Challenges and Achievements
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The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School College of Arts and Architecture NISEI ARCHITECTS: CHALLENGES AND ACHIEVEMENTS A Thesis in Architecture by Katrin Freude © 2017 Katrin Freude Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Architecture May 2017 The Thesis of Katrin Freude was reviewed and approved* by the following: Alexandra Staub Associate Professor of Architecture Thesis Advisor Denise Costanzo Associate Professor of Architecture Thesis Co-Advisor Katsuhiko Muramoto Associate Professor of Architecture Craig Zabel Associate Professor of Art History Head of the Department of Art History Ute Poerschke Associate Professor of Architecture Director of Graduate Studies *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School ii Abstract Japanese-Americans and their culture have been perceived very ambivalently in the United States in the middle of the twentieth century; while they mostly faced discrimination for their ethnicity by the white majority in the United States, there has also been a consistent group of admirers of the Japanese art and architecture. Nisei (Japanese-Americans of the second generation) architects inherited the racial stigma of the Japanese minority but increasingly benefited from the new aesthetic light that was cast, in both pre- and post-war years, on Japanese art and architecture. This thesis aims to clarify how Nisei architects dealt with this ambivalence and how it was mirrored in their professional lives and their built designs. How did architects, operating in the United States, perceive Japanese architecture? How did these perceptions affect their designs? I aim to clarify these influences through case studies that will include such general issues as (1) Japanese-Americans’ general cultural evolution, (2) architects operating in the United States and their relation to Japanese architecture, and (3) biographies of three Nisei architects: George Nakashima, Minoru Yamasaki, and George Matsumoto. By tracking three professional careers and three different “mindsets” regarding Japanese ancestry, Japanese architecture, and Japan in general, I aim to discover these architects’ design philosophy. Using interviews, images and plans, and other archival materials, I will concentrate primarily on residential case studies. By focusing on single- architect/single-client situations, as well as the architects’ own self-designed dwellings, I aim both to avoid fragmenting the role of “agency” and to refine ideas about the architects’ “design philosophies.” By methodological restriction to 1:1 designer/user situations, and by employing consistent labeling and standardized comparison procedures, I hope to draw conclusions about similarities running across the range of heterogeneous examples. Western architects readily experimented imported Japanese elements, appreciating their exotic forms and concepts. But, Japanese immigrants had been mostly unable or unwilling to represent their architectural heritage in their built environment; they only gradually developed more confidence to explore their bicultural background. Nisei architects acknowledged their ethnic background selectively, putting a positive spin on their ancestral culture to carve out a niche in the architecture profession without having to face the issue of rejecting or accepting any specific Japanese stereotypes. iii Table of Contents List of Figures ...................................................................................................................... v List of Tables ...................................................................................................................... ix Acknowledgments .............................................................................................................. x CHAPTER 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 1 Japanese Immigrants and Japanese-Americans in the United States ................................ 2 Nisei Architects and Their Challenge .................................................................................. 4 CHAPTER 2 The Historic and Constructed Discourse on Japanese Architecture in the United States ......... 7 Rising Interest in Japanese Architecture............................................................................. 9 The Architects and the Interpretation and Influence of Japanese Architecture .............. 13 Ralph Adams Cram ..................................................................................................... 14 Greene & Greene ....................................................................................................... 18 Frank Lloyd Wright ..................................................................................................... 22 Richard Neutra ........................................................................................................... 28 Harwell Hamilton Harris ............................................................................................. 32 Change in the Perception of Japanese Architecture in the Postwar Era: Bruno Taut and Walter Gropius .................................................................................................................. 37 Double Coding of Japanese Architecture and its Interpretations .................................... 40 CHAPTER 3 Nisei Architects ........................................................................................................................ 46 The Architects ................................................................................................................... 47 George Nakashima ..................................................................................................... 48 Minoru Yamasaki ........................................................................................................ 53 George Matsumoto .................................................................................................... 59 The Houses ........................................................................................................................ 63 Nakashima Woodwork Shop ...................................................................................... 64 Yamasaki Residence ................................................................................................... 77 Matsumoto House ...................................................................................................... 86 Double-Coding and Hybridity in the Nisei Architects’ Designs and Professions............... 91 CHAPTER 4 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 97 Bibliography .............................................................................................................................................. 102 Appendix ................................................................................................................................................... 106 iv List of Figures Figure 2.1 Morse, Edward. View of Dwelling from Garden in Tokyo (The Japanese Home and Their Surroundings, 1886, p.55) ......................................................................................................... 9 Figure 2.2 Morse, Edward. Section through Veranda and Guest Room (The Japanese Home and Their Surroundings, 1886, p.126) ..................................................................................................... 11 Figure 2.3 Goodhue, Bertram. Goodhue’s Perspective of His and Cram’s Designs for the Imperial Japanese Parliament Buildings, Tokyo. Drawing, 1898. (Shand-Tucci, Douglass. “Ralph Adams Cram: Life and Architecture.” Vol. 1. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1995, p.403)....................................................................................................................................... 14 Figure 2.4 View from the Front (Architectural Record, 1898, p.84) ........................................................... 16 Figure 2.5 Floor Plan, Knapp House (Architectural Record, 1898, p.83) .................................................... 16 Figure 2.6 From the Garden (Architectural Record, 1898, p.86) ................................................................ 17 Figure 2.7 Exterior: Courtyard; Arturo Bandini House, Paseda, California. Photograph, n.d.( Environmental Design Archives, University of California at Berkeley) ........................... 19 Figure 2.8 Exterior: view from north, David Berry Gamble House, Pasadena, California. Photograph, n.d. (Environmental Design Archives, University of California at Berkeley) .................................. 19 Figure 2.9 View of south (front) and west elevations], 1904—1905, Mrs. Adelaide M. Tichenor House, Long Beach, California (Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library Columbia University) ....... 20 Figure 2.10 First floor plan; front elevation; east elevation: No. 2, 1904—1905, Mrs. Adelaide M. Tichenor House, Long Beach, California (Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library Columbia University) ............................................................................................................................... 20 Figure 2.11 Exterior: view from interior courtyard, bridge, Mrs. Adelaide M. Tichenor House, Long Beach, California. Photograph, n.d. (Environmental Design Archives, University of California at Berkeley) .................................................................................................................................