John Yeon (October 29, 1910 – March 13, 1994) was an American architect in

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

, in the mid-twentieth century. He is regarded as one of the early practitioners of the Northwest Regional style of

Modernism Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

. Largely self-taught, Yeon’s wide ranging activities encompassed planning, conservation, historic preservation, art collecting, and urban activism. He was a connoisseur of objets d’art as well as landscapes, and one of Oregon’s most gifted architectural designers, even while his output was limited. The family name is pronounced "yawn," not "yee-on."

Early life

John Yeon was born in Portland on October 29, 1910, the son of John B. Yeon and Elizabeth Mock Yeon.Hortsch, Dan. Nationally-known architectural designer dies. ''

The Oregonian ''The Oregonian'' is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the West Coast of the United States, U.S. West Coast, founded as a weekly by Tho ...

'', March 15, 1994. The elder was a lumber baron and construction manager who oversaw the building of the Columbia River Highway, and developer of Portland's Yeon Building. The younger Yeon was largely raised in Portland and attended Allen Preparatory School in that city. But he also attended the Moran School in Washington State, where he did some of his earliest design work. After he completed high school, he left for

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

to attend

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

. An autodidact and polymath, Yeon attended the college for just a single semester before leaving and never became a licensed architect.

Architecture

His first built work–the 1937 Watzek House–was included in a 1939 publication and accompanying exhibition by the Museum of Modern Art. His most notable works include the aforementioned Aubrey R. Watzek House (1937) and the Portland Visitors Information Center (1949), both of which were featured in exhibits at the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. The Watzek house is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

. The John Yeon Speculative House (1939), one of the best-preserved of his nine "speculative house" series, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in August 2007. Yeon also designed museum exhibitions, including those for the

Portland Art Museum The Portland Art Museum (PAM) is an art museum in downtown Portland, Oregon, United States. The Portland Art Museum has 240,000 square feet (22,000 m2), with more than 112,000 square feet (10,400 m2) of gallery space. The museum’s permanent c ...

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is an art gallery, art museum in Kansas City, Missouri, Kansas City, Missouri, known for its encyclopedic collection of art from nearly every continent and culture, and especially for its extensive collection of A ...

, Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, and the Palace of the Legion of Honor. In 1956, Yeon was awarded the Brunner Prize for architecture by the National Institute of Arts. The

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a Public university, public research university in Eugene, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1876, the university is organized into nine colleges and schools and offers 420 undergraduate and gra ...

awarded him a Distinguished Service Award in 1977, and

Lewis & Clark College Lewis & Clark College is a private liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon. It was founded in 1867 and is situated on the historic M. Lloyd Frank Estate in South Portland's Collins View neighborhood. It is composed of three distinct but adjac ...

gave him its annual Aubrey Watzek Award in 1980. John Yeon died in Portland on Sunday, March 13, 1994, of congestive heart failure. He was interred at the Portland Memorial Mausoleum.

The John Yeon Center

A gift on behalf of the estate of John Yeon was made to the

School of Architecture and Allied Arts, which established the John Yeon Center for Architecture and the John Yeon Preserve for Landscape Studies. The John Yeon Center has also sponsored a John Yeon Lecture Series. Part of the University of Oregon’s School of Architecture and Allied Arts, the Center manages and programs three properties designed by Yeon: the Watzek House (1937), a National Historic Landmark; the Cottrell House (1952), and the Shire, a 75-acre park in the Columbia River Gorge.

Retrospective

''Quest for Beauty: The Architecture, Landscapes, and Collections of John Yeon'', a major retrospective of Yeon's work, opened at the Portland Art Museum on May 13 and ran through September 3, 2017. The exhibit was designed by Lever Architecture of Portland, OR. Two monographs, ''John Yeon: Architecture'' and ''John Yeon: Landscape,'' were published by Andrea Monfried Editions in conjunction with the exhibition. Illustrated with drawings, plans and photographs, the books include essays by the director of the John Yeon Center, Randy Gragg, and other contributors, who explore his approach and contextualize his influence.

References

External links

* *
John Yeon images in ''Building Oregon: Architecture of Oregon and the Pacific Northwest''
(from the

Libraries)
''New York Times'' obituary of YeonJohn Yeon Lecture Series
from the