Rudolf Schindler
Encyclopedia
Rudolph Michael Schindler (born Rudolf Michael Schindler (1887 Vienna
- 1953 Los Angeles) was an American, born in Austria
, architect
whose most important works were built in or near Los Angeles
during the early to mid-twentieth century.
Although he worked and trained with some of its foremost practitioners, he often is associated with the fringes of the modern movement
in architecture. His inventive use of complex three-dimensional forms, warm materials, and striking colors, as well as his ability to work successfully within tight budgets, however, have placed him as one of the true mavericks of early twentieth century architecture
.
, Austria
. His father was a wood and metal craftsman and an importer; his mother was a dressmaker. He attended the Imperial and Royal High School, from 1899 to 1906, and enrolled in the Wagnersschule of Vienna Polytechnic University, being graduated in 1911 with a degree in architecture.
Schindler was most influenced by professor Carl König, despite the presence of many other famous professors such as Otto Wagner
and particularly, Adolf Loos
. Most notably, in 1911, he was introduced to the work of Frank Lloyd Wright
through the influential Wasmuth Portfolio
.
Schindler also met his lifelong friend and rival Richard Neutra
at the university in 1912, before completing his thesis project in 1913. Their careers would parallel each other: both would go to Los Angeles through Chicago, be recognized as important early modernists creating new styles suited to the Californian climate, and sometimes, both would work for the same clients. At one point, they and their wives shared a communal office and living structure that Schindler designed as his home and studio.
to work in the firm of Ottenheimer, Stern, and Reichert (OSR), accepting a cut in pay to be in that progressive American city, which was the home of Frank Lloyd Wright
. He found New York
, which he visited along the way, to be crowded, unattractive, and commercial. Chicago
was more appealing to him, however, with less congestion and providing access to the architectural work of Henry Hobson Richardson
, Louis Sullivan
, and Frank Lloyd Wright
.
and the murder of his mistress earlier that year, and did not offer Schindler a job. Schindler continued work at OSR, keeping himself occupied with trips and study, notably familiarizing himself with the early tilt up slab work of Irving Gill
.
Wright was able to hire Schindler after obtaining the commission for the Imperial Hotel
in Tokyo
, a major project that would keep the architect in Japan
for several years. Schindler's role was to continue Wright's American operations in his absence, working out of Wright's Oak Park
studio. In 1919, Schindler met and married Pauline Gibling (1893–1977) and in 1920 Wright summoned him to Los Angeles to work on the Barnsdall House.
,_1922_b.jpg)
Schindler was engaged to design several private commissions while in Los Angeles, notably, he completed what many think is his finest building, the Kings Road House
, also known as the Schindler house or the Schindler-Chase house, as an office and home for two professional couples by late spring 1922. He and his wife were one of the couples living in the communal structure. He also started to take on several projects of his own.
During this time, fractures started to appear in the Schindler-Wright relationship. Schindler complained, with some validity, of being underpaid and exploited. As well as his architectural affairs, he was running Lloyd Wright's businesses, such as the rental of the Oak Park houses.
Of the houses Wright built in this period, the Hollyhock House
was undoubtedly the most significant, for which Schindler did most of the drawings and oversaw the construction of, while Frank Lloyd Wright still was in Japan. The client, Aline Barnsdall
, subsequently chose Schindler as her architect to design a number of other small projects for her on Olive Hill and a spectacular beach-side 'translucent house' in 1927, which remains one of the great uncompleted projects of the twentieth century.
As Schindler was applying for a Los Angeles license to practice architecture in 1929, he mentioned his extensive work on the architectural and structural plans of the Imperial Hotel. Wright, however, refused to validate these claims. Eventually, disputes over whose work was whose, escalated until Schindler released a flier for a series of talks with Richard Neutra, describing himself as having been, "in charge of the architectural office of Frank Lloyd Wright for two years during his absence". Wright refuted this claim. The two split in 1931 and never reconciled until 1953, less than a year before Schindler's death.
construction. The Kings Road House, The Rodriguez House (seen in the film 'Pineapple Express (film)
', Pueblo Ribera Court, Lovell Beach House, Wolfe House, and How House are the projects most frequently identified among these.
