Smith and Williams: Dunn house (Pasadena, Calif.)
This house may be the strongest example of Smith’s and Williams’s belief in the architect as a solver of problems. Smith convinced the Dunns not to tear down their Greene and Greene-designed James Culbertson house. The Dunns wanted a smaller, less formal house with more light and fewer stairs. Smith and Williams took off the second floor and opened up the first level to the site. As a native son of Pasadena, Smith knew Greene and Greene’s buildings well. His 1941-1942 letters to Charles S. Greene convey his admiration for and the influence of their work.
Whitney Smith, architect Smith and Williams, architects Julius Shulman, photographer William Rudolph, associate architect
Smith & Williams records, Architecture and Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California, Santa Barbara.
Architecture and Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California, Santa Barbara.
© 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.
Smith and Williams: Smith house (Pasadena, Calif.)
Smith’s own house began as a garage on a piece of land that had been part of a larger residential property. He wrote about the house in a letter to an editor at the Ladies Home Journal in 1948: “The garden walls and landscaping positively define the total limits of view so that. . . the actual view is about 75 feet, interrupted only by vertical columns and planting. . . .Space means nothing unless defined. Openness means little unless there also is closure.”
Whitney Smith, architect Smith and Williams, architects Julius Shulman, photographer
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.
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.
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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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.
Los Angeles, Calif.; Studio City, Calif.
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.
Rudolph Schindler, architect Julius Shulman, photographer
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
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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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.
Los Angeles, Calif.; Venice Beach, Calif.
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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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
Cliff May: Cliff May house #5 (Brentwood, Calif.)
Cliff May house 5 represents the final stage in his design of the custom ranch house in its scale, large areas of glass, and high ceilings. The large central living space (over 1,600 square feet and 53 feet long) was a combination of living room, dining room, and music room separated by a kitchen from the bedrooms. Enclosed on three sides by the house and carport, the terrace had radiant heating so it could be used for entertaining. Elizabeth Gordon declined to publish this house in House Beautiful, saying that the size, over 7,000 square feet with nine outdoor living areas, was out of scale for her readers. May brought it to House and Garden, where it was published as the first “Hallmark House.” The magazine described how the Mays lived in the house and its innovative features, such as kitchen island counter with sink and a sprinkler system for the skylight.
Cliff May, architect Maynard Parker, photographer
Cliff May papers, Architecture and Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California, Santa Barbara.
Maynard L. Parker, photographer. Courtesy of The Huntington Library, San Marino, Calif. 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.
Cliff May: Cliff May house #4 (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Cliff May house 4, or the Skylight house, illustrates May’s eagerness to experiment, something he was particularly willing to do in the houses he designed for his family. Christian (Chris) Choate and May together designed it, with landscaping by Thomas Church. Choate, a licensed architect, worked in May’s office and became a partner with May in Cliff May Homes, producing prefabricated tract housing. The experimentation in this house clearly came out of their discussions about low-cost housing. The house was unusual, especially for Riviera Ranch, because it did not sprawl but was rectangular and compact in its plan. May and Choate brought the patio inside the dwelling and covered it with a large skylight, about 30 feet by 50 feet, which had a retractable glass cover that was opened and closed by a motor. May collapsed most of the rooms into a single space that could be customized by moving around cabinets on wheels that served as temporary walls.
Cliff May, architect Chris Choate, architect Maynard Parker, photographer
Cliff May: Cliff May Homes low cost house
This promotional image highlights the suburban nature of the Cliff May Homes tracts, with lush landscaping and ample parking.
Cliff May, architect Chris Choate, architect
Cliff May: Cliff May Homes prefabricated house
Cliff May Homes rationallized the building process and used elements of prefabricated building parts to lower costs. This very colorful presentation drawing highlights the attractive exterior of the home.
Cliff May: Norlie Construction tract (Chico, Calif.)
As the Cliff May Homes distribution of prefabricated housing supplies expanded across the nation, the speed with which a house could be constructed was still a major selling point. In this series of photos, a clock is prominently displayed to show how quickly construction progresses at the site.
