Paul Revere Williams 

Through Time

The Timeline illustrates how material history, society and the work of one person, Paul R. Williams, integrate and interact. Small changes in society, architecture or life may seem inconsequential, but when connected a powerful picture emerges. The Timeline illustrates how many forces shape our modern life. Williams’ life did not form in isolation but was a product of complex energies in society, his profession and within himself.

 

 

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1829

White House, Washington, District of Columbia​

In 1790, George Washington and Pierre L’Enfant, the city planner for the District of Columbia, select the site for the President’s official residence on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. A competition is held and nine proposals are submitted. James Hoban’s design is selected for its “practical and handsome design.” The corner stone is laid in 1792 and construction continues for eight years.

Throughout its history the White House undergoes many renovations and survives fires in 1814 and 1929, but maintains its original Federal/Greek revival-style architecture. Exterior renovations include the addition of porticos on the north and south façade in 1829. Interior renovations include a complete “gutting” during Harry Truman’s presidency. The balustrade along the roof line, Ionic porticos on the north and south façade, fanlights and sculpted swags are some of the building’s most memorable architectural features. The Oval Office, named for its distinctive oval shape, is not original to the building but is added by President Taft in 1909. Damaged in the 1929 fire, the President’s primary office is rebuilt in 1929 by Herbert Hoover.

1834

Invention of the Cooling Compression System

American inventor, Jacob Perkins created the first cooling compression system that made in-home refrigeration possible. By 1930, more than 2 million American homes had a refrigerator. With a refrigerator in the home, women did not need to buy groceries every day.

In 1945 Paul R. Williams wrote in Small Homes of Tomorrow that refrigerators of the future will have many new innovations, including an “automatic ice cube ejector.”

1840

1848

The Decade of Manifest Destiny

In the 1840s, Americans believed they were destined to dominate the North American continent—Manifest Destiny. The United States experiences extraordinary growth in the 1840s, acquiring the land that will include today’s western states of New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado and Texas.

Technological advances including steamboats and railroads make it possible for Americans to travel from the East to the undeveloped, but promising West. In 1844, the telegraph ushers in modern communication making the distance from east to west coasts even shorter.

Horace Greely, a newspaper editor, popularizes the idea of Manifest Destiny. His use of the phrase “Go west, young man” and Manifest Destiny contribute to the American belief of California as the “Golden State” of opportunity and reinvention.

Steel Wire Manufacturing

John A. Roebling opened his wire rope business in New Jersey. Wire rope and cable are important for future developments in engineering and architecture. These products were needed for elevators in multiple-story buildings, suspension bridges, construction (including the Panama Canal), electrical power transmissions, and cable cars. By World War I, the factory was the largest wire rope plant in the world.

1853

History of the Elevator

Primitive elevators were in use as early as the 3rd century B.C.E. These elevators were powered by humans, animals, or water wheels. In the middle of the 19th century, elevators powered by steam were developed and used in factories, mines, and warehouses.

In 1853, American inventor Elisha Otis demonstrates a new and important safety device that prevents an elevator from falling if a cable breaks. His invention increases public confidence in the elevator. A safe elevator (along with other structural engineering advances) allows architects to design higher buildings.

1870

First Skyscraper

When was the skyscraper built, and what building can rightfully be called the first skyscraper?

Awarding the title of the first skyscraper is debated among architectural historians, architects, and engineers. Just having height is not enough for the building to be called a skyscraper. It is equally important to make a building livable and useable (these were developed in the late 18th and early 19th centuries). All elements were brought together in one building in 1870.

Engineer George B. Post completes the Equitable Life Assurance Building in New York and is credited with designing the first example of a skyscraper in the United States. Using a skeletal iron frame as the structural system, the building reaches a height of 7-1/2 stories. In addition to the building’s height, the other elements of the designer The post includes elevators to move visitors up and down, plumbing, heating, and electrical that service the top floors. With these services, tall buildings are habitable, and owners can charge premium rents. (image L)

The building was destroyed in 1912 by a fire (image R).

1871

Architecture after the great chicago fire

Louis Sullivan and his partner Dankmar Adler were instrumental in rebuilding Chicago after the Great Fire in 1871. Adler is a civil engineer known for his expertise in acoustics especially for theaters and houses of worship. Sullivan’s architectural designed foreshadow the Modern Movement in architecture. Though he coined the phrase “form ever follows function,” a phrase the Modernist embrace as buildings without decoration, his use of decorative elements puts him outside of the Modernist Movement.

Before partnering with Adler, Sullivan worked for William LeBaron Jenney, a pioneer in skeleton construction. Though the firm of Adler and Sullivan is considered a leader in the “Chicago School of Architecture”. They designed buildings in many other American cities including the Wainwright Building in St. Louis. Sullivan’s work and ideas influence Frank Lloyd Wright.

The rebuilding of Chicago after the Great Fire was one of Adler and Sullivan’s greatest accomplishments. The devastation caused by the fire provided them with a blank canvas to experiment with new building technologies and nonflammable materials. The Chicago Tribune wrote of the task of rebuilding the city, “In the midst of a calamity without parallel in the world’s history, looking upon the ashes of thirty years’ accomplishmnets, the people of this once beautiful city have resolved that CHICAGO SHALL RISE AGAIN!.”

1875

William Watts Sherman House, Rhode Island

Trinity Episcopal Church, Boston

Trinity Episcopal Church in Boston, Massachusetts, was an example of Romanesque architecture in the United States according to the Historic American Building Survey. Designed by architect Henry Hobson Richardson, the church was considered his greatest work in this style.

Leiter I Building, Chicago

According to Historic American Building Survey, the first Leiter Building, built in 1879, is a Chicago Architectural Landmark. William LeBaron Jenney is the architect. The building is a landmark because it contributed to the development of skeleton construction. Constructed of cast iron pilasters from the foundation to the roof, the building could be built taller. Jenney’s skeleton construction, replacing stone and brick, is an important engineering advance that leads to skyscrapers.

