Design Notes

Sold! (or not)

Christie’s “Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale” is one of the premier events of the New York auction world. On Tuesday, May 13, 2008, the event – which is an art auction – included a house. Listed in the catalog between auction item 41, Shot Salesman, a painting by Richard Prince, and auction item 43, I’m in Love for the First Time, a painting by Damien Hirst, was auction item 42: the Kaufmann House. Christie’s estimated the house to sell for $15–25 million, and it sold to an unnamed buyer for $15million (or $16.8m with commission). UPDATE: The sale fell through. On May 23, the president of Christie’s said that “the contract has been terminated by the seller by reason of a breach of its terms by the buyer.”

Designed by Richard Neutra in 1945, this Palm Springs, California, house was originally the home of Edgar J. Kaufmann. In 1947, Julius Shulman photographed the house, and those widely reproduced images turned the house into a symbol of mid-century California living. After Kaufmann’s death in 1955, the house went vacant for a few years, before going through a handful of owners (including Barry Manilow) and several renovations. In 1993, Beth and Brent Harris purchased the house, which was then considered a teardown, for $1.9 million. The couple spent five years restoring the house to its original condition, using Shulman’s 1947 photographs and Neutra’s original sketches as their guides.

In the spring of 2007, we photographed the Design Within Reach catalog at The Kaufmann House, and earlier this year, we were back in the neighborhood to photograph our assortment at the Loewy House, which is next door. Click here to see an aerial view. (The Kaufmann House is on the north side of the street, to the left of where Mapquest puts the red star. The Loewy House is to the left of the Kaufmann.) As for the paintings by Prince and Hirst, those were each estimated to sell between $1–2 million. Results: $1,161,000 and $1,273,000 respectively. The evening’s top seller was a 1952 painting by Mark Rothko, at $50,441,000.

Hot chocolate.

We often write about museums here at Design Notes, but none have gotten me as excited Nestlé’s Chocolate Museum in Mexico City. I am a chocoholic and I must make this trip.

The museum is also an incredible modernist structure that was built in less then three months. Conceived by Rojkind Arquitectos, it is reminiscent of a giant, red origami worm.  It leaves me wondering if I’d be more impressed with the building’s design or its sugary contents.

Alice Ball House.

Wendy Scuccimarra, an account executive at DWR’s Greenwich Studio, forwarded me some information on the possible demolition of Philip Johnson’s Alice Ball House in New Canaan, Connecticut. The house, what Johnson called his “little jewel,” was built for a single woman and rests on 2.2 acres.  The current owner, Christina Ross, is trying to sell the home for an asking price of three million. Hopefully, someone will pony up, pay the three million and restore the home.  It would be a sad day to lose the structure, especially within the same city limits of the Glass House. The Stamford Advocate has more on the issue here.

Ol’ Blue Eyes blunder.

We’ve written some on this blog about the Palm Springs location shoot last spring that resulted in some of the fantastic photography in our summer catalog. (The one with the nice Bertoia Diamond Chair on the front. You know, the one that made you want to go swimming?) One of the most utterly hip places we shot is known as Twin Palms, which was built for Frank Sinatra starting in 1947. According to the Twin Palms historical page, architect E. Stewart Williams recalls that “Frank came in with a white sailor hat and an ice cream cone and said ‘I want a house.’” The result is simply stunning. As a proofreader of the catalog, I was somewhat traumatized to learn that we mistakenly printed the wrong website for this piece of mid-century modern history. Learn all about Twin Palms (including a contact to actually book it) at sinatrahouse.com.

Little pink (and red and blue and yellow) houses.

Apartment Therapy posted recently about colorful houses in cities across the world. I thought it complemented the discussions here recently about Schnabel’s pink Manhattan building. The collection of homes at More Ways to Waste Time, found via a Flickr image search, illustrate my opinion that there are too few of these bright-hued homes amongst us. These pictures are fun and refreshing. And being a Baltimore native I am very interested in tracking down the home in the above picture. Baltimore is full of red brick row houses and I’d love to discover this block the next time I’m home visiting Mom.

Picnic at the Eames House (Case Study House #8)

The proprietors of DWR Studios in the Southwest had the pleasure of spending an afternoon at the Eames House last week. A bit off the beaten path, it took a couple of U-turns we finally made it to our destination in Pacific Palisades. We set up our picnic lunch under the shade of the eucalyptus trees swaying over the meadow. Bernadine Styburski, the executive director of the Eames Foundation, entertained us with stories about the history of the house and the legacy left by Charles and Ray.