The house plans for the "Magic Money" ranch houses could vary between two and three bedroom models, as well as with or without two-car detached garage. The emphasis in these plans is on indoor-outdoor living, as exemplified by the large patio areas and lush landscaping.
Cliff May: Cliff May Homes Factory Model home (Los Angeles, Calif.)
The idea for Cliff May Homes, a business of selling designs for prefabricated tract houses, was born in 1950 out of discussions between Cliff May and Chris Choate, an architect working in May’s office. May and Choate did field research, visiting other low-cost housing developments throughout California and in Arizona to assess their competition. They named the first prototype of the panel system the “Factory Model” and built it on a plot of land May owned in Sullivan Canyon, above Riviera Ranch. By the end of the day, a group of about ten skilled laborers had assembled the shell of a two-bedroom house using both post-and-beam construction and a system of pre-assembled panels
Cliff May: "Pace-Setter" model house (Brentwood, Calif.)
May first took the plans for his postwar demonstration house to Sunset, asking the magazine to sponsor the building of the house. When Sunset declined, House Beautiful agreed to partner with May on the house. First National Finance Corporation financed the construction in Riviera Ranch and Elizabeth Gordon and her staff designed the colorful interiors with furniture and fixtures supplied by advertisers. This model house was opened as the first House Beautiful Pace Setter house, promoted by two months of public tours, a cover shot and accompanying lavish spread in the magazine’s February 1948 issue. Gordon published a new Pace Setter house annually until the mid-1960s to spotlight ideal modern villas for the suburban middle-class.
Cliff May: Lakewood Rancho Estates (Long Beach, Calif.)
In 1950 Cliff May partnered with Chris Choate to form Cliff May Homes to distribute ranch house plans to developers throughout the country. In Long Beach, they partnered with Ross Cortese, who built Lakewood Rancho Estates. Over 17,000 homes in 36 different variations were built in this suburban tract.
Cliff May, architect Chris Choate, architect Pacific Air Industries, photographer
Cliff May: Woodacres demonstration house (Los Angeles, Calif.)
May worked on his postwar demonstration model home intended for the Woodacres development, with Elizabeth Gordon, the editor of House Beautiful, who designed these interiors. This model was to be a U- shaped plan. Rooms were to be arranged around a patio area that, in one of the renderings, is taken up by a lagoon-like body of water that provided a spectacular view from the lanai or open-sided porch and its associated corridor, as well as from the living room. The site, as depicted in the rendering, was lushly and tropically landscaped. Letters between May and Smith in the archive indicate that the land on which they planned to build Woodacres was in fact not so attractive and was in need of clearing.
Cliff May: Postwar Demonstration house (Los Angeles, Calif.)
The plan that evolved into May’s widely publicized Pace Setter house for House Beautiful was first designed by May during the war as a Postwar Demonstration house, in anticipation of an expanding upper middle-class housing market. He wanted to build the Postwar Demonstration house (he also called it the “After the War house”) in a planned community of luxury homes called Woodacres. This was a parcel of land north of San Vicente Boulevard near the extension of 14th Street in Santa Monica that he and John A. Smith had purchased around 1940.
In 1947, Good Housekeeping magazine published May’s design of a small ranch house for a 60 x 120- foot lot, with the tag line, “Five rooms indoors—five outdoors.” The article boasts that the house is only 42 feet wide and “[t]here is no front or back—the house is livable on all sides.” Illustrated with a photograph of a model and a plan, the writer describes the modernity of the house: “Our ranch spreads out for light, air and view...Its design shows early Spanish influence, but in plan and flexibility it is thoroughly modern.” A sketch plan, with landscaping by Douglas Baylis, was offered to readers for 10 cents. The compact L-shaped plan would form the basis of May’s work for precut houses and housing developments in the mid-1950s.
May designed these unbuilt minimum houses, a large set of model plans for low-cost ranch houses, for Sunset magazine. May’s strategy was to create garden-oriented, two-wing plans. The entrance was indirect and understated. Thin partitions defined the interior spaces. The houses were oriented away from street lines and toward an interior open space, and the rear facades were punctuated by terraces, porches, or courts.
