Lou Kahn: Heroic Genius

Lou Kahn was born today in 1901.

I wrote a little bit about him in this post from 2011.  I don't have much more to add to the volumes that have been written about his work, except to say that he's a personal favorite of mine, and definitely holds a place of honor in my Pantheon.  If documentaries are your thing, you might enjoy My Architect, the documentary film about Kahn, his architecture, and his complex private life, made by his son Nathaniel. It is quite personal and touching, and is one of my favorite architectural documentaries.

Here in SoCal, we are very lucky to have one of the very best of Kahn's masterpieces, the Salk Institute. After Jonas Salk cured polio, he built a massive research institute along the coast at LaJolla. According to the Salk Institute website,

The Salk Institute was established in the 1960s by Jonas Salk, M.D., the developer of the polio vaccine. His goal was to establish an institute that would explore questions about the basic principles of life. He wanted to make it possible for biologists and others to work together in a collaborative environment that would encourage them to consider the wider implications of their discoveries for the future of humanity.

Jonas Salk had a distinct vision for the Salk Institute as he worked with scientists and architects to create a new paradigm for research and collaboration.

In December 1959, Salk and architect Louis Kahn began a unique partnership to design such a facility. Salk summarized his aesthetic objectives by telling the architect to "create a facility worthy of a visit by Picasso." Kahn, who was a devoted artist before he became an architect, was able to respond to this challenge.

Last summer, I got to spend a little time at the Salk, during an outing from OCON.  We spent a leisurely hour and a half or so, wandering around the outdoor passageways and courtyards.  Although the building is most famous for its epic main courtyard and orientation to the Pacific Ocean, I find the most compelling part to be the complex layering of spaces comprising the stairwells and balconies around the researchers' private studies.

So, without further ado, here are my pictures from that day (the first and last were by Eric, and the rest were mine.)

 

Raymond Loewy 1893 - 1986

Today we celebrate the birthday of design giant Raymond Loewy, one of my all-time favorite designers.

I discovered Loewy when I was in high school. I was into cars, and became aware that he had done a lot of the styling for Studebaker in the '50s, so I got some books on him from the library to learn more. I had been raised with a healthy amount of respect for the maxim, "if it ain't broke don't fix it" but Loewy had the opposite approach: that there wasn't a single thing that existed that couldn't be improved. His books, Never Leave Well Enough Alone and Industrial Design, were a huge influence on me as a young man contemplating a design career.

Loewy was a design powerhouse, helping to create the modern look of America in the 20th Century. He designed everything from household objects to corporate logos, cars for Studebaker (including both the iconic bullet-nose look from the early '50s and later their Avanti), locomotives, and even conceptual designs for some NASA projects.

I wish I had more of my own images of Loewy's work but alas, this is a glaring hole in my image library. Instead I will link to other sources and let you check them out for yourself. (I really hate to post others' photos here, and don't have time today to sort out permissions, etc.)

Here is a general image search under Raymond Loewy, to give you a general flavor.

Here is the classic bullet-nose Studebaker.

Don't forget Fozzie Bear's bullet nose Studebaker (from Muppet Wikia)

Link to the Studebaker Museum, South Bend, Indiana.

Loewy's design for the Avanti, including lots of great drawings.

Also, there is a lot of stuff (largely ceramics but some other really cool things as well) designed by Raymond Loewy available on Ebay here.

Before writing this, I didn't realize the extent to which the Estate of Raymond Loewy was active today, but there is www.RaymondLoewy.com which claims to be "the official site of Raymond Loewy", as well as www.RaymondLoewy.org which seems to be the home of Loewy Design of Marietta, Georgia.  In addition to these two, there is also http://www.loewymuseum.org, which appears to be the efforts of Loewy Design to found a museum around Loewy's work. I'm glad to see that they are actively pursuing the promotion of his legacy, and would be very excited to see them build a museum!

If you are interested in 20th Century industrial design and/or automotive design, then you might also want to learn more about the following related designers:  Henry Dreyfuss, Norman Bel Geddes, Walter Dorwin Teague, Virgil Exner, Brooks Stevens, Zora Arkus-Duntov, Harley Earl. Not all of these Wikipedia entries are very elaborate, but could be a good starting point for more research. There are probably a lot of really great used books out there on these designers, that could be had for cheap at www.abebooks.com.

Celebrating Frank Lloyd Wright's Birthday, 2012 Edition

Last year I inaugurated my Birthdays of the Great Ones series on this date with Frank Lloyd Wright.  I enjoy the little inspirational boost I get from this series. (Looking back, I guess I didn't post as many of these as I added to my Google Calendar. Hopefully I'll be better at it in the coming year.)

And now a year has gone by, and we're back around to Mr. Wright.  Here are a few links on Wright and his work for your edification and Friday enjoyment.

ArchDaily has a nice little piece on Wright today with a lovely photo of Fallingwater surrounded by colorful autumn leaves.

Here is an enjoyable lecture by historian Robert Twombly, discussing the relationship between Wright and his mentor Louis Sullivan. I listened to this on the plane back from ATLOSCON.  It's about an hour long. As I recall, the audio is a little rough at first, but it gets better after a minute or two. He does an good job of fact-checking a lot of the dates and assertions put forth by Wright regarding his relationship to and work for Sullvan, and has an interesting take on Wright's moonlighting and subsequent firing from Sullivan's office.