The Eames House has recently been designated a National Historic Landmark. A public announcement was made at the Eames House on June 17, 2007 – which would have been Charles Eames’ 100th birthday. This is exciting because it protects the home and its site, ensuring future generations the opportunity to experience the spirit of the Eames House. Built in 1949 as part of the Case Study program, it was one of the first homes in the U.S. to use industrial materials in a residential setting. As such, it was an experiment in materials, technology and, ultimately, a way of living that came to define the post-World War II era. It represents an idea of a possible way to live, rather than simply a model to be replicated.

If you're in Southern California and want to visit, call 310.459.9663 to make an appointment. 

Posted by Susie Cordes, Proprietor-DWR Beverly Boulevard Studio.

Isn't she?

Artist Julian Schnabel has come under fire in recent weeks as he’s finally unveiled his new residence on Greenwich Village’s West 11th street after lengthy renovations. The building, a Mediterranean-style high-rise, showed its true colors once the tarps came down. It’s adventurous and daring, sitting between two glass Richard Meier towers, pretty in a wash of bright pink.

While some like Andrew Berman, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation’s director, find the building “a nightmare,” I could not disagree more. It is playful, thoughtful and totally in line with the counter-culture that’s thrived in that part of Manhattan for decades. Whether the artist has painted the building to peeve the area residents who opposed his building permit or if he truly desired a perfect, pink palace I don’t care. I simply love Schnabel’s refusal to play it safe.

The new concert hall.

The worlds of modern architecture and classical music have been thrust together in recent years with projects such as Frank Gehry's Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, Herzog & de Meuron's Elbe Philharmonic Hall in Hamburg and Jean Nouvel's new Paris Philharmonie project.  The International Herald Tribune took a look at the phenomenon last week. The most intriguing issue is that of acoustics and the how the science of sound is partnered with the aesthetics of these buildings. Not only do these buildings need to look good and function as communal spaces, but they also have to sound right. That’s a tricky thing.

In the article, Frank Gehry discussed early conversations and arguments between acousticians about the Disney Concert Hall, saying "I realized it was like art. You could make it great, but it was intuitive. There wasn't a formula for it." That philosophy seems like such a gamble though. There are major problems if the acoustics of the buildings don’t work. As Christoph von Dohnanyi, the chief conductor of Hamburg's NDR Symphony, states in the article, “If you mess it up, the orchestra will be a mess. There are some orchestras that don't sound good because they play all the time in a bad hall."

Hamburg’s Elbe Philharmonic seems the most interesting of the new crop of projects. As the photo above shows the hall is slated to be built on a warehouse on a pier in a downtrodden harbor. It’s a tip of the hat to the neighborhood and a look to the future all at once. The concert hall will appear almost ship-like, floating in the harbor. Let’s just hope the musical notes float equally as beautiful.

A Nouvel idea.

During my recent visit to Paris I made my way over to the Cartier Foundation, primarily to see the David Lynch exhibit. Secondarily, I was interested in the building itself, as it was designed by Jean Nouvel, though earlier in the week I had passed the L'Institut du Monde Arabe (Arab Institute) and found it interesting but not quite earth shattering. I had some trouble locating the Cartier Foundation, but once I found it, it was unmistakable. A long horizontal grid of steel and glass, it’s surrounded by a planting of trees which are then surrounded by another wall of glass that is supported from the main building by long steel rods. It gives the appearance of a large greenhouse or arboritum, but the true function isn't clear until you are inside and realize that the main gallery is surrounded on all sides by glass, allowing natural light to pour in. Trees act as a back drop behind some of the work, creating a nearly seamless blend of nature and structure. Adding to this artificially natural scene are sculptures by artist Giuseppe Penone, whose use of bronze to cast the organic forms of trees is subtle yet striking.

In the days following my visit I began to notice that Nouvel's steel and glass aesthetic is slowly spreading through the streets of Paris. One of my favorites was the La Maison des Adolescents – Maison de Solenn by Ibos & Vitart, it is much more severe and angular than the Cartier building, but the influence of Nouvel's materials was evident. Also, Nouvel’s concept of opening the ground levels of the building in order to create less of a division between building and public space. A Nouvel idea indeed...

(La Maison des Adolescents – Maison de Solenn)

Save the glass.