Cliff May: Lomita Square housing tract (Wilmington, Calif.)
This wartime emergency housing tract was Cliff May's first development to use production-line and prefabrication of materials to construct a large number of houses in a short amount of time. Originally planned with developer John A. Smith and his First National Finance Corporation, on land owned by Smith near San Pedro Bay, this tract was not built.
Cliff May: May house #3 (Los Angeles, Calif.)
When the house was built in 1938–1939, the interior was connected to the outdoors visually through windows facing a sun terrace. In 1949, May changed some of those windows to glass doors. He also added heating under the concrete floor of the outdoor area adjacent to the living and dining rooms, as well as a sunken fire pit just outside the heated area. These changes allowed the sun terrace to be used for activities in the living and dining rooms. Though the pool was seen in the early plans, it wasn’t built until 1956.
Cliff May papers, Architecture and Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California, Santa Barbara
Architecture and Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California, Santa Barbara
Cliff May: Riviera Ranch drawings (Los Angeles, Calif.)
These unbuilt entrance gates indicate May’s vision for Riviera Ranch as a secluded world. The imagined landscaping is a fanciful mixture of cacti and palm trees. The building on the left is an architectural office with drafting and reception rooms. Cliff May did eventually build an office for himself here in 1949, at 13151 Sunset Boulevard, though of a different design.
Cliff May: Riviera Ranch photographs (Los Angeles, Calif.)
May evoked the mystique of California’s past and the proximity to the Riviera Country Club’s polo field to market his houses, as seen in his ideas to promote his Riviera Ranch development. He named his model house the “Urban Ranch.” Though Riviera Ranch now sits in the middle of west Los Angeles, surrounded by houses and bordered by busy Sunset Boulevard, these images from 1938 show how rural and undeveloped the area was when May began construction.
Cliff May: May house #2 (Los Angeles, Calif.)
His second house for his family, Cliff May house 2, was built in Mandeville Canyon. This area of west Los Angeles would remain the epicenter of May’s work and life for the rest of his long career. The wings of Cliff May house 2 enclose the outdoor living space. The street façade is straightforwardly modest and gives no hint of the expansiveness of the courtyard side.
Cliff May: Blow house #1 (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Cliff May and John A. Smith formalized their relationship in a contractual partnership to “jointly undertake the construction of dwellings for sale in the vicinity of Los Angeles,” naming May as builder and designer and Smith as financier through his First National Finance Corporation. By the summer of 1937 they were aggressively promoting and publishing their houses, one of which is the first house May designed for Frederick Blow and his wife. Frederick Blow commissioned May, left money in an account for him, and then left for Europe. This house has all the hallmarks of the best of May’s ranch houses. It spreads on the site, encloses outdoor rooms, and looks, with its uneven roof line, as though it grew on the site over decades.
Cliff May, architect William F. Cody, renderer
Cliff May: Smith speculative house (Bel Air, Calif.)
The Hollywood Citizen-News reported that though the grand speculative house May built for John A. Smith resembled an “ancient ‘dobe ranch house,” the walls were actually hollow tile and filled with plumbing, electricity, and other modern conveniences. On the photographs of this house, May wrote, “Rancho goes moderne.” May saw no conflict between making a house look old (a “rancho”) and filling it with the newest appliances and fixtures (“going moderne”). The same Citizen-News article noted that the 5,000-square-foot house had sold to Mrs. W. H. Lyman Jr. of Beverly Hills for $39,500. The average cost of a new home in the U.S. in 1935 was $3,450.
Cliff May, architect W.P. Woodcock, photographer
Cliff May: Horton development (La Jolla, Calif.)
Hiram and Violetta Lee Horton built four of the six speculative houses May designed for them on Hillside Drive in La Jolla, a seaside community in northern San Diego. Violetta Horton also commissioned May to build the Sweetwater Women’s clubhouse in nearby Bonita. Where May had the chance to work on a corner lot or to orchestrate a number of dwellings together, he was less constrained by the need to separate the porch and court from the sight of neighbors, and began to find more varied ways to organize the house plans. Once out on more spacious exurban sites, May varied the shape and orientation of the courtyard with splayed and open plans.