The Kings Road house was designed as a studio and home for Schindler, his wife, and their friends Clyde and Marian DaCamara Chace. The floor plan worked itself around several L-shapes. Construction features included tilt up concrete panels cast on site, which contrasted with the more 'open' walls of redwood
and glass. It has largely become the symbol of Schindler's architecture.
In a search to create a more inexpensive architecture, Schindler abandoned concrete and turned to the plaster-skin design. This type of construction is characteristic of his work throughout the 1930s and 1940s, but his interest in form and space never changed.
He developed his own platform frame system, the Schindler Frame in 1945. His later work uses this system extensively as a basis for experimentation.
and Lovell Beach House, largely went unnoticed in the wider architectural world. As early and radical as they were for modernism, they may have been too different for recognition and Los Angeles was not a significant location on the architectural map. Schindler was not included in the highly influential International Style
exhibit of 1932, while Richard Neutra was and, to add insult to injury, Neutra, incorrectly, was credited as the Austrian who worked on the Imperial Hotel with Wright.
His first major exposure came in Esther McCoy
's 'Five California Architects' of 1960. His work is undergoing somewhat of a contemporary revaluation for its inventiveness, character, and formal qualities, which are making his designs familiar to a new generation of architects.
The Mackey Apartments and the Schindler Residence are maintained by the Friends of the Schindler House and the MAK Center (Austrian Museum of Applied Arts / Contemporary Art, Vienna). The MAK Center offers a variety of exhibitions and events and is open to the public Wednesday through Sunday. The center also sponsors six month residencies for emerging architects and artists who are housed in the Mackey Apartments. Penthouse apartments can be rented there for overnight accommodations or events.
"My dear Rodolph Schindler: ... I am in receipt of a letter from the Board asking if you had made designs for me. The answer to that is, -- No you didn’t. Nobody makes designs for me. Sometimes if they are in luck, or rather if I am in luck, they make them with me. ... Nevertheless, I believe that you now are competent to design exceedingly good buildings. I believe that anything you would design would take rank in the new work being done in the country as worthy of respect." — Wright to Schindler, July 1929
"You further called it an exhibition of ‘California Architects’. Now it has become one of ‘Neutra and others’. I am quite willing to give Neutra the crown for his ability as a publicity man, but I am not willing to sail under his flag as an architect." — Schindler to Mrs. Frantl at MOMA in response to an upcoming exhibition, September 1935
"I consider myself the first and still one of the few architects who consciously abandoned stylistic sculptural architecture in order to develop space as a medium of art. ... I believe that outside of Frank Lloyd Wright I am the only architect in U.S. who has attained a distinct local and personal form language." — Schindler to Elisabeth Mock at MOMA, August 1943
"He has built quite a number of buildings in and around Los Angeles that seem to be admirable from the standpoint of design, and I have not heard of any of them falling down". — Wright
"He has a good mind, is affectionate in disposition, and is fairly honorable I believe. Personally, though strongly individual, he is not unduly eccentric and I, in common with many others, like him very much" — Wright
"Personally, I appreciate Rudolph. He is an incorrigible Bohemian and refuses to allow the Los Angeles barber to apply the razor to the scruff of his neck. He also has peculiarly simple and effective ideas regarding his own personal conduct. I believe, however, that he is capable as an artist. I have found him a too complacent and therefore a rotten superintendent. The buildings that he has recently built in Los Angeles are well designed, but badly executed. I suspect him of trying to give his clients too much for their money. I should say that was his extreme fault in these circumstances of endeavoring to build buildings" — Wright
"Rudolph was a patient assistant who seemed well aware of the significance of what I was then doing. His sympathetic appreciation never failed. His talents were adequate to any demands made upon them by me" — Wright at Schindler's Memorial Exhibition of 1954
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
- 1953 Los Angeles) was an American, born in Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
whose most important works were built in or near 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...
during the early to mid-twentieth century.
Although he worked and trained with some of its foremost practitioners, he often is associated with the fringes of the modern movement
Modern architecture
Modern architecture is generally characterized by simplification of form and creation of ornament from the structure and theme of the building. It is a term applied to an overarching movement, with its exact definition and scope varying widely...
in architecture. His inventive use of complex three-dimensional forms, warm materials, and striking colors, as well as his ability to work successfully within tight budgets, however, have placed him as one of the true mavericks of early twentieth century architecture
Architecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
.
