THEORETICAL REVIVAL-of an INTERNATIONAL STYLE HOUSE MORE HISTORICAL DATA AND AP ERIOD DES IGN

-ED NA HEATHE RINGTON BERGMAN

1. W. C. Raabe's Kelvin -Home under construction in December 1937. (From "Albuquerque Progress")

A few years ago in the pages of New Mexico Kelvinator House, a name given provenance by the Architecture.' Anthon y Antoniades (A.LA., A.LP., electric kitchen and once-elaborate air refrigerating Assoc. Prof. of Archit ecture, Univ. of Texas at Ar­ and humidifying installation. The construction of lington) took a look around Albuquerque at early "houses of tomorrow" for the purpose of demonstrat­ examples of the "modem," categorizing three styles: ing such advanced home technology was not uncom­ Art-D eco, Prairie, and Intemational. At that time he mon in the late thirties. The University of New Mex­ speculated about the origins of some local residences, ico's library possesses bound volumes of Albuquerque most of them in the general vicinity of the Univers­ Progress,1 a business newsletter published since 1934 ity of New Mexico campus, in which he saw a com­ by the Albuquerque National Bank, containing ( Dec. mon vocabulary of Intemational Style elements. A 1937) a photograph of the house under construction house Antoniades picked out for special prais e ("on e (figure 1) and this interesting description: of the best works of early modem architecture in "To prove that a family of moderate income New Mexico"), 324 Hermosa Dr. , S.E., was iden­ can enjoy the fruits of modem housing research, tified in the following issue of NMN as the work of Haabe and Mauger Hardware Company are William Burk, [r., A.LA., designed in 1937 for WaI­ sponsoring the construction of an ultra-modem, ter C. Raabe. electrically equipped, air-conditioned home at I was interes ted in this beginning of historical 324 South Hermosa Avenue. When completed , research both as owner of the house and as a student the Kelvin-Home will feature many advanced of architecture; at the time Antoniades' article was improvements not embodied in residences cost­ published, I was studying the influence of Regional ing several times its price, according to W. C. on Intemational Style as defined in Henry-Russell Haabe. The first floor will provide a spacious Hitchcock and Philip Johnson's Th e International living room, dining alcove, two bedrooms and Style. 4-5 Since then I have been fortunate in leam­ bath, and a scientifically planned and equipped ing more about the history of this particular house, kitchen. The second floor will be a recreation and have also had the opportunity to make my en­ room. trance into the practical world of architecture by "When completed, the building will be open designing an addition to it: an addition which is re­ for public inspection." vivalist in deliberately following the lucid theory In February of 1938 Albuquerque Progress pub­ which describes the style of the original structure. lished a photograph of the completed structure, call­ When my husband and I bought this house in ing it "modernistic.' (Figure 2). 1972, our neighbors told us that it was known as the On leaming the name of the architect, I made an

