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Buff & Hensman- The Art of Modernism tour in LA Times

Read all about it right HERE.


If you attended the tour, please share a comment.


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Buff & Hensman- The Art of Modernism

Buff & Hensman- The Art of Modernism

The Pasadena Heritage is celebrating the architecture of Conrad Buff and Donald Hensman, on Sunday, March 28th, during their annual Spring Home Tour. This year’s tour, Buff & Hensman- The Art of Modernism will feature privately owned houses of the world acclaimed architecture firm.

More info here.

Download the tour brochure here. 

"The House"

The House

In building the case study house #20, the architects choose to use traditional and innovative material for its construction. Wood was used for framing the house while they choose stressed skin fir plywood panels for continuous light weigh beams. The roof was all plywood except for the hollow core plywood vaults. The panels, vaults and box beams were trucked to the site and handled by forklift hoist, which made rapid erection possible. The vaults covering the central area of the house were positioned and initially secured in less than an hour and a half. No special difficulties were encountered other than assembling the components together. The beams were made of plywood forming a 12-inch hollow box. They span 16 feet and formed a series of 8-foot bays. The bays are roofed with sandwich panels and factory-formed vaults.

The vaults were custom-built for the job to the same 2-inch thickness as the panels, and were pressure-glued and bent into the required forms.

 “We wonder for a while about the validity of detaching the roof and denying the system already established in the rectangle,” Straub said: “But for this particular client we wanted to break down the uniformity and arrive at a new expression.”

Posts, beams and connecting plywood panels were constructed in Berkeley, California, of Douglas fir plywood and bought to Altadena where workers awaited them. Straub recalled there was always the anxiety that they wouldn’t mesh, but when they came they were a perfect fit. The house was one of the first to be prefabricated; not for mass production, but for ease of construction.

Conrad Buff III, Calvin Straub and Donald Hensman, still young faculty member at the University of South California, had become interested in the factory-formed plywood vault while designing a vacation house project for “Look” magazine. Saul Bass found the vault concept stimulating; the architects were invited to experiment.

Although the architects were the first to use the vaults, they consider the space relationships more radical in nature than the factory products. Nevertheless, they had their difficulties in obtaining a permit from the city building department.

“We presented them all sorts of calculations-so did the plywood engineers-but the city wasn’t satisfied until one vault was erected and jumped on,” the architects recalled.

The house differed from others designed by the firm in two respects, according to Straub: “The character of space was very precise, and there were no overhangs. Overhangs were omitted because of the numerous trees on the property and adjoining lots, while the preciseness is a consequence of the engineered house.” The 1/8-inch tolerance was the closest ever used in a wood house.

The house plan was planned and design inward and organized into social living.  It is devised as kitchen, formal in informal dining, children’s wing and adult wing, the latter including but separated from Saul Bass’s studio. All major rooms open directly onto courts and decks.

Obviously, Saul Bass was impressed with the architects work: “It is my business to visualized,” he said, “but the house was full of surprises. The architects must take full credit.”

Of the vault he said: “ They are an important visual aspect, but the beauty of the spaces does not depend upon them. They add the richness of curved space, and the sensuous satisfaction of curved volumes, but what was most pleasing were the vistas from every point. As in the piazza system of European cityscapes, you move around a bend and space are revealed. You wander through space.” Although he collaborated very little on the actual design, he did install the tiles in the pool in the rear yard, and created the white tile mural at the front of the house that softens the starkness of the carport. Unfortunately Saul Bass didn’t live in the house very long. His divorce forced its sale.

One important visual aspect of the house was the giant Italian pine tree. The architects used it as an umbrella. Unfortunately the tree had to be cut down which sadden Calvin Straub very much. On a visit in the late 80’s for a documentary, Straub discovered that only an enormous stump remained (cut clean as of today). It had been a victim of itself, beginning to displace the house and threaten the windows during windstorm. “You could hear its branches hit the glass, and during parties people would literally jump over the sofas when they heard the tree sway,” said a former owner.

 Elizabeth Smith and her crew from MOCA museum (The Museum of Contemporary art, Los Angeles) studied, photographed and filmed the house in the late 80’s. It resulted in an exhibit presented at the MOCA museum from 17, 1989 - Feb. 18, 1990: “Blueprints for Modern Living: History and Legacy of the Case Study Houses.” Calvin Straub and Saul Bass were reunited for the first time in 30 years.

