10 Designers/Architects

Frank Lloyd Wright with John Lautner behind him (in vest) at Taliesin

The Chemoshere House-Lautner

John Lautner (1911-1994) was born in Michigan and was deeply inspired by the beauty of the northern woods and the blue waters of Lake Michigan. He spent his professional life exploring the "relationship of human beings to space and of space to nature". He wrote that we should work to create a "beautiful architecture...to daily increase the joy in life."Architecture should be "alive, fresh, and exhilarating" as well as "solid and enduring." Lautner never graduated from an accredited school of architecture, but he apprenticed with Frank Lloyd Wright for six years, and collaborated with him on many projects. His work reflected Wright's ideas of fitting buildings into a landscape, using a human scale, and incorporating natural materials and views into design. After he finished his apprenticeship much of Lautner's work was in Los Angeles, although he designed buildings for places as far away as Australia. He moved far beyond the Prairie Style, using organic and often dramatic, geometric shapes in buildings. Large, clear span interiors are found in many of his structures. He considered concrete to be the ultimate building material because it could take on so many shapes.
His most famous house may be the Chemosphere House (see photo, above) which the Encyclopedia Britannica calls, "the most modern house" ever built. And, in fact, it looks as if it were taken straight out of the Jetsons (or more likely, the Jetsons' house was inspired by the Chemosphere House.) Other significant buildings include: Silvertop, the Sheats house, the Arango house, the Elrod residence, the Segal residence, and the restaurants Henry's, Googies, and Tina Naylors.

Fallingwater--Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959): Wright is arguably the most well-known American architect, and Fallingwater (above) one of our most recognizable residences. Wright was born in Wisconsin and attended a few semesters at the University of Wisconsin in the School of Engineering. He never graduated, instead he moved to Chicago and worked for a short time in the offices of J.B. Silsbee, before working at Adler and Sullivan. He was greatly influenced by Louis Sullivan's dictum that, "Form ever follows function" and that architecture should reconcile nature with science and technology.
Wright is most noted for the Prairie Style houses. These were low structures, usually L or T shaped, with strong horizontal lines, intended to merge into the flat mid western landscape. Materials included brick, wood and plaster. The interiors were usually built around a central chimney. Rather than closed off, separate rooms, Wright created broad open spaces delineated by screens, shelves, and other furnishings. His rooms were "overlapping and interpenetrating with areas of shared space." The Robie House is considered the epitome of this style.

The Robie House--Wright

He involved himself in the interior details including fabrics, stained glass, furniture, and carpeting, and even went so far as to sometimes design clothes for clients. All this whether the clients wanted him to or not! He fervently believed that, "the architect is the maker of men" and he meant to design environments that met his vision of a supportive space. He said, "Early in life I had to choose between honest arrogance and hypocritical humility. I chose the former and have seen no occasion to change." It's interesting that a man so committed to creating human spaces, and spaces that merge with natural settings was himself so rigid.
Wright's home and studio in Wisconsin, named Taliesin was filled with apprentices, including John Lautner (see previous entry). A fire started by a servant killed his wife and several members of his household and destroyed the buildings. Later, Wright built Taliesin West as a winter retreat in Arizona.
Wright focussed on residences, but two non-residential buildings were so influential here and in Europe that they helped bring the art-nouveau movement to an end, and provided a new direction in architecture. These buildings were the Larkin Administration Building in Buffalo, NY and the Unity Church in Oak Park, Illinois.

The Quarry by Doris Leeper, 1962

Doris Leeper (1929-2000) Leeper was a painter and sculptor, and so not technically a "designer". However, she has been important to me, as she opened my eyes and mind to what art can be. In 1962 my mother bought one of her paintings, The Quarry. It's roughly 4' by 5', a sweep of whites and blues, roughly textured. I loved the colors, the motion, and the way I could see the form even though it was not "realistic". In the conservative climate of Raleigh, NC in 1962 it was one of a kind.
Leeper did a series of Quarry paintings and later moved on to sculptures. She moved to New Smyrna, Florida where she founded both an artists' colony, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, and was instrumental in creating the 57,000 acre Canaveral National Seashore. Her estate donated over 100 pieces of her work to the University of Central Florida College of Arts and Sciences.

Lovell House--Neutra

Richard Neutra (1892-1990). Neutra was born in Vienna, Austria but he later lived and worked in California. Contemporaries and influences included Le Corbusier, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. He is recognized as introducing the International Style to Southern California and for introducing Los Angeles architecture to Europe. He was trained not only in design, but also in methods of construction. This knowledge allowed him to design and build on very steep slopes and to use materials in daring and dramatic new forms. He worked mostly in residential design, and his most famous home is the Lovell house (picture above). This house, like many of his structures, incorporated metal frames finished with stucco. Much of the structure was made off site and then brought to the site for construction. The house was industrial-looking, and pavilion-styled with sweeping flat surfaces. Two big "wow factors" in the Lovell House were the balconies that were supported by thin cables slung from the roof line, and a U-shaped concrete "cradle" for the pool. His patios, porches, and balconies blurred the boundaries between inside and outside. Another important Neutra residence is the Kaufman house. (Are these the same Kaufman's that owned Fallingwater?!)

