Two Architectural Giants to Be Honored for Designs

Office towers, shopping centers and apartment complexes are on the increase in Los Angeles, but it is the ubiquitous single-family house in all its myriad styles that still dominates the local architectural scene.

And as anyone who wanders through the diverse residential neighborhoods of the city and surrounding areas can attest, those styles are quite eclectic, ranging from quaint bungalows, cute Queen Annes and modified missions to sleek moderns, strained postmoderns and nouveaux chateaux.

Two designers who contributed substantially to this rich residential tradition, Cliff May and John Lautner, are being honored this weekend in separate events here. Both gained prominence during Los Angeles’ golden age of architecture in the 1950s and early ‘60s by giving distinct forms to differing visions of the region.

For Lautner, who was trained as both an engineer and an architect and studied under Frank Lloyd Wright, this meant experimenting with the latest building technology to create futuristic houses that overcame severe site problems to engage the eye and mind while also serving the user.

Perhaps Lautner’s most dramatic design is the so-called Chemosphere house, an octagon-shaped structure that sits like a flying saucer on a single concrete column on a steep slope off of Torreyson Drive in the Hollywood Hills, east of Laurel Canyon Drive and above Mulholland Drive.

The column was used as the building platform, because the severe slope precluded employing a bulldozer to create a building pad, the usual response to a hillside site. For the best view of Lautner’s solution, go past the driveway up the road and look back. It is hard to think of the structure as nearly 30 years old.

Also in the lyrical spaceship mode is Lautner’s Silvertop house at 2138 Micheltorena St., perched on a lush hill in Silver Lake. This concrete and glass structure with its cantilevered swimming pool and driveway can be best viewed from Redcliff Street, a block to the east. At 2007 Micheltorena is a more modest house Lautner designed for himself in 1939.

Lautner is still very much at work. Nearing completion in Maliu about a mile above the Trancas intersection on the Pacific Coast Highway is a house marked by a soaring, free-form concrete exterior, which can be seen from the road behind a high wall and gate. A mile or so east at the water’s edge at Lechuza Point is Lautner’s Beyer residence, with its distinctive wide arched roof. It can be viewed best while walking up Trancas Beach.

May’s considerable contribution to the Los Angeles legacy of innovative residential design was in essence to take the dowdy, boxy clapboard house and, with a flair, reshape and restyle it into the quintessential suburban ranch to serve the then-emerging informal life style of Southern California.

Under May’s inspired direction as both a designer and builder, down went interior walls to combine living and dining rooms into flexible family and entertainment areas; roofs were raised to let in more light; and select exterior walls were replaced with sliding glass doors opening and orienting the houses to rear patios and backyard barbecues.

For a glimpse of some of May’s more relaxed and pricier creations, take a slow drive along Old Oak and Riviera Ranch roads, in Sullivan Canyon north of Sunset Drive in Brentwood. Almost all the unmarked, low-slung, single-story ranch houses there behind the horse corrals, split-rail fences and lush landscaping were designed and built by May.

May’s prolific career in which he designed about 1,000 custom homes and sold plans for about 18,000 others is being celebrated in a series of lectures today at the Dickson Art Center on UCLA’s Westwood campus, beginning at 10 a.m. The entry fee for the all-day program, organized by UCLA Extension, is $50 for the public and $35 for students.

Lautner is being honored at a $125-a-person dinner tonight to benefit the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery in Barnsdale Park. Preceding the dinner will be a tour of the Ennis Brown house in Los Feliz, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, and Lautner’s Silvertop House. For more information, please call (213) 485-4581 after noon.