FIVE CALIFORNIA ARCHITECTS
Esther McCoy with Randall L. Makinson, John Entenza [foreword]
Esther McCoy with Randall L. Makinson, John Entenza [foreword]: FIVE CALIFORNIA ARCHITECTS. New York: Reinhold Publishing Corp., 1960. First edition. Quarto. Black fabricoid stamped in white. Photo illustrated dust jacket. 200 pp. 150 black and white photographs, floorplans, drawings and elevations. Faint wear to top edge of jacket. Trace of offsetting to endpapers. Interior unmarked and very clean. Out-of-print. A nearly fine copy in a nearly fine dust jacket.
8.5 x 10.5 hardcover book with 200 pages and over 150 black and white photographs, floorplans, drawings and elevations. The five architects are Bernard Maybeck, Irving Gill, Charles and Henry Greene, and R.M. Schindler. Makinson wrote the chapter on Greene and Greene. Foreword by John Entenza
“California's Design is a marriage between Walden Pond and Douglas Aircraft.” — Esther McCoy
As a contributing editor to Arts & Architecture magazine, Esther McCoy (1904 – 1989) was in a unique position to chronicle the brilliant trajectory of the modern movement in California, particularly the Case Study House program. Her insider status gave her unparalleled access to the key figures in the movement.
From the 1989 New York Times Obituary; “Esther McCoy, an architectural historian and critic . . . was a specialist in West Coast architecture and the author of many books and hundreds of articles in leading architectural publications.
“It was she, almost single-handedly, who awakened serious scholars to the extraordinary richness of California architecture,'' wrote Paul Goldberger, architecture critic for The New York Times, when a new edition of Ms. McCoy's 1960 work, ''Five California Architects,'' appeared in 1975. Her book, he added, was largely responsible for rescuing the five almost-forgotten architects - Bernard Maybeck, Irving Gill, R. M. Schindler and Charles and Henry Greene - from obscurity.
“Calling Ms. McCoy ''the pre-eminent writer of California architecture,'' Cesar Pelli, a former dean of the Yale School of Architecture, told The Times in an interview five years ago, ''Our knowledge of Southern California architecture has been primarily formed by her research, her first-hand knowledge and her writing, which is so precise and passionate.''
“She was born in Coffeyville, Kan., and was an undergraduate at the University of Michigan. She began her career in New York writing architecture reviews for a number of publishers.
“She worked as a draftsman in the Hollywood office of R. M. Schindler from 1944 to 1947 and began writing about the architects she had come to know. In 1985, she was given the American Institute of Architects' national honor award for excellence.”