Must-Know Modern Homes: The Lovell Beach House
R.M. Schindler redefined architectural space through form. See how this striking California home influenced modern architecture to come
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The early 20th century was a time of architectural manifestos — see, for example, the De Stijl group's manifesto discussed in an ideabook on a previous Must-Know Modern Home, the Rietveld Schröder House. The manifestos attempted to find appropriate architectural responses to the great changes in politics, technology and society, especially in Europe.
Rudolph M. Schindler, born in Vienna in 1887, wrote a manifesto in 1912, when he was still a student at the Vienna Academy of the Arts. In it he contrasted historical architecture's reliance upon mass, structure and surface with what he saw as modern architecture's emphasis on space as its raw material. Defining space through form, rather than working with space as the by-product of a mass's surface articulation, would be the problem of the modern architect — and of Schindler after his studies.
Schindler's philosophy of "space architecture" can be grasped in one of his masterpieces, the Lovell Beach House on the Pacific coast south of Los Angeles. It is not as immediately appealing as his earlier Kings Road House in West Hollywood (now home to the MAK Center), but its influence on later modern architecture is important and worth exploring.
Lovell Beach House at a Glance
Year built: 1926
Architect: Rudolph M. Schindler
Visiting info: Only rare visits scheduled
Location: Newport Beach, California
More: 10 Must-Know Modern Homes
Rudolph M. Schindler, born in Vienna in 1887, wrote a manifesto in 1912, when he was still a student at the Vienna Academy of the Arts. In it he contrasted historical architecture's reliance upon mass, structure and surface with what he saw as modern architecture's emphasis on space as its raw material. Defining space through form, rather than working with space as the by-product of a mass's surface articulation, would be the problem of the modern architect — and of Schindler after his studies.
Schindler's philosophy of "space architecture" can be grasped in one of his masterpieces, the Lovell Beach House on the Pacific coast south of Los Angeles. It is not as immediately appealing as his earlier Kings Road House in West Hollywood (now home to the MAK Center), but its influence on later modern architecture is important and worth exploring.
Lovell Beach House at a Glance
Year built: 1926
Architect: Rudolph M. Schindler
Visiting info: Only rare visits scheduled
Location: Newport Beach, California
More: 10 Must-Know Modern Homes
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| The beach house that R.M. Schindler designed for Phillip Lovell is striking for the way it is lifted above sidewalk level. This occurs via five concrete frames in the shape of squared-off figure eights. Schindler was critical of wood-frame construction, so at Kings Road he used tilt-up concrete panels, and in Newport Beach he created an impressive concrete structure that defies expectations. |
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| Three considerations drove the decision to lift up the enclosed spaces on the concrete frame: Give a rhythm to the house and its spaces, protect the house from earthquakes (lightweight walls are suspended from the structure to move independently during tremors), and give privacy and views relative to the adjacent public beach. The last is evident in this aerial view; the house is sited prominently on a major thoroughfare leading to the beach. Schindler's inspiration came from traditional pile structures found on beaches in the area. For reference, the cantilever faces west, with the sidewalk heading to the beach running north–south. |
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| The bedrooms are on the top floor. Originally they sat behind west-facing sleeping porches. Recall the sleeping porches of the Greene brothers' Gamble House. In the days before air conditioning, sleeping porches were a suitable alternative in California's benign climate. The sleeping porches can also be seen as an extension of the ideas of Lovell, Schindler's client, who ran the Physical Culture Center and wrote a "Care of the Body" column for the Los Angeles Times. Lovell advocated natural health remedies and saw one's living environment as being important in health. |
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| Even with the California beach's favorable climate, Lovell wanted the sleeping porches enclosed soon after completion. Schindler oversaw this change, moving the French doors from the bedroom to the outer guardrail and modifying them to fit. Yet there is something awkward about the enclosure at the cantilever, as if the windows are flimsy relative to the impressive concrete frame. This and other idiosyncrasies of Schindler's designs were cited as reasons for his being left out of the exhibition The International Style at the Museum of Modern Art in 1932. This omission hurt Schindler, though not as much as when Lovell hired fellow Austrian and California transplant Richard Neutra to design his next project, the Health House, which did make its way into the MoMA exhibition. |
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| Schindler and Neutra knew each other in Vienna before World War I, but upon graduation from the Vienna Academy of Arts, Schindler headed to Chicago to work in an architecture office, while Neutra stayed behind. This move was influential to Schindler, because it got him closer to Frank Lloyd Wright, whose influential portfolio of work was published in Europe while Schindler was in school. Four years after Schindler moved to Chicago, Wright actually hired him and had him oversee the construction of the Hollyhock House in Hollywood while the master traveled to Japan. In 1921 Schindler set out on his own. Wright's influence can be seen in the glass panels inserted between the concrete piers. Rather than use large pieces of plate glass, Schindler designed a pattern reminiscent of Wright's Prairie-style abstractions. These patterns are another reason Schindler did not fit into the MoMA exhibition's narrow view of modern architecture, which espoused absolutely no decoration or ornament. |
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Neutra emigrated to California in 1923, also working for Wright. He eventually moved into Schindler's Kings Road house and worked with him on a few projects, including the Lovell Beach House. Neutra struck out on his own in 1930, and his architecture illustrated the difference between Schindler's idiosyncratic regionalism and his own European modernism; the latter was aligned with MoMA's definition of an International style through his articulation of space with large expanses of glass and planar surfaces.
