Great quote from William Wurster

I was reading the monthly alumni mag from Cal Berkeley this morning and there was a small piece about the 50th Anniversary of the College of Environmental Design*. The author, Ezra Carlsen, included a quote from co-founder William Wurster that captures my feelings about Architecture with remarkable elegance:


"Architecture is not a goal...Architecture is for life and pleasure and work and for people. The picture frame, not the picture."


* My degree: A.B. with Architecture major, 1978

Andrea Palladio as a Design Inspiration

The work of Andrea Palladio is ideal if you want to trace the continuity and evolution of Classical Architecture from ancient times to the present. The Renaissance was a period when the heritage of Classical Greek and Roman times was being rediscovered and resurrected by leading writers, artists, and Architects. Andrea Palladio was part of this movement, and he made the language of Classicism his own. He mastered the vocabulary of the ancient forms, recombining them to embody the culture of his time. Working in the Veneto in the mid-1500's he created an Architecture that expressed the power and glory of the Venetian City-State and the wealth that was at the foundation of its financial and military dominance. The use of Classical Orders, powerful symmetries, grand axes, and rigorous controlling geometries were all carried to new heights during this period.

In looking back at the Villas from this period, all one can say is,
"Those Venetians sure knew how to live!"

Five Villas
San Giorgio Maggiore
Wikimedia image index
Centro Internazionale di Studi di Architettura del Andrea Palladio
The Center for Palladian Studies in America
The Secrets of Palladio's Villas

Richard Neutra as a Design Inspiration

The work of Richard Neutra is emblematic of the Architecture that I grew up with... bold, optimistic, and very Modern. I'm talking about my childhood in Los Angeles where many of the buildings, both the great and the not-so-great, were influenced by Neutra's Modernist vision. Its always been interesting to me to learn what a departure from the status-quo Modern Architecture was in most of the world, because to me it was more or less the norm. In the world of 1960's Los Angeles it was historicist Architecture from the pre-Modern era that was a departure from what was being built on a day to day basis.

Born in Vienna and beginning his Architectural training before WWI, Neutra came into his own as an Architect in the period between the wars. His early experiences were varied, but it is possible to see threads of his design sensibility looking back. Working in Europe initially, he apprenticed alongside Rudolph Schindler and later worked for Erich Mendelsohn (1921-3). Upon relocating to the U.S. he worked in N.Y. and Chicago before joining Frank Lloyd Wright for a short period in 1924-5 at Taliesen in Spring Green Wisconsin. Arriving in Los Angeles in 1926 he began collaborating with Schindler, and by 1929 Neutra had completed the Lovell House, a masterpiece that became an icon among Architects working across the U.S. and in Europe. It is one of the earliest built examples of what would later be dubbed the "International Style".

Neutra kept his Modernist perspective and design sensibility, but over the years his California Architecture seems to become adapted to the environment. While the term "Regionalist" doesn't fit, he did become comfortable allowing local topography, climate, and materials to temper his Modernist aesthetic. Neutra created a highly influential body of work over the course of his career, completing projects all across the U.S. and Internationally. But for me Neutra's California work is the most appealing. I see it as a welcome tempering of the hard-edged Modernist ideology of "Universal Architecture", leaving us with works that reflect the California landscape and optimize the California lifestyle.

Neutra Office Building
Broad Survey of Neutra Homes (some in original condition, some altered)
VDL Research House
Kaufmann "Desert House" 1
Kaufmann "Desert House" 2
"Windshield"
"Cyclorama"

Wallace Neff as a Design Inspiration

Wallace Neff's work is not widely known outside of Southern California, but its been a great inspiration to me over the years. Neff worked in the decades between 1920 and the early '50s and created a body of work that is highly eclectic but always beautiful. He was a master at adapting Mediterranean and other historical precedents to the California landscape and lifestyle. His work is considered the epitome of the "California Style" that flowered in the years before Modernism swept historicist Architecture aside. But Neff wasn't a doctrinaire historicist at all. Where appropriate he was just as comfortable forging ahead with completely new ideas- as in the unique "Airform" structures he pioneered in the post-war period.

His beautiful homes seem to be more popular now than ever before, prized by Hollywood luminaries and design connoisseurs alike.

Amazing tribute website by Neff's son (check out the "Portfolio")
People Magazine article- I don't think I could say it any better than this!
Pickfair
Airform House

Addison Mizner as a Design Inspiration

Mizner's work is beautiful... the variety of forms and the richness of textures is impressive. He was a master at adapting European precedents to suit his own and his clients' needs. I love his Spanish Colonial Revival work, it provides an almost endless font of inspiration for me.

El Mirasol
La Ronda
Riverside Baptist Church
Boca Raton Resort & Club
Boca Raton Administration Buildings
Everglades Club
Photo Gallery

Mies van der Rohe as a Design Inspiration

Mies is best known as one of the Architects who pioneered the concept of "Universal Space" in Architecture- working to reveal the continuous flow of space through a building, from outside to inside, and back again. This way of treating space became a highly recognizable feature of Modern Architecture in its heyday, and is widely used by Architects working today.

Just how revolutionary Mies' way of treating space was is hard to grasp now that its become such a fundamental part of our everyday experience. But up until the early 20th Century the practice of Architecture always focused on the capture and compartmentalization of space. While styles were diverse and continually evolving, the basic practice of Architecture involved the creation of discrete separate spaces for one purpose or another, always defined by solid enclosures or well defined boundaries. The new way of thinking could be seen developing in the work of Mies from the early 1920's ... seeking to channel, bend, mould, and modulate space without stopping or confining it. This had not been seen before, and some observers saw it as a reflection of the emergence of mankind from the constraints of history, into a shining new age of limitless possibilities and human fulfillment.

The idea that this new Architecture played a role in liberation of mankind from the limitations of the past is debatable. But the sheer beauty of the buildings created by Mies and those inspired by his vision, is not. His work has always been a great inspiration to me.

Farnsworth House 1
Farnsworth House 2
MOMA Exhibition- 2001
Barcelona Pavilion
Illinois Institute of Technology 1
Illinois Institute of Technology 2
Seagram Building