Lautner's Chemosphere Gets a New Life Events
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Lautner’sChemosphere TALIESIN getsanewlife fter two years of restoration, John Lautner’s famous Chemosphere house ® FELLOWS in the Hollywood Hills above Los Angeles, is once again the remarkable Ainnovative design that Lautner created in 1960. The new owners Angelika and Benedikt Taschen first saw the house in 1997 in a neglected state, and set NEWSLETTER about repairing the building and Lautner’s reputation. “(The house) was unique,” NUMBER 3 Ms. Taschen recalled. “authentic and intense, idealistic and full of fantasy, non- APRIL 15, 2001 conformist. I felt immediately that it fit our character perfectly.” The Taschens are German publishers of books on art, architecture and erotica, and have published a book by Barbara-Ann Campbell-Lange in 1999 titled “John Lautner” which increased appreciation of an architect who was one of the early apprentices of Frank Lloyd Wright in the 1930s. The originality and design ability of Lautner received rare praise from the master who seldom acknowledged the work of the former apprentices. Lautner himself—a curmudgeonly, highly inventive designer of homes as well as the influential if not “infamous” Googies Coffee House, now defunct, on the Sunset strip—wed technological inno- vation to a poetic understanding of site. He was almost forgotten when he died in 1994 at 83. His work expressed the nature of mate- rials and most often his structures were organic abstractions in con- crete, often on spectacular sites in California and in Mexico where the swooping colossus of Acapulco, the Arango house, emerges from its perch on a mountainside overlooking the sea. Leonard Malin, the original client, was an aerospace engi- neer who, at 27, left his job to help build the Lautner design. “Most people work an entire lifetime to buy the home of their dreams. I said, the heck with that, I’ll build the home of my dreams and pay for it the rest of my life.” Impressed with a nearby Lautner house, he trusted Lautner’s design for a difficult site, a property that went straight up 100 feet. The Chemosphere The design was a 2200 sq. ft. octagonal pod, made of curved lami- nated wood beams tied at the center to a steel compression ring. The house perched on a column five feet in diameter, anchored into solid bedrock and requiring a funicular to reach it. The construction cost was $140,000 and much was subsidized by sponsoring companies, Southern California Gas and Chem Seal Corporation who furnished experimental epoxies, coating and resins. Arango Soon referred to as the “the flying saucer house”, the house was built the year Kennedy launched the challenge to fly to the moon. It was never intended to look like a UFO but it became known thus by people who drove up events from the valley to see it. The Malins and four children lived in the house until 1972, and over the next 25 years three owners modified it. Then the Taschens Our annual observance of paid almost $1 million for the the property. The remodeling has followed what the birthday of Frank Lloyd Wright will the new owners believe was the spirit of Lautner’s vision including original de- be celebrated by the Taliesin Fellows tails unaffordable at the time. this year on June 30 with a visit to Stanford University Gallery in Palo The Chemosphere is not the sole house of the new owners, the Alto to see an exhibition of the Taschens, whose primary home is in Cologne, Germany. Malin, the original owner photographs of life at Taliesin in the and builder, who lives near Palm Springs, and who regards the house as his “no late 40s by Lois Davidson Gottlieb at 3 matter what” is pleased with the restoration. “It’s very rewarding for me to see pm. Following the exhibition Fellows the Taschens putting it into shape. I was very concerned, and now I’m elated.” and friends will assemble at the The Taschens are planning a guest house at the base of the Chemosphere to Midglen Studio in Woodside for be designed by Rem Koolhaas who is to produce a 21st century house as con- cocktails and dinner. ceptually strong as Lautner’s. “John Lautner is the American architect who invented his own grammar of forms”, Taschen said. Please reserve your space no _____________________________ later than June 15 by calling Midglen at 650-369-0416 (e-mail: taliesinfellows This report is based on a story by Frances Anderton in the New York Times, March @midglen.com) The dinner party 15, 2001. Lois Barnes, Taliesin Fellow, Berkeley, CA who forwarded the Times article on the Chemosphere, recalls walking around the Lautner house while it was vacant, wishing she donation will be $15 per guest. had the wherewithal to buy it herself. letters... editor’s corner . Gratitude to Bill Patrick for the Newsletter, and for Brad Storrer’s straight talk regarding the State of the Fellowship (“Origins of the Fellowship,” January ’01.) To advance the