Like many experimental project, saving cost is almost impossible when testing new technologies and method of construction. Many hours was spent on studying the sandwich panels, vault and box beams to make them compatible with architecture. Meeting with city building department was also time consuming. Although foundation and frame was built using traditional techniques and skill construction worker, real craftsmen were used to take over the frame. All this raises the cost of construction considerably. The only way plywood elements could have been proven an economy was for the architects to carry their knowledge into tract housing.

However this was not done.

Sources: Case Study Houses 1945-1962, by Esther McCoy, Hennesey & Ingalls editiors, Altadena Weekly July 27- August 2 1989

(Photos from the internet)

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Altadena

The name Altadena derives from the Spanish alta, meaning "upper", and -dena from Pasadena; the area is adjacent to, but at a higher elevation than, Pasadena.

The indigenous inhabitants of Altadena, and Pasadena, were the Hahamog-na, a Tongva Native American tribe who lived in the Arroyo Seco. Hahamogna, the chief, was met by General Portola of the Mexican Army in 1770 as he was making an exploratory expedition of Alta California. With the establishment of the San Gabriel Mission (1773) and the City of Los Angeles (1781), the south lands of California were properties claimed in the name of the King of Spain.

Altadena is the northernmost portion of Rancho San Pascual as established by the Mexican Government in 1826 after they had claimed independence from Spain. California was annexed in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 and became a state in 1850. The Mexican Ranchos were then open to settlement from other parts of the Country. Rancho San Pascual was settled by the Indiana Colony in 1874 and incorporated as Pasadena, a Chippewa name derived from a translation for "Crown of the Valley", in 1886. The highland areas, such as Altadena, remained undeveloped areas of the Los Angeles County.

In 1880, Capt. Frederick and his brother John Woodbury of Marshalltown, Iowa, purchased 937 acres known as the Woodbury Ranch. John Woodbury established the Pasadena Improvement Company in 1887 with a plot plan of residential development referred to as the Woodbury Subdivision. To attach a name to the community, they contacted Byron O. Clark who had established a nursery in the foothills in 1875 and had since moved away. He called his nursery "Altadena Nursery", a name he coined from the Spanish "alta" meaning "upper" and "dena" from Pasadena. Since Clark had moved away, Woodbury asked if he could use the name Altadena for his subdivision. Clark agreed.

The newly sprouted community of Altadena immediately began to attract millionaires from the East. In 1887 Andrew McNally, the printing magnate from Chicago and his good friend Col. G. G. Greene had built mansions on what was to become Millionaire's Row, Mariposa Street near Santa Rosa. Col. Jabez Banbury, a comrade-in-arms of Frederick Woodbury, built a gorgeous Italianate Victorian house near the west end. Newspaper moguls Armiger Scripp and William Kellogg built side by side just east of Fair Oaks Avenue.

The Southern California land boom busted in 1888, not before the L.A. Terminal Railway was laid through town. But the high ideal of Altadena becoming a real estate dividend all but dwindled for the Woodburys. Still the community grew with wealthy speculators from the East, some seeking fairer weather, some better health, some real estate opportunities, some retirement. The community would grow, but at a slower pace than the Woodburys expected.

Moving into the twentieth century, the vanguard of Altadena pioneers began to change, and with it came more community development, more philanthropy, more services, and more venues. Lafayette S. Porter (from 1887-1932) bought and developed large parcels near the Rubio Wash. The Altadena Country Club (from 1911-1944), now the Altadena Town & Country Club, had an 18-hole golf course that extended to Allen Avenue. There was an airport adjacent to the country club (1919-1921) that was established by Cecil B. DeMille.

For more information about Altadena, please click on the selected sources below.

Source: Altadena Town Council/Altadena history, Wikipedia

The Architects Buff, Smith, Straub & Hensman

This Award-winning firm has been a leader in contemporary residential design in Southern California for over 50 years. Thirty of their projects have received AIA design awards and they were chosen to design the California Governor's Residence. The firm's work embodies a classically elegant and modern aesthetic. The architects have not only shown a fine insight into the needs and desires of their clients, but also the ability to unite house and site into consistently excellent design.