Schindler and his philosophy of space architecture, on the other hand, resulted in more complex forms found in the interplay of structure, surfaces and architectural elements. This view of the porch at the beach house shows the intricate intertwining of stair, ramp (in the foreground, moving in the opposite direction of the stair), living room wall and concrete structure. It's easy to see the influence on later California architects such as Frank Gehry.
Schindler and his philosophy of space architecture, on the other hand, resulted in more complex forms found in the interplay of structure, surfaces and architectural elements. This view of the porch at the beach house shows the intricate intertwining of stair, ramp (in the foreground, moving in the opposite direction of the stair), living room wall and concrete structure. It's easy to see the influence on later California architects such as Frank Gehry.
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This view of the north side of the beach house shows the plasticity of its architectural form. The concrete structure allowed the walls to be treated as independent surfaces (not as one and the same, as in traditional architecture), and Schindler exploited it by bumping out some walls, pulling others in, and adding windows as needed. Compare this facade with the side of the house facing the beach (visible as the short side in the first photo); the elevation facing the beach has large openings for views of the beach and water, while the north is predominantly solid.
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| The house's center is the double-height living room and its large windows (photo at right) looking to the south. As is apparent, Schindler is not content with defining space by windows and planar walls. He layered walls, juxtaposed the concrete and wood structures, designed ladder-like patterns in the windows and included built-in furniture. |
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| The debt to Wright is obvious, especially with regard to the built-ins (Schindler designed the built-in furniture for the Hollyhock House), but one can see the working out of his own style in things like the shelving following the concrete column — an odd detail, considering the shelves are unreachable. |
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| This floor plan shows the first floor, which is one floor up from sidewalk level. One ascends either via a stair to the kitchen on the left or via a shallower stair (also referred to as a ramp) to the living area and south-facing terrace on the right. The five rows of columns that comprise the steel framing are evident, as is the cantilever of the top floor, indicated by a dashed line. |
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| The top floor has a corridor that overlooks the double-height living area, visible in the previous plan as a dashed line. This drawing came after the sleeping rooms were enclosed; the bedrooms would have stopped at the columns before that. |
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| The main, west-facing elevation really accentuates the design's structural bravado. Outside of the five structural frames, only the garage and the stairs touch the ground. In this regard Lovell Beach House is arguably the first example of brutalist architecture, predating the short-lived style by three decades. Architects of much larger and more public buildings would eventually use concrete structures to similar dramatic effect, but this house turned out to be Schindler's last house built of concrete. He had to give in to the popularity of wood-frame construction, yet he still held on to his philosophy of space architecture until his death in 1953. |
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Comments
rod handler Love the Lovell house. Even as a kid I could tell that this house was somehow special. It almost seems like Schindler anticipated sea level rise. The rest of the Balboa Peninsula will be toast in 50 years, or less.
4 months ago · Like
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midmodfan Wright's influence is evident. There are some good newer exterior shots on Google Earth. The house looks better now than I expected.
4 months ago · Like
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Sharon Barnard Interesting experiment..appears that he was torn between simplicity and ornament...too many busy details but a step ahead in its time.
3 months ago · Like
Sharon Barnard He had to satisfy his client but enclosing the sleeping porch totally destroyed the design..Wright would have never conceded this.
3 months ago · Like
lavc Oh my gosh , thank you so much ! This house is my childhood memory , I grew up just down the ocean front from it and my little sister and I would ride our bikes past it on the way to school every day , the sweet little mission-style school on the sand next door to it , Newport Beach Elementary . We would always stop at the big white house and stand there looking in at the wild , untended yard full of sand with a few weeds and empty flower urns because although it appeared to be unlived in , there were always a bunch of wild kitties running around under the big concrete shapes . We called it " The monster house " and I truly believe it had something to do with my love of architecture and design when I grew up . Just living on the ocean front of the Balboa peninsula was like a fairytale or maybe a movie set as each little or big beach house had it's own style , everything from little pointy-roofed alpine cottages with climbing roses to Nantucket-style houses to Tuscan villas to the Schindler Beach house and all our neighbors were the famous cowboy movie stars . The beach was wild and full of sand dunes and seashells and wildlife [ before El Nino ] and we built Xmas tree forts in the dunes and tried to trap seagulls , without success , and found weird , wild sea creatures that washed up on the beach and I will be forever so grateful for that happy , safe , childhood place . Thank you for the pictures ! Valerie C.
3 months ago · Like
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John Hill lavc - Thanks for sharing your memories!
3 months ago · Like
Thomas Brock Great analysis. This house holds a special place in my heart, as it was the first building in my architectural education that I studied and diagrammed in-depth. Really digging deep in my memory bank, I want to say Schindler was also playing with repetition and mathematical proportion, especially in section and elevation (think proportionally similar volumes sliding, flipping, etc, to delineate space). This brand of design rigor further aligned him with the modernist trajectory, even if it wasn't recognized by MoMA at the time.
3 months ago · Like
BUILDLING Fascinated by the advance in structure and use of material. The amount of detail is reminiscent of Wright's "international" interpretating the Arts and Crafts style with the Japanese discipline and rigor. Also the German interest as the first wave of students have had seen copies of Wright's folio in Europe, one of the traces leading to the rise of industrial design in Bauhaus and Le Corbusier. Hard to believe that America used to lead the world interest towards modern architecture.
3 months ago · Like
daleylauren Thank you for this great post. The house is definitely on my Top 10 all time.
3 months ago · Like
May Galang Nice
3 months ago · Like
Ideabook updated on April 5, 2013.
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