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Friday, November 30, 2012

A. Quincy Jones retrospective

Yesterday I received an email from Cory Buckner, practicing architect in Los Angeles and author of the only monograph to date on the work of A. Quincy Jones. She wanted to know the status of the Andrew Fuller home in Fort Worth that I posted about here, here and here. The home, designed by Jones for Fuller and his wife, narrowly escaped demolition earlier this year. The home was purchased in August by a couple who reportedly planned to restore it. I told Ms. Buckner I would contact Historic Fort Worth, Inc. to see if there has been significant restoration yet, and if I learn anything new, I'll post an update.

Buckner let me know about a retrospective on the work of Jones that the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles is having from June 2, 2013 through September 8, 2013. Here are the particulars, from the Hammer Museum site:

The Hammer Museum's exhibition Building the California Dream: A. Quincy Jones and His Circle is the first comprehensive museum exhibition of A. Quincy Jones's work. The exhibition draws from the architect's archive, housed in UCLA's Special Collections, and showcases original drawings, models, furniture, and photographs, together with new commissioned photography of many extant buildings. The exhibition and accompanying publication explore Jones's impact on the built landscape of Southern California—underscoring his collaborative work with landscape architects, other architects, developers, and interior designers—and examine his influence on contemporary architecture and city planning. Through its content and design, the exhibition provides visitors with a unique to-scale, physical experience of some of Jones's most masterful forms and spaces.

In the spirit of A. Quincy Jones's collaborative approach, Brooke Hodge, the Hammer's director of exhibitions and publications, has assembled team to collaborate with her on the exhibition and publication. In addition, our team is supplemented by an advisory committee comprising leading scholars on mid-century architecture, design, and landscape architecture. This committee includes Thomas S. Hines, UCLA professor emeritus of architectural history and an expert on Richard Neutra and modern architecture in Los Angeles; Cory Buckner, a practicing architect and author of the only monograph to date on the work of A. Quincy Jones; Frederick Fisher, a practicing architect who is currently renovating several of Jones's most important buildings including Sunnylands (the Annenberg estate in Rancho Mirage, California) and whose architecture office is located in Jones & Emmons's own former office building in Los Angeles; Peter Loughrey, director of Los Angeles Modern Auctions and an acknowledged expert on mid-century interior furnishings; E. Marc Treib, University of California, Berkeley professor emeritus of architecture and coauthor of Garrett Eckbo: Modern Landscapes for Living; Mayer Rus, currently the Design and Culture Editor of the Los Angeles Times Magazine, former editor of Interior Design magazine, and a frequent contributor to Architectural Digest and Wallpaper*; and Elizabeth A. T. Smith, the curator of MOCA's important exhibitions on Rudolf Schindler and the Case Study House program, and currently curatorial director at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, Canada.

You can read more about Jones and about where to purchase Cory Buckner's boon on arcspace.



A. Quincy Jones
eichlernetwork.com


Cory Buckner
kcet.org

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Willy Johansson

Willy Johansson (1921-1993) was a third generation Norwegian glass designer whose career spanned four decades. He was born in Jevnaker and trained at the National College of Art and Design. He began working at the Hadeland Glassworks in 1942 and was head designer by 1947. He remained with Hadeland until he retired in 1988.

Johansson is known for his simple, tight forms and a subdued harmonious use of color, as well as his wide range of products. Known as one of the artists who brought about a revival of unique Norwegian art glass, he also created inexpensive, utilitarian glass products for the home, as well as exclusive tableware.

He won numerous international awards for his designs, including a diploma at the Milan Triennale in 1954, a gold medal in 1957 for his Tone vases and bowls and a silver medal in 1960. Thirteen of his works received the Award for Design from 1966 to 1972, and a series of wine glasses called Rod received the Classic Award for Design Excellence in 2002. Along with Jacob Prytz, he received the Jacob Prize the first year it was awarded in 1957.

His work is represented in design museums around the world, such as the Corning Museum of Glass in New York, and he had numerous solo exhibitions.

From snl.no and no.wikipedia.org



Rod wine glass (Tangen in Norwegian)
hadeland-glassverk.no

Spiral vase
blomqvist.no

Crystal vases, bowl and lamp
1stdibs.com

Urn
deconet.com

Vases and bowl
epla.no

Vase
fulgen.no

Vase
lauritz.com

Covered jar
qxl.no

Frosted glass vase
utopiaretromodern.com

Bowls
wendelboe.no

Bottle
pafemtevaningen.com

Sommerso vase
freeformusa.com

Vase
utopiaretromodern.com

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Over the bounding main

For those of you nautically inclined, we have an amazing C. Jere' ship of massive proportions in the store. This chrome schooner is 42" tall and 47" wide and looks spectacular on a credenza or large coffee table.


C. Jere' chrome schooner

C. Jere' schooner, with a light bulb for scale

Schooner base

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

John Lautner

John Lautner
John Lautner (1911-1994) was an American architect who practiced for more than 55 years, designing homes in and around Los Angeles, California.

Lautner was born in Marquette, Michigan. His first experience with building came when he helped his father and mother build a chalet-type retreat on a hillside overlooking a lake there.

He received a degree in English from Northern State Teachers College (now Northern Michigan University) and then became an apprentice to Frank Lloyd Wright for six years. In 1937 he supervised the construction of two Wright projects, and in 1939 he opened his own practice in Los Angeles.

His first project was a home for his own family, which earned him high praise from architectural critic Henry-Russell Hitchcock. Other well known projects include Silvertop, the Chemosphere, the Sheats/Goldstein residence and the Elrod residence. He also designed several commercial buildings.

Lautner's work has been the subject of numerous exhibitions in the United States and abroad. His buildings have been featured in countless publications, in a documentary film on his life and work, in James Bond and Diehard films, among others, and in commercials for television.

