THE BAY AREA MODEST MODERNISTS

February 2019

California is the heartland of modernist architecture. Nowhere else in the world quite embraced the uptake of modern design as the west coast of the USA, especially during the post WWII era. Many of these wonderful projects are set in the sun drenched streets of Palm Springs, or perched on the LA Hills, establishing Southern California as the epicenter for highly creative pioneering architecture.

If you drive 400 miles north from Los Angeles, up the beautiful Highway 101 past the Spanish Mission mansions of Santa Barbara and the awe-inspiring coastline of Big Sur, you arrive in San Francisco. SF, as it is more commonly known, is the main urban concentration of Northern California and is situated at the head of the expansive San Francisco Bay - a bay that also houses the cities of Marin, Oakland, San Jose and Palo Alto. As you enter this highly developed Bay Area you pretty quickly realise that it has a vastly different character to Southern California.

As a current SF ‘local’ I have very quickly fallen in love with the city and Northern California. I felt that it was important to undertake a deeper analysis of the humble modernist style that was developed in the Bay Area. The style that developed here was intentionally modest and connected to the local history and vernacular of the region. This contrasts the modernist icons that traipse the Hollywood Hills and it can be argued that the Northern Californian style has had a fundamentally greater impact on the diction of the greater American architectural vernacular. I will compare and contrast the Northern and Southern Californian modernist movements where necessary, but I will save a deeper analysis of modernism in Southern California for a future post.

San Francisco was urbanised as a city largely due to the gold rush of 1849. This wealth formalised itself in the Classical European dwellings of the late 19th century that tourists would more commonly associate with the city. This era of design is best exemplified by the gabled wood clad, pastel painted houses, all in formal rows, trying to ride out the undulating contours of the earthquake prone landscape.

Northern Californian has a close affinity to nature and the way that people inhabit the landscape. With beautiful wilderness in close proximity in all directions from the Bay Area it is difficult not to let the organic roughness of the environment enter into the architectural language. This mindset was initially repressed in favour of the highly decorative Victorian and Italianate mansions that stand as ornaments to the gold rush wealth of the region.

As the gold rush era subsided and the city re-established itself after the 1906 earthquake, Bay Area architects began to search for an architectural style that progressed past European styles. They instead endeavoured to create a unique local aesthetic.

This style architecture was best exemplified by the work of Bernard Maybeck (born 1862). His work was characterised by an often heavily crafted reinterpretation of the shingle style. This era of design in San Francisco was termed the First Bay Area Generation (or Tradition) of architecture, a definition coined by Lewis Mumford for the unique styles that evolved in San Francisco.

Several young architectural protagonists started to evolve during the early 20th century in San Francisco. These architects typically had classical Ecole de Beaux Arts educations and an introduction to architecture either in a European or First Generation Bay Area style. This new era of designers were starting to yearn for a Northern California architectural vernacular that truly shed away European influences. They were discontent with the steady stream of revivals and started to envision a distinct Bay Area architectural typology. These young architects would develop what become known as the Second Bay Area Generation of Architecture.

William Wurster (born 1895) was one of the key protagonists behind the growth of the Bay Area vernacular. Wurster practised across three crucial decades of architectural development, from the Great Depression through to the post WWII architectural boom. Wurster unlike other peers internationally of his time softened the adoption of modernist ideals by amalgamating it with a strong understanding of place – both cultural and physical.

This is best exemplified in his Gregory Farmhouse project. The Farmhouse for Mrs Sadie Gregory in the Santa Cruz Mountains was one of Wurster’s earlier works in the period where he began to dismiss classical styles, or style generally, in favour of a well researched exploration of the local vernacular, climate, aspect and materials to create an indigenous design that was seamlessly suited to its site and occupants.