Early history
Rudolf Michael Schindler was born on September 10, 1887, to a middle class family in ViennaVienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
. His father was a wood and metal craftsman and an importer; his mother was a dressmaker. He attended the Imperial and Royal High School, from 1899 to 1906, and enrolled in the Wagnersschule of Vienna Polytechnic University, being graduated in 1911 with a degree in architecture.
Schindler was most influenced by professor Carl König, despite the presence of many other famous professors such as Otto Wagner
Otto Wagner
Otto Koloman Wagner was an Austrian architect and urban planner, known for his lasting impact on the appearance of his home town Vienna, to which he contributed many landmarks.-Life:...
and particularly, Adolf Loos
Adolf Loos
Adolf Franz Karl Viktor Maria Loos was a Moravian-born Austro-Hungarian architect. He was influential in European Modern architecture, and in his essay Ornament and Crime he repudiated the florid style of the Vienna Secession, the Austrian version of Art Nouveau...
. Most notably, in 1911, he was introduced to the work of Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 structures and completed 500 works. Wright believed in designing structures which were in harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture...
through the influential Wasmuth Portfolio
Wasmuth Portfolio
The Wasmuth portfolio is a two-volume folio of 100 lithographs of the work of the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright .Titled Ausgeführte Bauten und Entwürfe von Frank Lloyd Wright, it was published in Germany in 1910 by the Berlin publisher Ernst Wasmuth, with an accompanying monograph by Wright...
.
Schindler also met his lifelong friend and rival 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...
at the university in 1912, before completing his thesis project in 1913. Their careers would parallel each other: both would go to Los Angeles through Chicago, be recognized as important early modernists creating new styles suited to the Californian climate, and sometimes, both would work for the same clients. At one point, they and their wives shared a communal office and living structure that Schindler designed as his home and studio.
Early professional career
In Vienna, Schindler acquired experience in the firm of Hans Mayr and Theodore Mayer, working there from September 1911 to February 1914. Schindler then moved to ChicagoChicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
to work in the firm of Ottenheimer, Stern, and Reichert (OSR), accepting a cut in pay to be in that progressive American city, which was the home of Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 structures and completed 500 works. Wright believed in designing structures which were in harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture...
. He found New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, which he visited along the way, to be crowded, unattractive, and commercial. Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
was more appealing to him, however, with less congestion and providing access to the architectural work of Henry Hobson Richardson
Henry Hobson Richardson
Henry Hobson Richardson was a prominent American architect who designed buildings in Albany, Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and other cities. The style he popularized is named for him: Richardsonian Romanesque...
, Louis Sullivan
Louis Sullivan
Louis Henri Sullivan was an American architect, and has been called the "father of skyscrapers" and "father of modernism" He is considered by many as the creator of the modern skyscraper, was an influential architect and critic of the Chicago School, was a mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright, and an...
, and Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 structures and completed 500 works. Wright believed in designing structures which were in harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture...
.
Establishing contact with Wright
Schindler continued to seek contact with Wright, writing letters despite his limited English. He finally met him for the first time on December 30, 1914. Wright had little work at this stage, was still plagued by the destruction of TaliesinTaliesin (studio)
Taliesin , near Spring Green, Wisconsin, was the summer home of American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright began the building in 1911 after leaving his first wife, Catherine Tobin, and his Oak Park, Illinois, home and studio in 1909. The impetus behind Wright's departure was his affair with...
and the murder of his mistress earlier that year, and did not offer Schindler a job. Schindler continued work at OSR, keeping himself occupied with trips and study, notably familiarizing himself with the early tilt up slab work of Irving Gill
Irving Gill
Irving John Gill , American architect, is considered a pioneer of the modern movement in architecture. He designed several buildings considered examples of San Diego's best architecture.-Biography:...
.