Cliff May: O'Leary house (San Diego, Calif.)
Cliff May’s future father-in-law, Roy C. Lichty, gave May a lot in the Talmadge Park subdivision, where Lichty was general manager, and financed his first speculative house, which May designed and built in 1931–1932 with the help of master carpenter William F. Hale. The house sold to Colonel Arthur O’Leary, who also purchased the Mission-style furniture that May had built and placed in the house to help sell it.
Cliff May: Lindstrom house (San Diego, Calif.)
Cliff May built his first speculative house in Talmadge Park in 1931, and his second in 1933, bought by Captain William Lindstrom. The Lindstrom house and furniture cost $7,710.42 to build. The $1,636.65 profit was split evenly between Cliff May and the contractor O. U. (Oliver Ulysses) Miracle.
Cliff May: May house #1 (San Diego, Calif.)
For Cliff May's first house for himself and his wife, Jean Lichty, he designed a house which surrounds a courtyard in an asymmetrical fashion. Cliff May house 1 is a modest hacienda house in the Talmadge Park neighborhood and the first of five houses May designed for himself and his family. After building the house and moving in, May opened it for public visits and advertised it for sale.
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: 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: 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 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.
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.
The Walter White archive contains a few photographs of White at various stages in his career.
Walter S. White papers, Architecture and Design Collection; Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California, Santa Barbara.
Architecture and Design Collection; Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California, Santa Barbara.
Portraits of both Whitney Smith and Wayne Williams can be found in both the Smith and Williams collection as well as the Wayne Williams collection. Whitney Rowland Smith was born in Pasadena in 1911 and lived there most of his life. He entered the School of Architecture at the University of Southern California (USC) in 1929, graduating in 1934. Between 1934 and 1940, Smith picked up drafting and design projects from several different architects and worked as a renderer for Universal Studios. He designed subsistence housing for the Farm Security Administration in 1936 and housing for the war effort with the Public Housing Administration in the early 1940s. Smith considered Harwell Hamilton Harris, for whom he worked briefly, his teacher Kem Weber, and Charles and Henry Greene to be the great influences on his work. He opened an office in Pasadena in 1944, and in 1949 founded Smith and Williams with Wayne R. Williams. Smith taught at USC in 1941-1942 and at Scripps College in Pomona from 1945-1962. In 1973, Smith left Smith and Williams and returned to an individual practice. He died in 2002 in Bend, Oregon. Wayne Richard Williams was born in Los Angeles, October 17, 1919. He attended John H. Francis Polytechnic, a vocational high school that offered drafting classes, and in 1941 entered USC, where Whitney Smith was one of his instructors. When the war ended, Williams worked in Smith’s office while finishing his architecture studies at USC. He graduated in 1947 and probably earned his license in 1949, the year he and Smith formed Smith and Williams. Williams developed an interest and specialty in planning recreational facilities and wrote the book Recreation Places in 1958. It was his idea to form the collaborative Community Facilities Planners in order to compete for large jobs that needed planning, landscape, and architecture. When Smith left the partnership in 1973, Williams retained the firm name, changing it at some point to the Smith-Williams Group. By 2003 he had moved to the Washington, D.C. area to work with International Development, Inc. (IDI) on high-rise apartment buildings and leisure world complexes. Williams died in Leesburg, Virginia in 2007.
Smith and Williams, architects; Whitney Smith, architect Wayne Williams, architect
The Cliff May archive contains many personal and professional portraits and publicity images of Cliff May. The second image was published in House and Garden in February 1957 and shows Cliff May, daughter Marilyn, son-in-law Lawrence Philips, grandchildren, wife Jean, daughters Melany and Hillary, and son Mike. Images of May’s family occasionally illustrated articles about his houses and ranch house living.
The Kem Weber archive contains quite a few photographs of Weber in meetings and posed for portraits.
Karl Emanuel Martin (Kem) Weber papers, Architecture and Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California, Santa Barbara.
