Left, Salk Institute, Louis Kahn, photo by Grant Mudford; center & right, Bourne Hall, Anshen + Allen, LA, photos courtesy Anshen + Allen LA.Bourns Hall College of Engineering at UC Riverside (1996) is one of a series of projects by Anshen + Allen, LA, that learn from Louis Kahn’s Salk Institute (1959-65). It embraces and transforms concepts developed for the Salk, which include flexible and adaptable modular laboratories, highly serviced loft spaces, a central court as the heart of the complex, a separation of spaces for technical experimentation and spaces for contemplation, the separation and articulation of material systems, and the refinement of cast-in-place concrete.
Left, sheep barn, The Sea Ranch, photo by Tim Culvahouse; center, triple-gabled house, photo courtesy Turnbull Griffin Haesloop; right, Long Meadow Ranch Winery, photo courtesy Turnbull Griffin Haesloop.Turnbull Griffin Haesloop’s Long Meadow Ranch Winery (1997) continues the firm’s long-standing investigation of California’s farm vernacular but broadens the frame of reference to include triple-gabled dwellings from South Carolina.
Left, drive-through barn; center and right, Constant Residence; photos courtesy of Backen Gillam Architects.Traditional craft meets contemporary craft in Backen Gillam Architects’ Constant Residence (2002), which draws from a rich history of rural American building types, including the drive-through barn and the dogtrot house.
Top left, Kings Road House, photo by Grant Mudford; top center and right, House in West Marin, photos courtesy of Fernau & Hartman. Lower left, Tischler House, photo by Grant Mudford; lower center and right, Steinhüde Sea Recreational Facility, photos courtesy of Randall Stout Architects, Inc.Two examples of work influenced by the houses of R.M. Schindler demonstrate the range of expression afforded by the study of precedent. Fernau & Hartman Architects’ House in West Marin (1999) (above top, ) transforms a set of elements—fireplace, bearing wall, open roof framing, and clerestory lighting—of Schindler’s Kings Road House (1922). In their Steinhüde Sea Recreational Facility (above bottom), Randall Stout Architects make rather freer use of a tectonic vocabulary inspired by Schindler’s Tischler House (1950).
Left, Sheats-Goldstein Residence, photo by John Lautner; center and right, Mataja Residence, photos by Hagy Belzberg.Hagy Belzberg’s Mataja Residence reflects the careful study of houses by John Lautner, in particular the glazed, prismatic forms of Lautner’s Sheats-Goldstein Residence of 1963/1989.
Originally published 1st quarter 2003, in arcCA 03.1, “Common Knowledge.”
