Category Archives: News

News on the foundation and on John Lautner

John Lautner Buildings, News

What do you know about Lautner’s Taliesin shelter?

Andrea Tejeda, a student at The Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture, is doing some research on the desert shelter that John Lautner designed, built, and lived in at Taliesin West. The shelter was destroyed some years ago and she is looking for information about it. Andrea says:

This information that I am gathering is for a project the school is working on for an exhibit later this year at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. The exhibition is based on the history of the desert shelters, since their very beginning back when the school was founded, to the present day; one of the shelters that is part of this research is the John Lautner shelter. The information we gather will also be put together and kept in our archives, something that we do not have for it has never been done before, and we feel is very important to our school.

From At Taliesin West

If you have any knowledge of this shelter from your own personal experience or that of others you know, please let Andrea know – and please let us know as well!

Write to Andrea at atejedag3 (at) hotmail (dot) com
Write to the Foundation at Lautner (at) johnlautner (dot) org

Film and Television, News

Spirit in Architecture to screen in Chicago

The Chicago Architecture Foundation will screen Bette Cohen’s Spirit in Architecture: John Lautner on January 27, from 6:00 to 7:30 pm, at the John Buck Company Lecture Hall Gallery, 224 South Michigan Avenue. Cohen produced and directed this first documentary on John Lautner, and it features, along with stunning photography and interviews, Lautner himself walking around his buildings as he talks about them. Bette Cohen will be there to speak and answer questions.

To get tickets visit the Chicago Architecture programs page – scroll down to the film listing.

Note that you can buy the VHS version of this film from the John Lautner Foundation shop.

Film and Television, News

Lautner documentary to premiere in Palm Springs

Infinite Space: The Architecture of John Lautner, a new documentary by documentary filmmaker Murray Grigor, will have its official world premiere at the Palm Springs Film Festival on January 12, 2009. The Festival will announce the full film lineup on December 27. Murray Grigor will be at the festival to speak about the making of the film.

After its premiere, the film will move to Glasgow to be screened between February 12 and 22 (date not yet set), shortly before the opening of the Hammer exhibit at The Lighthouse in March. Following this screening, the film goes to the prestigious Montreal Festival International du Films sur L’Art (International festival of films on art), which runs from March 6 – 16 (screening not yet set).

It will not end there. When we learn of additional venues we will post them here.

Background, Bibliography, John Lautner Buildings, Links, News, Print

Wolff house featured in 2007 magazine

California Home + Design, Sept 2007, features an article on Lautner’s Wolff house in Hollywood, built in 1961 (guest wing, also by Lautner, added in 1963). The article focuses on Michael LaFetra, who had just purchased the house (it now has a different owner), and the interior designer he has used on several of his homes, Kristin Kilmer.

Please send an email to us and we’ll send the article (pdf) to you.

Endangered buildings, News

Gantvoort house potentially in danger

The 1947 Gantvoort house in La Canada Flintridge, CA is for sale. Its current selling price of $1,650,000 is a major bargain for such a well-maintained Lautner house in nearly original condition.  The house sits on just under an acre of land, which is heavily landscaped and includes walkways to enjoy the outdoors.

From Gantvoort Residence

The residence was built in 1947 for Mr. and Mrs. W.F. Gantvoort. Mr. Gantvoort was a retired Dutch plantation owner from Java. He acted as contractor on the job, and the Gantvoorts lived in the house until 2004. It has had two owners since.

The house was designed to be built economically, featuring a prefabricated independent roof frame built of steel trusses sitting on sloped steel columns. The residence has been featured in several books on Lautner.

Because of its modest size (1801 SF),  the large size of the lot, and the bargain pricing, some potential buyers are looking at the property as a tear-down.

If you are interested in seeing the house, contact the realtor through this listing.

News

Hammer exhibit closes; moves to Glasgow next

The last day of the exhibit on John Lautner at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles was Sunday, October 12. The day set a record in attendance for the museum: 1564 people between 11 am and 5 pm. The museum stayed open an extra fifteen minutes to accommodate the crowd.

Total attendance during the run of the exhibit was 35,242. The museum ran out of brochures.

The exhibit next moves to Glasgow, to the Lighthouse, Centre for Architecture, Design and the City. The tour:

Between Earth and Heaven: The Architecture of John Lautner will be at

*The Lighthouse, Centre for Architecture, Design and the City Glasgow, Scotland, March 19 – July 26, 2009

*The Wolfsonian – Florida International University in Miami Beach, Fla. October 15, 2009 – January 17, 2010

*Palm Springs Art Museum in Palm Springs, Ca. February 20 – May 23, 2010

Although the LIghthouse website does not yet list the exhibit it is worth taking a look at what this unusual center has to offer – workshops, a furnishings store, interactive activities.

