Category Archives: About John Lautner

Information on John Lautner

Charlottesville’s Architecture Week Features Lautner Films

This year the Central Virginia chapter of the American Institute of Architects will celebrate John Lautner’s birthday during its “Architecture Week” with the screening of the two Lautner documentaries: The Spirit in Architecture: John Lautner and Infinite Space: the Architecture of John Lautner.

The Spirit in Architecture will screen April 25, and Infinite Space will screen April 26.  See details on the Architecture Week website.

Save These Dates!

Many activities celebrating John Lautner’s 100th birthday are planned, but most of the details are not yet certain. At this time we can offer the following information and dates:

April:

April 9 & 10: celebration at Munich Filmmuseum: feature film (A Single Man), both documentaries on Lautner, shorts and experimental films, panel discussions. Check with filmmuseum for details. http://www.stadtmuseum-online.de/filmmu.htm

July:

July 16: John Lautner’s birthday.

Los Angeles City Proclamation: John Lautner Day

Week starting July 16 (Sat):

Birthday party, hosted by Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Small temporary exhibit featuring preservation of the Goldstein Office

Preservation panel discussion and slides

Reception

 

July 17: LA Lautner Home Tour: joint event of John Lautner Foundation and MAK Center for Art and Architecture

 

July 18th – 24th (dates not certain): Two- or three-day film festival featuring Lautner documentaries, feature films that use Lautner homes, shorts, experimental films, panel discussions

 

August:

August 19: Opening of new John Lautner exhibition at Northern Michigan University’s DeVos art museum, curated by the museum director, Melissa Metuscak

 

September:

Sept. 2: Reception for above exhibit

 

Other events to be held in the fall include a preservation symposium, visit to the Lautner archive at Getty Special Collections, a JLF fundraiser party with focus on preservation fund, and a small photographic exhibit.

 

Cal Poly Students Develop National Register Nominations for Lautner Buildings

Two Cal Poly Pomona professors are teaching students how to develop a “Multiple Property Submission” for ten Lautner homes, for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places.

Professors Lauren Weiss Bricker and Luis Hoyos offered a two-quarter course studying Lautner architecture, including visits to the Getty Special Collections to view plans and photographs, visits to individual Lautner homes, and instruction in the development of applications to the National Register. The work ranged from research of the historical and architectural context to the study of individual details in a home.

Cal Poly students visited San Dimas home with Lautner addition and remodel

The winter quarter class just ended with a review of the students’ work at Hoyos’s home (the home includes an addition and some remodeling designed by Lautner).  At this review the students offered short presentations on the historical context, then went into greater detail on five homes: Lautner (L.A.), Pearlman, Tyler, Harpel (Hollywood), and Walstrom. The event concluded with discussion about the application and a tour of Hoyos’ home.

Students present findings at review
Students make presentations on Lautner homes

There are many advantages to owners of homes on the National Register, and no real restrictions. Owners can modify or even demolish National Register homes (although by doing so they may lose their NR status, of course). They can receive tax advantages and the registration can help with inclusion of the home on a local cultural monuments list, which may provide additional protections and incentives as well. For more information on the value of National Register status, download this helpful guide, developed by Christine Madrid French of the National Trust.

Desert Hot Springs Motel Reopens

Motel exterior. Photograph by Karol Lautner Peterson

On March 4, 2011, Tracy Beckmann and Ryan Trowbridge welcomed guests to the newly renovated Desert Hot Springs Motel, designed by John Lautner in 1947. The motel is now surrounded by a protective wall and includes a small relaxation pool at the rear. Inside the wall is desert planting similar to that inside each unit.

Just three of the four units are available right now. The owners have had to contend with torrential rains that flooded all of the units,which set back their plans. New drains have been installed and the ground elevation modified to avoid any further flooding.

Tracy Beckmann and Ryan Trowbridge outside the motel. Photograph by Judith Lautner

For more information visit the hotel’s website.

Interior of one unit. Photograph by Judith Lautner

Munich Celebrates Lautner’s 100th

Filmmuseum Munich is offering a series of films celebrating certain architects, titled Portraits of Architects, in April 2011. The segment on John Lautner is the first event of 2011 celebrating the 100th birthday of Lautner.

The series of films includes A Single Man along with several short films featuring Lautner’s buildings,  The Spirit in Architecture, the first documentary on Lautner, and Infinite Space, the second documentary.  The Lautner segment will be held from April 9 to April 10, 2011. Bette Jane Cohen, director of The Spirit in Architecture, will be available at the screening of her film for discussion. Other Lautner experts are expected but not yet confirmed.

The schedule for the Lautner films:

Saturday, April 9

10104 ANGELO VIEW DRIVE – A 2008

Dorit Margreiter – 6 min (DVD, Loop)                         DM

THE DESERT HOT SPRINGS MOTEL – A 2007

Sasha Pirker – 11 min, OF (DigiBeta)                    sixpack

THE SPIRIT IN ARCHITECTURE – JOHN LAUTNER

USA 1991 – Bette Jane Cohen – 60 min, OF            BJC

SPATIAL PORTRAITS OF LAUTNER HOUSES

USA 2009 – Murray Grigor & Frank Escher

32 min, OF (DigiBeta)                                    Googie *

Bette Jane Cohen will be a guest at the screening of The Spirit in Architecture.