1883

Brooklyn Bridge

1886

Statue of Liberty

William G. Low House, Rhode Island

1887

1889

Leiter II Building, Chicago

In 1889, William LeBaron Jenney constructed the second Leiter Building in Chicago, one of the largest commercial structures in the world. This building refined skeletal construction. The Historic American Building Survey described the design of this building as clear, confident and distinctive.

1893

1892

1891

Wainwright Building, St. Louis

The U-shaped Wainwright Building, a ten-story office building in downtown St. Louis, was constructed using a steel skeleton. The exterior was finished with elaborate red brick and terracotta. This embellished exterior was similar to Paul R. Williams’ treatment of the Edwin Building in 1928. The Wainwright Building was designed by the Chicago firm Sullivan and Adler.

Monadnock Block

Monadnock Block in Chicago was one of the tallest and last buildings constructed of solid masonry. This wall-bearing building with cast iron columns did not use steel framing, which would become a standard for tall building construction.

Frisco Bridge across Mississippi River at Memphis

On May 12, 1892, the Frisco Bridge in Memphis, Tennessee opened one year before Chester and Lila Williams moved to Los Angeles. It was the first bridge to span the lower Mississippi River and the crowning achievement for chief engineer George S. Morison. Hundreds attended the opening ceremonies to watch the first locomotive cross the bridge. The railroad bridge linked commerce from eastern markets to the west.

When constructed, steel was a new material for large projects. The cantilevered bridge featured a 790-foot span with two smaller 600-foot spans. At 65 feet above the river, the Frisco Bridge had the highest clearance of any bridge in the United States. The piers were 100 feet below the surface of the river.

US Post Office, Washington, D.C.

The U. S. Post Office Building was constructed in Washington, D.C. from 1892 through 1899 under the supervision of architect Willoughby J. Edbrooke. The building was the first of ten planned governmental buildings built in the Federal Triangle formed by 15th Street NW, Constitution Avenue NW, Pennsylvania Avenue NW, and E Street NW. Many of these buildings were architecturally important and the Post Office building was one of the few examples of Richardson Romanesque in the U.S. Capital and the only govenment building in this style.

Built of Maine granite, the building’s most prominante architectural feature was a chateau roof with a 315 foot high clock tower centered in the main facade. The building’s turretted corners, fenestration treatment and ornamnetal dormers were typical of the Romanesque style. The nine story open central court was covered by ornamental iron trusses and housed a bank of open cage elevators. The large glass skylight floods the interior with light.

Bradbury Building, Los Angeles

George Herbert Wyman designed the five story Bradbury Building in Los Angeles for mining tycoon Lewis Bradbury. The structure was designed with a glass roof that fills the inner court with natural light. The open stairways, elevator cages and ornate balcony rails were all decorated with fantastic art nouveau iron work. The decorative details were reminicent of the 19th century European Cast Iron Age. Wyman’s design for an off-street and protected public space at the center of the building was ahead of the time. Wyman designs other buildings, but the Bradbury was his greatest success.

1900s

Troy Orphan Asylum, chapel, Troy NY

Herbert Langford Warren, an MIT educated architect, designed the Troy Orphan Asylum chapel in Troy, NY—an example of Gothic revival-style architecture.

As a young man, Warren travelled in Europe and England studying, sketching and measuring country churches. Many of these churches were destroyed during World War I. Warren wanted to recreate this style of church in America. Warren was described by his contemporaries as a “Goth at heart” eventhough he worked in H. H. Richardson’s office, an architectural firm known for Romanesque style. (Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Science, 1933)

Warren helped develop the Architectural School at Harvard.

1902

Flatiron or Fuller Building in New York

The Fuller Building at 175 Fifth Avenue in New York was completed in 1902. The Chicago architectural firm of Daniel H. Burnham & Company designed the 22-floor building as a speculative project. Burnham used a steel frame, covered in a non-load-bearing limestone and terra cotta facade with a mixture of French and Italian Renaissance ornamentation. The building of copper-clad windows and pale-colored bricks was topped by a series of arches and columns with a heavy projected cornice and flat balustraded roof. The unusual design created the illusion of a freestanding colossal column. The design and extensive used of steel in the construction causes a general “buzz” in New York.

Though officially called the Fuller Building, the building is renamed the Flatiron by the public because of its unusual shape. Burnham’s triangular shaped building was his solution to an awkward building site.

1904

Howard B. Gates House, San Jose

The Gates House in San Jose, California was designed by architect Bernard Maybeck for physicians Howard and Amelia Gates in 1904. The chalet form of the house with historical details was inspired by the large stand of trees on the site. Though Maybeck’s 3-story design was larger than other residences in the area, he crafted the exterior of the home to appear smaller and fit with the character of the upper middle-class neighborhood. The architect’s open living design for the interior included an oversized fireplace and dramatic staircase—radical for turn-of-the-century San Jose, but popular in many mid-century California homes.

Bernard Maybeck was an Ecole des Beaux-Arts trained architect who became the first professor of architecture at the University of California at Berkeley (1898-1903). He opened an office in San Francisco specializing in homes and large public buildings incorporating innovative building materials such as native woods, over-sized windows and handcrafted details in an eclectic and personal style.

1906

Unity Church, Oak Park

The Unity Church was built for the Unitarian-Universalist congregation in Oak Park, Illinois. Designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright in the temple form, his intent is to created a space primarily for the worship and service of God but with the flexiblity to serve man.

This church, Wright’s earliest experiment in the use of reinforced concrete and steel, was considered the first large scale example using these materials in the United States. Because of the church’s limited financial resources, the architect pursuades his clients of the economy and appropriateness of the reinforced concrete and steel for their project. To counteract the material’s “dead surfaces” Wright washed the exterior exposing the pebble aggregate for a tactile affect and then painted the exterior. Wright continued to be interested in concrete as an economical building medium for residential and commercial buildings.

