Rudolph Schindler Lovell cabin (Wrightwood, Calif.)
Dr. Philip Lovell was a doctor who commissioned multiple projects from Schindler, including his beach house in Newport Beach. This cabin in Wrightwood was to be a simple weekend getaway cabin for the doctor and his wife Leah and their family. The cabin was assembled using prefabricated panels with a flat roof and the structure only withstood one year of snow at its high elevation before it collapsed.
R. M. Schindler papers, Architecture & Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California, Santa Barbara.
Architecture & Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California, Santa Barbara.
Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Copyright restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user. University of California Regents.
These photographs capture Schindler at the construction site for the Walker house and in a more composed setting later in life.
Rudolph Schindler: Barnsdall Translucent house (Palos Verdes, Calif.)
Rudolph Schindler first worked with Aline Barnsdall on the Hollyhock House, when Frank Lloyd Wright sent Schindler to California from Illinois to supervise the construction while Wright went to Japan to work on the Imperial Hotel. Schindler continued to work with Barnsdall, even after she had a falling-out with Wright. The Translucent house was designed to be set along a cliff-top overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Palos Verdes. It was never built, and has been named one of the greatest unfinished projects of the twentieth century.
Rudolph Schindler: Bennati Cabin (Lake Arrowhead, Calif.)
The distinctive A-frame shape of the Gisela Bennati cabin is possibly one of the earliest uses of the style as a residence in the United States. The steeply pitched roof is a very good choice for the Lake Arrowhead region, since the lake is at a high elevation which receives many inches of heavy, wet snow each winter. The shape helps to shed snow while providing walls of windows to look out on the view.
Rudolph Schindler: Bethlehem Baptist Church (Los Angeles, Calif.)
The Bethlehem Baptist Church on South Compton Avenue in Los Angeles is Schindler's only religious structure. It is one of very few examples of modern architecture in South Los Angeles. The African-American church congregation commissioned Schindler to design the building in 1944, most likely due to his ability to work with small budgets and be his own contractor. The church was declared a Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monument in 2009, and is still in use today by a new religious organization.
Rudolph Schindler, architect Julius Shulman, photographer
© J. Paul Getty Trust. Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (2004.R.10) Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Copyright restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user. University of California Regents.
Rudolph Schindler: Braxton beach house (Los Angeles, Calif.)
The beach house for Henry Braxton and his wife Viola Brothers Shore was to be sited along the ocean in the Venice Beach area of Los Angeles. The three story house (with sleeping porch and deck on the roof) was never built. Braxton was an art dealer and Schindler had previously worked with him on an interior for his art gallery.
R. M. Schindler papers, Architecture & Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California, Santa Barbara
Architecture & Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California, Santa Barbara
Los Angeles, Calif.; Venice Beach, Calif.
Rudolph Schindler: Bubeshko apartments (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Anastasia Bubeshko and her daughter Luby commissioned Schindler to design an apartment complex on Griffith Park Boulevard in the Silverlake neighborhood in Los Angeles. They wanted a modular design on the sloping lot, one which could contain 5 apartment units, but also be reconfigured into 7 units, if desired. The complex was designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 2006, and won a Conservancy Preservation Award in 2010.
Rudolph Schindler: Buena Shore Club (Chicago, Ill.)
This very early work of Schindler was done while he was still in the employ of the Chicago architecture firm Otternheim, Stern, and Reichert, just prior to Schindler leaving to work for Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesin. Built at Buena Avenue and Lakeshore Drive, the L-shaped clubhouse was part of the Buena Park neighborhood of upscale homes and apartment buildings.
Rudolph Schindler, architect Ottenheim, Stern, and Reichert, architects
Rudolph Schindler: DeKeyser duplex (Los Angeles, Calif.)
The house for John DeKeyser (also spelled de Keysor), is a duplex with a two bedroom unit on the top floor and a one bedroom unit on the lower floor. This house is just one house away from the Frank Lloyd Wright Freeman house, on the hill above.
Rudolph Schindler, architect Woodcock, photographer
Rudolph Schindler: El Pueblo Ribera Court (La Jolla, Calif.)
This twelve unit complex of duplexes, built for San Diego dentist W.L. Lloyd, showcased how Schindler was able to incorporate many of his modern plans into a multi-unit complex. Each unit had a ground floor living area, outdoor garden space, and an upper terrace and sleeping area. The units also have a view of Windansea Beach and the Pacific Ocean. Only one of the units is still relatively intact, two others burned, and the rest have been altered in various ways (mostly to inclose the upper floor to make more living space).