Wright was able to hire Schindler after obtaining the commission for the Imperial Hotel
Imperial Hotel, Tokyo
The Imperial Hotel, Tokyo, Japan, was created in the late 1880s at the request of the Japanese aristocracy to cater to the increasing number of western visitors to Japan. The hotel site is located just south of the Imperial Palace grounds, next to the previous location of the Palace moat...
in Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
, a major project that would keep the architect in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
for several years. Schindler's role was to continue Wright's American operations in his absence, working out of Wright's Oak Park
Oak Park, Illinois
Oak Park, Illinois is a suburb bordering the west side of the city of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. It is the twenty-fifth largest municipality in Illinois. Oak Park has easy access to downtown Chicago due to public transportation such as the Chicago 'L' Blue and Green lines,...
studio. In 1919, Schindler met and married Pauline Gibling (1893–1977) and in 1920 Wright summoned him to Los Angeles to work on the Barnsdall House.
Kings Road House
The Schindler House, also known as the Kings Road House or Schindler Chace house, is a house in West Hollywood, California designed by architect Rudolf Schindler. The Schindler House is considered to be the first house built in the Modern style...
, also known as the Schindler house or the Schindler-Chase house, as an office and home for two professional couples by late spring 1922. He and his wife were one of the couples living in the communal structure. He also started to take on several projects of his own.
During this time, fractures started to appear in the Schindler-Wright relationship. Schindler complained, with some validity, of being underpaid and exploited. As well as his architectural affairs, he was running Lloyd Wright's businesses, such as the rental of the Oak Park houses.
Of the houses Wright built in this period, the Hollyhock House
Hollyhock House
The Aline Barnsdall Hollyhock House is a building in the East Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, originally designed by Frank Lloyd Wright as a residence for oil heiress Aline Barnsdall, built in 1919–1921...
was undoubtedly the most significant, for which Schindler did most of the drawings and oversaw the construction of, while Frank Lloyd Wright still was in Japan. The client, Aline Barnsdall
Aline Barnsdall
Louise Aline Barnsdall was an American oil heiress, best known as Frank Lloyd Wright's client for the Hollyhock House in Los Angeles, now the centerpiece of the city's Barnsdall Art Park.- Biography :...
, subsequently chose Schindler as her architect to design a number of other small projects for her on Olive Hill and a spectacular beach-side 'translucent house' in 1927, which remains one of the great uncompleted projects of the twentieth century.
As Schindler was applying for a Los Angeles license to practice architecture in 1929, he mentioned his extensive work on the architectural and structural plans of the Imperial Hotel. Wright, however, refused to validate these claims. Eventually, disputes over whose work was whose, escalated until Schindler released a flier for a series of talks with Richard Neutra, describing himself as having been, "in charge of the architectural office of Frank Lloyd Wright for two years during his absence". Wright refuted this claim. The two split in 1931 and never reconciled until 1953, less than a year before Schindler's death.
Solo work
Schindler's early buildings usually are characterized by concreteConcrete
Concrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...
construction. The Kings Road House, The Rodriguez House (seen in the film 'Pineapple Express (film)
Pineapple Express (film)
Pineapple Express is a 2008 American stoner action comedy directed by David Gordon Green, written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg and starring Rogen and James Franco. Producer Judd Apatow, who previously worked with Rogen and Goldberg on Knocked Up and Superbad, assisted in developing the story,...
', Pueblo Ribera Court, Lovell Beach House, Wolfe House, and How House are the projects most frequently identified among these.
The Kings Road house was designed as a studio and home for Schindler, his wife, and their friends Clyde and Marian DaCamara Chace. The floor plan worked itself around several L-shapes. Construction features included tilt up concrete panels cast on site, which contrasted with the more 'open' walls of redwood
Redwood
-Trees:Conifers* Family Cupressaceae *** Sequoia sempervirens - coast redwood**** Albino redwood*** Sequoiadendron giganteum - giant sequoia*** Metasequoia glyptostroboides - dawn redwood* Family Pinaceae...
and glass. It has largely become the symbol of Schindler's architecture.
In a search to create a more inexpensive architecture, Schindler abandoned concrete and turned to the plaster-skin design. This type of construction is characteristic of his work throughout the 1930s and 1940s, but his interest in form and space never changed.
