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Modernism on the Ranch

In conversation with Mark Morrison, architect Phillip Jon Brown recounts the challenges he faced in 1984: designing an elegant and surprising two-story modernist residence on Errol Flynn’s former ranch, a parcel of land as wild as its former owner’s social life. by Mark Morrison In 1984, Philip Brown was an emerging USC-trained architect and urban planner who had only designed six houses—two of...

Gilbert Stanley Underwood

Understanding Underwood

Understanding Underwood Known for his rustic lodges and grand depots, Gilbert Stanley Underwood changed the architectural landscape of the American West—and his rambling 1928 Hollywood Knolls home is just as modest as he was. by Ann Scheid Gilbert Stanley Underwood was a quiet man who preferred to live a quiet life. Aloof and serious about his work, he was prolific in his Los Angeles practice, yet...

Donald Olsen

Glass Act

With his see-through Bay Area home, Donald Olsen proved that a glass house can be as private and practical as it is aesthetically pleasing. by Pierluigi Serraino, AIA Mies Van Der Rohe may have coined the architectural aphorism, “Less Is More,” but it didn’t stop him from living in an unremarkable apartment on a historic block in downtown Chicago. Likewise, the equally celebrated Finnish-American...

Frank Lloyd Wright

Being Frank

On the occasion of Frank Lloyd Wright’s 150th birthday, a new look at his textile-block homes shows they were more than modern wonders—they were hotbeds of cultural exchange in an emerging City of Angels. by John Crosse Much has been written about Frank Lloyd Wright’s Mayan-inspired Southern California architecture of the early 1920s. Yet, relatively little is known about his West Coast sojourns...

Oscar Niemeyer, Architect

The Lost Niemeyer

After five decades of relative obscurity, Oscar Niemeyer’s forgotten masterpiece, Alto de Pinheiros, has been rediscovered in a lush corner of São Paulo, Brazil. by Manuel Montenegro and Nicholas Olsberg Tucked inside one of the leafy Garden City developments near the Pinheiros River in western São Paulo, sits a fairly inconspicuous semi-urban villa built in 1974 for a prosperous Brazilian family....

R.M Schindler, Architect

Welcome to the Valley

As the movie and aerospace industries spread to the San Fernando Valley, Rudolph M. Schindler broke new ground in its craggy hills and lowlands. by Judith Sheine With its suburban grids and commercial sprawl, Studio City, California may not seem like the most likely place to find innovative modern twentieth-century works of architecture. But after Austrian architect Rudolph M. Schindler came to America...

Beverley D. Thorne

Inhabiting Steel

Beverley D. Thorne may have been the lowest-profile and last surviving Case Study architect, but his never-seen-before Oakland residence reveals a world of astounding grandeur. by Pierluigi Serraino To visit the personal home of an architect is the ultimate litmus test of the design aesthetic at work. It is a rare opportunity, revealing the creator’s internal philosophy and tenets. And so it is with...

Lloyd Wright, Architect

Wright Time, Wright Place

The Henry O. Bollman House isn’t just another nod to Mayan Revival nostalgia. With its use of decorative concrete blocks, Lloyd Wright adapted what he’d learned working with his illustrious father and the innovative Irving Gill and made it his own. by Kathryn Smith As the fear and deprivation of World War I gave way to the optimistic building boom of the early 1920s, the modern movement in American...

William Turnbull Jr., FAIA

Living Lightly on the Land

When William Turnbull Jr. designed the Hines House early in Sea Ranch’s history, he took his cues from the weathered slopes, craggy cliffs and pristine beaches. by Mark Morrison Photography by Scott Mayoral and Morley Baer (archive)   “I’ll sleep there sometimes,” says Shev Rush, referring to the living room window seat of his multi-story Sonoma Coast home. It’s a cozy corner set...

Irving Gill, Architect

Editor’s Note: A strong market for Architecture

By Crosby Doe A Los Angeles Times reporter once asked me to name my favorite L.A. house. I chose the Walter L. Dodge House by architect Irving J. Gill—and I am still fascinated by the elegance of the design, the power in its simplicity, the use of materials and finishes, and what, to me, was the ideal plan for living in a California garden. However, I never got to experience the Dodge House personally....

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