CALIFORNIA MODERN
THE ARCHITECTURE OF CRAIG ELLWOOD
Neil Jackson
New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2002. First edition. Quarto. Cream fabricoid boards titled in teal. Photo illustrated dust jacket. 208 pp. 53 color images and 187 black and white reproductions. Black check mark to upper corner of front free endpaper, otherwise interior unmarked and very clean. Close examination reveals trivial wear, so a nearly fine hardcover book in a nearly fine dust jacket.
10 x 10 hardcover book with 208 pages and 240 illustrations (53 in color) of midcentury modernism in all of its Southern Californian glory. If ever there was a product of Hollywood, it was architect Craig Ellwood. A fiction of his own making--even his name was an invention--Ellwood fashioned a career through charm, ambition, and a connoisseur's eye. He had no professional license, but was named one of the "three best architects of 1957" along with Frank Lloyd Wright and Mies van der Rohe. He drove a red Ferrari with the license plate VROOM. His succession of wives brought him clients and influenced his designs. He relied on a staff of talented assistants to realize his ideas. By the 1950s Ellwood had a thriving practice that infused the Germanic rationalism of Mies van der Rohe with an informal breeziness that was all Southern California. A series of dramatic, open, and elegant houses made him a media star, and interest in him and his work has only increased in recent years.
From the book: "Craig Ellwood (1922-92) -- the California Modernist best known for his Los Angeles Case Study Houses and the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena -- was a product of Hollywood. An architectural superstar, he was fashioned and honed by ambition, charm and an eye for great design.
This book examines the architecture and the colorful life of this extraordinary man. Ellwood's life and career are discussed chronologically, beginning with his early work in the post-war California building industry and ending with his retirement to Italy for a new start as a painter.
From his initial interview with Ellwood in 1988, author Neil Jackson's many interviews with dozens of Ellwood's friends, colleagues and family members make this book stand out among architectural monographs. This book is illustrated with images and drawings from the Ellwood archives at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, as well as with photographs from Marvin Rand and Julius Shulman, and specially commissioned pictures by John Linden."
Contents:
- Introduction
- Prelude: Johnnie Burke
- Shadowline
- Californian Modern
- Nonsensualism
- Californian Mies
- Californian Commercial
- Conclusion: Casanovalta
- Notes
- List of Works
- Family Tree
- Bibliography
- Index
- Author's Acknowledgments
- Picture Credits
This volume also includes work by Charles Eames, Eeero Saarinen, and Mies Van Der Rohe. This volume includes indexed references to these guys: Charles Eames, Eeero Saarinen, Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe, Alvar Aalto, Robert Bacon, Cleo Baldon, Saul Bass, Marcel Breuer, John Entenza, Bruce Goff, Walter Gropius, Ernest Jacks, Philo John Jacobson, Philip Johnson, Finn Juhl, Pierre Koenig, Wilfredo Lam, Le Corbusier, Jerrold Lomax, Paul McCobb, George Nelson, Pier Luigi Nervi, Richard Neutra, Isamu Noguchi, Eliot Noyes, Robert Theron Peters, Ralph Rapson, Marvin Rand, Paul Rudolph, Robert Runyan, Rudolph Schindler, Raphael Soriano, James Stirling, James Tyler, Stephen Woolley, and Frank Lloyd Wright.
Craig Ellwood (Texas, 1922 – 1992) perhaps was as well known for his personal life as his architecture. He married four times, had a penchant for exotic sports cars, and was a natural in public relations. Born Jon Nelson Burke in 1922 in Clarendon, Texas, he coined “Craig Ellwood” as the name of a construction company he formed after World War II with his brother and two friends. The business lasted only two years, but Ellwood kept the company name, legally taking it as his own in 1948.
Ellwood’s family settled in Los Angeles when he was a teenager (still known as Jon Burke). He was elected class president at Belmont High School. After graduating, he served in the U.S. Army Air Corps until 1946. He had acting ambitions and dabbled in modeling and PR before entering the world of architecture. After closing the construction business, Ellwood worked as a cost estimator for the contracting firm Lamport Cofer Salzman (LCS), which built several Case Study Houses. Through LCS, Ellwood met John Entenza, founder of the Case Study House program and editor of Arts & Architecture magazine. This connection would prove pivotal to his success as an architect.
Ellwood took night courses in structural engineering at UCLA but never earned a formal degree. He had a natural brilliance for architecture and design, profoundly understanding the relationship of horizontal and vertical planes and the merits of prefabrication. He taught and lectured at universities including USC, Cal-Poly Pomona, and Yale.
He established Craig Ellwood Associates in 1949 and in 1951 was invited by Entenza to participate in the Case Study House Program. Ellwood designed three houses for the program (#16, #17, and #18). Completed in 1952 and considered by many as one of the most important postwar California homes, #16 is the only one of the three that remains intact.
Ellwood gained many commissions as result of the Case Study House program, and he designed many noteworthy Modern homes throughout Los Angeles. The firm’s commercial projects included office towers and the Bridge Building for Art Center College for Design in Pasadena—considered by many as his farewell project. Craig Ellwood Associates stayed in practice until Ellwood’s retirement in 1977, when he moved to Italy to pursue painting. He died there in 1992. [Los Angeles Conservancy]