Highlights from Monterey 2011: No Theme, No Problem
OAB's AA House near Barcelona (© Alejo Bagué)
For the first time in 20 confabs the Monterey Design Conference, the AIA California Council’s bi-annual gathering of architectural talent and inspiration, didn’t follow a theme. One participant said that this year’s event was about materiality and light; others talked about science, optimism, and the potential of the future. The organizers did an excellent job reaching out to diverse voices and knew that each attendee would concoct their own theme. After many years the event has evolved to the point it doesn’t need too many impositions.
Talking Gordon Drake
Gordon Drake (Courtesy William Stout Architectural Book)
William Stout Publishers recently reissued California Houses of Gordon Drake by Douglas Baylis and Joan Parry, with a new preface by Australian architect Glenn Murcutt and a new introduction by architect and author Pierluigi Serraino. Serraino is the author of Modernism Rediscovered, which contributed significantly to renewing interest in Midcentury Modernism, and went on to write NorCalMod, a book that helps rewrite the narrative about Northern California architecture. Photos of Drake’s work and some of the material from his archive will be on exhibit through May at the Berkeley location of William Stout Architectural Books. Kenneth Caldwell sat down with Serraino to get his thoughts about the newly reissued book. Read More
Visit A Temple In The Sky
Bay Area architect Warren Callister was an heir to Bernard Maybeck in that he was wonderfully eclectic. But where Maybeck could be a little rough, Callister was refined. Every detail, every turn, every joint, all exquisitely detailed. Like A. Quincy Jones in Southern California he loved a powerful roof form. But Callister’s tended to be curved, not angled. On Friday morning my architecture buddy author Pierluigi Serraino took me on a tour with the real estate agents who are selling Callister’s exquisite Duncan house in San Francisco’s Clarendon Heights. They are hosting an open house at 176 Palo Alto Avenue the next two Sundays and Tuesdays. Read More
Emile Norman, 1918-2009
Emile Norman in his element.
California designer, spirited artist, and inventive mosaicist and sculptor, Emile Norman died in Monterey on September 24. Norman, who lived in a house of his own design in Big Sur, was an inspiration to artists of all kinds. His large-scale public work was known for being integrated with its architecture, an approach seen most vividly in the recently restored mural at the California Masonic Temple on Nob Hill in San Francisco. Read More
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