The project is an archetypal example of Wurster’s sophisticated rusticity. Wurster aimed for his designs to avoid architectural pretence; striving for the built outcomes to give the impression that a “carpenter with good taste” had crafted them. Of course, the more innovative design luminaries tried to refute the work developing in the Bay Area, with the always overly vocal Frank Lloyd Wright describing Redwood Bill (Wurster) as a ‘shanty builder’. Some could view Wurster’s designs as being slow to adopt new techniques. However he, and many of his Bay Area contemporaries, resisted the urge to throw out the history of the area, as the International Style often dictated. Instead they tried to ensure that the developing style was retained and subtly improved. They saw the developing Bay Area style as an antidote to high modernism and actively tried to uphold the beauty and feeling of place that was intrinsic to the Bay Area vernacular.

SFMOMA held an exhibition in 1995 dedicated solely to Wurster’s achievements titled ‘An Everyday Modernism’. The exhibition aimed to raise awareness for the work of Wurster, and the Bay Area Modernists more generally. Their work signifies an important body of architectural development that reacted against the machine age of the International Style, and instead combined the efficient, minimalist designs with a priority on site appropriateness and living. The exhibition looked to raise awareness of how these designs have generally been forgotten from mainstream architectural dialogue in preference for the more extroverted Southern Californian modernist products.

Wurster’s designs were so intrinsically simple, humble and resolved without the need for elaborate budgets that they naturally led themselves to mass reproduction. This occurred both as easily constructible, climate appropriate dwellings for developers, or perfectly site articulated architectural projects for clients looking to avoid ostentatiousness, without giving up a high quality of living. The Second Bay Area Generations work has been so extensively integrated into the mainstream catalogue of US architecture that it could explain their omission from the broader architectural conversation. The LA masterpieces stand in contrast to this as the objects that we strive for - continually being perpetuated by the intrinsic desire for what we don’t have, rather than what we do.

Wurster’s influence extended well beyond his built work as a prolific educator, holding the position of Dean of Architecture at both MIT and UC Berkeley. Wurster was also the key protagonist behind Berkeley’s amalgamation of the Architecture, Landscape Architecture and City and Regional Planning departments into the College of Environmental Design, where he was appointed the inaugural dean in 1959. This bedrock of architectural work both academically and physically inspired the next generation of the Bay Area style that utilised the importance of the work by Wurster and his contemporaries as a starting point to refine what it meant to design in Northern California.

The next generation of Bay Area architects rather than reacting against their predecessors, understood that the developing Bay Area traditions was an exploration of architecture free of fashion and style that sought to create a truly vernacular architecture. An architectural style that focused on pragmatic designs and the occupants. A key exponent of the continued evolution of the Bay Area style was Joseph Esherick (born 1914), who bridged the gap between the Second and Third Bay Area generations.

Esherick was born, raised and educated in Pennsylvania, but was lured West after graduating by the work of Wurster and ended up working for Gardner Dailey, another of the key Second Generation architects. Esherick like many of the Second Generation had a Classical Beaux Arts education under Paul Cret at the University of Philadelphia. Esherick was also very close with his sculptor Uncle Wharton Esherick, who stressed the importance of considering how a farmer would approach the task - a reference to uncomplicated, functional solutions. These two contrasting forces allowed Esherick’s work to encompass the pure classical pursuit of order, combined with the genteel rustic craft of building shelter.

Esherick throughout his career continually focused on residential architecture. His work utilised the materials of the local style developed by the Second Bay Area generation and combined it with a more minimalist form. His works were characterised by simple designs that were easily understandable, with each element working towards a cohesive whole. The outcomes were well crafted and melded together the Northern California vernacular with the evolving minimalist trends of modernism seamlessly.

The work that Esherick, and the Third Generation Bay Area architects, are best known for is the Sea Ranch development. This project is situated north of San Francisco on a rugged section of Northern Californian coastline. The sites often overbearing weather conditions dictated a design solution that prioritised natural conditions over any form of style or architectural fanfare. The highly publicised outcomes achieved by a range of architects, planners, environmentalists and landscape architects was able to realise what the Bay Area generations had been evolving towards. A design outcomes truly nestle into the landscape and function more as a natural extension of the environment than built form. 

