Raphael Soriano
Encyclopedia
Raphael S. Soriano, FAIA
FAIA
Fellow of the American Institute of Architects is a postnomial, designating an individual who has been named a fellow of the American Institute of Architects...

, (August 1, 1904–July 21, 1988) was an influential architect and educator who helped define a period of 20th century architecture that came to be known as Mid-century modern
Mid-century modern
Mid-Century modern is an architectural, interior and product design form that generally describes mid-20th century developments in modern design, architecture, and urban development from roughly 1933 to 1965...

. Soriano pioneered the use of modular prefabricated steel
Steel
Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...

 and aluminum structures in residential and commercial design and construction.

Biography

Born in Rhodes
Rhodes
Rhodes is an island in Greece, located in the eastern Aegean Sea. It is the largest of the Dodecanese islands in terms of both land area and population, with a population of 117,007, and also the island group's historical capital. Administratively the island forms a separate municipality within...

 to a Sephardic Jewish family, Soriano attended the College Saint-Jean-Baptiste there before emigrating to the United States in 1924. After settling with relatives in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

, Soriano enrolled in the University of Southern California's
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...

 School of Architecture
USC School of Architecture
The USC School of Architecture is the architecture school at the University of Southern California. It is one of USC's 17 professional schools, offering both undergraduate and graduate degrees in the fields of architecture, civil engineering, landscape architecture and historic preservation...

 in 1929, from which he graduates in 1934. In 1930 Soriano became an American citizen and in 1931 he secured an internship at the practice of Richard Neutra
Richard Neutra
Richard Joseph Neutra is considered one of modernism's most important architects.- Biography :Neutra was born in Leopoldstadt, the 2nd district of Vienna, Austria Hungary, on April 8, 1892. He was born into both-Jewish wealthy family...

, working alongside fellow interns Gregory Ain
Gregory Ain
Gregory Ain was an American architect active in the mid-20th century. Working primarily in the Los Angeles area, Ain is best known for bringing elements of modern architecture to lower- and medium-cost housing.- Biography :...

 and Harwell Hamilton Harris
Harwell Hamilton Harris
Harwell Hamilton Harris, FAIA was a modernist American architect, noted for his work in Southern California that assimilated European and American influences.-Biography:Harris was born in Redlands, California in 1903...

. This was followed by a brief internship with Rudolph Schindler in 1934, but Soriano quickly returned to his unpaid position at Neutra's office.

With America in the midst of the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

, upon graduation Soriano managed to find work with the County of Los Angeles on several WPA projects such as the famous "Steel
Steel
Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...

 Lobster
Lobster
Clawed lobsters comprise a family of large marine crustaceans. Highly prized as seafood, lobsters are economically important, and are often one of the most profitable commodities in coastal areas they populate.Though several groups of crustaceans are known as lobsters, the clawed lobsters are most...

" located in the county and with a local architect's office. By 1936 he had completed his first commission — the Lipetz house, which was included in the 1937 International Architectural Exhibition held in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

.

With U.S. residential and commercial construction largely curtailed by America's involvement in the World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, Soriano took up lecturing at USC and contributing designs to various competitions and publications featuring proposals for post-war housing. Of these, Soriano received Third Prize in the Postwar Living Competition sponsored by Arts & Architecture
Arts & Architecture
Arts & Architecture was an American design, architecture, landscape, and arts magazine. It was published and edited by John Entenza from 1940–1962 and David Travers 1962–1967. Arts & Architecture played a significant role both in Los Angeles's cultural history and in the development of American...

 magazine in 1943 with his "Plywood
Plywood
Plywood is a type of manufactured timber made from thin sheets of wood veneer. It is one of the most widely used wood products. It is flexible, inexpensive, workable, re-usable, and can usually be locally manufactured...

 House" prototype. With the end of the war Soriano found no trouble in securing commissions, and now it was his built houses receiving the awards, with his Katz house in Studio City picking up an award from the American Institute of Architects
American Institute of Architects
The American Institute of Architects is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to support the architecture profession and improve its public image...

 (AIA) Southern California Chapter Three in 1949. 1950 found Soriano completing a residential design for friend and renown architectural photographer Julius Shulman
Julius Shulman
Julius Shulman 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's photography spread California Mid-century modern around the world...

 one of the few Soriano structures still standing today, and along with the 1964 Grossman House, the last that was occupied by the original commissioning party.

