1957) Montecito: George
C. Stewart House (Butterfly Woods) (1909) Orinda: Maynard P. Buehler Residence (1948) Palo Alto: The
Paul R. Hanna Residence or “Honeycomb House” (1936) Pasadena: Mrs.
George M. Millard House (La Miniatura) San Anselmo: The Robert Berger Residence (1950) San Francisco: V.C.
Morris Gift Shop (1948) San Luis Obispo:
Karl Kundert Medical Clinic (1955) San Rafael: Marin
County Civic Center Administration Building
Tuesday November 17th, 2009 I have written in this space before about the value of the Guardian Life Insurance Company of America (1956) by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. Located at 2901 5th Avenue, San Diego, this building is again in the news. On Friday, November 20th, San Diego’s Historic Resources Board will hold a public meeting to review the eligibility of this amazing structure for historic designation. Discounting Heritage Architecture and Planning’s report on its eligibility for designation, HRB wants to review it again. Currently the HRB Staff Reccomendation is “Do not designate…as a historical resource under any HRB Criteria.” Believing that there is “…question of the building being SOM-designed and the numerous alterations to the building which substantially alter the architect’s original design intent…” It is likely that if not designated that this portion of our built environment will be demolished. For more, click HERE. Jerome and Evelyn Ackerman, a duo of influential mid-century California designer-craftmen launched their own site encompassing their vast body of work. Guided by the ideals of the Bauhaus, the Ackermans created pieces in a wide variety of media, leveraging their knowledge of fine art, craft, and design. Designed for collectors, designers, historians, and anyone interested in mid-century design, this new web site offers an interactive timeline, biographical information, and selected studio of work, as well as exhibition, collection, and publication information. Designed by j3productions, the site offers a fresh, clean, and informative look into the Ackermans’ work and life. Check it out HERE. Read a New York Times review of the new show “Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future,” which opened at the Museum of the City of New York last Tuesday HERE. Also
at MOMA is the new show "Bauhaus 1919-1933: Workshops for
Modernity," which runs through January 25. Read a Time Magazine
review HERE. Tuesday November 3rd, 2009 MERCERYORK.COM has launched. What has evolved from Modern San Diego’s popular Real Estate section, is now a whole site devoted to ‘San Diego Architecture For Sale’. Including a robust inventory of fantastic mid-century architecture, the site will evolve rather rapidly to include turn-of-the-century through pre-War housing as well as contemporary residences. Please check out our new site today, and visit regularly – as what’s on the market changes daily. And if you know someone looking to NOT live in a cookie-cutter home, send them along.
Halloweenday October 31st, 2009 Lawrence Halprin, a San Francisco-based landscape architect who pushed the design of America's urban spaces in new directions over a career that spanned 60 years, died Sunday of natural causes. He was 93. Halprin settled in the Bay Area after the war. He joined the office of landscape architect Thomas Church and then, in 1949, opened his own firm. In the 1960s, Mr. Halprin launched a series of "experiments in environment" workshops influenced by his wife's avant-garde dances. He wrote nine books, and his documentary on Salvador Dali, "Le Pink Grapefruit," won an award at the 1976 San Francisco Film Festival. He helped plan and design Sea Ranch, a 5,000-acre stretch of the Sonoma coast fashioned to remain a distinct terrain despite the addition of more than 1,500 houses. Read more HERE. In his new book "The Bauhaus Group: Six Masters of Modernism", Nicholas Fox Weber (author of "Le Corbusier", 2008), profiles six key artists and architects from the Bauhaus: Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky and the husband-and-wife team of Josef and Anni Albers. Read a review HERE. Check it out at Amazon HERE. ObjectsUSA will present "Objects: Fall 09" between November 13-15. Check out their site for more HERE.
Sunday October 25th, 2009 This coming Thursday (10/29) at 630 p.m. the San Diego Architectural Foundation will host the first in a series of “Inside the Architect’s Studio” events at the Neurosciences Institute,. The inaugural event will be an interview with Robert Mosher about his life and career. Ticket information is HERE. Read a bit more fro mRoger Showley's angle HERE. No plans today? A Valley Center historic home tour of the J. Cliff Garrett Residence by Cliff May will offer the first public look at this fantastic estate. Drop by 30845 Cole Grade Road between 1-5 p.m. Cost is $25. Read more about the house HERE. Thank you to all attendees of my lecture "Homer Delawie, FAIA; Early Projects". We packed the San Diego Historical Society's theater! Modernist sculptor Ruth Duckworth, 90, died after a brief illness last Sunday. Born Ruth Windmuller in Hamburg, Germany, Ms. Duckworth left with her family for England in 1936 -- her father was Jewish -- and she studied art at various schools in the UK. She started out working in stone, metal and wood. When she took up clay and ceramics, she approached the medium as a sculptor rather than with the traditional methods of a potter. Her abstract pieces put her at odds with the prevailing aesthetic of the day, the more utilitarian approach of fellow Brit Bernard Leach. In the U.S., she found more acceptance for her big abstract pieces, and for that reason stayed in Chicago.
