Keslinq Modern Structures Tour
SOCIETY OF ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIANS U.S. Postage SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA CHAPTER FIRST CLASS MAIL PAID Pasadena, CA Permit No. 740 ^ -' 1 P.O. Box 56478, Sherman Oaks, CA 91413, 800.9SAHSCC, www.sahscc.org marred by scandal. A second reason for Kesling's obscurity is that his work has received little publicity. Pascal's book and this tour aim to correct this. Of the 35 homes Kesling built in Los Angeles in the Keslinq Modern • t~ '30s, only 20 remain recognizable— and they are treasures. During the 1930s depression, as building construction came to a Structures Tour near standstill across the country, Southern California clients erected a Sunday, February 9th surprising number of Streamline Moderne houses and business buildings. Kesling was in the right place at the right time. The new look can be traced back to transportation On Sunday, February 9th, Photo: Julius Shulman designers, who tested their designs SAH/SCC will host a tour of five in wind-tunnels and fluid tanks to Streamline Moderne homes built produce aerodynamically advanced designs for train engines, automo• in the 1930s by William Kesling biles, airplanes, and ships that in the Silverlake and Los Feliz enhanced forward motion by reduc• areas. The tour celebrates the ing wind (or water) resistance. Industrial designers discovered that publication of Patrick Pascal's refrigerators, toasters, and pencil book on this unsung modernist boxes with the same curves and Kesling Modern Structures: wind lines appealed to consumers over earlier boxy models. Shoppers Popularizing Modern Design in were even willing to pay more, Southern California. 1934-1962 maybe because these "modernistic" gadgets seemed futuristic in the (Balcony Press, 2002}.
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