He developed his own platform frame system, the Schindler Frame in 1945. His later work uses this system extensively as a basis for experimentation.
Recognition
Schindler's early work, such as the Kings Road HouseKings Road House
The Schindler House, also known as the Kings Road House or Schindler Chace house, is a house in West Hollywood, California designed by architect Rudolf Schindler. The Schindler House is considered to be the first house built in the Modern style...
and Lovell Beach House, largely went unnoticed in the wider architectural world. As early and radical as they were for modernism, they may have been too different for recognition and Los Angeles was not a significant location on the architectural map. Schindler was not included in the highly influential International Style
International style (architecture)
The International style is a major architectural style that emerged in the 1920s and 1930s, the formative decades of Modern architecture. The term originated from the name of a book by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson, The International Style...
exhibit of 1932, while Richard Neutra was and, to add insult to injury, Neutra, incorrectly, was credited as the Austrian who worked on the Imperial Hotel with Wright.
His first major exposure came in Esther McCoy
Esther McCoy
Esther McCoy was an author and architectural historian who was instrumental in bringing to the attention of the world the modern architecture of California.-Early life and education:...
's 'Five California Architects' of 1960. His work is undergoing somewhat of a contemporary revaluation for its inventiveness, character, and formal qualities, which are making his designs familiar to a new generation of architects.
The Mackey Apartments and the Schindler Residence are maintained by the Friends of the Schindler House and the MAK Center (Austrian Museum of Applied Arts / Contemporary Art, Vienna). The MAK Center offers a variety of exhibitions and events and is open to the public Wednesday through Sunday. The center also sponsors six month residencies for emerging architects and artists who are housed in the Mackey Apartments. Penthouse apartments can be rented there for overnight accommodations or events.
Selected projects (existing)
- 1922 – Schindler House, 835 North Kings Road, West Hollywood, California
- 1922-1926 – Lovell Beach HouseLovell Beach HouseThe Lovell Beach House is located on the Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach, California. The building was completed in 1926 and is now recognized as one of the most important works by architect Rudolf Schindler, second only to the Schindler House, built four years earlier for his family as a show...
, Newport Beach, Balboa Island, California - 1923 – El Pueblo Ribera CourtEl Pueblo RiberaEl Pueblo Ribera Court is a complex of six duplexes in La Jolla, San Diego, California. It was designed in 1923 by the Austrian-American Rudolf Schindler. Schindler's most famous works are in and around Los Angeles; El Pueblo Ribera is his only work in San Diego.The complex was built in Modern...
, La Jolla, California - 1925 – How House for James Eads How, Silverlake, Los Angeles, California
- 1926 – Manola Court apartment building for Herman SachsHerman SachsHerman Sachs was an artist and art educator, active in Germany and the United States during the first half of the 20th century.- Biography :...
, Edgecliff Drive, Los Angeles, California - 1928 – Wolfe House, Avalon, Catalina Island, California (demolished in 2002)
- 1928-1952 – Samuel Freeman HouseSamuel Freeman HouseSamuel Freeman House is a Frank Lloyd Wright house in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles built in 1923. As an example of Wright's pre-Columbian or early Modernist architecture, the structure is noteworthy as one of the four textile block houses built by Wright in the Los Angeles area, the other...
(two guest apartments and furniture), Hollywood Heights, Los Angeles, California - 1930 – R. E. Elliot House, Newdale Drive, Los Angeles
- 1933 – W. E. Oliver House, Micheltorena Street, Los Angeles, California
- 1933 – The Rainbow Ballroom, Denver (see also Verne ByersVerne ByersVerne Byers, aka Vern Byers, was an American bandleader of a territory band, a bassist, a concert promoter, and an owner-operator of several live music clubs and restaurants in Denver...
) - 1934 – J. J. Buck House, Genesee Street, Los Angeles, California
- 1937 – H. Rodakiewicz House, Los Angeles, California
- 1938 – Bubeshko Apartments, Los Angeles, California
- 1938 – Wilson House, Los Angeles, California
- 1939 – Mackey Apartments, South Cochran Avenue, Los Angeles, California
- 1940 – Ellis Avenue, Inglewood, CaliforniaInglewood, CaliforniaInglewood is a city in southwestern Los Angeles County, California, southwest of downtown Los Angeles. It was incorporated on February 14, 1908. Its population stood at 109,673 as of the 2010 Census...