Monday October 19th, 2009 The Valley Center historic home tour of a Cliff May-designed residence (circa 1945) on October 25 will offer the first public look at this fantastic estate bordering the defunct Bell Gardens. Check it out at 30845 Cole Grade Road between 1-5 p.m. Cost is $25. Read more about the house HERE. But please note -- according to Cliff May's archivist, this is actually recognized as the J. Cliff Garrett Residence - purchased by Allyson/Powell after it was built. This Wednesday (10/21) Modern San Diego will be hosting a presentation on Homer Delawie's early career highlights at the San Diego Historical Society. RSVP HERE to guarantee yourself a seat. The guys at ObjectsUSA are gearing up for another 'show and sale' the weekend of November 13. Make sure you are in town for this one!
Saturday October 10th, 2009 Sometimes the greatest finds have always been right under your own nose. One of our intrepid reporters, found that R.M. Schindler designed not one but two projects in San Diego County. Today we add the Dr P.M. Lovell Ranch (1925-26) in Fallbrook to his page. The same client that hired Schindler for the Lovell Beach House in Newport Beach, and Richard Neutra to design the Lovell Health House, Dr. Lovell’s Fallbrook ranch, designed in 1923, was one of only three houses by Schindler to utilize his "slab tilt" construction. Schindler's Kings Road House for his family in Los Angeles was one of the other two. The house or some portion of it burned in the late 1960s. Apparently a renter at the house accidentally started the fire. We will keep you posted when we find the address and what's on that lot in 2009! The new Herman Miller showroom just opened in a former warehouse near Culver City at 3641 Holdrege Avenue. While much of the new showroom is devoted to office furnishings, it's also the place to see new Eames 670 lounges and even a George Nelson's Marshmallow sofa in cowhide. Check it out next time you’re up in L.A. From one “Three Small Houses in an Orchard” (designed ca. 1935), one of Richard Neutra’s many residential projects comes many interesting stories. The latest from the restored home, also known as the Jacqueline Johnson Residence, is a series of lectures “The Legacy of Modern”. Among the upcoming speakers are Raymond Neutra, M.D., youngest son of famed modern architect Richard Neutra, will offer a personal view of his parents and their legacy (November 12); author Alan Hess (December 3); and – David Weinstein, author of “Signature Architects of the San Francisco Bay Area” (Gibbs Smith, 2006) and contributor to the San Francisco Chronicle, will discuss the architects who designed houses for developer Joe Eichler (on January 7th). For more, click HERE. Los Angeles’ most significant modern landmarks increasingly need protection from demolition, and even from benign disregard. But as "The Sixties Turn 50," a new Los Angeles Conservancy campaign meant to bring attention to threatened 1960s architecture, makes clear, the effort to round up support for postwar buildings is often far from straightforward -- and can easily prove a minefield of contradiction and irony. Read more HERE.