Today marks the opening of the Philip Johnson Glass House. Located in New Canaan, CT the house is the newest historic site being run by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The house and its surrounding buildings on 47-acres embody architect Philip Johnson’s modernist experimentation with forms and materials and, lucky us, it’s now open to the public (by appointment only). The site’s mission is to be a center point and catalyst for the preservation of modern architecture, art and landscape. Sign up now to get on their mailing list, maybe you'll even get an invite to their gala picnic in June. Even better, make your plans now to head out to Connecticut to take your very own tour with enough time to snap some pics and be inspired by this one-of-a-kind design icon.

The list of buildings being run by the NTHP is impressive to say the least, so take some time to check those out as well.

Richard Rogers: 2007 Pritzker Prize winner.

 

The 2007 Pritzker Architecture Prize – architecture’s most coveted award, given annually – was recently announced. British architect Richard Rogers is this year’s laureate. Rogers’ portfolio includes the Centre Pompidou (with Renzo Piano) in Paris, Madrid’s Barajas Airport and the Lloyd’s of London tower. Learn more about Rogers and his work here, in this nicely thorough Washington Post article.

Bruno Mathsson comes to the Upper West Side.

 

The Bard Graduate Center, Design Within Reach’s Upper West Side neighbor, is running an exhibit on Swedish architect and designer Bruno Mathsson through June 10th. This is the first exhibit focusing on the work of Mathsson, arguably one of the most important Swedish modernist designers. In 1937 MoMA purchased his Eva chair for its public spaces and throughout the 1940s and 1950s Mathsson focused on ergonomics in his designs, one of the first to do so. His designs quite often featured a backwards tilt because, as he stated, “why should we sit up straight when we don’t have to...one can concentrate much better in a leisurely position.” Case in point: I am writing this slouched backwards in my Chadwick chair.

Mathsson is more a cultish figure than iconic one, due in large part to his resistance to distribute his designs in the 1950s. Many companies, Knoll included, jockeyed for his creations. The exhibit at Bard features "150 examples of furniture, architectural drawings, photographs, and models." The fact that his creations were not mass produced lends itself to the exhibit’s power. Many things seem new and exciting, even if they’re 60 years old.

People Used to Dream About the Future

Most people working in our office and Studios are fairly big design geeks. But while some are spotting Eames Lounge and Ottoman sets in Will & Grace reruns, others of us complete nerds are spotting the Salk Institute (completed 1959) and the Marin County Civic Center (completed 1967) – but in films. After watching a fairly bad science fiction movie the other night (I won’t name names), I found myself wondering about the role these objects play in both television and cinema and why, when executed well, a building from 1967 can appear convincingly as one in 2067. In the case of my bad science fiction movie it’s obvious that you can’t just put a guy in a black trench coat in front of a slab of concrete and call it the future.

Two movies immediately come to mind where architecture has played a very convincing role, George Lucas’ THX-1138 (1971) and Andrew Niccol’s Gattaca (1997). Both were filmed in the San Francisco Bay Area and both feature the Marin County Civic Center at some point in the film. The protagonists in each are part of an oppressive industrialized system and they are looking for something to inspire hope from their environment. Ask any architect or architecture nerd about their favorite building and most likely, somewhere between “cantilever” and “monumentality,” you’ll hear words like “inspiring” or “optimistic.” In many of the key shots in each movie the buildings play a role in helping to reinforce that optimism and contribute to the mood of the film.

Whether it’s Lucas’ efforts to make the ordinary great by showing San Francisco’s transit tunnels as futuristic hallways, or the utopian view of the future in the Civic Center’s role in Gattica, it seems more like a true depiction of the future is one where hope and optimism exist. Wasn’t that also a goal of the great architects of our time?

The Architects of Venice

Last week's New York Times had a great story on the Venice, California, home of the architect husband and wife team of Deborah Richmond and Olivier Touraine.  The one-time rivals (she worked for Rem Koolhaas and he for Jean Nouvel) have recently finished their interesting and pretty-near-perfect home amongst the architectural hodge-podge of this up and coming neighborhood. Architects are flocking to Venice in droves.  Gehry is building himself a place three blocks away.

The house was originally purchased at "$337,000 for a 3,900-square-foot plot and a two-story stucco house from 1951." They kept the house and use it as an office and rental unit and built the modern second home "in 2005 for $410,000, or about $275 a square foot," considerably less than other highly designed California homes.