News

Motel’s new owners look forward
Tracy Beckmann and Ryan Trowbridge inside a motel unit. Photo by Judith Lautner

Tracy Beckmann, interior designer, is realizing a dream from years ago, when she first saw the Sheats-Goldstein residence in Los Angeles. She promised herself at that time that she would one day own a Lautner building. And now she does. After a lengthy escrow she finally took possession of the Desert Hot Springs Motel, previously owned by Steve Lowe, who died unexpectedly in 2007.

The four-unit motel was designed for Hollywood film producer Lucien Hubbard and completed in 1947. Original plans for the motel included pools and additional four-unit buildings. The pools were built but later torn down. The additional units were never built. Eventually the motel was sold and converted to apartments. It was sold in 2000 to Steve Lowe, who then returned it to its original use, outfitting the rooms with clean period furniture. The motel became a destination point for many architectural fans as well as a retreat for the weary and the recently married. The rooms provide protection from the elements yet a connection to the beauty, light, and air outside.

From Desert Hot Springs Motel
Interior of one unit showing private garden and wall beyond windows. Photo by Jan-Richard Kikkert

Tracy and her partner, Ryan Trowbridge, who designs and builds furniture, have some ambitious plans for the motel. They plan to renovate baths and kitchens, neither of which have much of the original in them, replace the air conditioners that were installed inside the private gardens when the units were converted to apartments, and possibly replace the framed windows with frameless glass. On property next door to the motel they plan to add pools as well as a small reception building for management and visitors. To protect the motel and its users from the elements and unwanted intruders, they want to build a wall around the entire site, creating a “compound”. The wall would be of the same design as the angular wall that now exists.

Tracy and Ryan are interested in restoration as well as renovation. They are looking for clues to the original colors of the building (and especially of the steel supports, painted orange by Steve Lowe) and are researching other details that they would like to restore. One important detail is the removal of the residence immediately adjacent to and behind the motel. This residence was constructed a few years ago and looms above the low-lying motel, an unwanted presence that Steve Lowe unsuccessfully tried to prevent. Tracy and Ryan expect to live in the house while renovating the motel, after which they will remove the house from the site.

The John Lautner Foundation will stay in touch with the new owners and offer assistance and guidance when requested.

Tracy plans to reopen the motel in 2010, coinciding with the opening of the Hammer exhibit on John Lautner at the Palm Springs Desert Museum. More information on this motel renovation will be published here as plans develop.

News

Site outage

Dateline October 4, 2008: Some of you may have noticed that the foundation site was down yesterday. When you tried to get here you got a page that said “Internal Server Error” with a bunch of gobbledygook. We have resolved the problem and are looking for tech support that will prevent such a long outage from occurring in the future.

News

Preservation bookstore opens

Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – September 16, 2008
Contact: Tim Cannan (503) 223-4939

Portland, Oregon – PreservationDirectory.com, the leading online resource for historic and cultural resource preservation based in Portland, Oregon, is pleased to announce the launch of the comprehensive “Preservation Bookstore.” With over 275 books currently available, the bookstore will collect and present primary titles of critical importance to restoration professionals, historic homeowners and the general public interested in historic preservation.

The bookstore features a broad array of titles in the fields of historic preservation, including: building restoration; architectural history and design; downtown, Main Street, and urban revitalization; historic preservation funding sources, laws and policy; historic real estate; architectural tours and heritage tourism; identifying architectural styles; researching house history; endangered history; museum management; and roadside attractions.

There is no fee to have books listed on PreservationDirectory.com. Those interested in having publications considered for inclusion should send a copy or sample to PreservationDirectory.com, 7017 N. Alma Ave, Portland, OR 97203. All books are reviewed for relevance and quality before being added to the website.

The Preservation Bookstore works in partnership with Powell’s City of Books – the largest independent bookstore in the United States, also located in Portland, Oregon. Advantages of partnering with Powell’s are many, including that they have a massive new and used catalog (many of the books offered are used, and thus are available at a great discount), they are an independent bookstore, and they are an integral part of what makes the city of Portland unique and vibrant.

To view the Preservation Bookstore, visit PreservationDirectory.com and click on “Preservation Bookstore” or simply go to: http://www.preservationdirectory.com/preservationbookstore/books.aspx

About PreservationDirectory.com:
PreservationDirectory.com is a primary online resource for historic preservation, building restoration and cultural resource management in the United States & Canada. Our goal is to foster the preservation of historic buildings, historic downtowns and neighborhoods, cultural resources and to promote heritage tourism by facilitating communication among historic preservation professionals and the general public. Founded in 1999 and headquartered in Portland, Oregon, PreservationDirectory.com has continually expanded and evolved to cover a comprehensive array of topics and resources of most interest to the historic and cultural resource community.

Contact:
Tim Cannan, President
PreservationDirectory.com
7017 N. Alma Ave
Portland, OR 97203
503-223-4939
info@preservationdirectory.com
http://www.PreservationDirectory.com

– PreservationDirectory.com –