Tuesday October 6th, 2009 I finally took an inventory of the Scripps Estates Associates neighborhood in La Jolla. Check it out HERE. Just a reminder - Modern San Diego will be hosting a presentation on Homer Delawie's early career highlights on Wednesday, October 21st at the San Diego Historical Society. RSVP HERE to guarantee yourself a seat. On October 29th at 630 p.m., at the Neurosciences Institute, the San Diego Architectural Foundation will host the first in a series of “Inside the Architect’s Studio” events. The inaugural event will be an interview with Robert Mosher about his life and career. Ticket information is HERE. Please check out MERCERYORK.COM today, and visit regularly – we're making changes daily. And if you know someone looking to NOT live in a cookie-cutter home, send them along. I FINALLY updated the Events page. Click HERE to see it. If you have something you want to add to the calendar drop me a line
Monday October 5th, 2009 To make way for its 368-unit Cresta Bella Apartments in Rancho Peñasquitos, Atlantic & Pacific Management, has demolished Leisure Life Village. The 248 single-story homes built in the late 1960s and rented mostly to seniors with federal housing subsidies, the loss of Leisure Life Village as a local cultural asset is upsetting to say the least. Leisure’s developer, Irvin J. Kahn (who also worked with Palmer & Krisel on area residential designs), had bought the 14,000-acre Los Peñasquitos Rancho in 1962. The Village is history, and it’s hard to believe that Cresta Bella, a $44 million project on 31 acres (32 buildings including a mega-mansion that contains 10 apartments), works in the current economy. Way back in ’62 Kahn signed US Steel, Rheem Manufacturing Co. of New York and Rohr Corp. of Chula Vista to build a modular steel-framed complex based in part on the Rohr Modular House being built in Riverside. Promoters at the time spoke of it as a “breakthrough” in residential construction. The 248 homes were designed by the firm of Wexler, Perlin Boggio. Architect Donald Wexler, and his engineers Bernard Perlin and George Boggio established their Palm Springs firm in 1961 and became widely recognized for their steel-framed homes including the “Style in Steel” house in Buena Park (ca. 1967). According to the Union Tribune (dated 6/30/1963), also included in the list was the local firm of Hester and Jones, La Jolla architects; and Guy Winton, project engineer. More on the “Style in Steel” house can be found HERE and HERE. Brazilian-born modernist architect Oscar Niemeyer is the subject of an expansive exhibition on view through November 22nd at Madrid’s Fundación Telefónica Curated by Lauro Cavalcanti, an architect and a friend of Niemeyer’s for decades, the show includes original drawings and sketches, architectural models, photographs, a sculpture by the artist and an example of his furniture, as well as film and video projections. If you read Spanish, check out more HERE.
Tuesday September 29th, 2009 Speaking of Homer Delawie, Modern San Diego's president, CEO, Executive Editor and Janitorial Engineer will be hosting a presentation on the FAIA architect's life and career on Wednesday, October 21st at the San Diego Historical Society. If only we can measure up the precedent-setting Lloyd Ruocco presentation given recently! RSVP HERE guarantee a seat. The 5th Annual Modernism Week, slated to take place February 12 - 21, 2010, is bookended by two exciting weekends and filled with retro and educational fun in-between. Modernism Week, the only such event in the country, is an exciting 9-day homage to the ideals of mid-century modern design, architecture and culture. Some of the week's highlights include: a special tribute to renowned modernist architecture Albert Frey; an exclusive movie star home tour in and around Palm Springs; a mod fashion show featuring vintage fashions; and an architecture film festival. For the full schedule for Modernism Week visit www.modernismweek.com. Preservation Partners of the Fox Valley (near Chicago, IL) is hosting the Third Annual Treasures of the Tri-Cities, a weekend celebrating local architectural gems. On Oct. 9 and 10 the tour, "Highlights of Mid-Century Modern in the Midwest," will feature the Fox Valley's best residential and commercial buildings dating from 1937 to 1968. This year the tour features The Jacques Brownson Glass House (circa 1950 "Geneva House"); A Bruno Conterato home-1968 (designed by a colleague of Mies Van Der Rohe; a 1954 home designed by Paul Schweikher and much more. More information is HERE and HERE. The LA TIMES points out that several architectural icons are currently on the market at deflated prices. Frank Lloyd Wright's Ennis House in Los Feliz stands as the largest example of his "textile block" style using patterned concrete. Richard Neutra's Singleton House artfully integrates a modernist structure with its natural setting. John Lautner's Wolff House exemplifies his bold use of wood, glass and stone. Read more HERE. As part of the LA TIMES’ Home section’s Masters of Craft series, Times staff writer David A. Keeps visited woodworker John Nyquist’s home and studio in Long Beach. Though Nyquist still isn’t a household name among the general public, collectors of classic California design have sought his work for almost 50 years. Read and See more HERE.
