Pierre Koenig, Architect's Designs Personify Modernism, 78
DGH
Pierre Koenig, whose sleek glass-and-steel houses became emblems of
the progressive values of Postwar suburbia, died Sunday of leukemia at
his home in Brentwood, California, at the age of 78.
As part of a group of architects that also included Charles and Ray
Eames, Raphael Soriano and Craig Ellwood, Koenig was a key figure in a
generation that helped make Los Angeles one of the great laboratories
of 20th century architecture. Of these visionaries, Koenig seemed best
able to capture the hopes and anxieties of California's booming middle
class.
His reputation in large part rests on the creation of two houses —
Case Study House #21 and #22 — that were completed in 1959 and 1960 as
part of an ambitious program that sought to introduce the values of
Modernist architecture to suburbia. Clean abstract compositions, with
a powerful relationship to their natural context, they exist as
enduring emblems to Cold War America's faith in technological progress
and its transformative powers.
"Until the end of his life he remained an ardent believer in
industrial materials and prefabricated systems — the idea that life
could be improved through architecture," said Elizabeth Smith, who
curated the 1989 Case Study show, "Blueprints for Modern Living" at
Los Angeles' [California] Museum of Contemporary Art.
The son of a salesman, Koenig was born in San Francisco, California.
He often recalled taking walks along the city's industrial waterfront,
where he became fascinated with the massive steel cranes and merchant
ships that were potent symbols of American industrial prowess.
The family moved to Southern California in 1939. After returning from
a four-year tour in the Army during World War II, Koenig enrolled at
USC's school of architecture.
By then, architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright, R.M. Schindler and
Richard Neutra had already built a number of major architectural works
that sought to adapt the Modernist aesthetic to Southern California.
These architects were drawn by the city's vast open tracts of land,
its distance from the often oppressive conventions of traditional
cities. They helped create a climate of architectural experimentation
that was unrivaled anywhere else in the U.S. at that time.
Koenig — a precocious talent — fit neatly into this tradition. His
first house was completed in 1950, while he was still a student at
USC, and is an expression of many of the themes that would concern him
throughout his career. Built at a modest cost of $5,000, the house was
a model of industrial efficiency. Its L-shaped form was supported on
slender steel columns and capped by a corrugated metal roof. Sliding
doors opened onto a small private garden. Inside, more sliding
partitions separated living and sleeping areas.
Other projects, such as the 1953 Lamel House in Glendale and the 1957
Burwash House in Tujunga, signaled Koenig's early mastery of
composition and form. Mostly designed of affordable Industrial Age
materials, they were a reflection of Le Corbusier's famous dictum that
houses were "machines for living." The difference was Koenig's ability
to root such ideas in the particular ethos of suburban L.A., with its
trim lawns and whirring appliances. In Koenig's mind, the ideal house
would one day be mass-produced "just like a car."
The breakthrough came a few years later, when Arts & Architecture
editor John Entenza tapped the emerging architect for his Case Study
House program. Nestled within its canyon site in the Hollywood Hills,
Case Study House #21 was conceived as an idealized blend of natural
and man-made landscapes. In an effort to dissolve the boundaries
between inside and out, Koenig surrounded the house's simple geometric
form with a series of reflecting pools. Large windows and skylights
flooded the interior with natural light. The house's steel frame,
meanwhile, gave it a striking ephemeral beauty. In essence, the entire
structure was nothing more than a conceptual frame — one that defined
an almost utopian relationship between man and nature.
By comparison, Case Study House #22, completed two years later, was
high drama — one in which the entire city becomes part of the
architect's composition. Approached along a winding street set high in
the Hollywood Hills, the house first appears as a blank concrete
screen. From here, the visitor steps out onto a concrete deck that
overlooks a swimming pool. Just beyond it, the house's living room —
enclosed in a glass-and steel-frame — cantilevers out from the edge of
the hill toward the horizon.
The house was immortalized in a now famous image taken by the
architectural photographer Julius Shulman. In it, two women, clad in
immaculate white cocktail dresses, are perched on the edge of their
seats in the glass-enclosed living room, their pose suggesting a kind
of sanitized suburban bliss. A night view of the city spreads out
beneath them, an endless grid of twinkling lights that perfectly
captures the infinite hopes of the postwar American dream.