- 1940 – S. Goodwin House, Studio CityStudio City, Los Angeles, CaliforniaStudio City is an affluent residential neighborhood within the City of Los Angeles, California in the San Fernando Valley. Studio City expands over four ZIP code areas: 91604 and sections of 91602, 91607 and 90210....
, California - 1944 – Bethlehem Baptist Church, 4900 S. Compton Ave., Los Angeles
- 1948 – Laurelwood Apartments, Studio CityStudio City, Los Angeles, CaliforniaStudio City is an affluent residential neighborhood within the City of Los Angeles, California in the San Fernando Valley. Studio City expands over four ZIP code areas: 91604 and sections of 91602, 91607 and 90210....
, California - 1952 – Schlesinger House, Los Angeles
Quotes
"Can't you give me two lines, just two lines of recommendations without any hints at 'what a great man the boss is' and what poor fishes they are in comparison" — Schindler to Wright, while attempting to apply for his license to practice architecture"My dear Rodolph Schindler: ... I am in receipt of a letter from the Board asking if you had made designs for me. The answer to that is, -- No you didn’t. Nobody makes designs for me. Sometimes if they are in luck, or rather if I am in luck, they make them with me. ... Nevertheless, I believe that you now are competent to design exceedingly good buildings. I believe that anything you would design would take rank in the new work being done in the country as worthy of respect." — Wright to Schindler, July 1929
"You further called it an exhibition of ‘California Architects’. Now it has become one of ‘Neutra and others’. I am quite willing to give Neutra the crown for his ability as a publicity man, but I am not willing to sail under his flag as an architect." — Schindler to Mrs. Frantl at MOMA in response to an upcoming exhibition, September 1935
"I consider myself the first and still one of the few architects who consciously abandoned stylistic sculptural architecture in order to develop space as a medium of art. ... I believe that outside of Frank Lloyd Wright I am the only architect in U.S. who has attained a distinct local and personal form language." — Schindler to Elisabeth Mock at MOMA, August 1943
"He has built quite a number of buildings in and around Los Angeles that seem to be admirable from the standpoint of design, and I have not heard of any of them falling down". — Wright
"He has a good mind, is affectionate in disposition, and is fairly honorable I believe. Personally, though strongly individual, he is not unduly eccentric and I, in common with many others, like him very much" — Wright
"Personally, I appreciate Rudolph. He is an incorrigible Bohemian and refuses to allow the Los Angeles barber to apply the razor to the scruff of his neck. He also has peculiarly simple and effective ideas regarding his own personal conduct. I believe, however, that he is capable as an artist. I have found him a too complacent and therefore a rotten superintendent. The buildings that he has recently built in Los Angeles are well designed, but badly executed. I suspect him of trying to give his clients too much for their money. I should say that was his extreme fault in these circumstances of endeavoring to build buildings" — Wright
"Rudolph was a patient assistant who seemed well aware of the significance of what I was then doing. His sympathetic appreciation never failed. His talents were adequate to any demands made upon them by me" — Wright at Schindler's Memorial Exhibition of 1954
Other sources
-
- reprinted in 1980 by Peregrine Smith
- reprinted in 1997 by William Stout Publishers
- reprinted in 1975 by Praeger
External links
- Schindler's archive is kept at the Architecture & Design Collection (ADC) at the University Art Museum at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB).
- Rudolf Michael Schindler at the aeiou EncyclopediaAeiou EncyclopediaAEIOU is a free online collection of reference works in both German and English about Austria-related topics.-Background:...
- MAK-Center for Art and Architecture in the "Schindler-House", L.A.
- MAK-Center for Art and Architecture in co-operation with the Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna
- Map with pictures of Rudolf Michael Schindler work around Los Angeles at platial.com
- List of all projects by RM Schindler
- List of writings by RM Schindler
- Photos of "Schindler House" - West Hollywood, CA http://www.pbase.com/themarmot/schindler
- Schindler's Houses Schindlers Häuser - Film by Heinz Emigholz