The pictures don't lie.  The house is a modernist dream: walls of glass, economical ideas and innovative materials. They call it their "our own little mixed-use development." I call it stunning.

Icon for sale

A few posts ago my co-worker commented on the unfortunate demise of Richard Neutra’s Cyclorama building in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. This was on the heels of my post asking for thoughts on tearing down old buildings to make room for glorious new ones (the Guthrie Theatre). Well, in the category of “ain’t it a small world” type of stories, my aunt recently mentioned that her latest property for sale was the office building of Richard Neutra, the only surviving example of an unmodified and uncompromised Neutra commercial design. It’s also a City of Los Angeles monument and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The building has a fairly steap price tag, of course, and it comes complete with a Conservation Easement, which means once you buy it you can’t make any changes (for the most part). In light of our other two posts, I think this is probably a good thing.

Interested? Give her a call. She really knows her art.

Sandy Bleifer,

info@DTLAR.com

213-612-3756

re-Cyclorama

Over the holidays I had the good fortune to visit Richard Neutra's Cyclorama in Gettysburg Pennsylvania. Originally completed in 1962 to house the painting of Pickett's Charge, the building is currently closed off to visitors for a rehabilitation project of the painting and the building itself is actually scheduled to be "removed from the battlefield" (aka destroyed) sometime in the near future.

The building itself was locked (trust me I tried to get in) but I managed to explore the grounds and take as many pictures as my camera could hold. I saw that in many places there were large cracks in the windows, extensive water damage, holes in the concrete and decaying furniture inside.

After trudging in the mud for about an hour  I headed back to the visitor center for more information. What I gleaned from my 15 minute conversation is that the building is set to be "removed from the battlefield" (the park rangers would not use the word "destroyed") and that they have no information on the building itself just the painting it houses. During the length of our conversation Neutra's name was never mentioned once by anyone at the information desk. The rest of my pictures can be found here.

All in all I left a little frustrated and heartbroken, I urge everyone to sign the petition here and check out the below links for more information and ways you can contribute to saving Neutra's Cyclorama:

neutra.org
Recent Past Preservation Society
docomomo

Making the list

The end of the year always brings lists, new year’s resolutions, to-do lists, best-of lists, you name it. Well, here’s one that’s worth checking out, even if you just look at the pretty pictures. It’s the Business Week online recap of the best architectural wonders of 2006. There are many to be in awe of and even one or two that you may wish you lived in. Take a look.

Old vs. New

In this week's DWR newsletter the topic was the new Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, designed by Jean Nouvel. What we didn’t write about was that the old Guthrie theater is planned for demolition. A reader of ours sent in a note reminding us of the original Guthrie, designed by Ralph Rapson, which is slated for demolition. He wrote, “One has to ask, is it worth the cost to gain a new building by Nouvel if it means sacrificing a landmark building like the original Guthrie to the wrecking ball?” Thanks to Devin Colman from Burlington, VT for starting the dialogue. Please write and let us know what you think.

The new Denver Art Museum

The mile-high city of Denver doesn’t immediately conjure images of modern architecture, yet the City’s downtown boasts works from Gio Ponti, Michael Graves and, most recently, Daniel Libeskind all within a few yards of one another. Hoping to avoid the crowds following the initial opening in October, I finally visited Libeskind’s Denver Art Museum expansion. The titanium-clad building is a dramatic addition to Denver’s skyline with its sharp, angular lines playing off the Rocky Mountains on the distant horizon, while limning itself against the urban landscape. Libeskind wanted to create a dialogue between the new building and the original museum designed by Ponti in 1971. In response, the building cantilevers above the street, resembling the bow of a ship that’s about to merge with Ponti’s modernist castle. The Ponti building is also nicely framed by the new building from several other vistas.

Inside, the interior’s sloping walls, labyrinthine galleries and winding staircases produced a dizzying effect that made me wonder whether it was the building or the shot of espresso I’d had earlier. Despite a recurring sense of vertigo, I enjoyed viewing DAM’s modern art collection and was surprised by its size and breadth, considering DAM isn’t exclusively modern. I particularly enjoyed the global focus of the temporary exhibit “Radar: Selections from the Vicki and Kent Logan Collection” with works from Western artists like Ed Ruscha, Kiki Smith and Damien Hirst shown alongside contemporary Asian artists including Yue Minjun and Wang Guangyi.

Not to be outdone, Denver’s Museum of Contemporary Art also has a new building underway with London-based architect David Adjaye at the helm. The MCA building should be completed in Spring 2007. Stay tuned.