The area is currently reliving a popularity renaissance as people once again begin to focus on the importance of rejecting pretence in favour of architectural outcomes that are both site focused and restrained. To the untrained eye this stretch of coastline can be easily dismissed, like the Bay Area modernists generally. However once you begin to understand the evolving traditions that underpin the region it pretty quickly dawns on you the importance of these works in informing future design principles to achieve an architectural vernacular that is timeless and enduring.

These observations of SF are of course my personal views and there are exceptions to these rules in the manner to which the Bay Area adopted modernism. A project that creates a pointed discussion of the differences in modernism is the Weston Havens House, designed by Hamilton Harwell Harris, situated up in the Berkeley Hills. This house is one example in the Bay Area of a house that straddles the line of the heroic modernist style of Southern California, with the humble, site focused manifesto of the Northern California modernists. 

This house sits proudly on the hill above the Berkeley campus and encompasses a simple floor plan that plays dramatically with the sloping site in section. A series of inverted trusses project both the house and its occupants out over the Bay views. The house whilst dynamic in form is unmistakably rooted in place, with expansive shaded terraces and seamless transitions from indoor to outside creating a design that understands and makes the most of its site.

Harris’s poetic interpretation of the Havens House expresses the conceptual joy of the houses section and resulting experience it has on all those who are lucky enough to visit. Such inspirational summaries demonstrate the differences between Harris and the more conservative Bay Area modernists. The likes of Wurster would actively avoid such a flourish, in favour of the more subtle expression. However the success of Harris is in his ability to acknowledge the work of the Bay Area Generations through the creation of a design that is at once humble and theatrical - a combination of both the Northern California sensibility and the Southern California drama.

Harris’s achievement at the Havens House needs to be identified as a potential path forward for California modernism. The work of the Bay Area modernists was intentionally unassuming and well researched in place and setting. This mindset led to a design ethos that was heavily adopted, yet minimally celebrated and internationally forgotten, outside of the Sea Ranch development. Contrary to this, the work of the Southern Californian modernists actively looked to embrace new materials and design mindsets to create an inspiringly unique and defining form of architecture to suit the extroverted culture of the area. Interestingly these designs were minimally adopted and highly celebrated.

Havens House demonstrates the clear potential for success in the areas between these two design mantras. If the 20th century of architecture taught us anything it is that a too narrower focus will generally lead to narrow results. My travels and this blog are actively looking to broaden my experiences in the pursuit of the ability to more astutely combine the aspects and viewpoints of the varying design philosophies. This research has focused on the Bay Area Modernist traditions that utilised the humble Northern Californian vernacular design solutions that have been able to maintain their relevance in the Bay Area, even as the world pushed aside indigenous solutions in favour of new and fresh solutions to a previously well solved set of problems.

The Bay Area modernists whilst little known worldwide provide a valuable foundation of architectural sensibility that approached the adoption of modernism, not through the desire to dismiss past ideas, but instead to harmonise the relationship between the local and global in a site specific manner. It has been a joy to spend the last two years surrounded by the contradictions of the high Classical houses of San Francisco, the Bay Area Modest Modernists and the dramatic Southern Californian Modernism. The three differing worlds allow you to appreciate each in isolation and collectively. I would recommend that everyone who has made it through this whole discussion to visit California and develop a greater understanding for why this State is (was?, another discussion for a future article) one of the most architecturally successful places in the world.

References:

Marc Treib, ‘Appropriate: The Houses of Joseph Esherick’, 2008

Marc Treib, ‘An Everyday Modernism: The Houses of William Wurster’, 1995

Image Sources:

1. Saxon Pope House, Talking Buildings

2. Painted Ladies

3. Bernard Maybeck, Magnet

4. Gregory Farmhouse, USModernist

5. Case Study House #3, The Getty Research Institute, Photographer: Julius Shulman

6. Hedgerow House, SF Curbed

7. Condominium 1, The Architect's Newspaper, Photographer: Morley Baer

8. Weston Havens House, Mutual Art, Photographer: Man Ray