Archive for December, 2011

Structural Similarities in the Work of Wallace Neff and Buckminster Fuller

(Post Under construction. Stay tuned)

 

Jeffrey Head’s fascinating article, ‘Bubble’ born, then burst in the December 31, 2011 issue of the Los Angeles Times immediately brought to mind a recent article I have been working on which delves into the structural aspects of dome-like structures. (See Living Lightly on the Land: Bernard Judge’s “Triponent” and “Tree” Houses). Head’s in-depth research into the pioneering Airform work of Wallace Neff has resulted in a new book, No Nails, No Lumber: The Bubble Houses of Wallace Neff just released by Princeton Architectural Press which I just ordered. Head’s book will seemingly build upon the solid foundation laid by Diane Kanner in her chapter “The Bubble House” in the highly recommended Wallace Neff and the Grand Houses of the Golden State in which the below photo appears. (See my William Krisel and George Alexander in Hollywood for more on Neff’s Beverly Hills houses for Hollywood celebrities and Frederick L. Roehrig: The Millionaire’s Architect for details on Neff’s childhood in La Mirada).

 

Industrial Laundry for Pacific Linen Supply, Vernon, 1944. Wallace Neff, Architect. Photograph by Maynard Parker courtesy Huntngton Library Maynard Parker Collection.

The above and below Maynard Parker construction photos of Neff’s largest realized Airform project, 32-ft. tall and 100 ft. in diameter, constructed in 1944 to house an industrial laundry for the Pacific Linen Supply Co. indicate the use of a central mast to help hoist and support the Goodyear Neoprene balloon (see below) used as the interior form for the sprayed-on gunite outer wall. (For more photos go to the Huntington Library’s excellent Maynard Parker Collection).
Central mast used to facilitate construction of the Pacigic Linen Supply laundry facility. Photograph by Maynard Parker courtesy Huntngton Library Maynard Parker Collection.

 

Central mast used to facilitate construction of the Pacigic Linen Supply laundry facility. Photograph by Maynard Parker courtesy Huntngton Library Maynard Parker Collection.

 

Early Buckminster Fuller Dymaxion House studies, 1927. (From “Your Private Sky,” pp. 142-3).).

 

Having begun his conceptual “Dymaxion House” central mast investigations as early as 1927 (see above), I couldn’t help but think of  the similarly employed mast in the erection of the Buckminster Fuller’s patented design of the first ever aluminum dome at Henry Kaiser’s Hilton Hawaiian Village in Honolulu in 1957. (See below). Fuller and Neff were undoubtedly aware of each other’s experimental work as they both had similar visions of landing war-time housing contracts which never came to fruition. Both Neff and Fuller patented their designs but Fuller was much more successful in globally licensing and marketing his concept. (See Living Lightly on the Land).

Hilton Hawaiian Village Dome, 1957. After 15 working hours about two-thirds of the dome is completed. (From “Your Private Sky,” p. 383).


Model a parametric version of Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion House, ca. 1930. From DesignByMany.
 

Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. Airform Storage Bins, Litchfield, AZ, 1943. Photograph by Maynard Parker courtesy Huntngton Library Maynard Parker Collection.

 

In his Los Angeles Times piece, Jeffrey Head stated that Neff’s Airforms were used for wine storage facilities in Portugal and grain bins and Jordan. The above image from the Huntington Library Parker Collection also includes Airform grain storage bins built in Litchfield, Arizona in 1943. Ironically, during World War II Fuller was experimenting with ways to adapt off-the-shelf Butler grain storage silos into cheap, low-cost housing. (See below). Materials shortages during the war fostered endless experimentation and innovation into construction materials and building techniques that would bode well for the post-war home-building industry.

Wallace Neff inspecting Airform House. Photograph by Maynard Parker courtesy Huntington Library Maynard Parker Collection.

 

Dymaxion Deployment Unit ca. 1941. Image courtesy of the Google-hosted LIFE photo archive.

Dymaxion Deployment Unit under construction, 1940.  (From Your Private Sky: R. Buckminster Fuller, edited by Joachim Krausse and Claude Lichtenstein, Lars Muller, 1999, p. 214).

Fuller’s earlier studies coupled with his anecdotal accident of seeing a grain bin, led him to develop the version of the Dymaxion Deployment Unit seen above. Commissioned by the army for field housing, hundreds of these units were shipped to the Persian Gulf during World War Two. Fuller’s continued research into this production method led to the development of the Wichita House in 1946. (See below).

Installing the ventilator on the Wichita House, Wichita, Kansas, 1946.
From “Your Private Sky,” p. 245.

Structural engineer Richard Bradshaw recently reminisced of his relationship with Neff and his Mexican domes,

“Wallace Neff sort of adopted me. He came over to my office many times. The stuff I was designing seemed to fascinate him. I think he was a frustrated structural form enthusiast but had never met anyone who actually had familiarity with them. The only engineering I actually did for him was his Mexico gunite domes. (See below). They were built and I guess they used the Goodyear forms to build them.” (Richard Bradshaw to John Crosse e-mail, December 31, 2011).

Head, Jeffrey, ‘Bubble’ born, then burst, Los Angeles Times, December 31, 2011, pp. E4-5.

 

Diane Kanner interestingly wrote in her Neff biography that the above 1949 Mexico City school composed of seven Airforms was painted by renowned muralist Diego Rivera. (Kanner, p. 194).