1908

The Gamble House, Pasadena

The Gamble House in Pasadena, California was the finest surviving example of the architectural work by Greene & Greene. The firm’s California Bungalow-style residence was a summer home for David Gamble (Proctor & Gamble soap company) completed in 1908 for $50,000. The three-story vacation retreat was pegged and doweled, wood framed construction covered with olive green cedar shingle siding. Typical of the bungalow-style, the interior was spacious and open with oak hardwood floors, teakwood and mahogany paneling, lath and plaster walls. A local newspaper described the home as “somewhat Japanese in feeling.” In addition to the house plans, Greene & Greene provided the owner with furniture; all decorative hardware and lighting fixtures; and textile selections for rugs, curtains, upholstery from their artisan shop. Many of the windows had custom Tiffany glass panels.

The Gamble House was the setting for Doc’s home in the 1985 movie Back to the Future.

The Greene brothers (Charles Sumner Greene and Henry Mather Greene) were the leaders in the American Arts and Crafts aesthetic movement and important in establishing Southern California as a center for this style. With an emphasis on craftsmanship instead of machined mass-production, their open, harmonious designs were a reaction to the clutter of the 19th century Victorian home. A perfect fit for the California climate, the Greene & Greene style was quickly adapted for other regions and spreads across America.

Sears Book of Modern Homes and Building Plans

The Sears Catalog was an icon of American business. Founded by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck, this mail order business was a revolutionary retail model before the advent of the chain store. Through the catalog the company sold everything for home, farm and family to anyone with a mailbox.

In 1908, Sears issued the first speciality catalog for houses—Book of Modern Homes and Building Plans. The Modern Home catalog advertised three separate lines of homes featuring 22 architectural styles for customers with different financial means. The hundreds of choices and combinations encouraged the buyer to custom design his house. Mass-production and precut/prefitted materials shrank the construction time and costs making home ownership possible for more Americans. With prices from $650 to $2,500, Sears offered the home buyer a complete package: design plans, building materials, fixtures and “no-money-down” financing. By 1930, the catalog proclaimed Sears as the “World’s Largest Home Builders.” From 1908 until 1940, Sears sold over 100,000 ready-to-assemble houses.

Sears’ Modern Homes catalog became the model for merchandising prefabricated buildings. Paul R. Williams designed plans for the 1930s Lea Steel Home catalog that were used in the construction of El Reno Apartments. His catalog plans were also all inclusive.

Frederick C. Robie House, Chicago

The Robie House in Chicago was an early example of residential work by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright’s design — later called the Prairie-style — was created for manufacturing executive Frederick C. Robie and his wife Lora in 1909. Wright was inspired by his client’s “unspoiled instincts and untainted ideals” and designed this house to serve Robie’s grand ideas for an expensive residence.

The design, tailored to fit the Robies’ narrow, corner lot (60 x 180), shocks neighbors. They compared the radical long and low red-orange brick building to a steamship—two rectangles (or vessels) abutting with the central chimney locking the pieces together. In this Prairie-style home, Wright organized the interior around a great limestone hearth under the wide sweeping roof. The open interior illustrated Wright’s  new philosophy of domestic design: he combines a feeling of shelter with an organic connection to the surroundings. Wright controlled every aspect of the home’s design infusing the final product with his new aesthetic ideas.

In the Robie House Frank Lloyd Wright used steel beams to stretch the walls twenty feet. The wood rafters rested directly on the steel. This use of steel in residential construction was a first.

1914

1913

La Jolla Woman’s Club

First Air Conditioning System in Private Home

War effort reduces building projects

Julia Morgan designs Hearst Castle (La Cuesta Encantada)

1914

1915

Panama-California Exposition, San Diego

To celebrate the completion of the Panama Canal, San Diego staged an international exposition from 1915-1916. As the first American port-of-call north of the Canal and with a population of only 90,000, San Diego was the smallest city to host an event of this scale. With the ambitious theme of “human progress” the exposition showcased both the beauty of the city and the resources of the American West.

Architect Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue, in association with Carleton Winslow Sr., was chosen as the chief designer. He was fascinated by the festive Spanish Revival and Mission-style architecture of California and selected it as the unifying design for the exposition buildings. His use of Spanish inspired churrigueresque detail on the buildings created a sensation and inspires a regional and national popularity for Spanish and Mission Revival buildings—a craze that endured throughout the 1920s.

These images are not from the original exposition but record a remodel (1933-1935) of Winslow’s original designs by architect Richard S. Requa.

(Thanks to Will Chandler, project historian and art director, for his insights into the 1990 to 1996 reconstruction of the Exposition’s buildings.)

Hollyhock House, Hollywood

Oil heiress Aline Barnsdall commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright (L) to design a home and cultural center on an 11-acre olive grove she owned in Hollywood. Wright’s plans were complete in 1918 and included pools, educational buildings, shops, a theater, studios and residences for artists, and a sumptuous villa for Barnsdall. Only Hollyhock House (Barnsdall’s residence) and two studio-residences were built.

Hollyhock House was the first residence Wright desingned in the Los Angeles area. He considered the house as one of his major achievements—his California Romanza reflecting his pure love of architecture. Wright’s use of the Mayan temple proto-type illustrated the influence of a popular Pre-Columbian art installation at the 1893 Columbian Exposition. The building’s mesa silhouette recalled the architecture of the Pueblo Indians. The stylized motif of the hollyhock throughout the home represented Barnsdall’s favorite flower.

Wright described this project in his autobiography, “Individuality is the most precious thing in life… the true property of character. Hollyhock House is such a house.”

In 1926, the City of Los Angeles accepted the residence and surrounding acres as a center for recreation and culture. Paul R. Williams (R) is seen in this 1965 photograph with a model for a Junior Arts Center to be built in the park.

1917

1918

1919

1920

Art Deco District, Miami Beach

The Art Deco District in Miami Beach, Florida was the largest concentration of 1920s and 1930s resort architecture in the United States. Developers designed , built and promoted the area as the “tropical playground” for the nascent middleclass vacationer able to freely travel the country by automobile and train. The area, bounded by the Atlantic Ocean, 6th Street, Alton Road, Dade Boulevard and 23rd Street, was a mix of Mediterranean Revival, Art Deco, and International/Moderne-styles. The vibrantly colored and often architecturally fantastical buildings were divided into three use types: seasonal hotels, retail, and 80 square blocks of residential property. The district was recognized in 1979 as an important site of 20th century architecture, primarily Art Deco, by the National Register of Historic Places.