The Woolf archive contains quite a few portraits of John Elgin Woolf, including these color photos.
John E. Woolf papers, Architecture and Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California, Santa Barbara.
The George Washington Smith portraits are archived in the Lutah Maria Riggs collection; since she was his protege who worked in his firm up until his death in 1930.
George Washington Smith papers, Architecture and Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California, Santa Barbara.
The Thornton Abell archive contains a number of studio portraits of the architect.
Thornton M. Abell papers, Architecture and Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California, Santa Barbara.
The Killingsworth collection contains many photographs of Edward Killingsworth at job sites, ground breaking ceremonies, and discussing projects with groups of people.
Edward A. Killingsworth papers, Architecture and Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California, Santa Barbara
The de Forest archive contains a large amount of personal papers, including many photographs of Lockwood and Elizabeth de Forest. The photos document their extensive camping trips in the Sierra Nevada mountain range in the 1930s.
Lockwood de Forest, Jr. landscape drawings, Architecture and Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California, Santa Barbara.
Robert Stacy-Judd was an architect, archeologist, and tireless promoter of himself and his work. These portraits exhibit how his persona of Mayan explorer informed his architectural explorations.
Robert Stacy-Judd papers, Architecture and Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California, Santa Barbara
This grouping of portraits shows the serious nature of Winslow.
Carleton Monroe Winslow Sr. papers, Architecture and Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California, Santa Barbara.
These photographs capture Schindler at the construction site for the Walker house and in a more composed setting later in life.
These undated portraits of Peters highlight his personal style and attitude in line with his interior designs.
Jock Peters papers, Architecture and Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California, Santa Barbara.
These two photographs, taken approximately 30 years apart, show Lutah as a student at Berkeley and as a well-established architect at her drafting table.
Lutah Maria Riggs papers, Architecture and Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California, Santa Barbara.
Lutah Maria Riggs: Colville house (Isla Vista, Calif.)
In 1954, the University of California opened a new campus on a former Marine Air Base, about ten miles west of Santa Barbara. This sparsely populated area, called Isla Vista, did not have the housing or infrastructure to support the influx of students, faculty, and staff. This small ocean-side house for Physical Education department faculty member Francis Colville is a two-bedroom, one bath modern house on Del Playa Drive. It is on the far west side of Isla Vista, since the properties closer to campus were zoned for multiple units to house students.
Lutah Maria Riggs: Nelson medical offices (Santa Barbara, Calif.)
This medical office building was one of three commissions by dermatologist Lawrence Nelson. It is a typical small medical office building, with parking in the rear of the property, and access from the street. The present occupants of the building are a local architecture firm.
Lutah Maria Riggs: Baer house (Lompoc, Calif.)
The alterations to the Herman Baer house in rural Lompoc show the modern style of architecture that Riggs was moving towards in the late 1940s. A marked departure from her Spanish Colonial Revival work of the 20s, this house shows her growth as an architect and ability to adapt to changing needs of her clients.
Lutah Maria Riggs, architect William Aplin, photographer
Lutah Maria Riggs: Suski building alterations (Santa Barbara, Calif.)
The large, multi-story commercial and retail building on State Street in downtown Santa Barbara had exterior alterations by Riggs. The T.C. Suski Building was a Joseph Magnin department store in the 1960s and is currently retail and offices. The building is adjacent to the Casa de la Guerra, the historic adobe dating from the 1820s, and the El Paseo shopping area.
Lutah Maria Riggs, architect Ray Borges, photographer
Lutah Maria Riggs: Santa Barbara Botanic Garden library (Santa Barbara,Calif.)
The Santa Barbara Botanic Garden was started in 1926 as a partnership between the Carnegie Institution and the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, with land in Mission Canyon donated by Anna Dorinda Bliss. The Garden grew from the initial 13 acres, up to 78 acres today, and is filled with native and regional plants. In 1942, space was needed for the growing library of books on horticulture in the Garden's collection. Riggs was commissioned to design a structure for education and research named the Blaksley Library. The exterior courtyard was a collaboration between Riggs and landscape architect Beatrix Farrand. Additional landscape designs in the garden were created by Lockwood de Forest and Elizabeth de Forest.
