Schindler's Other Projects

The following collection of photos shows Schindler's other projects after the completion of the Schindler-Chace House. 

Plan of El Pueblo Ribera

Plans of the How House. 1925

Elevations of the How House

Plan of the Lovell Beach House

Sources
Gebhard, David, ed. The Architectural Drawings of R.M. Schindler. New York: Garland Publishing, 1993

http://www.you-are-here.com/modern/how.html

http://www.stevewallet.com/blog/category/schindler/tischler-house/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hollywoodhistory/4217073626/

http://www.hottr6.com/pueblo/

http://www.worldarchitecturemap.org/buildings/el-pueblo-ribera-court

http://www.grantmudford.com/

The Construction

“The traditional methods by which structural members of the house are covered, onion-like, with layers of finishing materials is abandoned.” 

R. M. Schindler

The composition of the house can be described with three interlocking L-figures, that revolve around the central fire place in between Pauline Schindler’s and Marian Chase’s Studios. One L-figure for the Schindler wing, another for the Chace wing, and a third one for the guest bedroom. 

Sketch of First Floor Plan

Location of House in West Hollywood

In a letter to Pauline Gibling’s parents, Schindler outlined his intentions with the design, and at the same time asked for a loan. 

“The basic idea was to give each person his own room - instead of the usual distribution - and to do most of the cooking right on the table - making it more of a social ‘campfire’ affair, than the disagreeable burden to one member of the family...”

R.M Schindler 

The lot on 835 North Kings Road was purchased on November 21, 1921, shortly after their camping trip in Yosemite National Park. Interestingly enough, Irving Gill’s Dodge house was only one block away. The construction of the Dodge House was also an influence in the way that their house was built.

In order to save costs, both Schindler and Chase decided to work as Architect and builder. By February 13, 1922, Schindler had secured a mortgage of $2000 from a bank, and another $5000 from Pauline’s parents. On the same day they also celebrated the groundbreaking. The house sat on a slab on grade foundation, which served as a foundation and the final floor, and eliminated the need for a basement. Chace had borrowed some concrete equipment from Gill, and by the middle of March, they were casting the concrete tilt up slab walls. These rectangular panels were poured onto wooden forms, and membranes like soft soap, kraft paper and burlap were used to prevent adhesion to the slab. Eventually these slabs were raised using a tripod with a block and tackle. Schindler and Chace learned the process of tilt-slab construction for Irving Gill. This process was also used in many projects like the Dodge house, and La Jolla Woman’s Club. In between each panel was an insert of 3 inch wide glass that would let in light. The erection of the redwood frames was the next step in the construction. 

“The tilt-up panels (45 inches wide, 8 1/2 feet high, tapering in thickness from 9 1/2 inches at the bottom to 5 inches at the top) are bold in scale. The concrete is smooth and gray, the glass both clear and milky white (sandblasted), and the Insulite is tan” 

Smith 33

Timeline of Construction showing the different steps of the process

Forming the concrete slab. March 15-30, 1922

Tilting the slab. April 24, 1922

Exterior Shot

Sources
Smith, Kathryn, and Grant Mudford. Schindler House. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2001.

Kucker, Patricia. "Framework: Construction and Space in the architecture of Frank Lloyd Write and Rudolf Schindler." The Journal of Architecture Volume 7 Summer 2002. (accessed December 8, 2012).www.bolender.com/Frank%20Lloyd%20Wright/Files/Framework%20Summer%202002.pdf

Timeline

The following timeline shows significant world events, Schindler's influences. The coloured bars represent the occupants that have lived in the Schindler house since it was built in 1922, until the Friends of Schindler House (FOSH) purchased the house in 1980.

For a higher quality image visit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/79623318@N02/8260642871/sizes/l/in/photostream/

Pauline Gibling and Rudolph Schindler: Firebrand Wife and the Suffragette

Pauline Gibling, 1919

Sophie Pauline Gibling was a refined rebel, much like her avant-garde husband. By 1915, she had received a four-year liberal education at Smith College.  It gave her a privileged authority which she used to its maximum capacity. After completing her studies in music there, she went to work in the slums of Boston and at Jane Addam’s Hull-House in Chicago.  Pauline met Schindler in Chicago in early 1919, during an orchestra performance. She had immediately charmed him with her characteristic intensity. Their first conversation about the war had delighted Schindler due to Pauline’s open nature with criticism. Schindler was new to America, just recently acquainted with circumspection, thus it was relieving to him to hear someone speak so unguardedly in public at last.