In 1970, he was made a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects for Excellence in Design. He also received the Gold Medal from the Los Angeles AIA chapter in 1993 for his lifetime achievement.

From johnlautner.org



Silvertop
you-are-there.com

Silvertop interior
flickr.com - Michael Locke

Chemosphere
nytimes.com

Chemosphere interior
nytimes.com

Sheats/Goldstein Residence
dailyicon.com

Sheats/Goldstein interior
designboom.com

Elrod House
nytimes.com

Elrod House interior
thenewsgallery.com

Schaffer House
you-are-here.com

Schaffer House interior
la.curbed.com

Maurer House
you-are-here.com

Segel House
you-are-here-com

Walstrom House
nytimes.com

Hotel Lautner - Desert Hot Springs, California
cntraveler.com

Update - 11/27/2012: Reader John Bachman mentioned that Lautner designed Bob Hope's home too. I hadn't found a photo of it when I was doing my research, but when I searched a little more, I found this:


Bob Hope home - Palm Springs, California
hauteliving.com

Monday, November 26, 2012

Visit us on V&M

We are proud to announce that we're now dealers on V&M. Many of you are already familiar with the site, but if you're not, it is an online source founded in 2006 where you can find vintage furniture, antiques, art, jewelry, fashion and design from around the world.

We've only been on the site for a few days and have a few problems to work out with some of our pictures and our logo, but it's already been a profitable venture for us. In a very short time, we've made three sales and have had several inquiries. New items will be added frequently, so I hope you'll bookmark us.


Paul McCobb coffee table

Rapson Greenbelt high back chair

Brutalist sculpture

Bitossi vase

Acrylic painting Sushi by Brian Ganus

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Stretch out and stay a while.

Is the L-tryptophan in your turkey leftovers still making you a little sleepy? Well, do we ever have just what you need for a lazy afternoon nap!

Check out this great chaise longue (or, as they call it in the part of East Texas where I grew up, a chase lounge) that's new to the store. It has a curvaceous aluminum frame, perfect straps, a comfy cushion...and I think I hear it calling your name.



Chaise longue in the style of Preben Fabricius and Jørgen Kastholm

Side view

Aluminum frame

Saturday, November 24, 2012

Edmund Bacon

Edmund Bacon (1910-2005) was an American urban planner, architect, educator and author. He was born in Philadelphia and received a bachelor's degree in architecture from Cornell University in 1932. He then studied at the Cranbrook Academy with Eliel Saarinen.

Bacon worked as an architect in China and in Philadelphia before accepting the position of city planner in Flint, Michigan. He was hired as managing director of the Philadelphia Housing Association in 1947 and was promoted to executive director in 1949, a position he held till he retired in 1970, at which time he served as vice president for Mondev International Ltd., a private planning firm. He also produced Understanding Cities, a series of films on city planning.

He taught at the University of Pennsylvania and at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and won numerous awards, including the American Institute of Planners Distinguished Service Award and the Philadelphia Award.

His most obvious mark on the city of Pennsylvania came during the 1950s and 1960s with the planning of Penn Center, a huge development of the city's downtown, which was comprised of offices and hotels and was the largest project in the city since the 1920s. He was also responsible for the planning of Market East, Penn's Landing, Society Hill, Independence Mall and the Far Northeast. "It mixed the bulldoze-and-rebuild philosophy of urban renewal with the tentative beginnings of the historic preservation movement," according to Paul Goldberger in The New York Times in 1988.

Bacon was not without his detractors, however. In 1998 critic 1998 Herbert Muschamp wrote in The New York Times that Penn Center was "reviled as a prime example of disastrous modern city planning: lamentable in the spare geometry of its buildings, its disregard for the vitality of the traditional street."

Mr. Bacon had opinions about the design of Philadelphia until his death. In the 1990s he proposed improvements to Independence Mall, Penn's Landing and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. Then in 2002 he protested the ban on skateboarding in the city's LOVE Park by illegally skateboarding through the park himself.

An interesting bit of trivia is that Bacon was the father to six children, including actor Kevin Bacon and father-in-law to Kyra Sedgwick. Kevin Bacon told a story about his father's influence on his own career that provides insight into the elder Bacon's personality. According to the younger Bacon:

My father was actually a very big influence on me and on my career. He really embraced his fame, his notoriety, his celebrity, if you will. While he was mostly fueled by this love for the city of Philadelphia and a desire to change the city . . . he also was very into fame. . . . It was a big part of his life. He used to save all of his [magazine and newspaper] clippings. . . . And I have to tell you, that certainly was part of what drove me to do what I do.

I'm not going to lie: I think there was a part of me that thought, "I can be more famous than the old man if I work really hard."

Even when he was really old, I would come down to Philadelphia to see him, and we'd go for a walk, and people would call out, "Mr. Bacon! Mr. Bacon!"

And, of course, I'd turn around thinking they were going to ask me for my autograph, and they'd say, "I love you, Ed!" or "Great work, Ed!". . . Nothing made him happier than to be recognized before I was.

From nytimes.com,  philly.com and ushistory.org



Bacon and staff members
citypaper.net

Independence Mall, 1979
visitphilly.com

Penn Center
alpha-divorce.com

Penn's Landing with Center City skyline in the background
lovesphotoalbum.com

Mural of Edmund Bacon in Center City, by artist Gaia
loladelphia.com

Market East Station
johnellisphotography.com

Society Hill
homebuyersblog.wordpress.com

Society Hill street
josephthebutler.com

Protesting the ban of skateboards at LOVE Park
ushistory.org

Edmund Bacon with sons Michael (l) and Kevin (r)
philly.com