Invited by John Entenza
John Entenza
John Entenza , born in Calumet, Michigan, was one of the pivotal figures in the growth of American modernism: in the fields of environmental, architectural, landscape, and product design; and fine arts, and artisan crafts; in post-war California and the United States.-Arts + Architecture...

 of Arts & Architecture
Arts & Architecture
Arts & Architecture was an American design, architecture, landscape, and arts magazine. It was published and edited by John Entenza from 1940–1962 and David Travers 1962–1967. Arts & Architecture played a significant role both in Los Angeles's cultural history and in the development of American...

 magazine to participate in the Case Study Houses
Case Study Houses
The Case Study Houses were experiments in American residential architecture sponsored by Arts & Architecture magazine, which commissioned major architects of the day, including Richard Neutra, Raphael Soriano, Craig Ellwood, Charles and Ray Eames, Pierre Koenig and Eero Saarinen, to design and...

 program, Soriano completed his entry in 1950. It marks a turning point for the program with its pioneering use of steel in residential construction, culminating in Pierre Koenig
Pierre Koenig
Pierre Koenig was an American architect.Born in San Francisco, he received his B.Arch. in 1952 from the University of Southern California. Koenig apprenticed under Raphael Soriano, among others, and began private practice in 1952. Koenig practiced mainly on the west coast and was most notable for...

' s Case Study Houses #21 and #22. Soriano's Colby Apartments of 1951 were distinct not only for their modern design but also for their extensive use of steel, and were recognized, receiving the National American Institute of Architects
American Institute of Architects
The American Institute of Architects is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to support the architecture profession and improve its public image...

 Award for Design, the VII International Pan American Congress Award, and the AIA Southern California Chapter One Honor Award.

In 1953 Soriano relocated from Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...

 to Tiburon
Tiburon, California
Tiburon is an incorporated town in Marin County, California. It occupies most of the Tiburon Peninsula, which reaches south into the San Francisco Bay. The smaller city of Belvedere occupies the south-east part of the peninsula and is contiguous with Tiburon...

, in Marin County
Marin County, California
Marin County is a county located in the North San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. As of 2010, the population was 252,409. The county seat is San Rafael and the largest employer is the county government. Marin County is well...

, across the bay north of San Francisco
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...

, where he lived with his wife Elizabeth Stephens(Betty) and her two daughters Margaret and Lucille Coberly. By 1955 Soriano designed the first mass-produced steel house, built by developer Joseph Eichler
Joseph Eichler
Joseph Eichler was a 20th century post-war U.S. American real estate developer known for developing distinctive residential subdivisions of Mid-Century modern style Tract housing in California, United States. He was one of the influential advocates of bringing modern architecture from custom...

 in Palo Alto
Palo Alto, California
Palo Alto is a California charter city located in the northwest corner of Santa Clara County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, United States. The city shares its borders with East Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Stanford, Portola Valley, and Menlo Park. It is...

. His work with Eichler would garner two awards from the Northern California Chapter of the AIA.

Soriano was made a Fellow by the American Institute of Architects
American Institute of Architects
The American Institute of Architects is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to support the architecture profession and improve its public image...

 (FAIA) in 1961. In 1965 Soriano started a venture to design and build prefabricated aluminum houses called Soria Structures, Inc.; the structures were marketed as "All Aluminum Homes." The last designs of Soriano's to be realized were eleven All Aluminum Homes on the island of Maui, Hawaii, built in 1965.

From 1970 to his death in 1988 Soriano focused on traveling the world as an architectural lecturer, writer and researcher. Soriano was recognized by the AIA with a Distinguished Achievement Award and by USC with a Distinguished Alumni Award, both in 1986. Shortly before his death he served as a Special Sessions Instructor at the College of Environmental Design
Cal Poly Pomona College of Environmental Design
The California State Polytechnic University, Pomona College Environmental Design also known as the Cal Poly Pomona College of Environmental Design is one of Cal Poly Pomona's seven colleges. The college houses over 1,600 students; making it one of largest environmental design programs in the...

 at Cal Poly Pomona.

Works

Of the 50 buildings of Soriano's built, only 12 remain standing, the others suffering poorly from southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...

's wildfires, earthquakes, and demolition. Of those remaining, a number suffered from unsympathetic make-overs and additions. The several that remain intact and unmolested now benefit from municipal preservation codes. A collection of Soriano Documents are kept at the College of Environmental Design
Cal Poly Pomona College of Environmental Design
The California State Polytechnic University, Pomona College Environmental Design also known as the Cal Poly Pomona College of Environmental Design is one of Cal Poly Pomona's seven colleges. The college houses over 1,600 students; making it one of largest environmental design programs in the...

 Resource Center at the California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, or Cal Poly Pomona, is a public university located in Pomona, California, United States...

 (Cal Poly Pomona).

External links

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