PENTAGRAM PAPERS 38
THE RUSSIAN GARBO
Anna Sten, Richard Neutra, Julius Shulman
Pentagram and Julius Shulman
Pentagram and Julius Shulman: PENTAGRAM PAPERS 38: THE RUSSIAN GARBO [Anna Sten • Richard Neutra • Julius Shulman]. London, New York, San Francisco, Austin, Berlin: Pentagram Design, n. d. [2007]. First edition [limited to @ 4,000 copies]. Sm. 4to. Thick French folded wrappers. 68 pp. Elaborate design with text and color photographs throughout. A nearly fine copy.
5.75 x 8.25 perfect-bound booklet showcasing the restoration of Richard Neutra's 1934 residential design for Russian actress Anna Sten. Principal contemporary photography by Julius Shulman, with additional imagery by Juergen Nogri. Includes facsimiles of Neutra's original correspondence, sketches, blueprints, contracts, bid and estimating sheets, etc. Also includes Shulman's full-color photographic documentation of the Dion Neutra, Marmol Radziner and Pentagram restoration of the property.
A fascinating document that must be seen to be believed.
From Pentagram: "Anna Sten, the Ukrainian film actress, and her film producer husband Dr. Eugene Frenke, came to Hollywood under the aegis of Samuel Goldwyn. Goldwyn thought he had found his "Russian Garbo," but had failed to reconcile that hope with Sten's inability to speak English in the age of talking pictures. Just after their arrival, the couple hired fellow emigre Richard Neutra to design a house for them in the hills of Santa Monica.
"Neutra had, a few years earlier, finished the Lowell Health House, which cemented his reputation as the most important modern architect west of the Mississippi. He was featured in the 1932 International Style exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and had surpassed his elder colleague Rudolph Schindler in fame.
"The house Neutra built for Sten and Frenke was a simple European style modern house washed a light grey cement color. Sited on a double lot, it occupied only one, and was surrounded by a wall of rough cast "California" blocks. Although the house looks like modern concrete houses in France and Germany, it is remarkable for the amount of continuous glass ribbon it supports on its wooden "balloon frame" construction.
"The restriction that the building was to be contained to one of the two sites compressed Neutra's original design and truncated the pergola frame intended to extend the house toward the ocean view. As a result, the pool sat in a less than ideal position and the "promenade" from site to house to site was stilted. The interior was also compromised, Neutra might have said, by the actress's insistence on purple bathroom tile and the exterior by her unimaginative landscaping.
"When our clients found the house, it had been owned by only two families in nearly seventy years: the Sten-Frenke's and Bernie Gould, an aging Hollywood writer. The new owners undertook an extensive restoration and renovation of the house, replacing nearly every element, while maintaining the house's remarkable form, patina and sense of age.
"Acting as both client and architect, we teamed up with Los Angeles architects Marmol Radziner (experts in Neutra house restorations) to surgically repair the house while at the same time realizing some of Neutra's original ideas. The pergola was extended to its full length, the pool was relocated to the more gracious original conception and the site was landscaped (by landscape designer Jay Griffith) to fill out the newly occupied double lot. In every case, the materials, details and integrity of the original house was maintained and reinforced. Even the rough block perimeter wall was rebuilt of custom cast blocks to accurately re-create the original.
"Inside, the bathrooms were restored, leaving the original tile and using vintage faucets and fixtures. The tile, where it could not be repaired, was re-created at a local custom tile workshop. Glass for the stairwell lantern was remade in Vancouver to simulate the original glass. Lighting fixtures not realized when the house was built, were fabricated from Neutra's original sketches and details. The kitchen was enlarged (the only change to the building's volume) and was fitted with a vintage sink and stove. The original tobacco-stained plywood walls were replaced with an upgraded veneer (figured redwood downstairs and mahogany on the bedroom floor above).
"There were three "clients" for the restoration: the original clients, the original architect and the new owners. Every decision was based on a consideration of all three points of view, and changes to the original were only made where a case could be established that Neutra himself preferred an alternative, or where a change would not affect the integrity of the original design. Decisions to leave such obvious areas of conflict (between Sten and Neutra), such as the purple bathroom tile, were to allow the quirkiness of the original to remain. There is nothing worse than a restoration that over-corrects, unless it is one that under corrects. Our goal was to act as the arbiter between the three clients, in order to allow the house to inhabit the present, while we restored the past.
"In 2005 the Sten-Frenke House was photographed by legendary photographer Julius Shulman. Although Shulman's career began the same year the house was completed, in 1934, he didn't photograph it until the 2005 restoration was finished. Post-restoration, the house had never looked better and with all the passion of a man half his 95 years, Shulman spent two remarkable days scouring the site for photographs. His images will forever define the house."
From the wrappers: "Pentagram Papers will publish examples of curious, entertaining, stimulating, provocative, and occasionally controversial points of view that have come to the attention of, or in some cases, are actually originated by, Pentagram."
Since 1975 Pentagram has issued the Pentagram Papers, a limited edition series of booklets that examine "curious, entertaining, stimulating, provocative, and occasionally controversial points of view" related to design. Published once or twice a year, the Papers have been distributed exclusively to friends and clients of the firm.
Each Pentagram Paper explores a unique topic of interest -- from the lights of London's famed Savoy hotel to the pop architecture of Wildwood, New Jersey; from the mailboxes of rural Australia to the classroom aids of Mexico. As partner architect James Biber says, "These [pamphlets] began with John McConnell, one of the early partners; he helped developed the ideas; they weren't rubber-stamped. McConnell was keen on ideas. Especially the idea that you could actually learn something."