Posted by Meghan Sheedy, Boulder Studio

Going Once, Going Twice...

Wright, the Chicago-based auction house, will offer Pierre Koenig’s Case Study House #21 (1958) at auction on December 3, 2006. The Los Angeles property has been immaculately restored to the original intent of the architect. The steel and glass residence is surrounded by reflection pools and nestled into the Hollywood Hills. Estimate $2.5-3.5 million.

For New Yorkers, an exclusive Manhattan preview to this auction, along with others from Wright’s upcoming season, is being held at the Urban Glass House located at 330 Spring Street, New York City. The structure represents Philip Johnson’s last residential commission and was designed with the same rigorous attention to detail as his world-famous Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut. This preview event is open to the public November 14-19. Exhibition items will include Poul Kjærholm designs and a 1958 Porsche 356 Speedster from Koenig’s Case Study House, as well as Isamu Noguchi’s rare Prismatic table, which has never before appeared on the market.

Stairway to Finland

The rainy weather in San Francisco gave me the perfect reason to head to a lecture last night at the SFMOMA. It was on Alvar Aalto, a Finnish architect and designer. The lecture was given by Markku Lahti, director of the Alvar Aalto Foundation and Museum. He took us through Aalto’s life (1898-1976) using photos and sharing stories. What I really dug seeing in these images was his use of wood and brick. You can see the brick work in a dorm he was commissioned to do at MIT, as well as a building for the Finnish House of Culture. The variegated brick work is probably too time consuming and costly to be used in today’s buildings. He also had an amazing attention to detail. Aalto made handles for doors, chairs for lobbies, put stairs on the inside, in lobbies, instead of the outside proving that he was really thinking of how light came in and how a simple staircase can be made more communal and more inviting. One of his most famous buildings was the Paimio Sanatorium, a hospital for tuberculosis. He approached the task with extraordinary care, even taking the time to pretend he was sick, laying around on his back for hours.

 

Despite the extreme attention to detail in his buildings, in his day to day life he was the dreamer, letting his wives take care of the details. Both his first and second wives were architects, as well. The lecturer mentioned a funny side note, that Aalto put a bigger stair at the bottom of a stairway in his house so the “lady of the house” could pause for ten seconds on her grand entrance to a dinner party. I love that. And, I’ll leave you with this parting quote of his, “Home is not a place for a design competition.” I like my home to look great, but I also like the idea of leaving some imperfections. Looks like I’m in good company on that one.

Lots of resources online, maybe start with the bio on our site.

Unveiling of the Ban and Maltz House

The Houses at Sagaponac is a development launched by the late Harry J. Brown and Richard Meier, featuring 34 summer homes designed by internationally recognized architects on a 65-acre site. The latest one to open was designed by Shigeru Ban and Dean Maltz, and DWR not only furnished the space but will be hosting the unveiling. Based on an unbuilt Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe brick country house, the Ban and Maltz House also includes artwork curated by Silas Marder Gallery.

Saturday, November 11, 5–7pm
21 Forest Crossing
Houses at Sagaponac
Sagaponack NY 11962

Gehry: The Simpsons, sterling and film

Southern California has been a breeding ground for modernism in architecture since the 1920s, populated by legendary iconic characters like Neutra, Shindler and Eames. There are also living characters of huge influence. The most obvious is Frank Gehry who is arguably the most visible and influential architect of our time. He’s been featured in an episode of The Simpsons and has a signature jewelry line at Tiffany. Global recognition. He’s also the subject of the documentary Sketches of Frank Gehry (2006), which I saw last weekend in a filled-to-capacity theater. (Whether the draw was architecture or air conditioning on a 100º day, I’m not sure, but I recommend the film.)

Just down the road from Gehry in Southern LA, in a spectacular house, lives architect Ray Kappe. His influence in the field may well be as great as Gehry’s though he has never appeared on The Simpsons nor done designer jewelry.

Caps off to Kappe

Congratulations to Ray Kappe, FAIA, on receiving a Lifetime Achievement in Education Award from the Los Angeles Chapter of the Association of Architects (AIA/LA). Kappe is a renowned architect and founder of the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), perhaps the leading architecture school in the country. We met Kappe when we converted one of his buildings into our Beverly Hills Studio. We also had a chance to tour his home, which is as radical as anything you will see today. We are pleased to see Kappe honored.