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16 NMA November-December 1976 2. View from th e southeast in February 1938. (From "A lb uq ue rq ue Progress") appointment with Mr. Burk, who besides generously mass is perhaps the most striking feature of this spe nding some time discu ssing the house, gave me the phase of Int ernational Style. Reyner Banh am, in The­ original plan s. (See 1st and 2nd floor plans page 16) ory and Design in th e First Ma chine Age,:! traces Kelvinator Hou se has an interestin g place in the this to H. P. Berlage, whom he quotes from Grund­ brief history of "modem" architecture in Albuquer­ lagen und Enticicklung del' Architektur of 1908: "The qu e, not only because of its aesthetic distinction bu t art of the master-builder lies in this: the creation of also becau se of its theoretical purity. It is this theo­ space, not the sketching of facades. A spatial enve­ retical qu ality which mad e it parti cularly satisfy­ lope is established by means of walls, whereby a ing to understand and to adhere to prin ciples of style space, or a series of spaces is manifested , according in designing an addition to it. to the complexity of the walling. " In 1932, Hitchcock and John son perceived a crys­ Kelvinator House is of wood frame construction, tallization of a style, the tru e style which was sup­ which properly lends itself to the lightness and dis­ posed to emerge, after the applied styles of the nine­ tributed tension which effectively expresses the en­ teenth century, from the ration al perception and anal­ closed space.Over the frame, the smooth and uni­ ysis of new materials and processes. Th ey defined fying stucco surface emphasizes the same qu alities. it thus: Windows placed at comers negate the possible read­ "There is, first, a new conception of architec­ ing of comer as support, and emphasizes the thin­ ture as volume rather than as mass. Secondly, ness of the enclosing fabri c, the presence of the space regularity rather than axial symmetry serves as enclosed. the chief means of ordering design. Th ese two Th e compac t plan , largely free of projecting ele­ principles, with a third proscribing arbitrary ap ­ ment s and details, is consistent with the same goals. plied decoration, mark the productions of the in­ All functions are not enclosed in a single volum e, tern ational style," (p. 20 ) but neither do the articulated volumes move apart Th e principle of the fund amental organic source to separate into objects; rather, they appear to be of ord er was expounded by Le Corbusier in 1923 in the parts of a whole from which any excessive mass Towards a New Architecture." "A unit gives mea­ has been pared awa y. Th e flat roofs, without cornice sure and unity; a regulating line is a basis of con­ or ornament at the edge, simplify the geometric forms struction and a satisfaction." ( p. 68 ) Hitchcock and and work to the same end, the abstraction of forms Johnson also discuss the rejection of axial symmetry to the simplest geometrical description. The purified under the same principle: geometry, like the smooth surface, works against the "Axial symmetry has generall y been used to expression of mass and for the expression of volume. achi eve the ordering of regularit y, as in Baroque Th e sharp-edged, precisely geometric form appears architecture, dominating and relating the confu­ light , an idea freed of mat eriality, a thin shell sur­ sion of independent features and elaborate de­ rounding thin air. Both perceptually and symbolically tail. Modem standardization gives automatically the thin line, the right angle, the circular section push a high degree of consistency to the parts. Hence architecture toward the realm of idea, seek the first modem architects have no need of the disciplin e prin ciple of space, not mass. of bilateral or axial symmetry to achieve aesthe­ Kelvinator Hou se makes use of the vocabulary of tic order." (p. 59) the mass-produced steel casement window, divided The principle of expressing volume rather than into panes of uniform size, and the lights of the glaz-

NMA November·December 1976 17 ed doors are modulated to the same horizontal lines. (Figure 4) The balance of the original facade is achieved not by symmetry but by the long horizontal of the single story on the north, emphasized by the thin line of the roof over the second story terrace, fixing the grouped volumes of the bedroom wing and the second story room and staircase. The plan , piv­ oting the large rooms around entry, closets, and spi­ ral staircase, achieves an assymrnetrical balance in which right angles and semicircles play against and into one another. To the post-modern eye, Kelvinator House is not lacking in ornament. The stepping-back of the wall to the front door, with its glass brick lights ( Figure 3 ); the 2" setback along the base of the terrace wall above; the pilaster which matches the chimn ey flue, flanking the second story window-all are orna­ ments. Yet these are ornaments reduced to their ab­ stract elements, and related to the reality of the stru c­ ture and its function. "Details actually required by structure or symbolic of the und erlying structure" (p. 70) are acceptable und er the principles outlined by Hitchcock and Johnson-who interestingly also remark that this is what "provided most of the decor­ ation of the purer styles of the past." The rooms which I have added to the Kelvinator House are a studio, and a bathroom and closet which makes the upstairs-originally simply a recreation room with terraces-usable as a bedroom. Circula­ tion, dressing, and sitting area evolved convenient­ ly from the exigencies of fitting new into old struc­ ture. (Floor plan, figure 5 ) The volume of the ga­ 3. The stepped back tcall to the front door and glass rage is expanded upwards: the original horizontality block side lights. is changed to a balance of larger volumes on each side of the entrance, toward which both sides curve. ( Figure 7 ) The curve of the new wall above match­ es the curve of the old wall below, and both move in toward the center where the terrace steps back above the front door. Sharp edges and smooth sur­ face, especially the unbroken curve and flatn ess of the front (west) wall, appea r cloudlike and weight­ 4. The northeast comer of the dining alcove showing less, an impression enhanced by the slight cantilever the comer teindow and matching glazing of the door. out to the line of the original marquise over the doors. ( Figures 8 and 9 ). The notch ed northwest corner was an historical accretion, being the continuation of a configuration produced by the addition in the fifties of an exten­ sion of the garage door to accommodate a very large automobile. Functionally, the corner window here overlooks the front yard and entrances to the west and gives a view of the city and mountains to the north. At the same time, the occupant is placed in the tops of the juniper trees which shelter and mark the comer. ( Figure 11) The shape of the northeast com er window is established by the mountain view. ( Figure 10) The studio is filled with north light augmented by morning and afternoon sunshine, con­ trolled on the east by the existing elm trees and on the west by venetian blinds installed in only the west­ facing windows. The window configuration , both in unit and in