Rudolph Schindler: Erlik house (Los Angeles, Calif.)
The Robert and Mariana Erlik house was built in the Hollywood Hills section of Los Angeles in the early 1950s.
Rudolph Schindler: Falk apartments (Los Angeles, Calif.)
The apartment complex for Ted Falk at the corner of Lucile and Carnation avenues in Los Angeles, is one of the more complex designs for a Schindler apartment building. The four apartments are set on an irregular-shaped lot, on a steeply sloping hill. Schindler placed the two one-bedroom apartments and the two two-bedroom apartments above and set back from the streets to give each apartment a private outdoor space and a view of the city.
Rudolph Schindler: Free Public Library (Jersey City, NJ)
At the time Schindler submitted a design for the Bergen Branch of the Free Public Library Competition in Jersey City, New Jersey, he was working for Frank Lloyd Wright in Oak Park, Illinois. Schindler did not win the competition, and was not even mentioned as a contender. He did not follow the competition instructions by designing a smaller building, siting the library on a different portion of the lot than required, and declaring the required fireplaces unnecessary.
Rudolph Schindler: Goodwin house (Los Angeles, Calif.)
This house in the Studio City area of Los Angeles, was built in 1941 for Samuel and Yolanda Goodwin. The two-bedroom plus den house is sited on a street-to-street lot, with views of the valley.
Los Angeles, Calif.; Studio City, Calif.
Rudolph Schindler: Gould and Bandini Workmen''s Colony housing development (Los Angeles, Calif.)
The housing development for Gould and Bandini was a series of small houses for single workers or small families. This project was never built.
This rendering of Harriman's Colony is a birds-eye view of a planned community, possibly in San Gabriel. The client, Job Harriman was a lawyer and ran for mayor of Los Angeles in 1911 as a socialist. After his failed mayoral bid, Harriman started a utopian socialist community called Llano del Rio, just outside of Palmdale, California. The short lived (1915-1917) community was self-sufficient, growing their own food, creating building materials, and living a communal lifestyle. Schindler had an interest in alternative lifestyles, so it is not surprising that Harriman would commission Schindler to design a colony.
Rudolph Schindler: Harris house (Los Angeles, Calif.)
The house designed for writer Rose Harris was built on top of a rocky ridge in the Laurel Canyon area of Los Angeles. The steep hillside site provided an unobstructed view down the canyon, but the footprint of the house was small, due to the restrictive building site. The house was demolished in the early 1970s.
Rudolph Schindler: Hiler house and studio (Los Angeles, Calif,)
Hilaire Hiler was a well-known artist in the United States and Europe in the 1920s and 1930s. He commissioned Schindler to build this house and studio, just off of Sunset Boulevard. The house was torn down in the 1960s.
Rudolph Schindler: How house (Los Angeles, Calif.)
The James Eads How house in the Silverlake area of Los Angeles, is sited on top of a ridge, with views of the San Fernando Valley. The house at 2400 square feet, is large for a Schindler, and is built with center-cut redwood and poured concrete. Richard Neutra designed the landscaping for the house. The How house was named a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 2007.
Rudolph Schindler: Irving house (Wilmette, Ill.)
The James B. Irving house was a temporary home designed by Schindler while he was employed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Schindler designed the home quickly, after Irving requested a temporary home since his had been destroyed by a tornado. The Irvings lived in this small home until 1928, when they commissioned John Van Bergen (another former associate of Wright) to design a Prairie style home. The Bergen house was on the same parcel of land as the Schindler/Wright temporary house. Both houses were extant until 2014 when the Bergen house was moved to Evanston and the Schindler/Wright house was dismantled and put into storage to make way for a new development.
Rudolph Schindler, architect Frank Lloyd Wright, architect
Rudolph Schindler: Janson house (Los Angeles, Calif.)
This house for poet Ellen Janson, is perched on the edge of a cliff, high in the Hollywood Hills area of Los Angeles. Janson was a modernist poet, and is widely considered Schindler's last girlfriend.
Rudolph Schindler: Kallis house (Studio City, Calif.)
The Maurice Kallis house is sited on a north-facing slope in Studio City, with a wide view of the San Fernando Valley. The house originally contained a separate apartment and detached artist studio, but is now a single family home.