They formed their relationship on the basis of this free-thought sharing process they had. Both were progressive individuals and this was clearly illustrated in Schindler’s design of the house. He divided the spaces in such a way that each of the four cells for the four occupants were of equivalent size and importance. The floor plan had represented Schindler’s ideal marriage in this sense: equality. Instead of differentiating the habitants with gender roles, he viewed them all as artists who needed their own studios to work in; Pauline was a music composer, Chace was a painter, and his wife was a ceramicist. The kitchen also embedded the same belief as it was never indicative of women's presence. It was simply a place of producing meals utilized by both genders. This was perhaps the first plan that spoke so blatantly of equality and a respect for identity. 

It should be noted that such idealistic thinking was still considered radical for its time. Women’s suffrage had begun early in 1893 and escalated until 1920, when the nineteenth amendment was ratified. While women were finally casting their votes on a national level, Schindler was making his own contribution to the movement with his designs. Whether it was a conscious effort or not, he had become another important suffragette in this way.

Works Cited:

Zeigle, Lisa. California Moderne, World Monuments Funds, 2003.

McCoy, Esther. Vienna to Los Angeles: Two Journeys. Santa Monica, California, Arts + Architecture Press, 1979.
Darling, Michael, and Smith, Elizabeth A. T. The Architecture of R. M. Schindler. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2001.
California: Women Work for Wages, Votes and Visibility, WOW Museum: Western Women's Suffrage - California

The Once Overlooked, R. M. Schindler

Dubbed as “the least understood American pioneer of modern architecture,” Rudolph Michael Schindler was an architect who had his own set of values, which ultimately set him apart from the prominent architects of his time. He was, foremost, an artist before an architect. In a letter written to his friend and rival, Richard Neutra, Schindler stressed the important notion of creating work for the sake of expression without expecting a result of profit. This socialistic mindset clarifies that Schindler’s objective was never wealth or fame. What he valued more was art, and this allowed him to experiment, freeing him from the architectural conventionalities of his period. In appearance, Schindler was much like a bohemian, dressed in a pullover middy shirt with full sleeves, a smock-like jacket of rich fabric, a cummerbund, white duck trousers and Mexican huarachis. With his hair curled back, he was frequently shown in photos striking dramatic poses or laughing candidly. These countenances did not betray. It simply matched his genuine friendliness and enthusiasm for life.

He was nevertheless an elusive personality. While he stood at the forefront of progressive architectural and social thought, Schindler had a taciturn disposition, always hiding his serious thoughts behind his joking manner. In this way, he did not cause any apparent conflict within the world of architecture. Instead, he was quietly challenging the establishment with his works.

   

Born in Vienna, Austria in 1887, Schindler studied engineering and architecture under the guidance of his influential mentors Otto Wagner and Adolf Loos. In 1914, Schindler left for Chicago in hope of finding an opportunity to work with Frank Lloyd Wright, after being inspired by his 1910 Wasmuth Portfolio. He began his work for Wright in 1918. He was sent by Wright to Los Angeles in 1920 to help with supervising the construction of the Hollyhock house, and within a year, Schindler had established himself as an independent architect with the erection of his first piece of work: his home and studio on North Kings Road. Throughout his career, Schindler had designed a hundred and fifty architectural works that constantly challenged conventional methods of design and construction while alluding to his thesis of “space architecture. “

In his 1912 manifesto, “Modern Architecture: A Program,” Schindler proposed that the fundamental idea of a dwelling was rooted in the cave. He spoke of the architect’s ambition as perpetually being “the gathering and massing of material which will eventually form into spaces for human shelter. He argued that the interior space of such shelters were mere after-thoughts, as all efforts at form-making were confined to using plastic structural mass material to decorate and create a face in these interiors. Based on this argument, Schindler suggested that the new method would be dependent on the efficiency of material usage, as this would result in the elimination of plastic sculptural mass. The modern architect would conceive and form a room only with ceilings and wall slabs. In this sense, the architectural design would be led by space, concerning itself with space as its raw material, producing the articulated room as a result. Schindler’s thesis was born here: for him, the real medium of architecture was space.

“The old problems have been solved and the styles are dead… The architect has finally discovered the medium of his art : SPACE. A new architectural problem has been born.” 
R. M. Schindler, Manifesto 1912

Works Cited:

Sarnitz, August. R.M. Schindler: Architect, 1887-1953 A Pupil of Otto Wagner, Between International Style and  Space Architecture. Rizzoli International Publications Inc., 1988.

