Architect of the Week: Charles Eames

One of my personal favorite architects is Charles Eames, most famous for his 1950's furniture design work with Herman Miller. Everyone recognizes this chair but most people do not understand a) it's a work of art b) the first piece of furniture with moulded plywood and c) it was designed by an architect.

Wikipedia's history of Charles Eames:

Charles Ormond Eames, Jr (June 17, 1907 - August 21, 1978) was born in 1907 in Saint Louis, Missouri. Charles was born the nephew of St. Louis architect William S. Eames. By the time he was 14 years old, while attending high school, Charles worked at the Laclede Steel Company as a part-time laborer, where he learned about engineering, drawing, and architecture (and also first entertained the idea of one day becoming an architect).
Charles briefly studied architecture at Washington University in St. Louis on an architectural scholarship. After two years of study, he left the university. Many sources claim, with little evidence, that he was dismissed for his advocacy of Frank Lloyd Wright and his interest in modern architects. Several websites claim that "In the report describing why he was dismissed from the university, a professor wrote the comment 'His views were too modern.'" This alleged comment has yet to be attributed to any specific member of the architectural faculty. Other sources, less frequently cited, note that while a student, Charles Eames also was employed as an architect at the firm of Trueblood and Graf.[1] The demands on his time from this employment and from his classes, led to sleep-deprivation and diminished performance at the university. It needs to be explored and researched further to determine the actual cause of his departure from the university, rather than repeating the old, unverified story of his being a victim of backward-looking faculty who supposedly threw him out simply for his points of view.
While at Washington University, he met his first wife, Catherine Woermann, whom he married in 1929. A year later, they had a daughter, Lucia.
In 1930, Charles began his own architectural practice in St. Louis with partner Charles Gray. They were later joined by a third partner, Walter Pauley.
Charles Eames was greatly influenced by the Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen (whose son Eero, also an architect, would become a partner and friend). At the elder Saarinen's invitation, Charles moved in 1938 with his wife Catherine and daughter Lucia to Michigan, to further study architecture at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, where he would become a teacher and head of the industrial design department. In order to apply for the Architecture and Urban Planning Program, Eames defined an area of focus - the St. Louis waterfront. Together with Eero Saarinen he designed prize-winning furniture for New York's Museum of Modern Art "Organic Design in Home Furnishings" competition.[2] Their work displayed the new technique of wood moulding (originally developed by Alvar Aalto), that Eames would further develop in many moulded plywood products, including, beside chairs and other furniture, splints and stretchers for the U.S. Navy during World War II.[3]
In 1941, Charles and Catherine divorced, and he married his Cranbrook colleague Ray Kaiser, who was born in Sacramento, California. He then moved with her to Los Angeles, California, where they would work and live for the rest of their lives. In the late 1940s, as part of the Arts & Architecture magazine's "Case Study" program, Ray and Charles designed and built the groundbreaking Eames House, Case Study House #8, as their home. Located upon a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean, and hand-constructed within a matter of days entirely of pre-fabricated steel parts intended for industrial construction, it remains a milestone of modern architecture.

Architect of the Week: Ju-Nel

Ju-Nel Homes Inc. started as a partnership between the builder/architect duo of Lyle Rowley and Jack Wilson. Inspired by Howard Meyer and Frank Lloyd Wright, Wilson and Rowley wanted to break the cookie-cutter mold of the traditional ranch homes being built during the mid-century period. Instead of the usual ranch house, they designed and built contemporary homes with open floor plans, using unusual ideas and innovative products. They named the company for their wives, Julie Rowley and Nelda Wilson. Wilson and Rowley worked first with Dallas architect Howard Meyer on Temple Emanu-El and 3525 Turtle Creek. In 1958 they struck out on their own and became mavericks on the Dallas architecture scene.