Pershing County Nevada Courthouse

Pershing County, Nevada was created in 1919 from neighboring Humboldt County. The new county commissioners selected the state’s leading civic architect, Frederic Joseph DeLongchamps, to design their courthouse as proof of their new independence and importance.

The Pershing County Courthouse was one of seven courthouses DeLongchamp designs in Nevada. This neoclassical-style structure satisfied the county commissioners vision of civic pride. The 16,000 square foot, single-story, circle- hexagon shaped building took its inspiration from both the Roman Pantheon and the University of Virginia Library. The interior contained an unusual layout of a central circular courtroom surrounded by offices.

The Pershing County Courthouse was unique among America’s historic county courthouses because of the circle- hexagon shape.

1921

1922

Hollywood Masonic Temple, Los Angeles

American Radiator Building, NY

Chicago Tribune Tower

Allied Architects Association is formed

Schlinder House on North Kings Road, Los Angeles

In 1883, the New York and Brooklyn Bridge opened connecting Manhattan with Brooklyn. Engineered by John A. Roebling’s Sons Co. this structure crossing the East River was one of the first steel cable suspension bridges completed in the U.S. Still in use today the bridge is one of the oldest surviving examples of a suspension bridge.

1923

1924

Los Angeles Public Library

1926

1928

1929

Lovell Beach House, Newport Beach

Two of the most famous California houses built in the 1920s were commissioned by Philip and Leah Lovell. Their town house was designed by Richard Neutra and their beach house by Rudolph Schindler. The couple’s naturopathic philosophy of the power of nature and health was promoted in Philip Lovell’s “Care of the Body” column published in the Los

Angeles Times. Free thinkers, the Lovells were interested in new ways of living and new ways of building. They embraced Schindler’s architectural philosophy of “space architecture” or “spatial relationships.”

The Lovell Beach House was completed in 1926, and architectural historians consider it Schindler’s greatest work. The suspended house of unsurfaced, poured-in-place concrete and iron rods was elevated above the beach on columns. Schindler described the open plan residence as a health house—the perfect setting for the Lovells’ way of life based on sport, health and nature. Both the Lovells and Schindler believed that social problems could be solved with architectural design.

Daniel Cowan Jackling House, Woodside, CA

Self-made millionaire and copper baron, Daniel Jackling hired George Washington Smith to design a show-place home in Woodside, California. Smith was the foremost proponent of the Spanish Colonial Revival-style of architecture and created Santa Barbara’s unique architectural look.

In the 1920s, Woodside was one of the wealthiest small towns in America and the client directed the architect to design an appropriate mansion to represent his new social and economic position in California society. The 17,250 square-foot, 30-room residence was the perfect setting for Jackling’s extensive art collection.

The Jackling House is currently owned by the late Steve Jobs, CEO Apple Computers. Jobs called the house “one of the biggest abominations of a house I’ve ever seen” an opinion not shared by preservationists fighting to preserve it.

Chrysler Building, New York

Walter P. Chrysler, wealthy automobile magnate, hired architect William Van Alen to design an office building in New York City tall enough to symbolize the height of his financial success. Van Alen, known for his flamboyant designs, met the challenge with plans for a 77-story, Art Deco-style building. The building was the first in the world to exceed 1000 feet. To ensure the claim to the title of the tallest structure, the architect secretly assembled a 27-ton steel tip to be hoisted and unveiled at the last minute. Chrysler and Van Alen’s victory was short lived when the taller Empire State Building was completed in 1931.

First Electric Refrigerator

One of the first electric refrigerators rolled off the assembly line on October 15, 1928.

In 1945, Paul R. Williams wrote in Small Homes of Tomorrow that refrigerators of the future will have many new innovations including an “automatic ice cube ejector.”

Santa Barbara County Courthouse

When the William Mooser Company was selected in 1926 to design a new county courthouse for Santa Barbara, it was the state’s oldest architectural firm. Three generations of Mooser’s design many important public and private buildings in the San Francisco area. The youngest Mooser, William III, a graduate of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris and a 17-year resident of France and Spain, created a new courthouse to replace the one destroyed in the June 29, 1925, earthquake. Architectural historians described his design as “the greatest Spanish Colonial Revival structure ever built.”

The L-shaped, stucco, terra cotta, sandstone building with wrought iron ornamentation opened in 1929. The courthouse inspired others in the Santa Barbara community to celebrate their Spanish roots and appreciate vernacular materials and craftsmen. (Vernacular architecture uses materials and ideas common to a geographic or cultural area.) The Spanish castle design, complete with a clock tower and extensive landscaping, remains the seat of government for modern Santa Barbara County.

Dymaxion House

In 1929, Buckminster Fuller unveiled a 3-ton prototype of his circular Dymaxion Dwelling Machine in Marshall Field’s interior decorating department in Chicago. Fuller promoted the prefabricated structure of lightweight steel, duralumin and plastic as a temporary, transportable living space and a product well-suited for mass-production techniques. The Dymaxion (Dynamicmaximumion) was Fuller’s interpretation of Le Corbusier’s architectural philosophy—a dwelling is a “machine for living in.” The Dymaxion was a legendary futuristic design of the 20th century.

Richard Buckminster Fuller—philosopher, designer, architect, artist, engineer, teacher and inventor—was driven by his philosophy of creating “more for less.” Though architects and the public are engaged by the Dymaxion House, only one full-scale residence was built in Wichita, Kansas. In the 1960s, Fuller was embraced by American counterculture and environmentalists as the inventor of the multifunctional geodesic dome.

1930

Hollow Glass Building Blocks

In the 1930s, hollow glass blocks are frequently used as a building material in the Art Moderne-style of architecture. A style popular with Americans from all socio-economic levels, Art Moderne reflected the country’s mid-twentieth century excitement with speed and technology. As an inexpensive structural element, glass blocks allowed light to be a design component without adding extra ornamentation.