Little Ajax--Gluck

Peter Gluck (currently practicing): Peter Gluck is an unapologetic modernist. He cites AlvarAalto and Louis Kahn as his "architectural heroes". He also spent several years in Japan after graduating from the Yale School of Architecture, and a subtle Japanese Modernist sensibility can be seen in many of his buildings.
He is an outspoken critic of the American Institute of Architecture, (AIA )and the architectural industry in general, believing it is too concerned with legal liability and farmed out actual construction to contractors. He believes the AIA is less interested in practicing architectural excellence than it is in promoting and protecting its members. Gluck, in contrast, holds that the architect should be responsible of all phases of creating a building. So his company, Architectural Construction Services, provides services from concept through design and construction at an "affordable cost". Whereas he once designed homes for upper income clients, he is now deeply committed to creating homes and communities that are affordable to middle and lower middle income families. The Little Ajax Affordable Housing Project in Aspen is one of these (picture above). Ironically, the AIA gave Gluck an award for this development based on its green/sustainability features.

Ministry of Health and Education--Niemeyer

Oscar Niemeyer (1907- ). Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer is most noted for his work on the United Nations Building in New York City (along with Le Corbusier and others in 1947) and for being the chief architect of the city of Brasilia, which was created on barren land in the center of Brazil as its new, modern capital in the late 1950s. In collaboration with Le Corbusier, he designed the first state sponsored skyscraper: the Ministry of Health and Education in Rio de Janeiro. (above). Although a modernist he was also influenced by Brazilian Baroque. He used the very new material of reinforced concrete to create dramatic and sensuous concave and convex curves. He called his style "Ionic" modern and compared to the "Doric" blocky forms used by many of his contemporaries. The Copan Building in Sao Paulo (picture below) is a good example. Some have criticized Niemeyer for being more of a sculptor than an architect. Regardless it's clear he has created an architecture for Brazil that has influenced design around the world.

Copan Building--Niemeyer

The Ball Chair--Aarnio

Eero Aarnio (b. 1932) Born in Finland, Aarnio studied at the Institute of Industrial Arts in Helsinki from 1954-1957. Aarnio did much to define the look of the 1960's. He explored the organic shapes and vivid colors that can only be manufactured from plastics. He created the Ball (above), the Bubble, and the Pastil chairs--all from molded plastic. His designs are playful and engaging.

TWA building--Saarinen

Eero Saarinen (1910-1961): Another great Finnish architect and designer, Saarinen studied in Paris and in the U.S. at Yale University. His first interest was sculpture, but then he chose to study architecture. He worked with his father , Eliel Saarinen, until his death.
The younger Saarinen used unique and innovative shapes, but always kept his buildings practical and functional. He moved between the International Style and Expressionism. His buildings often featured dramatic curves and cantilevers. The most famous building was the TWA terminal (and above) at JFK Airport in New York.
Saarinen also designed a collection of furniture in collaboration with Charles Eames for a Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) competition in 1940. He later developed a successful line of furniture for the Knoll International.

Eames House--Eames

Charles Eames (1907 -1978) and Ray Eames (1912 -1988) were a married couple famous for furniture design, particularly the Eames Chair. They also created puzzles, children's toys, films, and the iconic Eames House and theEntenza House in the Pacific Palisades. In 1941 Charles was a set designer for MGM studios. "Open, organic, and emotionally expressive" were the hallmarks of their designs and of their lives. Their first designs were made of plywood, fabricated in a spare room of their Neutra apartment. Once they began making money and had a separate studio their use of materials expanded to fiberglass, plastic, and aluminum. Much of their furniture was sold to "Corporate America" and was a status symbol for executives. This was true of the Eames Lounge Chair manufactured by Herman Miller.

Eames Lounge Chair

However, the Eames also made more folk crafted works that the sold in the U.S. and India. See this site for a lively biography of the couple. The Eames also made the spectacular film, Powers of 10, which is a wonderful visual guide to --well--powers of 10. I used this in my math class one year and the students really loved it. Cool! I had no idea about the Eames connection!
After Charles died in 1978, Ray continued to work on projects that they had already started, but she did not take on any new projects. She died 10 years to the day after her husband.

Proximity Hotel--Dennis Quaintance (developer/owner)

Dennis Quaitance, (currently practicing): Dennis Quaitance, is not an architect but he had embarked on career of designing hotels and restaurants. He,along with Nancy King Quaitance and Mike Weaver are the owners of Quaitance-Weaver Restaurants and Hotels. They designed, own and operate Lucky 32 Restaurant, the Green Valley Grille, and O'Henry's hotel all in Greensboro, NC. Now they are opening the Proximity Hotel which will be only the 2nd hotel in the country to achieve the gold level rating from Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Green Building Rating System.
Quaintance started out as a housekeeping assistant in Missoula Montana at the age of 15, and over the years worked his way up in the hotel and restaurant industry, gaining experience for a number of 4 and 5 star hotels and restaurants.