18 NMA November-December 1976 f:lTIN C

5. Plan of new studio on the sec­ ond floor above garage.

6. Isometric sketch of the origin­ al house . . . and

7. with the newly completed 2nd floor studio.

NMA November·December 1976 19 J - .- , ~ 8 9 10 11

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2 0 NMA November-December 1976 tellectual, can afford to be unconscious of the effects they produce." ( p. 38 ) In 1951, Hitchcock also re­ 8. Front of remodeled "Kelcinator" house. Figure 9 pudiated the idea, despite the passage quoted above, •shows the new studio atop the garage. Figures 10 and that they had intended to create "an academic rule­ 11 show the new studio icindou:« looking out into book." ( p. 242 ) A part of the current reassessment the tree tops. of the architec tura l past, including the nineteenth cen tury, is du e to the recognition that the revolution has not been total: we are not freed from theories, ideas, intention s, meanings; but that the pro cesses pan e sizes, has been kept consistent with the exist­ and materials of the industrial age and the electronic ing windows, and the new door is the same size as age and the future will continue to offer possibilities the oth er two front doors. Window details - sills, for many interpretations. In this as in past periods, flashing, and reveals - were matched to the existing the designer must make choices, and the clarity and windows. richness of his conception, wheth er it is based on a In 1932, Hitchcock and Johnson wrot e, "Anyone powerful personal intuition or on a lucid theory, must who follows the rules, who accepts the implications be the strongest influence on the aesth etic quality of an architecture that is not mass but volume, and of his design. who conforms to the principle of regularity can pro­ In the recent past, architects have insisted on the duce buildings which are at least aesthetically sound." universality of a pure truth-insisted because we ( p. 68 ) In 1951, Hitchcock says, "We were amazingly could not, like the builders of the Middle Ages, as­ optimistic and full of faith. "( p. 254) Yet their clar­ sume it. Yet we are historical : a literate people with ification of principles, their lucid theorizing, has been knowledge of the past. More than that, we are global, of value not only in understanding the source of the knowin g histories of many pasts. We need not ap­ form and character of Kelvinator House, but also in proach the past guiltily, pretending to embrace ugli­ adding to the structure harmoniously, in creating a ness, justifying ourselves by sentiment or through new whole which remains as aesthetically satisfying condescension to the bad taste of the ignorant: we as the original. can allow styles their own "rationales," understand At the same time, the authors also said, "Critics them on the grounds of their own theories, -even, should be articulate about problems of design; bu t if the occasion suits, use those theories to embody architects, whose training is more technical than in- them aga in. E. H. B.

BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Albuquerque Progress (Albuquerque, New Mexico , Albu­ que, New Mexico ," (unpub lished , Dec 1973) querque National Bank, 1937·38) 5. Hitchcock, Henry-Russell, and Philip Johnson, The Inter­ 2. Antoniades, Anthony C., " Early Modern Arch itecture in national Style, with a new forward and appendix by New Mexico," New Mexico Architecture, vol 15, no 9-10, Henry-Russell Hitchcock, (New York, W. W. Norton Sept-Oct 1973 & Co., lnc., 1966) 3. Banham, Reyner, Theory and Design in the First Machine 6. Le Corbus ier, Towards a New Architecture (New York, Age, Second Edition (New York, Praeger, 1967) Frederick A. Praeger, 1946) 4. Bergman, Edna Heather ington, " Notes on the History of 7. "NMA News", New Mexico Architecture, vol 15, no 11·12, Early International Style Architecture in Albuquer- Nov-Dec 1973

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