The image helped establish Koenig as the poster boy of the Case Study
program. But it also served to cloud its importance as a work of
architecture. Set on axis with L.A.'s urban grid, the house evokes a
fragment of the suburban landscape that has been somehow dislodged and
is floating free in space. The bedrooms are nestled close to the
street at the back of the space, setting up a delicious tension
between security and freedom. Only the shimmering surface of the
water, reflected on the vast expanses of glass, evokes the deeper
psychological realities that may or may not lurk beneath the house's
highly polished surfaces.
Perhaps no house, in fact, better sums up the mix of outward
confidence and psychic unease that defined Cold War America. The
design suggests a culture charging toward an unknown future. At the
same time, its structural bravado reminds us of the social instability
that this leap implied.
"I think the slickness of the Shulman image makes people forget that
these were really experiments," said Sylvia Lavin, chair of UCLA's
department of architecture and urban design. "It is important to
remember the risks they took. They were really trying to create a way
of life that they believed in. It was really a calling. With Koenig,
part of the evidence is that he stayed the course, even when it was no
longer fashionable."
Koenig, in fact, went on to complete a number of important, mostly
residential commissions during the 1960s. Among the most unusual was
the 1963 Iwata House in Monterey Park, conceived as a series of
stacked, rectangular forms whose louvered facades open onto stunning
mountain views.
But by the end of the decade, the architect's stripped down Modernist
aesthetic had largely fallen out of favor with an architectural
establishment that no longer believed in Modernism's social promise.
What is more, the architectural values he championed relegated him to
the fringes of a profession that was increasingly caught up with
mimicking older, historic precedents. As such, most of Koenig's time
in his later years was spent teaching, first running a design studio
at USC, then as director of the school's Natural Forces Laboratory,
whose aim is to raise awareness of structural and environmental issues
in the profession.
The "Blueprints for Modern Living" show brought renewed focus on the
Case Study program, and Koenig's work enjoyed a sudden revival. The
show included a full-sized replica of his famous Case Study House #22.
And since then, the clean lines and sensual undertones of such late
Modernist works have made them sought after status items among the
city's cultural and fashion elites.
Hyfler/Rosner
"DGH" <peri...@eudoramail.com> wrote in message
news:d2b22a7d.04040...@posting.google.com...
> .
>
> Pierre Koenig, whose sleek glass-and-steel houses became
emblems of
> the progressive values of Postwar suburbia, died Sunday of
leukemia at
> his home in Brentwood, California, at the age of 78.
>
> As part of a group of architects that also included
Charles and Ray
> Eames, Raphael Soriano and Craig Ellwood, Koenig was a key
figure in a
> generation that helped make Los Angeles one of the great
laboratories
> of 20th century architecture. Of these visionaries, Koenig
seemed best
> able to capture the hopes and anxieties of California's
booming middle
> class.
>
> His reputation in large part rests on the creation of two
houses -
> Case Study House #21 and #22 - that were completed in 1959
and 1960 as
> part of an ambitious program that sought to introduce the
values of
> Modernist architecture to suburbia. Clean abstract
compositions, with
> a powerful relationship to their natural context, they
exist as
> enduring emblems to Cold War America's faith in
technological progress
> and its transformative powers.
>
> "Until the end of his life he remained an ardent believer
in
> industrial materials and prefabricated systems - the idea
> Koenig - a precocious talent - fit neatly into this
> structure was nothing more than a conceptual frame - one
that defined
> an almost utopian relationship between man and nature.
>
> By comparison, Case Study House #22, completed two years
later, was
> high drama - one in which the entire city becomes part of
the
> architect's composition. Approached along a winding street
set high in
> the Hollywood Hills, the house first appears as a blank
concrete
> screen. From here, the visitor steps out onto a concrete
deck that
> overlooks a swimming pool. Just beyond it, the house's
living room -
> enclosed in a glass-and steel-frame - cantilevers out from
Robert Feigel (aka Bob)
wrote:
>I posted this earlier.
>
>
>"DGH" <peri...@eudoramail.com> wrote in message
>news:d2b22a7d.04040...@posting.google.com...
>> .
>>
And again, by the looks of it! ;-)b
<mucho snippo>
"When weaving nets, all threads count." - Charlie Chan
********
Wax-up and drop-in of Surfing's Golden Years: <http://www.surfwriter.net>
Hyfler/Rosner
"Robert Feigel (aka Bob)" <aka...@surfwriter.net.not> wrote
in message >
> And again, by the looks of it! ;-)b
>
> <mucho snippo>
Right you are. Apologies.
Robert Feigel (aka Bob)
wrote:
As you and DGH are two of this ng's most prolific contributors of
excellent & entertaining ON-topic material your apology is not only
accepted, but totally unnecessary. Thank you anyway ... :-)b