Saturday September 26th, 2009 MERCERYORK.COM has launched. What has evolved from Modern San Diego’s popular Real Estate section, is now a whole site devoted to ‘San Diego Architecture For Sale’. Including a robust inventory of fantastic mid-century architecture, the site will evolve rather rapidly to include turn-of-the-century through pre-War housing as well as contemporary residences. Please check out our new site today, and visit regularly – as what’s on the market changes daily. And if you know someone looking to NOT live in a cookie-cutter home, send them along. Mark your calendars! On October 29th at 630 p.m., at the Neurosciences Institute, the San Diego Architectural Foundation will host the first in a series of “Inside the Architect’s Studio” events. The inaugural event will be ME (serving as James Lipton) interviewing Robert Mosher about his life and career. Ticket information will be on the Foundation’s website shortly. But for now – put that date on your calendar! Be sure to pick up a copy of the October, 2009 issue of Sunset Magazine. The editors chose to do a ‘then and now’ article on John Mock’s Hindman Residence in the Mt. Helix area. The article offers fantastic eye candy. The Getty Research Institute held a memorial service for architectural photographer Julius Shulman, who died in July at the age of 98. “Assuredly paced, and for the most part funnier than sad, the memorial reflected something fundamental about Shulman’s relentlessly upbeat if occasionally irascible personality.” The Institute’s Shulman archive includes a staggering 260,000 photographs and other items. Read more HERE. In a related ARTICLE, Shulman’s daughter reminded those in attendance that “Julius was a character -- charming, focused, occasionally cantankerous -- ''a handful.'” Certainly something I had witnessed while working with Shulman to develop a calendar PARADISE FOUND of his images of San Diego. Harwell Hamilton Harris’ Naylor Residence (ca. 1940) in Berkeley Hills (above UC Berkeley’s stadium) is up for sale. The neighborhood includes the Hilary and Joe Feldman House by Frank Lloyd Wright and Harris’ John Weston Havens Jr. House, (ca. 1939). Read more HERE. The new exhibit of Shulman’s work at the Carnegie Museum of Art’s Heinz Architectural Center, “Palm Springs Modern: Photographs by Julius Shulman,” shows the artist to be a man who used his camera to communicate effects and reveal causes. The exhibit, which runs through Jan. 31, 2010, includes 100 photographs by Shulman, as well as 20 original drawings of the houses and, in October, a screening of a documentary about Shulman. Learn more HERE. Post-war ceramist Harrison McIntosh is celebrating his 95th birthday with 60-year retrospective exhibition at Pomona's American Museum of Ceramic Arts. The show runs through January 9, 2010. Read more HERE. “The Sixties Turn 50,” a panel discussion organized by the Los Angeles Conservancy, will take place Sept. 30 at 8 p.m. at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power Building in downtown L.A. Frances Anderton, host of KCRW’s “DnA: Design & Architecture,” will moderate. Other participants are Hess, architects Leo Marmol and David C. Martin, Christine Madrid French of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Chris Nichols, associate editor of Los Angeles magazine. Houston’s William Reaves Fine Art is holding a new show Back to the Future: Elements of ‘Modern' in Mid-Century Texas Art, which includes paintings by San Antonio's Bill Reily and Houston artists Richard Stout and Dorothy Hood. Read more HERE. The Highland Park Historical Society’s 2009 House Tour,“The Twentieth Century Limited,” will be held on Sunday, October 4, from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. This year’s outing showcases the house and car museum made famous by the Ferrari crash scene in ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’ as well as two homes by John Van Bergen, the last associate of Frank Lloyd Wright in his Oak Park studio; two houses designed by Mies van der Rohe protege, A. James Speye; and an example of the work of Arthur Dennis Stevens, who was Wright‘s last apprentice at his Wisconsin Taliesin studio. Read more HERE. The curators
of Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater in western Pennsylvania are
offering a new way to see the famous residence. For $1200, visitors
will spend one full day and two evenings at the residence, enjoying
the house as it was intended – including meals and cocktails.
Learn more HERE.
Saturday September 19th, 2009 Beyond spending a lot of time on the bike exploring Spring Valley, I’ve been building a separate real estate site to focus on local architecture – from the 19th century to today. The site will be updated daily as prices change and listings come up for sale and close. I hope you will find it a valuable resource for yourself and anyone you know looking to purchase a special place to live. I will announce the URL shortly. Sonny & Cher’s San Fernando Valley home, built circa 1965, is being remodeled by architect Kenneth David Lee. Read more HERE. The annual MAK Center for Art & Architecture fundraiser tour will highlight seven residences by architects Rudolph Schindler, Gregory Ain, Raphael Soriano, Harwell Hamilton Harris and Craig Ellwood. The self-driven tour will run from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on October 4th. What’s in store: Rudolf Schindler’s 1926 Howe House; as well as his 1935 McAlmon House; Raphael Soriano’s Schrage house (circa 1952); The 1964-65 Moore house by Craig Ellwood; and the 1940-41 Alexander house by Harwell Hamilton Harris; and Harris' 1950-51 Hansen House; as well as the Avenel homes cooperative (1946-48) by Gregory Ain. Learn more (and see pics) HERE. For years now Eileen Gray’s e-1027 House in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France has been in declining health. Currently undergoing an €800,000 restoration, someone was able to get close enough to the property, where Le Corbusier died, to snap some spy photos. Learn more HERE. Portland’s Memorial Coliseum, by Skidmore Owings and Merrill, was listed in the National Register of Historic Places for its architectural importance to the state of Oregon, the state parks department announced. Built in 1960 for $8 million the glass-walled building, which the city of Portland considered tearing down earlier this year to make way for a baseball stadium, is seen as a unique example of the International style of Modernist architecture.