Schindler, Rudolph. Modern Architecture: A Program, 1912.

McCoy, Esther. Vienna to Los Angeles: Two Journeys. Santa Monica, California, Arts + Architecture Press, 1979.

"LA OBSCURA: Schindler Biography." University of Southern California, 1999. Accessed December 8th 2012 
<http://www.usc.edu/dept/architecture/shulman/architects/schindler/>
"Rudolph M. Schindler." Accessed December 8th 2012 <http://www.mak.at/en/collection/sammlung_artikel/rudolph_m_schindler?j-dummy=reserve>

Schindler and Frank Lloyd Wright

“His freedom is perfection. It had no tradition to overcome or prejudice to fight. His work grows quietly out of itself. He is the master of each material, and the modern machine is the base of his form-giving.” 
R.M. Schindler to Richard Neutra on Frank Lloyd Wright

Schindler was first introduced to Wright through the Wasmuth Portfolio in 1910 while he was still in Vienna. He immediately wanted to work for him, and in 1914 moved to Spring Green, Wisconsin. He took an unpaid position as a draftsman for Wright in 1918. This was when Wright was working on the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. Here Schindler was largely introduced to Japanese architecture. Wright was frequently away, in between Japan and his office at Taliesen. During these times he left Schindler in charge of his office, though he would later deny this fact. While working on the Hollyhock house, he considered moving to California, where he eventually started his own practice. He was influenced by Wright’s adaptation and incorporation of Japanese architecture, as evident in the light, moveable partition walls in the Schindler House and the Japanese timber frame. 

Wright found space in the Japanese print which, he wrote in his autobiography, “lies a the bottom of all this so-called modernism.” Schindler found it first in Cubism; in his own work he saw into space (McCoy, 152).

Though he was heavily influenced by Wright, Schindler never intended to follow him. He saw that none of Schindler’s draftsmen had “found anything to say for themselves” (McCoy, 151). Schindler took what he did from Wright, but strove to make his own mark. 

Schindler's Instructors

Schindler's Viennese background allowed him to study among great Austrian architects. He was fascinated by his instructors: Otto Wagner and Adolf Loos. 

Adolf Loos (1870 - 1933)

Birthplace: Brno, Moravia 

Adolf Loos   

Villa Muller interior
Spacial planning (Raumplan)

Fellow Viennese architect Adolf Loos believed that ornament was a crime. He even went as far as stating, "It would be greatly for own aesthetic good if we would refrain entirely from the use of ornament for a period of years in order that our thought might concentrate acutely upon the production of buildings well formed and comely in the nude." Loos had a very radical approach to architecture and was highly opinionated. His personal charisma drew students to his lectures. During these lectures, Schindler took away an appreciation for Loos's Raumplan complexity of interior spaces. Loos had an overwhelming passion for the people, culture and architecture of the USA. Loos's faith in the promise of US life propelled Schindler to practice in the USA, especially after the mutual discovery of Frank Lloyd Wright after seeing  the 1910 publication of the Wasmuth Portfolio.

Source: Architecture of the Sun By: Thomas S Hines

Photographic sources noted in bibliography.

Postal Savings Bank interior

Otto Wagner (1841 - 1918)

Birthplace: Penzing, Austria

Wagner studied at the Imperial School of Technology and the Academy of Fine Arts between 1857 and 1863. He was later appointed professor of the Academy of Art in 1894. Eventually he established the Wagnerschule, a studio based education system that only accepted 12 incoming students a year. The schools ideas managed to reach far beyond its' participants, though the actual alumni were some of the most influential architects of the first half of the twentieth century. 

Wagner believed that other architecture of his time considered form, style and beauty as mere by products of the building program when they should be the primary concern in developing a design for modern life. With that in mind, Schindler marveled at Wagner's Postal Savings Bank (1905). It was the first modern building placed in the historicist Ringstrasse. The structure was remarkably different in not only in style, but in its use of materials: concrete, steel, aluminum and glass. Wagner even designed the furniture and fixtures because he believed in the Germanic concept of Gesamtkunstwerk (all embracing art). The model inspired Schindler's future mentor Frank Lloyd Wright. 

Source: Architecture of the Sun By: Thomas S Hines

Photographic sources noted in bibliography.

Esther McCoy on Schindler, Space Architect

“Isn’t there anyone who understands that the main purpose of socialization is to eliminate any kind of profit? … Can any technician or artist overlook what it would mean for mankind if any act, any work, were to be only the result of a wish simply to fulfill this act for its own sake and not to earn anything from it? … As if the wish to express one’s self were not the strongest urge of a free human being, and as if it were beneath the dignity of man to do work which was not the direct expression of the individual! … Only when words like compensation, wages and competition become unknown, and only then, will true socialism begin.” 