Rudolph Schindler, architect Robert Cleveland, photographer
Rudolph Schindler: Kaun beach house (Richmond, Calif.)
The beach house for Alexander "Sasha" Kaun and his wife Valeria was featured in many architecture magazines in the 1930s as an example of a small, inexpensive house. Kaun was a professor of Slavic languages at UC Berkeley and his wife was a famous artist; they both knew Schindler from their time in Chicago. The house was torn down in 2010.
Rudolph Schindler: Korsen bungalow court (Los Angeles, Calif.)
In the 1920s the 'bungalow court' was a common form of affordable housing in the Los Angeles region. With small units lining the sides of a city lot, perpendicular to the street, a courtyard is formed between the units. This style allowed each unit to have a bit of open space, and to fill in a lot with small individual units. Many of the bungalow courts in the city of Los Angeles were built by contractors, with no architect input, in a Spanish Revival or more traditional style. This unbuilt project for Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Korsen was designed by Schindler in a much more modern style.
Rudolph Schindler: Laurelwood apartments (Studio City, Calif.)
The Laurelwood Apartments were the last grouping of apartments Schindler designed before he died. The complex of twenty two-bedroom, one-bath apartments is set on a sloping lot, with each apartment having either a private patio or terrace and a private entrance. The International Style apartments were one of the first courtyard apartment complexes in the Los Angeles area in this modern style. The complex was designated a Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monument in 1980, after a developer threatened to tear it down.
Rudolph Schindler: Lee house alterations (Maywood, Ill.)
This house alteration for J.B. Lee was in the Chicago suburb of Maywood. The project was completed by Schindler when he worked for the architecture firm Ottenheimer Stern and Reichert.
Rudolph Schindler: Lovell beach house (Newport Beach, Calif.)
The beach house commissioned by Phillip Lovell is widely regarded as one of the best examples of modernist architecture by Schindler. With rough, exposed, concrete forms, open staircases, two story living room, and windows facing the ocean, the beach house was very modern for Newport Beach in 1926.
Rudolph Schindler: Mackey apartments (Los Angeles, Calif.)
The Mackey apartments were designed in 1939 for Pearl Mackey. Three apartments were rented out, with the fourth, a two-story penthouse, was for Mrs. Mackey herself. Each unit had a different layout, and included built-in furniture, outdoor spaces, and Schindler's characteristic modernist shapes and volumes of indoor space. The apartment building is owned by the Austrian government and run as residential apartments and event space for artists who are part of the MAK Center for Art and Architecture.
Rudolph Schindler: Martin country home (Taos, NM)
This "Country house in adobe" for Dr. Thomas P. Martin was one of Schindler's earliest designs in the United States. After spending one week touring Taos, Schindler was influenced by the adobe and pueblo structures in the town.
Rudolph Schindler: Meline Photoplay building (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Schindler designed preliminary sketches for this high-rise office tower for the Frank Meline Company. The Photoplay building featured a top floor clubhouse for the Photoplayers, which included a ballroom/dining room, men's and women's lounges, a library, multiple small card playing rooms, and a billiard room. Photoplay magazine was a movie industry magazine in the 1920s.
Rudolph Schindler: Monolith house (Racine, Wis.?)
Schindler was working for Frank Lloyd Wright when Thomas Hardy commissioned a series of 18 worker houses near Racine, Wisconsin.
Rudolph Schindler: Neighborhood Center (Chicago, Ill.)
In 1914, the Chicago Architectural Club held a competition to design a neighborhood civic complex. This was Schindler's entry, featuring a very clean lines and a rectilinear plan.
Rudolph Schindler: Oliver house (Los Angeles, Calif.)
The house for William Oliver in the Silverlake area of Los Angeles is set on a steep lot, with views to the ocean and mountains. The garage is at street level, and the house is above, at a 45 degree angle to take advantage of the views and access the yard.
Rudolph Schindler: Popenoe cabin (Coachella, Calif.)
The small, square house for Paul Popenoe and his wife contained two bedrooms, a bathroom, and the exterior walls were ringed with porches that could be covered to act as sleeping porches and an extension of the living space. A central living area with large fireplace separated the two bedrooms from each other.
Rudolph Schindler: Rose beach colony (Santa Monica, Calif.?)