This photograph from the Bureau of Standards in Washington, D.C. shows the glass blocks being tested to certify them safe as a building material.

Paul R. Williams used glass blocks as a light source and decorative element in his 1939 Loomis Manor Apartments in Reno, NV. Architect Walter Gropius used a glass block wall to line the entryway of his 1938 house in Lincoln, MA.

Empire State Building, New York

In the 1920s, automobile magnates Walter Chrysler and John J. Raskob (General Motors) raced to see who could build the taller building. Chrysler hired architect Walter Van Alen to design his project (the Chrysler Building). Raskob, investors and former N.Y. Governor Al Smith teamed-up to build the Empire State Building. Their building, by architect William Lamb, was 1,454-feet (1/5th of a mile and 103 floors) and surpassed the recently completed 1,046-foot Chrysler Building.

1933

Williams is active in the community

Busy Building Program Proceeds This Month

Griffith Observatory

1934

Square Shadows, Montgomery, Pennsylvania
S.C. Johnson & Sons Co. Building and Research Tower, Racine, Wisconsin

1935

Williams is recognized as an expert

California House and Garden Exhibition

New Orleans House Based on Williams’ Model French House

1936

1937

Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco

Golden Gate Bridge construction began January 5, 1933 and opened in May 1937. Spanning the Golden Gate Strait (or Chrysopidae), it conected San Francisco with Marin County. This structure was known as one of the world’s most beautiful examples of a suspension bridge. Bethlehem Steel Co. provided the fabricated steel that was transported to California via the Panama Canal. The steel cabling was provided by John Roebling’s Sons Company. From the time of construction until 1964, the 4,200-foot bridge had the longest span of any bridge in the world.

Consulting Architect Irving Morrow selected the bridge’s distinctive International Orange color. Morrow believed this warm color blended harmoniously with the setting and set the bridge apart from the cool color of the water and sky. The bridge was an important California landmark, appearing as a backdrop in more than 20 major motion pictures including the Star Trek film series, Alfred Hitchcock films and The Maltese Falcon.

Gropius House, Middlesex County, Massachusetts

Mrs. James J. Storrer donated 5 acres to German emigre architect Walter Gropius for his family home. Gropius, leader of Germany’s influential Staaliches Bauhaus (1919-1928), fled a hostile German government in 1934 and joined the faculty at Harvard, Graduate School of Design.

The Gropius House was built in 1938. The design was attributed to Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer, with input from Gropius’ wife and daughter. The wood, painted brick and fieldstone house was inspired by traditional box-like New England buildings that Gropius finds “unpretentious and genuine in plan and appearance.” He added sculptural Bauhaus elements—an exterior metal spiral staircase, glass block wall at the entry, chrome details, and vertically-hung clapboard. Gropius sited his home with views of planned and natural landscapes as design elements. Historians now equally value the landscaping and the building as important reflections of “modernist spatial philosophy.”

The architectural design and interior furnishing for the Gropius House were inspired by the Modernist or International-style. In a 1932, Museum of Modern Art (New York) exhibition catalog, the aesthetic principles of the International Style were explained to American audiences by Henry Russell Hitchcock, Jr., and Philip Johnson: “A sense of volume as opposed to solidity, regularity as opposed to symmetry, and detail achieved through intrinsic elegance of materials, technical perfection, and fine proportions as opposed to applied ornament.”

Magazines and newspapers wrote extensively about the Gropius House while scores of Harvard students participated in the design and construction. The house created a public appreciation for the International-style in America. While not the first Modernist or International-style home built in this country, the Gropius House was the most influential.”

Fiberglas

The Architect’s Notebook in Paul R. Williams’ The Small Home of Tomorrow (1945) described the importance of using the best insulation materials in a “successful postwar home.” In 1931 Russell Games Slayter, an Owens-Illinois Company employee, realized the value of the crude glass fibers floating in the air and hanging from rafters in the company factories. Throughout history many incorporated glass with other materials, but Slayter was credited with the title of “Father of Fiberglass.” Owens-Illinios merged with Corning Glass in 1938 to form Owens-Corning Fiberglass and manufactured glass fiber insulation a product that improved residential heating/cooling efficiency. With this insulating material available during the post World War II building boom, homes were built in environments previously considered too cold, hot, dry or humid.

Herculite tempered glass

The Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company (PPG) opened in 1883 and was the first successful American manufacturer of high-quality, thick glass. PPG continued to improve their glass production process and the glass became thinner and more affordable for commercial and residential buildings. In 1907 the company opened its first window-glass factory and by 1928 began producing sheet glass. PPG’s Herculite, developed in 1938, was a tempered glass four to five times stronger than ordinary plate glass. The large sheets of safer Herculite were a new building material and inspired architects to design glass-clad buildings. Architects could now create buildings with large display windows as an architectural element ntroducing natural light and providing unobstructed views.

Century of Progress Architectural District—Beverly Shores, Porter, Indiana

The Chicago Century of Progress Exposition opened in 1933 and focused on science as a catalyst for 20th century America. Ten furnished models of modern home designs used innovative and prefabricated construction, futuristic materials and appliances of tomorrow. Nine of the homes featured flat roofs “for sleeping at night and for sunbaths, loafing or general use by day.” (image 1) Promoted as housing for every-man, the costs ranged from $3,500 to $25,000—a stretch for home buyers during the Great Depression.

After the Exposition, Robert A. Bartlett purchased 5 of the models and moved them to Beverly Shores in Porter, Indiana for his 3000-acre Lake Michigan subdivision development. Bartlett embraced modern architecture and the Century of Progress models to promote Beverly Shores as the place for the latest construction available. He believed the “model homes represent … the most outstanding examples of modern home building, combining beauty and practical value. We believe they will have a decided influence on home building in metropolitan Chicago.”