At the time Rowley and Wilson started building, not everyone appreciated their modern designs. The banks thought that only traditional ranch homes would sell, so at first Ju-Nel built what they called "hybrid" houses. These were more traditional homes with some contemporary aspects. Luckily, Ju-Nel persisted and quickly developed their own unique organic modern style, leaving today’s Ju-Nel enthusiasts with a treasure trove of awesome architecture. In all, Ju-nel built around 100 unique residential homes. Of those that have been identified, many are located in Eastwood Estates, Casa Linda, Lake Highlands, Old Lake Highlands, Lochwood, Lochwood Meadows, White Rock North and Lake Park Estates. Most of these homes were built during the early to mid 1960s. By 1963 Rowley had his fill of 8 day weeks and left the partnership to work for the Corp Of Engineers.

Any residential homes after 1963 were the product of Wilson under the Ju-Nel name. During the 1970s Jack designed and built mostly commercial properties as Ju-Nel General Contractors.

Midcentury-modern buildings in Dallas attract preservationists

Susan Risinger fell in love with her midcentury-modern house five years ago, well before it was discovered by SpongeBob SquarePants.

CHERYL DIAZ MEYER/DMN Susan Risinger, with son William, 6, was drawn to the midcentury-modern architecture of the Midway Hills neighborhood in northwest Dallas.

When Ms. Risinger and her family moved to Dallas from New York, she knew she wanted something very much like the 1950s-era house in the Midway Hills neighborhood of northwest Dallas.
"I don't really care for the more classical look," she said. "I like the clean lines, the architecture, the windows of midcentury houses."
Not only did Ms. Risinger find the house she coveted, she now lives in an outstanding example of an architectural design that is the new front line in the battle for historic preservation.
In the past few years, the midcentury-modern style has begun attracting preservationists' efforts nationwide. For a variety of reasons – including the city's affinity for teardowns – one of the movement's epicenters is Dallas.
While Preservation Dallas, the city's leading organization dedicated to the conservation of historic structures, is linked in the public mind with protecting Victorian homes and ornate skyscrapers, its most recent battles have centered on buildings from the 1950s and '60s.
In just the past few weeks, for example, the group:
•Obtained national historic status for the 3525 Turtle Creek condominiums, built in 1956.
•Persuaded the City Plan Commission to deny a rezoning request that would have doomed a 1959 insurance office building near Oak Lawn.
•Honored developers who converted the old Fidelity Union Life Towers, built in 1952 and 1959, into condos.
The organization's officers, meanwhile, have declared saving the downtown Statler Hilton Hotel building, constructed in 1958, its highest priority.
The sudden interest may come as a surprise to baby boomers who grew up in the 1950s and '60s. For them, a structure from that era may seem less like an architectural treasure and more like the building where they went to the dentist.
"It's always part of the job of preservation organizations to sell the public on buildings from a time period that is coming of age," said Katherine Seale, executive director of Preservation Dallas.
"When people first began to work to save Victorian homes, a lot of people thought they were pretty ugly."
The interest is, in one sense, inevitable, given the simple passage of time. Some postwar architecture is now half a century old – an age that typically transforms a building from "outdated" to "historic."
"There's no rhyme or reason for 50 years to be the benchmark, but the feeling is that after five decades, we begin to have a clearer view of an era," Ms. Seale said.
"We're coming out of the fog and we can look at it with more distance."
The National Trust for Historic Preservation is widely credited with nurturing the reawakening, although its earliest pronouncements a few years ago were almost defensive. The group noted then that some of the buildings were not even 50 years old and thus were not a part of history, but of the "recent past."
Dallas author Virginia McAlester is updating her book, A Field Guide to American Houses, to include midcentury architecture.
"You're starting to see people on the cutting edge of the arts, the tastemakers, who are into preserving midcentury architecture," she said.
"It just hasn't caught up to the rest of us yet. When you talk about preserving a typical ranch house, people say, 'Oh, well, I grew up in a house like that.' "
But another generation sees it differently.
"I think the clean modern lines are still very popular, and it's got a retro look that's attractive to younger people," Ms. Seale said. "It's got a bit of an edge, a bit of fun to it."
