Alfred Clauss
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Alfred Clauss (August 23, 1906June 8, 1998) was a German-born architect whose practice was centered in
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,
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...
, for most of his career. He worked on many buildings in the state, as well as collaborating with his wife, architect Jane West Clauss, on one of the earliest International Style housing developments in the United States.


Education and personal life

Alfred Clauss was born in
Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...
,
Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
, in 1906. He studied architecture at the Munich Technical Architectural School, receiving his B.A. in 1926. In 1934, he married fellow architect Jane West, with whom he had three children.


Career

Clauss began his career working on housing projects in Hamburg with Karl Schneider, but left in 1928 to join the studio of
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Ludwig Mies van der Rohe ( ; ; born Maria Ludwig Michael Mies; March 27, 1886August 17, 1969) was a German-American architect, academic, and interior designer. He was commonly referred to as Mies, his surname. He is regarded as one of the pionee ...
, with whom he worked on the German Pavilion for the 1929 Barcelona Exposition. In 1929, Clauss emigrated to the United States, and by the following year he had taken a job with the Philadelphia firm of Howe & Lescaze, with whom he worked on the landmark
PSFS Building Loews Philadelphia Hotel, previously known as the PSFS Building, is a skyscraper in Center City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A National Historic Landmark, the building was the first International Style skyscraper constructed in the United Stat ...
. In 1931, he organized a Salon des Refusés for architects who had been excluded from the annual exhibition mounted by the
Architectural League of New York The Architectural League of New York is a non-profit organization "for creative and intellectual work in architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construct ...
. During this period, he also briefly formed a partnership with the architect George Daub, with whom he designed a series of service stations for
Standard Oil of Ohio The Standard Oil Company (Ohio) was an American petroleum industry, petroleum company that existed from 1870 to 1987. The company, known commonly as Sohio, was founded by John D. Rockefeller. It was established as one of the separate entities cre ...
. He also built some models and designed an apartment renovation for
Philip Johnson Philip Cortelyou Johnson (July 8, 1906 – January 25, 2005) was an American architect who designed modern and postmodern architecture. Among his best-known designs are his modernist Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut; the postmodern 550 ...
. Between 1934 and 1945, Clauss and his wife lived in Tennessee, where they collaborated on the design of the prewar "Little Switzerland" suburb of split-level houses outside Knoxville. Sponsored by the
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as part of President
Franklin Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...
's
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, it is regarded as one of the earliest examples of the
International Style The International Style is a major architectural style and movement that began in western Europe in the 1920s and dominated modern architecture until the 1970s. It is defined by strict adherence to Functionalism (architecture), functional and Fo ...
in the United States. In 1945, Clauss and his wife settled in Philadelphia, where Clauss re-formed his partnership with George Daub, an arrangement that lasted for two years. Clauss then joined the firm of Gilboy & O'Malley, which later morphed into Gilboy, Bellante & Clauss, then into Bellante & Clauss, and then into Bellante, Clauss, Miller & Nolan, a firm with an international clientele. In 1956, Clauss opened an office under his own name in Trenton, New Jersey, which later became Clauss & Nolan. His wife was a participating architect in this latter venture. Clauss joined the American Institute of Architects in 1946. In the early 1950s, he was briefly an associate professor of architecture at the
Yale School of Architecture The Yale School of Architecture (YSoA) is one of the constituent professional schools of Yale University. The School awards the degrees of Master of Architecture I (M.Arch I), Master of Architecture II (M.Arch II), Master of Environmental Desi ...
. In 1960, a design he collaborated on with Oskar Stonorov won the first competition for a memorial to Franklin Roosevelt; intended for Washington, D.C., it was never built. Clauss died in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, of a heart attack in 1998.


Partial list of buildings

*Little Switzerland development (Tennessee, 1941; with Jane West Clauss) *
St. Joseph's University Saint Joseph's University (SJU or St. Joe's) is a private Jesuit university in Philadelphia, Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania, and Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The university was founded by the Society of Jesus in 1851 as Saint Joseph's College ...
— master plan and numerous buildings (Philadelphia) *
University of Scranton The University of Scranton is a private Jesuit university in Scranton, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1888 by William O'Hara, the first Bishop of Scranton, as St. Thomas College. In 1938, the college was elevated to university status and took ...
— master plan and numerous buildings (Pennsylvania) *University of Pennsylvania — graduate student housing *Riverview Home for the Indigent and Aged — addition (Philadelphia, 1953; with Jane West Clauss) *Children's Reception Center (Philadelphia) *Philadelphia House of Detention *Federal Courthouse complex — in collaboration with two other firms and Jane West Clauss (Philadelphia) *National Park Service — several visitor centers *Gas stations for Standard Oil in Cleveland *New Jersey Department of Health and Agriculture (Trenton, 1963 Jane West Claus)


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clauss, Alfred 1906 births 1998 deaths 20th-century American architects 20th-century German architects German emigrants to the United States Modernist architects from Germany Architects from Munich