Of course there's always Wikipedia's entry on Wright for the relatively brief overview of his long career.

He didn't get a Google Doodle this year, but he got one in 2005, which you can see here. I can recognize the Larkin Building (I think, in yellow), the Guggenheim, and of course Fallingwater. I don't quite see what the little cube next to the red O is supposed to be.

Lastly, you can also check out my posts from last year, where I posted a YouTube video of Wright from the early days of television, and some photos from my visit to Fallingwater a few years ago.

Reflections on Randsday

Today we're celebrating Ayn Rand's birthday, here at Creatures of Prometheus.  Harry Binswanger has come up with a really great way of marking the occasion: the creation of a new holiday, Randsday.  

To celebrate Randsday, you do something not done on any other holiday: you give yourself a present. Randsday is for getting that longed-for luxury you ordinarily would not buy for yourself. Or for doing that long-postponed, self-pampering activity you cannot seem to fit into your chore-packed schedule...On Randsday, if you do something that you ordinarily would think of as “fun,” you do it on a different premise and with a deeper meaning: that you need pleasure, you are entitled to it, and that the purpose and justification of your existence is: getting what you want—what you really want, with full consciousness and dedication.

Getting what you want, with full consciousness and dedication.  Getting what you really want, not just as a whim or an impulse, but, rather, getting what you really want out of your life.

Randsday is about pursuing your happiness. It's about recognizing that your life belongs to you, and only to you, and that you only get one, and it's short, and so you better get busy, because if you don't pursue your own happiness it's not like someone is just going to come around and hand you some.  You have to earn it.

So when you treat yourself to that special Randsday present (which, for me, is that Kindle Touch I've been wanting for weeks now), remember these words:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.  

Your life belongs to you.  Go live it.

Sam Maloof Exhibit at the Huntington

A nice collection of the work of iconic Southern California furniture maker Sam Maloof, along with many other artists and craftsmen in his circle, has been on exhibit at the Huntington since September; Roomie and I finally made it over there last Sunday to have a look and get inspired.

Maloof started out in the early 1950s, and this show presented examples of his work from private collections through 1985.  Below are my favorite pieces from the show, presented in roughly chronological order, which is the order in which they were displayed in the exhibit.

String Chair

I like this chair for its simplicity, low proportions, and the unexpected, fun shape of the rear legs. It makes me want to do something similar in steel as a study piece.

Celebrating John Lautner's 100th Birthday

Periodically, I sit down and avail myself of the Googles and Wikipedia to find birthdays of great architects and designers I admire.  I add them to my calendar, with the intent to blog my own little celebrations of them as they roll around throughout the year.

If you have any suggestions for me to add to the list, please feel free to chime in, in the comments.

There haven't been any for a few weeks now (of the ones I've added to my list thus far). Today we have a big one to celebrate.  Today marks the Centennial of John Lautner's birth.

Lautner was one of Frank Lloyd Wright's more illustrious proteges, and has a special place in my personal Pantheon. Lautner wasn't just another good architect.  He was an incredible visionary and innovator.

Rather than go on at length about Lautner's career, as the Wikipedia article linked above does, I'm keeping it short today, but don't worry, there's much more to come.

This summer, the John Lautner Foundation is holding a whole series of events to celebrate, including a tour next weekend of private Lautner homes in the L.A. area.  I bought my ticket this morning, and couldn't be more excited.  The tour is a little pricey at $100 but worth every penny, IMO.  You can get yours here.  Join me for the tour!  I'll have my camera with me and expect to take lots, and lots, and lots of pictures.

I plan to do a separate post for each house on the tour.  The tour includes (links are to Google image searches for each house) the Harpel House (1956), Jacobsen House (1956), Schwimmer House (1982) and Sheats/Goldstein House (1963/1989).

Stay tuned!  And raise a glass to the genius of John Lautner today!

Frank Lloyd Wright on What's My Line

As we continue our celebration of Frank Lloyd Wright's birthday:  Here is a clip of Wright that I found on YouTube.  Wright appeared on the game show What's My Line on June 3, 1956.

It's a little long but very fun to watch.  I love how he signs his name on the chalkboard at the beginning.

Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright was born today in 1867.

Wright's design philosophy was heavily influenced by his association with Louis Sullivan, as well as the writings of the French architect Eugene-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc.  These two originated the idea that architecture must be grounded in, and exemplary of, the highest and best aspects of the technology and culture out of which it arises.  

Viollet-le-Duc came first; Sullivan further developed his ideas, originating the well-known formulation, "Form Follows Function".  Without their fundamental guiding principles, Wright might have been a talented designer, but would not likely have reached the heights he did in his career.  I describe the philosophical link shared by these three giants in the talk I gave recently at ATLOSCON, and which I will give again at the Chicago Objectivist Society's conference this coming Labor Day weekend.

As a celebration of his fabulous contribution to my very Top Value, I offer a few snaps of my visit to one of his greatest achievements, Fallingwater.  The house was completed in the late 1930s, while Wright was in his late 60s.  When most people would be at retirement age, Wright was in his prime.