Chicago, April 14, 1920. An excerpt from R.M. Schindler’s letter to Richard Neutra.

Schindler was an architect’s architect. While Wright may have been the most influential, Schindler was the most borrowed from. His conception of space and the construction methods that he developed was what set him apart. He was always looking for a more economic way to build, and did all of the contracting himself. He included (albeit in the former half of his career) very little detail and dimensions in the final blueprints; most of which was roughed in with a no. 1 pencil. However, he was incredibly meticulous. He spent most of the afternoon on the job site overseeing the construction. This allowed him the control of and to refine every last detail, and to make decisions on the spot. While designing, he works with two things, the contour map of the lot and the Los Angeles building ordinances. His reference books collected dust and he owned very few magazines. 

He was dismissed by many at the time because they saw him as only playing with architecture. He could not be serious about architecture, spending every afternoon at the job site. In fact, however, he was serious about both architecture and playing with it. His system was based on the building code, use, and necessity. He praised his draftsmen, but redrew their work on a new premises, and “playfully brought the spaces into dissident agreement” (Morgan, 123).

Schindler’s approach was primarily concerned with space. He developed this strategy as a student in Vienna, and incorporated it in all of his works. 

He designs and builds in terms of space rather than mass forms. His houses are wrapped around space. You can quickly see in his space forms how he has created a new definition for space; a Schindler house is in movement, it is in becoming. (Morgan, 73)

His style was dubbed Space Architecture, and was rooted in the character of the land and the client’s way of life. It was coloured by its surroundings. He had dug into Los Angeles and there his architecture settled.

On the Wagner School

The Wagner School was an important studio based architecture program, in the heart of Vienna. It was taught by Otto Wagner and produced some of the twentieth century's greatest architects. Schindler was lucky enough to study as one of the twelve incoming students a year, in one of the most rigorous architectural programs of the time. 

What Schindler was taught by Wagner:

"Whenever you give a task to complete, ask yourself whether the solution put forward is suitable for the time in which we live, the client, the local spirit, the climate, (and) the materials... Our buildings must express fully the conditions of life of our time if we do not want architecture to sink to the level of caricature." - Wagner

Assignments at the Wagner School for the three year course:

             

                 1st year: A simple Viennese apartment house, to give a taste for what it is like to work in the field and understand the principles involved. Also, work on a single family home adapting to the changing housing patterns at the time.

                2nd year: Public building - both inner and outer design. A model was used as a reference was the chamber of commerce building.

                3rd year: A project that the students may never encounter in their working career. The intended purpose of these projects is to keep the imagination alive. An architect must always have a "a luminous" flame within. This assignment is based on the exotic assignment given every year at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

Significant Principles in Wagner's Teachings:

                

• Strong relationship between master and student

Wagner didn't make it a mystery at all that he controlled admissions to his school though rigorous screening. "Other art schools may boast when they have seventy or more students in a year, while Wagner sifts continually until there remain only five or ten students a year. But with five such students he feels that he has an army at his disposal." - Vienna 1900

In total only 190 students were admitted to study at the Wagner school in the 20 years that he taught there; and a third of them did not complete the three year program.

The screening process was remarkably similar to the one at Waterloo Architecture.

"Descisions about admissions were made ultimately by the master himself, who judged candidates on the basis of drawings submitted by them and an interview designed to assess their cultural background and the reasons for their interest in architecture." -Vienna 1900

• Wagner wished for a school to have great competition

His school stimulated competition by incorporating academic awards. Between 1895 and 1914, the school won 24 Romreisestipendium (the equivalent to the Prix de Rome of the Academie de Beaux- Arts) while the other special Vienna school only got nine. The school achieved cultural prominence within the Viennese community.

• Sense of Style

The school was known for its neo-baroque and neo-renaissance leaning.

By 1897 the students of the Wagner school are already creating models that incorporated the secessionist and Art Nouveau styles. The dependence on Wagner himself was greatly reduced.

By 1900 the school dabbled in the abandonment of classical orders in favour of simplicity.

The role of the Wagner school in European Architecture:

The Wagner School stood as an experimental laboratory for the European avant-garde. Even Wagner himself made triumphant declarations that the school made fundamental contributions to architecture.

Source: Vienna 1900 By: Franco Borsi Ezio Godoli