Lutah Maria Riggs, architect Marvin Rand, photographer Frederick Dapprich, photographer
Lutah Maria Riggs: Riggs house (Montecito, Calif.)
Riggs designed this house on Middle Road in Montecito for herself in the mid-twenties; she lived there until her death in 1984. The house, named Clavelitos or "little carnation," contained two bedrooms, ample outdoor space, and large fireplaces. The Spanish Colonial Revival style was championed by George Washington Smith, who was Riggs' mentor; she worked for Smith up until his death in 1930.
Lutah Maria Riggs, architect Frederick Dapprich, photographer Hal Bouchex, photographer
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: 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: 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: 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: 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.
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
Albert Frey: Loewy house (Palm Springs, Calif.)
The industrial designer Raymond Loewy commissioned Frey to design a bachelor pad and winter getaway in 1947, in Palm Springs. The small (1100 square feet) house features walls of sliding glass doors opening onto a patio and pool. The outdoor living area contains multiple eating areas, a shaded trellis, and spots for pool-side lounging. As shown in the photos by Julius Shulman, the amoeba-shaped pool even extends under the glass doors and into the living room.
Albert Frey, architect Julius Shulman, photographer
Albert Frey papers, Architecture and Design Collection. Art, Design & Architecture Museum; University of California, Santa Barbara.
Albert Frey: North Shore Beach and Yacht Club (Salton Sea, Calif.)
The Salton Sea was a formerly dry lake bed located southeast of Palm Springs. The area was flooded as part of an effort to irrigate the surrounding area in the early 1900s, and is one of the largest lakes in California. It is also one of the saltiest and most polluted, due to agricultural run-off. During the 1950s, the North Shore area was a very popular vacation spot, and the marina was one of the largest in the state. The Club was in operation until 1984, when it closed after being damaged in a flood. In 2010, the county of Riverside operated the Salton Sea Museum and community center from the main building. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015.
Albert Frey, architect Robson Chambers, architect
Albert Frey: Bel Vista tract housing (Palm Springs, Calif.)
The Bel Vista affordable housing tract was built in 1945 as housing for War workers. The subdivision of 15 homes was designed by Albert Frey and John Porter Clark for the developers Sallie Stevens and Culver Nichols. This was the first subdivision in Palm Springs to feature modern-style houses, and the only Frey housing tract.
Albert Frey, architect John Porter Clark, architect
Albert Frey: Kocher weekend house (Northport, NY)
Architects A. Lawrence Kocher and Albert Frey worked together in 1933-1934 to design low-cost structures, like the Aluminaire House. Kocher was the managing editor of Architectural Record, faculty at the University of Virginia and Black Mountain College, and responsible for helping bring Walter Gropius to the United States. With this weekend house on Long Island, Kocher and Frey designed the house with a redwood frame, then stretched Marine canvas over the walls. The canvas was sealed and painted, and lined with aluminum for insulation on the inside. The ground level was parking and a playground, the second level was the main living level (with kitchen and large living room which had curtains to separate the space into bedrooms at night), and the top level was for sun bathing and sleeping areas during warm weather. The house was demolished in the 1950s to make way for a new subdivision.
Albert Frey, architect A. Lawrence Kocher, architect
Albert Frey: Kocher-Samson office and apartment (Palm Springs, Calif.)
In 1934, Frey was sent to Palm Springs to design and build an office building, with an apartment above, for Dr. J.J. Kocher, the brother of A. Lawrence Kocher. The building was designed to take advantage of the climate and featured a courtyard between the two offices on the ground floor, and the apartment had a large terrace on the shady north side of the building. The photographs, taken just after construction, show how the building was the only structure in the area, surrounded by sand and sagebrush. Today, the building still stands along busy Palm Canyon drive, surrounded by other businesses and concrete.
Albert Frey: Tramway Gas Station (Palm Springs, Calif.)
