
The Case Study Houses were experiments in American
residential architecture
A residential area is a land used in which housing predominates, as opposed to industrial and commercial areas.
Housing may vary significantly between, and through, residential areas. These include single-family housing, multi-family resi ...
sponsored by ''
Arts & Architecture
''Arts & Architecture'' (1929–1967) was an American design, architecture, landscape, and arts magazine. It was published and edited by John Entenza from 1938–1962 and David Travers 1962–1967. ''Arts & Architecture'' played a significant role ...
'' magazine, which commissioned major architects of the day, including
Richard Neutra
Richard Joseph Neutra ( ; April 8, 1892 – April 16, 1970) was an Austrian-American architect. Living and building for the majority of his career in Southern California, he came to be considered a prominent and important modernist architect.
H ...
,
Raphael Soriano,
Craig Ellwood
Craig Ellwood (April 22, 1922 – May 30, 1992) was an influential Los Angeles-based modernist architect whose career spanned the early 1950s through the mid-1970s. Although untrained as an architect, Ellwood fashioned a persona and career ...
,
Charles and Ray Eames
Charles Eames ( Charles Eames, Jr) and Ray Eames ( Ray-Bernice Eames) were an American married couple of industrial designers who made significant historical contributions to the development of modern architecture and furniture through the work of ...
,
Pierre Koenig
Pierre Francis Koenig (October 17, 1925 – April 4, 2004) was an American architect and a Professor of Architecture at the University of Southern California. He taught at the USC School of Architecture from 1964 until his death in 2004. ...
,
Eero Saarinen
Eero Saarinen (, ; August 20, 1910 – September 1, 1961) was a Finnish-American architect and industrial designer noted for his wide-ranging array of designs for buildings and monuments. Saarinen is best known for designing the General Motor ...
,
A. Quincy Jones,
Edward Killingsworth, and
Ralph Rapson
Ralph Rapson (September 13, 1914 – March 29, 2008) was Head of the School of Architecture at the University of Minnesota for 30 years. He was one of the world's oldest practicing architects at his death at age 93, and also one of the most ...
to design and build inexpensive and efficient model homes for the United States residential housing boom caused by the end of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
and the return of millions of soldiers.
The program ran intermittently from 1945 until 1966. The first six houses were built by 1948 and attracted more than 350,000 visitors. While not all 36 designs were built, most of those that were constructed were built in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...
, and one was built in
San Rafael San Rafael may refer to:
Places Argentina
* San Rafael, Mendoza
* San Rafael Department, Mendoza
Bolivia
* San Rafael de Velasco, capital of San Rafael Municipality
* San Rafael Municipality, Santa Cruz
Chile
* San Rafael, Chile, Maule ...
, Northern California and one in
Phoenix, Arizona. Of the unbuilt houses, #19 was to have been built in
Atherton, in the
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Gov ...
, while #27 was to have been built on the east coast, in
Smoke Rise, New Jersey.
A number of the houses appeared in the magazine in iconic black-and-white photographs by architectural photographer
Julius Shulman
Julius Shulman (October 10, 1910 – July 15, 2009) was an American architectural photographer best known for his photograph " Case Study House #22, Los Angeles, 1960. Pierre Koenig, Architect." The house is also known as the Stahl House. Shulman' ...
.
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List
Notes
Further reading
* Entenza, John (January 1945)
Announcement: The Case Study House Program. ''Arts and Architecture''
*
McCoy, Esther. "Case Study Houses". 2nd edition. 1 June 1977, , Hennessey & Ingalls
*
*
*
* Travers, David (January 2006)
About Arts & Architecture ''Arts & Architecture'' website - accessed March 3, 2009
External links
Article interviewing Rodney Walker's sonsInfo on CSH and Shulman at KCETInfo on Case Study House 26, San Rafael
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Housing in the United States
Houses in the United States
Landmarks in Los Angeles
Modernist architecture in the United States
Modernist architecture in California