Construction innovations include:

  • Wieboldt-Rostone House was framed in steel and clad in the experimental material Rostone—a composite of shale, limestone and alkali produced in a variety of colors. (images 1, 2)
  • Florida Tropical House, a landmark in Beverly Shores with its bright pink exterior, blended the indoor and outdoor living space—an unusual concept in the Midwest. (image 3)
  • Cypress Log Cabin demonstrated the unique building qualities of cypress—a durable, colorful wood resistant to moisture, heat and insects. (image 4)
  • Armco-Ferro House was easily mass-produced and affordable (under $3,000). Made of corrugated steel panels bolted together, the structure resembled a cardboard box and can be placed on its bottom, side or top without damage. The steel panels were covered with porcelain-enamel produced by the Ferro Enamel Corporation. (image 5)
  • House of Tomorrow, influenced by European Modernism, was made of steel and glass. The curtain wall, a primitive passive solar heating system, reduced the need for mechanically produced heat in winter. The model was cooled by a revolutionary home-sized air-conditioner. (For the Midwest Bartlett replaced the glass walls with operable windows.) The first floor of the model was a garage/airplane hangar. Early 20th century futurists believed every modern American family will own a personal airplane. The second and third floor living spaces were built around a solarium. (image 6)

     

    In 1983, the Beverly Shores/Century of Progress Architectural District was added to the National Register of Historic Places

Taliesin West, Scottsdale, Arizona

Frank Lloyd Wright, one of the most famous architects of the 20th century, began work on Taliesin West. Wright called this low-profile residential/working complex on 800-acres his “Arizona Camp.” The architect imagined the desert site as his family winter retreat and workshop for the Taliesin Fellowship student-apprentices. Beginning in 1937, he stayed at the site from November to April. He continued to alter and add to the project until his death in 1959.

Inspired by the “character and beauty of that wonderful site” and impatient with the “meaningless convention” of current aesthetics, Wright’s vision was that the buildings should blend with the natural setting. Using indigenous materials—volcanic rock set in wooden forms and bonded with a mixture of cement and desert sand (desert concrete)—his design blured the distinction between indoor and outdoor space. Architectural historian Paul Heyer described the complex as a “progressive spatial experience: a series of events in landscape and terracing, with alternation of tight and loose and dark and bright spaces.”

Wright’s design plan was all encompassing and included the landscape and interior furnishings. Wright painted the exterior Cherokee red because he believed that red is the “one life-giving color in creation.” The rough redwood timbers were decorated with white to mimic the native saguaro cactus. To provide light and a sense of space, canvas was installed on the roof and windows. In 1945, Wright replaced the cloth with more practical glass and plastic.

Noted by historians as one of Wright’s later architectural masterpieces, Taliesin West was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.

1938

1940

Case Study Houses

John Entenza, the editor/owner of Arts and Architecture, annouced in the magazine’s January 1945 issue a program promoting new design and construction ideas for the exploding post World War II housing market. The magazine challenged architects to create real houses for Joes and Janes, not concept houses. Each home “must be capable of duplication and in no sense be an individual performance…It is important that the best material available be used in the best possible way in order to arrive at a good solution of each problem.” The program was christened as the Case Study House Program. Over 31 architects accepted commissions in association with the program designing residences on sites in greater Los Angeles. The architects submitted 34 designs over two decades. Arts and Architecture featured photo essays of the homes with images by some of the most famous photographers of the time. The program continued from 1945-1964 and profoundly impacted public taste and expectations across the country.

1942

Wallace Neff Invents Airform

Aluminum City Terrace, Westmoreland, Pennsylvania

Farnsworth House, Plano, Illinois

1946

1947

1949

Levittown, Long Island, NY

On 1,200 acres of Long Island farmland, home builders Levitt & Sons began to work on their revolutionary vision for the American housing industry. Their dream was to become the General Motors of this industry. The Levitts reduced construction to its basic parts, skillfully moving crews from site-to-site as their task was complete. They were the first home builders to apply assembly-line principles to home construction on a massive scale. Reducing the per unit cost, they opened home ownership to more Americans. The company bragged that a Levitt home was “the best house in the U.S.”

A Long Island potato field was named Levittown. Within three years 40,000 people moved into 10,600+ houses priced at $7,990. Uniform in design, size and limited customization, the affordable homes changed the antiquated housing industry. Levitt & Sons’ methods of mass construction were copied across the country, enabling builders to meet the postwar demand. Levittown was often cited as the beginning of the biggest housing boom in U.S. history.

St. Louis Arch, The Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Arch

Luther Ely Smith, a St. Louis lawyer, envisioned a riverside park to commemorate the city’s role in opening the American West. He promoted the park to revitalize the blighted riverfront district and created jobs during the Great Depression. After World War II Smith raised $250,000 to finance an architectural competition for a design to symbolize American culture and civilization. In 1947, the competition jury unanimously selected entry 144, Eero Saarinen’s design for a stainless-steel arch with complementary landscaping.

Born in Finland, architect Eero Saarinen was not restrained by convention. His memorial design was inspirated by Thomas Jefferson’s vision for America and the modern age. “The major concern…create a monument which would have lasting significance and would be a landmark of our time…Neither an obelisk nor a rectangular box nor a dome seemed right on this site…But here, at the edge of the Mississippi River, a great arch did seem right.”

Construction of the Arch began in 1963 and was completed in 1967. Saarinen’s design was an inverted catenary curve, a shape similar to a heavy chain hanging between two supports. Based on a complex engineering design, the structure was built with no interior skeleton. The park encompassed 62-acres. The Arch was 630 feet tall, 630 feet from leg-to-leg and was covered by 886 tons of stainless-steel plate with an inner skin of 2,157 tons of carbon steel.

Glass House, New Canaan, Connecticut

Philip Johnson, an important 20th century architect known for his designs and philosophy, influenced the course of American architecture. Collaborating with Henry-Russell Hitchcock, Johnson wrote the celebrated exhibition catalog: The International Style: Architecture Since 1922 (1932). Hitchcock and Johnson were the first to describe and popularize the style.