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Gordon Drake’s First Project: The Lt. and Mrs. H. M. Drake Residence, Coronado, 1939-40

(Post Under Construction. Stay Tuned)
In the meantime, for more on Drake go to my The Post-War Publicity Partnership of Julius Shulman and Gordon Drake.
Photo courtesy of Drake’s great nephew, Gordon Converse Hiler Drake.
The precocious Gordon Converse Drake received his first architectural notoriety in the spring of 1940 while still a student at USC for the design of his brother Max’s house at 374 Avenue D on Coronado Island in San Diego. (See above). He designed and built the house in 1939, two years after enrolling in USC’s School of Architecture and Fine Arts while under the tutelage of Carl Troedsson, first as a student and later a draftsman in his private practice. Drake won the special award for architecture in USC’s annual Art Appoliad for his “House in Coronado” which was exhibited in the Fisher Gallery on the USC Campus. (See below). (“Creative Art Contest Winning Entries Show”, Los Angeles Times, May 1, 1940, p. I-10).
Los Angeles Times, May 1, 1940, p. II-10.
Blueprint courtesy of Drake’s great nephew, Gordon Converse Hiler Drake.
Photo courtesy of Drake’s great nephew, Gordon Converse Hiler Drake.
Photo courtesy of Drake’s great nephew, Gordon Converse Hiler Drake.
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Raphael Soriano: An Annotated and Illustrated Bibliography

Raphael Soriano, frontispiece photo from his oral history Substance and Form, Interviewed by Marlene L. Laskey, Completed under the auspices of the Oral History Program University of California Los Angeles, 1988. Photographer unknown.

Introduction

I would like to acknowledge Julius Shulman for the inspiration to create this bibliography. As I gradually became an avid fan and collector of material pertaining to Southern California modernist architecture over the last few years, I grew to appreciate the great importance of Shulman’s legacy in chronicling its evolution and growth. I also started to realize the ubiquitousness of his images in the architectural literature and on the covers of same. I approached him a couple years ago and asked if he had ever thought of doing a book which would collect all of the covers from books, shelter magazines, and architectural journals that his photos have graced. He liked the idea and invited me up to his idyllic Raphael Soriano-designed studio in the Hollywood Hills. After an introductory chat he told me to open the doors to his closet and pull down some of the dusty old 8X10 Kodak film storage boxes from the top shelf. They were stuffed to the gills with clippings and tear sheets he had saved over the years from various articles containing his photos. As we rummaged we found numerous covers he had long forgotten about and which I had never seen.

Thus began a journey on which there seems to be no end. Julius gave me much encouragement and allowed me free reign to browse, and catalogue his studio archives. He also graciously shared with me his assignment log book which contains over 7,000 records and counting as he continues to work beyond his 98th birthday. He introduced me to important historians, film makers and archivists and regaled me with anecdotes on his assignments and clients. To date we have uncovered over 800 covers on which his photos have appeared. Julius has chosen the title “Julius Shulman Covers Up” for this effort and uses it with an impish twinkle in his eyes. While conducting my exhaustive search for Shulman covers I began compiling an annotated bibliography of all the publications his work has appeared in. It has become a labor of love which now approaches 8,000 items. It has also provided focus to, and facilitated my collecting efforts.

Publication in 2008 of Julius Shulman: The Building of My Home and Studio and Julius Shulman Does His Own House by Nazraeli Press motivated me to learn more about the architect Raphael Soriano. A logical starting point for me was to perform a “Soriano” search in my aforementioned Julius Shulman Annotated Bibliography.. The search resulted in 265 articles with Shulman photos of Soriano projects. Shulman has logged close to 50 assignments on Soriano projects over the years for various clients ranging from Soriano himself to book and article authors, magazine editors, newspaper reporters, exhibition curators, homeowners and realtors. He also used his considerable marketing skills and contacts with publishers and editors to help spread the gospel of modernism according to Soriano to a global audience.

This bibliography compiles my Shulman-Soriano findings with the excellent bibliographic foundation laid by Wolfgang Wagener in his excellent 2002 biography Raphael Soriano published by Phaidon Press. Esther McCoy’s groundbreaking The Second Generation published in 1984 by Gibbs Smith had additional bibliographic material and Neil Jackson’s 1996 The Modern Steel House published by Van Nostrand Reinhold was also helpful. Building upon these sources, exhaustive searches were also done on ProQuest, Los Angeles Times Historical, RIBA, Avery, WorldCat, WilsonWeb, Art Index, Google and many other databases and sources resulting in well over 350 items discovered to date.

The bibliography is assembled chronologically by year and contains selected images from my private collection which illustrate the close friendship shared by Shulman and Soriano. Shulman’s eventual choice of Soriano as architect for his own house over Neutra is indicative of that bond. Shulman’s publishing contacts gained through his assignments for Richard Neutra opened doors for all of his other clients. Through this network Shulman ensured that Soriano’s work was published in all the important literature of the early modern movement throughout the 1940s and early 1950s as evidenced by the illustrations herein.

The reader is also directed to Soriano’s oral history, Substance and Form, to gain insight into the personality and character of this now legendary figure. He expounds in his own inimitable style on John Entenza, the Case Study House Program, Esther McCoy and his colleagues and is a truly fascinating read. Click on the link below to go to the bibliography.

Feedback on ways to improve this compilation and submittals of new items and sources for inclusion is always welcome as I intend to update this bibliography periodically.
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Besides making a public comment below, feel free to contact me privately if you wish at jocrosse@ca.rr.com