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Sunday, January 2, 2011

Case Study House Program

In January of 1945, Arts & Architecture magazine announced the Case Study House Program. Several of the country’s most talented and innovative architects proposed to study, plan, design and construct eight houses in Southern California. Their mission was to gather a mass of material that would eventually define the post-war house.

The studies began with analysis of land in relation to work, schools, neighborhood conditions and individual family need. Each house was to be designed within a specified budget, and the architects were answerable only to the magazine, which posed as “the client” during the design phase.

The plan was to feature all eight of the houses in Arts & Architecture, with the architect(s) explaining the design and choice of materials. Upon completion, each house was to be open to the public for six to eight weeks. The houses would be completely furnished under a working agreement among the architect, the designer and the furniture manufacturer.

However, several of the designs remained unbuilt, because the architects had to find actual clients who could afford construction, since banks at that time were not yet loaning on flat-roofed modern houses. In all, 28 Case Study houses and two apartment buildings were built between 1945 and 1964.

Original 8 Case Study Houses

Number
Architect(s)
Year
Status
Location
Issue
1
J. R. Davidson
1948
Intact
North Hollywood, CA
Feb 1945
2
Sumner Spaulding, John Rex
1947
Intact
Arcadia, CA
May 1948
3
Wurster, Bernardi and Emmons
1949
Intact
Mandeville Canyon, CA
Aug 1947
4
Ralph Rapson

Unbuilt

Mar 1949
5
Whitney R. Smith

Unbuilt

Sept 1945
6
Richard Neutra

Unbuilt

Apr 1946
7
Thornton M. Abell
1948
Intact
San Gabriel, CA
Oct 1945
8
Charles Eames
1949
Intact
Pacific Palisades, CA
Jul 1948

From artsandarchitecture.com


Charles Eames House #8
you-are-here.com

Entenza House #9 by Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen
la.curbed.com

 #16 by Rodney Walker
artnet.com

Bailey House #20 by Richard Neutra
artnet.com

Stahl House #22 by Pierre Koenig
jennyhaniver.com

10 comments:

  1. Hmmm those flat roofs are fine here in southern CA (in the non-snow areas). I imagine that might have been part of the issue? So many in my area, I wonder if anyone offers tours.....

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  2. @1950sarh: I envy you, because you're right in the middle of all the good stuff! :) The Eames Foundation hosted a tour of the Eames House #8 and the Stahl House #22 this past July, but I read that you can do self-guided tours of the exterior of the Eames House. I read that the Stahl House will be on tour again this month and next month. http://goo.gl/RIttY

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  3. @Tanya: Me too. I'm turning a deep shade of green.

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  4. The Stahl House #22 was featured in the movie Why Do Fools Fall In Love staring (among others) Halle Berry, Little Richard and Vivica A. Fox. I'm pretty sure it's been in quite a few movies. I'd bet that the house (that the Ferrari drove through!) in Ferris Bueller's Day Off is one of these homes as well.

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  5. So fantastic. I love them all but the Stahl house takes the cake. So many movies have been filmed there - we can see why right? GORGEOUS! Thanks for the awesome post! Mr. Mod I think you're right about Ferris Bueller's Day off!

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  6. I'm booking my reservation to see the Stahl house later this month. SO excited! I'll post my own pics and comments on my blog after I see it.

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  7. @Rhan Vintage: How exciting! I can't wait to see your pics!!!

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  8. I'd have a hard choice if I could only have one. Would it be 8,9, or 16? Probably 16

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    Replies
    1. That definitely would be a hard choice. It would be like asking a kid in a candy store to pick just one thing!

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