Walker House for rent...

...with photos!

The article in Curbed.

Listing.

Thanks to the good folks at the Schindler facebook page for the tip!

where is schindler buried?

Besides many other interests, I'm interested in cemeteries and—naturally, when combining interests—interested in architects' gravestones. Did they carry their design philosophy (literally) to the grave? I've tried to locate Schindler's burial site and gravestone off and on over the years with no luck. Now I know why.

After gawking at art at the Menil in Houston last week and stopping in for the obligatory visit to the museum store, the bride found this book:

First: Cool. Second: Props for proper apostrophe usage. Third: Do they have a Schindler entry?

They do! And it's poetic.

Verbatim from the book:

"... Schindler's ... ashes were put away in a crawl space within the house and were never found when the house was extensively remodeled. Thus, Schindler resides eternally and ethereally in the house he designed and in which he lived."

Goodwin House on the market

Schindler's 1941 Goodwin House (3-3) is on the market for $1.599 million. Nice remodel!

Includes original built-in furniture.

Natural setting, Natural gas (Rodakiewicz House)

ooo: Posted today at the Schindler facebook page!

haiku for the book "How House: RM Schindler" by James Steele

you ask yourself "How?"

nestled amongst rolling hills.

interlocking joy...

Built in 1925, this remarkable piece of early Modernism is comfortably perched on a Silverlake hilltop, a beacon of radical architectural thought. The author, James Steele, notes in the first sentence of the book that the How House is "..arguably the best house that Rudolf Schindler ever designed...". It is, unquestionably, a beauty. It's also shockingly ahead of its time. Now almost a hundred years old, it could have been designed yesterday.

James Eads How inherited a fortune from his father, James Buchanon Eads, who invented a diving bell that supported a successful salvage company. James Buchanon also designed the ironclad gunboats the North used to defeat the South's navy during the Civil War. After he retired, his restlessness led him to designing and building a steel-superstructure arch bridge in St. Louis, an engineering feat.

After he graduated from Havard Medical School, James Eads How attempted to donate his inheritance to the National Socialist Party, but his family stopped him through the courts. In response, he dedicated his fortune to assisting the homeless.

Given that How's socialist politics brought him through the Schindlers' gatherings at Schindler's own house, Schindler designed a practical house with radical aesthetics, greatly advancing Frank Lloyd Wright's architectural vision.

This 80-page book, published in 1996, is for Schindler diehards, and includes many diagrams and photos as well as a detailed architectural critique. We were fortunate enough to not only tour the house but attend a reception there to hear Judith Sheine speak about the house and Schindler. The place is gorgeous and well-thought out and detailed.

McAlmon guest house for rent (and viewing!)

Guest house in the foreground; house house in the back.

Oh, I love it when a Schindler comes on the market so we can get a peek at the interior and details of the design. Megathanks to the good folks at the Rudolf M Schindler Facebook page for clueing me in to the recent rental listing of the McAlmon guest house.

This is a fascinating project, in part, because of how Schindler Borged the original house on the property. This is what I call Borgitecture: the adaptation of an existing structure into a new architecture. Sometimes these adaptations obliterate any evidence of the original building. But here, Schindler simply integrates the existing house into his addition which gives the guest house it's decidedly Modern appearance today. I'm sure this was done for cost savings (why tear down a perfectly good house to build a new one?), but I wonder if Schindler also did this out of honesty: "Yo, homeboys: There's someone else's house underneath all this Schindlerness!"

Regardless of the whats and whys, the place is fabulous. Schindler reserved the private and utility spaces for the original cottage and went full-on Modern with the living room extending off the front of the original structure. There's an open house this weekend (or next?) that I wish I could attend, but the posting photos do a great job of conveying the glory of Schindler's design.

If you look carefully at the structure on the right (towards its rear), you can see cottage windows from the original structure.

The new space added to the cottage.

On the backside of the cottage, the original house is easier to see (but you can also see the Borging).

Lovely patio added to the original cottage. 

The structures today.

The structures back in the day.

The cottage post-Borged.

I'm guessing that the living room and the patio are "new" (added by Schindler) and the rest of the house is original.

Heading into Schindler's addition.

In the addition.

Overall site plan.

Kitchen (in the original house)

Office (in the original house).

Bedroom (in the original house)

Kallis house is on the market

Schindler's Mischa Kallis House (1946) is on the market for $2,395,000. She looks to be in beautiful shape (although she has a few additions by Schindler associate Josef van der Kar and Leroy Miller (L.A. Twelve).

Words from the listing:

First offering: City of Los Angeles Cultural Historic Monument #860, The Kallis-Sharlin Residence, 1946, by architect Rudolph Schindler, with later additions by Josef Van der Kar, and L.A. Twelve architect Leroy Miller, F.A.I A. 

Art and Music have always flourished in this dynamic space originally designed for artist Mischa Kallis as a residence and art studio. In 1960 Kallis sold the property directly to his cousin Jacqueline and her husband William Sharlin. Jacqueline was a noted concert pianist who had actually performed at Carnegie Hall. 

With the Sharlins' love of entertaining, and a growing family, they needed more space, and commissioned Schindler’s associate Josef Van der Kar to ingeniously convert an open patio between the living quarters and art studio to an entertainment/family room. Later, they hired architect Leroy Miller to convert the art studio to a new master bedroom and bath. These changes have not compromised Schindler’s sensibility. Today the building stands as a great space for living, and a fully resolved work of architecture. 

A sheltering carport at the street level acts as a privacy screen, and the house is covered with vertical split-stake wood fencing to help the house "disappear among the trees." The glassy residence affords dramatic vistas across the Cahuenga Pass to the distant San Gabriel Mountains, and incorporates 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 4 fireplaces, and original Schindler built-in furniture.