Mid2Mod: Raphael Soriano

Showing posts with label Raphael Soriano. Show all posts

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Raphael Soriano

Raphael Soriano (1904-1988) was born on the Greek island of Rhodes. He immigrated to the United States in 1924 and became an American citizen in 1930. He enrolled in the University of Southern California School of Architecture and received his degree in 1934.

In 1931 Soriano interned with Richard Neutra with fellow architect Gregory Ain and had an internship with Rudolf Schindler in 1934. His first commission in his own practice was the Lipetz House in 1936, which was included in the 1937 International Archictctural Exposition in Paris. Other well known designs were the Katz House (1949) and Case Study House 1950 for Arts & Architecture magazine.

In 1953 Soriano moved his practice to Tiburon, California, across the bay from San Francisco. In 1955 he designed the first mass-produced steel house, which was built by Joseph Eichler in Palo Alto. He designed a house for the renowned archictectural photographer Julius Shulman in 1959 and the Grossman House in 1964. He designed 11 "All Aluminum Homes" in Maui in 1965. Many of his 50 building have been destroyed by California wildfires and earthquakes. Only 12 remain, many of which have been remodeled.

From modernsandiego.com