Frey and Chambers designed the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway station house (the building at the base of the mountain) in 1963. The Tramway Gas Station, at the corner of Tramway Road and Highway 111, was constructed in 1965 with a distinctive hyperbolic paraboloid roof, which gives the building an instantly recognizable appearance. It was used as a gas station until the 1990s, when it was turned into an art gallery. In 2015, the building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, and was converted to the Palm Springs Visitor Center.
Albert Frey: Aluminaire house (Syosset, NY)
The architect A. Lawrence Kocher was asked to design a house for the Architectural League of New York City and the Allied Arts of Industries bi-annual exhibition. Kocher hired Frey to help design a house that used new materials, like steel and glass as a low cost construction alternative. After the exhibition, the house was purchased by architect Wallace Harrison, who moved the house to his property in Syosset, on Long Island in New York. The house remains on the property until 1987, when a new owner decided to demolish the house and build a subdivision. The New York Institute of Technology agreed to dismantle the house and reconstruct it on their campus. Teams of architecture students spend the next six years carefully dismantling the house and re-assembling it at the School of Architecture on the Central Islip campus. In 2012, the campus was closed, the house was transferred to a group called the Aluminaire House Foundation, which dismantled the structure and stored it in a shipping container. In 2015, the container was shipped to Palm Springs and is currently awaiting re-assembly.
Jock Peters: Bullocks Wilshire store (Los Angeles, Calif.)
The Bullocks Wilshire department store was one of the first to cater to customers in automobiles. The large Art Deco edifice was easily recognizable, and customers were able to drive up, have a valet securely park their car at the rear of the building, then shop or dine inside the 230,000 square foot building. The building was designed by father and son architecture firm Parkinson and Parkinson. Jock Peters and Eleanor Lemaire worked for the Fiel & Paradise Company as interior designers and were responsible for the first few floors of the store. Each of the departments was designed to be a luxurious retreat, where live mannequins and low display cases featured items for sale, not racks of clothes, which would obscure the architecture and interior details of the room. Bullocks department store was eventually bought out by Macy's, which rebranded the location as an I Magnin store. By the early 1990s, the chain had folded and the building was purchased by the Southwestern Law School.
Jock Peters, designer Eleanor Lemaire, designer Parkinson and Parkinson, architects Mott Studios, photographer
After working with an architect in Germany, Peters emigrated to the United States in 1922 and settled in Los Angeles. By 1924 he was working with Famous Players- Lasky Corporation, one of the largest silent film production companies in the city. Peters worked on set designs until 1927 when he opened a design company with his brother George.
After working for the movie industry for a few years, in 1927 Peters began working with his brother George as Peters by Jock, Brothers Modern American Design Office. They designed furniture and other interior pieces.
Jock Peters: Peters house project (Los Angeles, Calif.)
The renderings for a proposed Jock Peters residence along College View Avenue in the Eagle Rock section of Los Angeles show a very modern house, sited on a hill, with a studio and garage at street level. As with his other residential works, this house was to have multiple outside decks, patios, and balconies, as well as ample entertaining space, and a view of the city.
Jock Peters: Gilks house (Los Angeles, Calif.)
This two-story modern house for the cinematographer Alfred Gilks is in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles, just a short distance from Griffith Park. The house features multiple decks, an outdoor fireplace on the patio, and a mural in one of the bedrooms by Buckley MacGurrin.
Jock Peters: Shepard house (San Marino, Calif.)
This house for L.E. Shepard in the Los Angeles suburb of San Marino is one of the few houses designed by Peters. The style is a Streamline Moderne, with some hints of International Style and Art Deco. The images highlight the indoor-outdoor living, with patios, decks, and sliding doors.
Jock Peters: L.P. Hollander store (New York, NY)
Jock Peters worked with Eleanor LeMaire on the interiors of the women's clothing store. The architectural firm who designed the building was Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, and it is located on East 57th Street in Manhattan. The store was laid out 'boutique style' with many different areas or shops for the customer to browse. LeMaire was a New York based interior designer, and had worked with Peters on the Bullocks Wilshire store
Jock Peters, designer Eleanor LeMaire, designer
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: 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.
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: 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.