Category Archives: John Lautner Buildings

Film and Television, John Lautner Buildings, News

Joan Rivers visits Jim Goldstein

photo by Jeff Georgevich; all rights reserved.

Episode 5 of Joan Rivers’ new show, “How’d You Get So Rich?”, features Lautner’s Sheats-Goldstein residence with James Goldstein in attendance.

Watch the episode online. The Goldstein portion is the last part of the show, so it’s safe to fast-forward through the rest (unless, of course, you want to see the inventor of the slanket and Mother’s Breast Friend and others). You’ll see the living and pool areas, the entrance, the garage, the bedroom, and the closet. While the focus is mainly on Jim and his wardrobe it is unavoidably about the house, too.

Thanks to Stephen Lautner for finding this episode.

John Lautner Buildings, News

Hatherall residence for sale

[update: August 2, 2009: home of the week]

The Hatherall residence in Sunland is for sale. The agent is Bill Bowersock of Coldwell Banker. Reach him at (323) 646 8468 or bsock@coldwellbanker.com. See more on this redfin listing.

Built in 1958, the house has been remodeled since: the covered terrace was enclosed, the den extended, horizontal windows modified, and the roofline has been made fatter.

The house is the Los Angeles Times Home of the Week for August 2, 2009.  You can read the article and see the pictures.

Thanks to Ted Sprague for pointing this out and providing updated information. Thanks to Tycho Saariste for report on current condition.

Bibliography, John Lautner Buildings, News

British architecture journal connects chemosphere to Star Wars city

In the Architect’s Journal of June 15, 2009, Lautner’s chemosphere (Malin residence) is compared to one of the structures in the Star Wars films’ “cloud city”. The image of Cloud City is taken from Episode 5 of the Star Wars film series. Nine other Star Wars structures are compared to famous architectural icons on earth as well.

Thanks to Angela Zar for this catch.

Bibliography, News, Print

A blast from the chemosphere past

Trusty researcher John Crosse has unearthed a little column from the deep, dark past. In this column, printed in the Los Angeles Times in 1960, columnist Fred Beck ruminates on possible uses for the chemosphere “concept”, and includes a sketch at the top of the column.

We don’t think he fully grasps the actual reason for the design but he’s right that the design has potential to be used in other difficult situations.

Download the column. It’s squeezed on the right side of the page, amid the ads that have some interest in themselves (look at the prices!).

About John Lautner, Bibliography, News

Scottish magazine interviews Grigor on Lautner

The online magazine ScottishArchitecture.com interviewed Murray Grigor, director of Infinite Space: The Architecture of John Lautner, recently. Grigor talks about how he got started in films on architects and how his work on the current Hammer exhibit (showing in Glasgow now) led him to do a film on Lautner.

He talks about Lautner’s architecture and how it differs from that of his contemporaries and why his work was ignored for so long. The article is illustrated with several photographs of Lautner buildings.

Read the article online (see link above) or download the pdf.

Bibliography, Biography, Exhibits, News

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

Film and Television, News

Sheats-Goldstein house to be featured in Southland

Thanks to the countless number of spies employed by the John Lautner Foundation, we have learned that the April 23 episode of the new crime drama Southland will feature the Sheats-Goldstein residence as a murder scene.

The episode will air at ten p.m. EST and PST, nine p.m. CST and MST, Thursday on NBC.

The spy in this case goes by the name John Crosse. Of course nobody knows if that’s his real name.

About John Lautner, Bibliography, News, Print

Update: Swiss magazine focuses on Schwimmer residence

[update 03/26/09: added link to English translation]

[update 02/24/09: magazine is actually Swiss]

[update 02/05/09: article is actually on JL although pix are of Schwimmer]

The Swiss magazine IdealesHeim published an extensive article featuring Lautner’s Schwimmer residence in its March issue. The article itself is on John Lautner generally, based on interviews with Frank Escher, but all of the photographs are of the Schwimmer residence. The magazine is generally not available in the United States, but the photographer, Patricia Parinejad, has obtained a pdf version for us.

The 13-page article is available in portable document format (pdf), on request. Write to lautner (at) johnlautner (dot) org for your copy. Because readers in Switzerland should be able to purchase the magazine, we will attempt to weed out requests from that country.

Download an English translation of the article (no pictures included). Please note that “Seite” means “Page”. Translation by Naomi Schenck and Schenck Workshops, Berlin Germany. Naomi is a set designer, working on projects throughout Europe and inspired by the work of Lautner.