comprehensive view of Mr. Wright’s timeless philosophy, isn’t it necessary to Bill Patrick identify him as the Great American Soloist that he was, rather than half of a duet with his third wife? n important new book by John Rattenbury of the Taliesin Architects Inc., the official titled successors of Frank Lloyd Wright who work at the two With his identity rightly structured in the History of A Taliesins, has been published by Pomegranate. The book deals exclu- Art and Architecture, independence-within-unity of sively with the work of this group in the forty-one years it has been dedicated to the different efforts of his adherents should follow. continuing the legacy of Wright. Is the FLLW School of Architecture really More than one thousand men and women from all over the world have lived and reflecting Wright’s educational values unmodi- worked at Taliesin since the fellowship was founded in 1932, and individually fied? He was contemptuous of academia’s “mass they have carved their own niche in carrying on the inspiration of Wright. Sev- product and its goal, the certificate, emulation.” eral early apprentices have become architectural stars such as John Lautner, Aaron Wouldn’t the stand for Wright’s unique individuality Green, and Edgar Tafel. in genuine American culture constitute ground for exemption from the State requirement of a While the work of the Taliesin Architects Inc. has the privilege of the use of Wright’s degree to qualify as an architect, and open the unexecuted designs stashed in the archives at Taliesin under the capable hands way to presenting organic architecture as he did? of Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer, there has been little published on the work of vast num- bers of former apprentices, whose individual output and design ability may well “The safety of the soul is in its courage,” Wright stand up to and surpass the Taliesin practitioners. said, so in calling him who he was and in challeng- ing the degree requirement, the spirit of the We look forward to seeing the mark of those others who, together with the Taliesin Fellowship should find safety. Architects Inc., make up the living legacy of Frank Lloyd Wright. ___________________ Deirdre Treacy Babcock, Taliesin 1958-59 Santa Monica, CA It appears our announcement of an article by Carl Book, apprenticed in 1955-56, and a teacher of architectural history was a little premature. Owing to other com- mitments Book will now offer his article in our next issue. And our apology for the misleading announcement that Dana Hutt had resigned from the Taliesin Fellows Board of Directors. In fact, Ms. Hutt has resigned only as publications chair for the Taliesin Fellows to pursue professional interests. Two other members of the board have handed in their resignations, Virginia Kazor of Los Angeles, who served as treasurer among other assignments, and architect Milton Stricker of Seattle, who has been a regular contributor to the Newsletter. Both Kazor and Stricker have been members of the board for more than six years. Currently a nominating committee headed by Paul Bogart of Los Angeles, a past president of Taliesin Fellows, is in the process of preparing a list of candidates for the board to be elected at a meeting at Taliesin, Spring Green, in June. FURTHERING THE PRINCIPLES OF FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT ____________________________________ NUMBER3,April15,2001 TALIESINFELLOWSNEWSLETTER quarterlypublication©TheTaliesinFellows,Inc. POBox5930 Scottsdale,AZ85261 publishedatMidglenStudio 831MidglenWay, Woodside,CA94062 Editor:WilliamArthurPatrick Editorialstaff:RichardKeding,FrankLaraway,EarlNisbet PHOTO CREDITS BradStorrer,MiltonStricker,RezaJavandel Page 1: © JTF-JOURNAL OF TALIESIN FELLOWS Page 4: © Thomas S. Monaghan 650.369.0416FAX369.0417 E-Mail:newsletter@midglen.com Website:www.midglen.com/taliesinfellows 2 TALIESINFELLOWSNEWSLETTER,APRIL15,2001 WHOWASIT? Who was it that sent the grave diggers To the family chapel there in the valley, bitsandpieces... Surrounded by ancestral graves? byarchietekker Who was it that then ordered them To raise the crypt from the hole t is estimated that at Wright’s death in 1959 some 500 designs, about 200 And break its perfect seal? of them residential, were left in the archives at Taliesin. According to Alan I Farnham, writing in the February 19th issue of Forbes Magazine, clients Who was it that had them remove can have an original Frank Lloyd Wright design built by Taliesin Architects under the 1985 “Unbuilt Residential Design Program” with four options. His lifeless mummified body From its preservation in the casket? Classification 1: If you want your home to be designated by Taliesin as “An original Design by Frank Lloyd Wright,” you cannot alter the Who was it that took his corpse design in any way, except to fit the home to its site and to bring it up to To the crematoria, turning it to ashes code.