A student of Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer at Harvard’s School of Design, Johnson began designing his Connecticut residence after graduating in 1943. The Glass House was completed in 1949 and was an immediate sensation. The house was a simple rectangular structure built of 18-feet-wide, floor-to-ceiling, plate-glass sheets secured between black steel piers. It was considered a key postwar building. Built as a single room with a brick mass containing the fireplace and bathroom, the interior was open with cabinets and bookshelves serving as room dividers.

The Glass House was added to the National Register of Historic Places as the “epitome of modernism, its simplicity and purity of form unparalleled in domestic architecture.” Philip Johnson described his home and the surrounding complex as “the diary of an eccentric architect,” a material record of his evolving architectural philosophy.

Eames House, Pacific Palisades, California

In 1945 John Entenza, the publisher of Arts and Architecture magazine, commissoned eight architects to participate in the innovative Case Study House program. The purpose of the program was to rethink and re-engineer the concept of the home for post WW II America. The first group of architects were selected for their design talent and their ability to take “…a plot of God’s green earth and create good living conditions for eight American families.” Over 18 years, 34 houses were designed by some of the most influential mid-century architects.

Charles and Ray Eames, a husband and wife design team, created one of the original eight Case Houses. Built along the California coast in Pacific Palisades, the completed house was unveiled in the May 1949 issue of Arts and Architecture. The steel-framed, modular, International-style Eames House became one of the most famous Case Houses. Modular in design with an open floor plan, the one and two-story residence/studio was created from two steel-framed, rectangular boxes connected by an outdoor “room.” The public areas of the residence werelocated on the lower floor with the private bedrooms and baths upstairs.

Built of glass, stucco, metal and synthetics, the Eames House used many prefabricated industrial materials developed during the war and now available to the construction industry. This design was often cited as the most successful of all the 34 Case Study Houses in adapting available industrial materials to residential construction. The Eames’ innovative, flexible use of available materials was embraced by the American public as a “kit-of-parts” concept easily adapted to different sites and environments. Best known for industrial designs, the Eames House was the couple’s only architectural work.

1950s

S. R. Crown Hall, Chicago, Illinois

The Illinois Institute of Technology waslocated near the South Side of Chicago. With a “master-planned” campus designed specifically for an urban setting, the university was known for its outstanding architecture. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was director of the architecture program from 1938-1958 and designed 19 of the 55 campus buildings. S.R. Crown Hall (1950) was considered an icon of his philosophy of a universal building type later called Miesian-style. It was a significant design departure from his earlier campus designs. Crown Hall, an example of the 20th century Modernist movement, emphasized the synthesis of technology, materials, detailing and design.

Mies van der Rohe designed Crown Hall as a two-level, rectangular structure with industrial simplicity. The building’s sole ornamentation was the exposed, black-painted steel frame filled with large sheets of glass of varying transparency. On the top level, the architect created an open, unobstructed, flexible work space that encouraged collaboration and cooperation between students and faculty. Mies van der Rohe described this pavilion-like design as a universal space. The lower level contained rooms for building services/operations, bathrooms, administrative offices, wood and model shops and smaller lecture rooms.

One of the most important architects of the 20th century, Mies van der Rohe considered S.R. Crown Hall an “exceptional” precedent for the buildings he would design. He wrote that this Hall is “the clearest structure we have done, the best to express our philosophy.” The building was added to the Park Services’ National Register of Historic Places.

1952

United Nations Headquarters, Manhattan, New York

1959

Stahl House, West Hollywood, California

In 2007, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) announced the list of America’s 150 favorite architectural sites. The Pierre Koenig designed Stahl House was one of only a hand-full of California buildings to make the list. Originally commissioned in 1959 as a Case Study House, this 2,200 square-foot Hollywood Hills residence quickly became a Los Angeles icon. Photographs of the house are used in more than 1,200 newspaper and magazine articles and the residence was the setting for scores of movies and commercials.

Koenig designed the modern, steel frame and glass house for Buck Stahl, a former professional football player. Architect and athlete collaborated in creating the client’s dream—a home with a 270 degree “completely unobstructed view of the mountains to the sea.” (Los Angeles Times, June 27, 2009) To provide an unobstructed view, Koenig used the largest sheets of glass available in the 1950s, creating a house that seemed to float in its environment.

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

1960s

Chemosphere, Los Angeles, California

Architect John Lautner’s designs reflected his philosophy of shelter as a basic human need. His works were a meditation on the relationship of people to space and space to nature. An apprentice in the first class at Taliesin (Frank Lloyd Wright’s school), Lautner began his own practice in Los Angeles in 1939. He was credited with Googie-style architecture in the 1950s.

Lautner designed the eight-sided Chemosphere for engineer Leonard Malin on a seemingly impossible location with a 45-degree slope in the Hollywood Hills. Cantilevered from a 30-feet-high, poured concrete pedestal, the home was known locally as the “house on a post.” Part Jetson cartoon, part James Bond party house and totally iconic midcentury modern, the 1960 house was constructed of steel, wood and concrete. A new chemical adhesive-sealant solved the construction problem of bonding the concrete and steel. Owner Malin collaborated with the architect to design a four-seat cable car for access from the road. (Popular Mechanics, October 1961)

Photographed by Julius Shulman, the Chemisphere was featured in a number of motion pictures including Body Double.

1962

1963

1966

1967

1968

1969

St. Jude Research Hospital Dedication

Art and Architecture Building, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut

Salk Institute, La Jolla, California

Shank House, Altoona, Pennsylvania

Ford Foundation, New York City

Walter A. Gropius Dies

Mies van der Rohe, Important Modern Architect Dies

National Center for Atmospheric Research, Mesa Lab, Boulder, Colorado

Air Force Academy Chapel, Colorado Springs, Colorado

Decade at a Glance

The 1970 Census counted 204,879,000 people living in the U.S. The average life expectancy for all women at 74.8 years, which exceeded men by 7 years.

American workers’ average yearly salary was $7,564. Milk costed 33¢ a quart and steak $1.30 a pound.

The country’s national debt was $382 billion.