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Sunday, April 10

INFINITE SPACE – THE ARCHITECTURE OF
JOHN LAUTNER
– USA 2009

Murray Grigor – 90 min, OF (DigiBeta)                 Googie

THE SCHAFFER HOUSE – USA 2009

M.Grigor & F.Escher – 3 min, OF (DigiBeta)   Googie *

A SINGLE MAN – 2009

Tom Ford – 101 min, OmU                     SenatorCentral

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Additional events are planned for the 100th birthday this year. Dates are not yet firm. We will post a calendar of events when we have them tied down.

Infinite Space: Purchase Here

Cover of Infinite Space DVD

 

By agreement with the Googie Company, the Foundation is delighted to offer the DVD of Infinite Space: The Architecture of John Lautner.


Infinite Space, a new documentary feature film, traces the lifelong quest of visionary genius John Lautner to create “architecture that has no beginning and no end.”  It is the story of brilliance and of a complicated life – and the most sensual architecture of the 20th century. (90 minutes)

 

SPECIAL FEATURES
Architect/editor Frank Escher comments on eight spatial portraits of Lautner masterpieces: Marbrisa, Elrod, Pearlman, Walstrom, Turner, Silvertop, Schaffer and the Chemosphere. (3-6 minutes each)

Director Murray Grigor shares his thoughts on filming INFINITE SPACE with clips from the feature. (12 minutes)

Donation each: $25

Shipping: $4 ($15 outside U.S.)

Purchase from the JLF Shop.

San Francisco Interview with Grigor on Lautner

Kenny Caldwell, architectural writer, interviewed Murray Grigor, director of Infinite Space, after the screening of the film in San Francisco. The interview, with pictures, is published on one of Caldwell’s blogs, Design Faith. The perceptive questions reveal much about Lautner’s relationship to the earth and to his clients as well as offer insight into the making of the film.

Remembering Andrea Simoncelli

Andrea Simoncelli, an Italian architect who worked in John Lautner’s office from November 1971 until October 1975, died in Rome August 16, 2010.

He worked on many projects in Lautner’s office, among them the Hope residence in Palm Springs, for which he drew the presentation drawings. When he first came to Los Angeles his command of English was limited, but by the time he left for home he could converse easily in this new language. Andrea lit up the small crew with his sense of humor and passion. John Caldwell, also in the office then, writes:

I will always remember Andrea as a dedicated and challenging architect. We had lots of laughs together and sometimes we thought “trouble” was his middle name. It is funny what you remember about people. I went home with him once for lunch and was surprised when I went into the bathroom and found almost every object labeled with a note: “faucet”, “water closet”, etc. He was preparing for his California licensing exam and was brushing up on his English technical terms. In the end it was the use of an “English” word that was his demise at the exam. The exam’s design problem was a bank with a drive-up teller with stacking for 6 cars. Someone finally explained “stacking” to him in this context during a toilet break but it was too late for him to successfully complete that phase of the exam.

He was a great architect and a wonderful warm person who never did anything half way. We will miss you.

As a thank you to Lautner, who helped him gain visa extensions, allowing him a longer time to work in the U.S., Andrea offered to share his Rome with Lautner’s daughter Judith, who was also working in the office then. The two left for Rome in December 1974. Judy stayed in Andrea’s mother’s apartment for a month, trying desperately to pick up a bit of Italian (she took hope from Andrea’s progress in English) and making forays around Rome and to other cities in Italy on her own. From time to time she would go places with Andrea, to his friends’ apartments or to parties given by other friends, and to meet his former architect employer, but for the most part Andrea was involved in a whirlwind of activity of his own, trying to catch up with his left-behind life. Judy met two of Andrea’s three sons at some (long, beautifully-cooked) meals. They were about five at the time and hard-working well-behaved little schoolboys. His youngest son, Oliver Manzi, had this to say about his father:

My father was always drawing.

Whether on the phone, at a restaurant, or discussing alimony with my mother, he always had a pencil that he’d slip out of his breast pocket, and while his interlocutor would speak, he would draw on any surface at hand.

He had tremendous energy and no patience. He would speak his mind even if it would land him in trouble, and would gobble up life as fast as he could eat a plate of spaghetti, which believe me was shockingly fast.

When it came to art and life, he had a craving for immediacy. Immediate emotions.

He used to tell me: “I like painters that paint with their arm.”
I believe this applied to architects as well, including John, whom my father adored.

I will always be indebted to my father for instilling in me a love for the arts.

In his last 15 years his illness confined him to his house in Rome, but despite this he remained fun, impulsive and charming to the end. My two older brothers, Cesare and Oscar Simoncelli, and I will miss him dearly.

Perhaps no more needs to be said about this man, who was so full of energy, humor, generosity, and creativity. If you remember Andrea, however, please feel free to send your thoughts to us at comments (at) johnlautner (dot) org and we may find a way to expand this article to include them.

Thank you, Oliver Manzi, for the photographs of Andrea