The beach colony with semi-circular beach cottages was planned for Santa Monica and possibly named the "Cabania City Project" by A.E. Rose. One prototype beach cottage was built, but the rest of the colony was not constructed.
Los Angeles, Calif.; Santa Monica, Calif.?
Rudolph Schindler: Roth house (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Roxy Roth was a screenwriter and actor who commissioned Schindler to design a house in the Studio City area of Los Angeles. The house is on an irregular-shaped lot, with a curved driveway/covered garage with an entrance and exit. The house is sited along the street, to give a wide area for a yard and outdoor living space.
Rudolph Schindler: Rubinstein reception room (Hollywood, Calif.)
The reception room / salon interior design for Helena Rubinstein by Schindler was for a building on the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue. Helena Rubinstein, the cosmetics entrepreneur, also commissioned Shindler to design a salon in New York City.
Rudolph Schindler, architect Viroque Baker, photographer
Rudolph Schindler: Sachs Apartments (Los Angeles, Calif.)
The Manola Court apartments were designed by Schindler for his friend Herman Sachs, on a steep hillside in the Silverlake area of Los Angeles. Sachs was the muralist and painter of the interiors for LA landmarks such as City Hall, Union Station, and Bullocks Wilshire. He started purchasing land on Lucille Avenue in 1926 and had Schindler eventually design three buildings, and add to two others that were already existing, eventually finishing the 16 apartments in 1940. The apartment complex was named a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Landmark in 2016.
Rudolph Schindler: Sardi's Restaurant (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Schindler designed the interior of the restaurant for Adolph Edward Brandstatter, including the furnishings. The restaurant, on Hollywood Boulevard near Vine, was popular with the Hollywood movie stars. It was originally open 24 hours per day and contained separate bar and restaurant areas. A kitchen fire in 1936 destroyed the building.
Rudolph Schindler, architect and designer
Rudolph Schindler: Shep house (Los Angeles, Calif.)
The house for Milton and Ruth Shep was designed to sit on a steep slope in the Silverlake area of Los Angeles. Ruth Shep also commissioned Schindler to design furniture for the house.
Rudolph Schindler: Tischler house (Los Angeles, Calif.)
The Adolphe Tischler house, on a sloping hillside in the Westwood area of Los Angeles, has a street facade that is reminiscent of the prow of a ship. The street level contained a carport and artist's workshop, while the main entrance and living space was two floors above, facing the back of the lot. The house was declared a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1991.
Rudolph Schindler, architect Lotte Nossaman, photographer Marvin Rand, photographer
© Marvin Rand Estate Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Copyright restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user. University of California Regents.
Rudolph Schindler: Toole house (Palm Desert, Calif.)
This desert house for Maryon (also listed as Marian) Toole, is located in Palm Desert, which at the time was an unincorporated area known as Palm Village. It features stone walls with wood framing, large glass walls and clerestory windows to let in light, and a large overhanging roof to keep the hot desert sun from heating up the inside.
Rudolph Schindler, architect Shirley Burden, photographer
Palm Desert, Calif.; Palm Village, Calif.
Rudolph Schindler: Van Dekker house (Canoga Park, Calif.)
This large (3700 square feet) house was built in Canoga Park for actor Albert Van Dekker and his family. The three-level house sits under an unusual copper roof. The Van Dekker house was declared a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 2009.
Rudolph Schindler: Van Patten house (Los Angeles, Calif.)
This hillside house in the Silverlake area of Los Angeles was built for Elizabeth Van Patten and two other women, as three separate apartments with communal areas. Schindler also designed the furniture for the house.
Rudolph Schindler: Walker house (Los Angeles, Calif.)
The house Schindler designed for Ralph G. Walker overlooks the Silverlake reservoir on a steeply sloping site. The three bedroom, two bath house is a series of interlocking planes and cubes, with clerestory windows and expansive views. Schindler designed the built-in furniture, as well as other furniture pieces for the home.
Rudolph Schindler: Wolfe house (Avalon, Santa Catalina Island, Calif.)
The Charles H. and Ethel Wolfe house was a single-family house with views of Avalon Bay, ocean, and natural landscapes. The mezzanine level was the street level and included the garage, small bedroom with full bath, kitchen, terrace, and living room with fireplace. The second floor was one below the mezzanine, and contained an ample guest room, with its own entry, kitchen, dressing room, multi-purpose living area and terrace. The house was torn down in 2002, and a house with a similar street facade was erected in its place.