Monday September 13th, 2009 A new exhibition "Modernism at Risk: Modern Solutions for Saving Modern Landmarks" opens Tuesday at the University of Florida. Among the questions posed – “Why is it that 1920s Mediterranean revival buildings in Sarasota tend to be restored, while mid-century moderns tend to be demolished?” Marty Hylton, an assistant professor in the College of Design at the University of Florida, offers several possible explanations. Among them: "Lewis Mumford, the architecture and social critic, said we reject our fathers and embrace our grandfathers," observed Hylton. Read more HERE. Kandinsky , a full-scale retrospective of the paintings of Vasily Kandinsky—the visionary artist, theorist, and pioneer of abstraction— will be presented at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum from September 18, 2009, through January 13, 2010. This comprehensive survey comprising nearly 100 of Kandinsky’s most important canvases from 1907 to 1942 is drawn primarily from the three largest repositories of the artist’s work—the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in New York, and the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus und Kunstbau in Munich—as well as from significant private and public collections. Learn more HERE. Ward Wyatt Deems, FAIA, Architect and founder of the firm Deems Lewis McKinley Architects passed away on Sunday, 6 September, 2009, at the age of 79 years in Bend, Oregon. His influence on the architecture of San Diego included numerous award winning designs and landmarks such as the San Diego Convention Center, Torrey Pines High School, UCSD Humanities Library, US Border Crossing at San Ysidro, and the Armand Hammer Research Facilities at the Salk Institute in La Jolla. Deems grew up in Pasadena, California and received a Bachelor of Architecture degree in 1953, from the University of Southern California (USC). In 1959, Deems established the firm in San Diego that has borne his name for the past 50 years. In 1973, Deems was inducted as a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (FAIA) for his community and national contributions and for his enduring influence on the profession. In recent years Deems resided in Bend, Oregon with his wife, Nancy. He remained active in the USC Foundation. He took a special interest in the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and served as architectural consultant to the Institute for several years before and after moving to Oregon. Deems is survived by his wife, Nancy; sons, Jeffrey Deems of Seattle and Jeremy Deems and his wife, Paula of Boulder, Colorado; and daughter, Sheryl Biere and husband, Peter of Seattle; and three grandchildren. The family suggests any donations in Ward Deems' honor be sent to Hospice House in Bend, Oregon or University of Southern California School of Architecture or the Salk Institute in La Jolla, CA. The Detroit Free Press published a Top 10 list of Michigan architecture. On the list: Eliel Saarinen’s Cranbrook campus; Frank Lloyd Wright’s Meyer May House in Grand Rapids; and Eero Saarinen’s General Motors Technical Center. Read more HERE. One of the Bay Area's best home tours is almost upon us. The Open Hearts Open Homes architectural tour, which showcases ten homes in the Lucas Valley/San Rafael area built by Joseph Eichler, takes place on September 19. For more information on the fundraiser, go HERE.
Monday September 8th, 2009 Ward Wyatt Deems, FAIA passed away on Sunday in Bend,
Oregon. More information will be posted as it comes in and his family
and colleagues pen an official obituary: Ward
Deems (16 Nov 1929 -
6 Sep 2009). Saturday September 5th, 2009 Whoever rents the office building at 105 Brooks Ave. must agree to an unusual clause in the lease: Students from the N.C. State University design school must be allowed to visit from time to time. The building, a box of glass and steel built on stilts in 1966, was designed by architect G. Milton Small Jr. for his firm and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The 4,700-square-foot building, which will be available in January, is considered one of the city's best examples of the International Style of architecture and a historical touchstone for aspiring students. Learn more HERE.
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