The 1970s were the “Me Decade,” individuals looked within themselves for meaning and personal satisfaction.

Andy Warhol, David Hockney, Judy Chicago and performance artists challenged the public’s understanding of art.

The National Guard killed four students at Kent State University during an anti-war protest—a devastating event for Americans. Public opinion shifted regarding the war in Viet Nam.

Sixties inspired fashion goes mainstream. The movie Annie Hall (1977)  influenced women’s apparel. Mood rings, pet rocks, smiley-face stickers and nude streaking were popular fads.

Affirmative Action was public policy and changes education, employment and housing.

Television came of age tackling subjects once considered taboo with All in the Family, Three’s Company and Maud.

Athletes are no longer owned by teams but can be “free agents.” Quarterback Joe Namath posed in an advertisement wearing women’s pantyhose.

Frank O. Gehry Residence in Santa Monica, California

“Most people feel comfortable living in a little brick house, or a wood clapboard house, or some other known type. I am not immune to that. I like it myself. But I also think that one has to explore living in the present … it is important to communicate new ideas and discoveries.”  (Frank O. Gehry. Bulletin of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1996)

Frank Gehry was an important American architect of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. With public and private projects around the world his designs influenced other architects, and challenged the traditional design maxim–form follows function. Gehry believed that “architecture is so cluttered with problems of function…that architects hide behind a lot of those things and develop rationales based upon functional issues such as keeping the water out and the sun in or out.” (Gehry. Design Quarterly, 1987)

One of Gehry’s earliest projects (1978) was the re-envisioning of his own home in Santa Monica, California. (Image) Beginning with a traditional two-story clapboard bungalow, his design is a mix of materials that surround the original structure in glass, plywood, chain-link fence, asphalt, aluminum metal siding, and plywood. Gehry completed the deconstruction of his home by gutting the interior down to the original 2×4 stud frame and rafters. A “collision of parts” the controversial on-going building project was applauded and panned by neighbors. Gehry considered his family’s home both a free-form sculpture and a collage…built to stay but “deliberately unfinished.”

The Gehry Residence was the winner of the AIA’s 2012 Twenty-Five Year Award for “a building that has stood the test of time for 25 to 35 years as an embodiment of architectural excellence.”

1970s

Survey of Black Architects and Craftsmen published

First titled Negro Digest (1942), Black World (1961-1975) is originally a compilation of previously printed articles of interest to African America readers. Published by John H. Johnson, the magazine is similar in format to Reader’s Digest. During the 1960s the magazine is often controversial and evolves into a forum for African American thought on culture and the role of Black Power. In a 1970 editorial, the publisher writes that the magazine will “routinely publish articles which will probe and report the conditions of peoples and their struggles throughout the Black World.”

In 1974 Black World published an original article by architect and historian Richard K. Dozier surveying the history and ongoing importance of Black architects and craftsmen to the minority community and their influence on the greater American building tradition. Dozier notes the work of slave craftsmen and the founding of Tuskegee Institute in 1881 as important milestones. Though Paul Williams had recently retired from active practice, contemporary photographs of his projects illustrate the survey.

1974

Maynard L Parker, architectural photographer, dies

Maynard L. Parker’s photographs are a visual record of 20th century California life-style. In the 1920s Parker worked for Mott Studios, the company that sets the standards for modern architectural photography. Using floodlights and stage-like settings for each room, his pictures of the homes and haunts of movie stars and the affluent helped craft their glamorous images for the curious public. An example of this technique is seen in this Mott photograph of the Jay Paley residence.

In the 1930s Parker worked as an independent photographer and his many commissions chronicled the design work of important California architects including Paul R. Williams and Cliff May. His images of a May design on the cover of Sunset (1946) helped usher in the age of the California ranch house—a style that swept the country.

Parker worked with editors of every major design magazine in America but his relationship with Elizabeth Gordon, the powerful editor of  House Beautiful (1941) was important for his career. His photographs of the homes of the powerful and famous were important elements Gordon used to promote her aesthetic message. The Parker images illustrated her advocacy of the American life-style, American design, and the education of an emerging middle class American consumer. His association with Gordon and House Beautiful continued through the 1960s.

Maynard Parker photographs scored of Williams’ homes and hundreds of these photos were recycled in design and building trades magazines or as illustrations in decorating books. His images of the Jay Paley residence were widely published and were important in crafting the mystique of both the house and its swimming pool. (The Zodiac Pool is often listed as one of the most beautiful ever built in the U.S.) Parker’s use of dramatic lighting, curated room settings and wide-angle lens created the chic understated “look” often associated with Paul R. Williams.

Maynard L. Parker died in 1976 and his work was quickly forgotten. Parker’s reputation was revived and his artistry rediscovered in 2012 with the cataloging and digitizing of his photographs housed at the Huntington Library and the publication of Jennifer A. Watts’ book—Maynard L. Parker: Modern Photography and the American Dream. Thousands of Mott Studio photographs, including Parker’s, are now digitized and available through the California State Library’s web site. Many of his photographs of Paul R. Williams’ designs are included in the collections at both libraries.

Architect A. Quincy Jones dies

After receiving his Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Washington, A. Quincy Jones works for Paul R. Williams from 1939 to 1940. In 1945 Jones opens his own architectural practice but continues to collaborate with Williams for decades on more than 20 projects including the Palm Springs Tennis Club (1947), Town and Country restaurant (1948), proposed Coconut Island Club International (1946) and Pueblo Gardens, a large Del Webb housing project built in Arizona during the 1940s and 1950s. Both men believe in the importance of small home ownership for American society.

Williams and Jones bring unique skills and strengths to their relationship. John Crosse, a Southern California architectural historian, notes that reading personal correspondence between the two men indicates they “obviously had a mutual respect for each other.” At the start of his practice Jones asks his mentor for advise on a variety of residential projects. Crosse states, “The association between Williams and Jones worked pretty much like this: Williams got the clients and Jones did the design and construction oversight, a win-win for the duo.” (SOCALARCHHISTORY 12/13/2009)

1976

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