Ms. Risinger's house on Pinocchio Drive, for example, had exactly the feel sought by the makers of a commercial for a SpongeBob SquarePants board game.
"They filmed it here because they said they liked the 1950s look," she said. "Whenever we see it on television, we can really see it's our place. My kids love it."
Dallas is a natural center for midcentury architecture, which thrived during the 1950s and '60s. Subdivisions and commercial buildings were built by the thousands throughout the country during that period, but particularly in booming Sun Belt cities like Dallas.
And, in many cases, they were better than the work of previous generations. The earliest structures in Western cities like Dallas were usually designed by local architects, or by builders with no formal architectural training at all.
But the city's postwar wealth changed that.
"After the war, they were able to hire architects that were nationally and even internationally known," Ms. Seale said.
The very abundance of midcentury-modern buildings creates its own challenges for preservationists. To many people, efforts to protect ranch houses in North Texas sound like an attempt to declare ants an endangered species.
Furthermore, the purposely unadorned look makes midcentury houses and buildings more difficult to love.
"Because they're not eclectic like classical or Tudor or French, it's hard to contemplate midcentury as a distinctive style, but it is," said Willis Winters, a Dallas parks department assistant director who has written several books on local architecture.
"A lot of people see them as throwaways and the first targets for teardowns."
Over the past few years, Mr. Winters cataloged 400 houses for a new book that he co-wrote, Great American Suburbs: Houses of the Park Cities, Texas. Although it is still months before the book's publication date, he said, 20 percent of the houses have since been torn down.
The destruction of midcentury houses and buildings follows a pattern familiar to preservationists – a common and unappreciated architectural style is threatened by new construction. But the threat creates an opportunity.
For one thing, tearing down a building triggers a new appreciation for what is lost. Absence, as they say, makes the heart grow fonder. And it can spur political action.
"Nothing starts up a neighborhood movement like a teardown," Ms. Seale said.
The attrition also allows preservationists to be pickier about what they seek to save.
"Something doesn't qualify as historic just because it's old," Ms. Seale said. "There are a lot of criteria we look at."
In the case of midcentury houses, the appearance of the entire neighborhood is taken into account, as well as the quality of the planning and construction.
Two postwar neighborhoods are considered standouts by local preservationists – Midway Hills in northwest Dallas and Wynnewood North in Oak Cliff, Ms. Seale said.
Both have well-constructed, interesting examples of midcentury-modern styles, and both have been relatively untroubled by teardowns. Still, there are conservation efforts afoot in both places.
The so-called Disney Streets area, where Ms. Risinger lives, is a particular favorite of local preservationists. It was the site of the Dallas Parade of Homes in 1954 and 1955, in which builders showcased the latest in residential styles and technology.
The local home show was among the largest and most popular in the country, attracting up to 100,000 visitors.
In Midway Hills, Jacqueline Ziff is living in a showcased house her late husband bought in 1962, when it was still considered cutting edge. She was surprised when a real estate agency told her recently that it was coming back into style.
"She cautioned me not to do a lot with it," she said. "It has a pink-tile bathroom that I was considering updating. But I guess I won't now."

Remodeled Home with Views of White Rock Lake Open House: Sunday, March 15th, 2009 from 1:00pm-5:00pm

This highly sought after Old Lake Highlands home with seasonal views of White Rock Lake has been completely remodeled with a contemporary/industrial flair!

Refinished hardwood floors through out the home excluding the kitchen, dining and entry which boasts multi colored slate. The home has fresh paint inside and out, two wood burning (gas starters) fireplaces with roman brick, exposed "I" beams, both bathrooms updated, kitchen completely remodeled, a large covered patio sitting on close to a 1/4 of an acre lot.

The bright and open kitchen includes custom cabinets with 42 inch uppers, concrete counter tops, stainless steel appliances, gas cooking, breakfast bar and a walk-in pantry.

Large master bedroom with 5 windows located in the back of the home has over 10 feet of closet space and a spa like bathroom. The bathroom boasts a double vanity with vessel sinks, 24x12 inch subway tile, walk-in shower, river rock shower floor and a separate commode area.

A Definite MUST SEE! Call me today for an appointment: Erin 214.282.6747 cell.