The biography of John Lautner, originally written by Melissa Matuscak for the exhibit on Lautner at the DeVos Art Museum last year (2011), has been expanded and illustrated for inclusion in the magazine of the Michigan Historical Society. You can download a copy of the article John Lautner Biography.
Category Archives: Biography
Expanded Biography of Lautner Featured in Michigan Magazine
The Historical Society of Michigan features a substantial illustrated biography of John Lautner, written by Melissa Matuscak, Director and Curator of the DeVos Art Museum in Marquette, Michigan. Matuscak curated the popular exhibit on Lautner last year, in the DeVos Museum. The text of the article was reviewed for accuracy by members of the board of directors of The John Lautner Foundation.
You can read the article online at http://www.hsmichigan.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/JulyAug_Lautner.pdf. The article will also be available for download on the Foundation website, on the Biography page.
Lautner interview available
In 1986, Marlene Laskey interviewed John Lautner for the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Oral History Program. Her 6-1/2 hour interview was printed by UCLA with the title Responsibility, Infinity, Nature. Ms. Laskey has since died and access to the book has been limited.
However, you can read it. It is available through the Internet Archive, an online library for researchers, historians, and scholars. The library maintains copies of the book in several different formats. You can read it online or download it. But you cannot use material from this book for other projects to be sold or distributed to the public without obtaining permission from UCLA. The material is still under copyright protection.
Get your copy from the Internet Archive now.
Guggenheim exhibit on Wright will contain Lautner shelter model
An exhibit on Frank Lloyd Wright, called Frank Lloyd Wright: From Within Outward, will open May 15, 2009 and run until August 23, 2009, at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City.
Among the exhibits will be models of shelters designed and built by Taliesin Fellows, including the simple shelter created by John Lautner. From photographs provided by the Lautner family, exhibit creators have been able to recreate it accurately.
See the Guggenheim exhibit page for more information.
photo of Larkin building copyright The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation
Biography of John Lautner
opening photo of Lake Superior by John Lautner
courtesy of John Lautner family private collection
John Lautner was one of last century’s important contemporary American architects. His work was concerned with the relationship of the human being to space and of space to nature. “Shelter,” he said, “is the most basic human need.”
Lautner practiced architecture for more than 55 years, designing unusual and unique residences in and near Los Angeles, including Silvertop, the Chemosphere, the Sheats/Goldstein residence, the Levy residence, and the Elrod residence (Palm Springs, CA), as well as many others around the world. He was also responsible for the innovative design of some restaurants (Henry’s, Googies, Tiny Naylor’s).
The beginnings:
Lautner was born in 1911, the older of two children. He was raised in Marquette, Michigan, graduating from high school and college there. The northern woods and the deep blue of Lake Superior remained in his soul throughout his life, and he was to return time and time again to bask in what he considered a heaven on earth.
His first building experience came when he helped his father and mother build a chalet-style retreat, designed by his mother, that looked out over the lake from a hillside high above it.
Rear entrance to Midgaard in upper Michigan
Left: View of Lake Superior from Midgaard balcony
After graduating with a degree in English from the Northern Michigan University (then Northern State Teachers College), Lautner became an apprentice to Frank Lloyd Wright for six years, joining the first group of Taliesin Fellows. In 1937 he supervised the construction of two of Wright’s projects, and two years later established his own practice in Los Angeles. His first solo project was a house for his own family, which architectural critic Henry-Russell Hitchcock called “the best house by an architect under 30 in the United States.” Later Hitchcock remarked that “Lautner’s work could stand comparison with that of his master.” A comparison, incidentally, that Lautner himself would have been reluctant to make, given his lifelong devotion to Mr. Wright.
View of Middle Island Point, upper Michigan
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 the 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.
At the time of his death on October 24, 1994, the 83-year-old Lautner was still working on several large projects.