George Fred Keck (1895-1980) was an American architect based in Chicago, Illinois. He was born in Watertown, Wisconsin, and studied at the University of Illinois. He started his own practice in 1926 with partner Vale Faro. After he and Faro parted ways, he was joined in 1946 by his brother William Keck, who acted as office manager.
In 1933 Keck designed the
House of Tomorrow for the Century of Progress exhibition in Chicago. In 1934 he designed another model house dubbed
Crystal House. After viewing these model houses, wealthy clients from Chicago's North Shore started commissioning Keck to design homes for them.
Keck was a pioneer in the design of passive solar houses in the 1930s and 1940s. He realized that the
House of Tomorrow was warm on sunny winter days. He started designing houses with more south-facing windows. In 1940 he designed a home for real estate developer Howard Sloan. The house was called a "solar house" by the Chicago Tribune, which was the first modern use of that term.
Keck was a part-time teacher of architecture at the New Bauhaus School (now IIT Institute of Design) and was head of the department there for five years. Keck was instrumental in bringing Laszlo Moholy-Nagy to Chicago as director of the school. Teachers and lecturers were such notables as
Walter Gropius, Alvar Alto, R. Buckminster Fuller, Henry-Russel Hitchcock, Richard Neutra and Man Ray. In 1942, Keck appointed Ralph Rapson, then his employee, as his successor.
During the 1940s Keck designed pre-fabricated houses, such as Green's Ready-Builts. They were cheap and easy to build and offered high style to people whose budgets wouldn't allow custom homes. While other more famous firms were paying lip service to affordable homes for the masses, the Kecks were actually making it available.
Keck trademarks included a flat roof, passive solar energy, indirect lighting, cedar siding, radiant heat in the floor, post and beam construction, (most often wood, but sometimes steel), modular design and fixed Thermopane windows with separate operable screened vents. These vents are the most important Keck trademark...an easy way to recognize their architecture at a distance.
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These pics make me desire a complete visual tour, inside and out of all these homes! Just wish I could step in and take a look around...
ReplyDeleteMe too! If I lived in the Chicago area, I'd be going to open houses every time one of these beauties went on the market, whether I was interested in buying a home or not.
DeleteAwesome post! I'll have to read more about Keck's prefab homes.
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed it. I'd like to know more about them myself. That may have to be the topic of a future post.
DeleteI love the aesthetic but I couldn't never keep a home that sparse. I can, however, start calling things Futuramic!
ReplyDeleteI have a hard time with minimalism too. I love my stuff!!! I'm with you about that word though. I love it and think we should all start using it.
DeleteWhen I grow up I want to live in the Hohf House!
ReplyDeleteWest Michigan Modern just posted a photo of a Keck home for sale in Spring Lake, MI on their Facebook page. The address of the home is 19239 North Shore, Spring Lake, MI - you can google the address for the listing.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting home...a little more severe than some of this other designs, but it could be a beautiful place to live.
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