Conrad Buff III, F.A.I.A. (August 5, 1926, Eagle Rock, California - 1989), was a graduate of U.S.C. School of Architecture in 1952. The firm of Buff & Hensman was organized at that time and simultaneously he joined the faculty, where for some ten years he was a member of the design curriculum. He was the son of the noted painter of the American southwest, Conrad Buff II, and both parents collaborated on very successful children's books. She wrote the stories and he illustrated them. Conrad attended local Eagle Rocks high school, and as he was growing up, the house was filled with art, culture and conversation. Family acquaintances included Richard Neutra, Rudolph Schindler and opera singer Lawrence Tibbett. Redesigning the Buff II garage was one of Neutra's first architectural commissions. Conrad served in the Navy in WWII at a base in Maryland, which was where he met his wife Elizabeth (Libby), a skipper's yeoman in the WAVES. After the War, Conrad new he wanted to be an architect and decided to enroll at USC School of Architecture, where he met Donald Hensman, who had also returned from the War. In 1980, he was elevated to the position of Fellow of the American Institute of Architects in recognition of his achievements in architectural design. Mr. Buff passed away in 1989.

Donald C. Hensman, F.A.I.A. (1924, Omaha, Nebraska - 2002), grew up in Hollywood, California. He served in the navy during World War II, as a parachute rigger in the South Pacific, and entered the USC architecture program by way of the GI Bill. It was at USC that Hensman met Conrad Buff. Hensman graduated from U.S.C. School of Architecture in 1952 and joined in the establishment of Buff & Hensman that same year. But prior to their collaboration, Buff, Straub and Hensman were prolific designers of tract homes for a number of regional developers. He returned to teach architecture at his alma mater, USC from 1952 to 1963. He was eventually made assistant professor within USC’s design curriculum and was chairman of the joint USC/American Institute of Architects education committee. After some eleven years he resigned to fully participate in the firm's practice. He was strongly identified with what was termed "the Pasadena School" — a generation of architects, many associated with USC’s School of Architecture, who combined an interest in new technology and experimental solutions with a sensitivity to the Southern California landscape and the history of modernism. In 1982, he became a member of the Fellows of the American Institute of Architects recognizing his significant achievements in the field of design. Mr. Hensman retired from the firm in 1997 but remained active in the Pasadena architectural community until his death. Mr. Hensman passed away December 9, 2002

Dennis G. Smith, A.I.A., was a student at USC's School of Architecture in the late 50's. Buff, Straub and Hensman were three of his design instructors. Like his fellow students, he was influenced by their teachings and their completed projects. Shortly after graduation in 1960, and service in the Army, Smith designed a house for his parents in Pasadena and for his family in Sierra Madre. Both post-and-beam houses were publish in the Los Angeles Times Home Magazine. Smith was offered employment at Buff & Hensman, and has spent nearly forty years with the firm. When work slowed in 1968, he worked for six years for three other firms, including Smith and Williams in South Pasadena. Smith returned to Buff & Hensman in 1974 when they won the competition to design Governor Reagan's residence in Sacramento. He became a partner in the firm in 1988, and president upon Hensman's retirement in 1998. He continues in that capacity at the firm's long-time headquarters in Pasadena.

Calvin C. Straub F.A.I.A.,(1920 – 1998) was born in Macon, Georgia. He studied at Texas A&M University and Pasadena City College before receiving his degree in architecture at the University of Southern California in 1945. After serving in the Navy, Straub lectured at USC from 1946 to 1961. Few architects and educators have had such a pervasive influence on architecture as Calvin C. Straub. He helped create an important body of work as a partner in the Firm Buff Straub and Hensman. He was also a highly respected and much beloved professor of architecture. His work was widely published and considered highly influential in shaping the vision and iconography of the post-world war II contemporary southern California style. It bridged the gap between the influences of the early arts and crafts architects and the early California modernists, creating a uniquely regional architectural form. According to Victor Regnier, former dean of the USC School of Architecture, "Every California architect educated in the 50's and 60's has been influenced by the work of this firm. Their legacy extends from the Case Study House Program to the development of post and beam residential construction. This incredibly rich career was prologue for his "second career" in Arizona. He moved to Scottsdale, AZ in 1961 and joined the faculty at the College of Architecture at Arizona State University. Straub shaped the hearts and minds of two more generations of young architects while creating some of the finest Sonoran region desert architecture and winning over 30 design awards in his career. His desert residences continued and extended the legacy of "design with climate" that he had begun decades ago in southern California and preceded the now popular "green movement" in architecture by some 30 years. Beyond all these accomplishments, many have noted that his most significant contribution may well be his contagious influence on liberal arts students taking his "World architecture "class for humanities credit. Well over 15,000 general university students have been touched by the magic of architecture because of Cal Straub's jovial and animated love affair with his students and art of environmental design. His extensive world travels informed his later work as one of the early proponents of a worldwise architecture. His innovations brought non-western forms and details into the architectural vocabulary. Until 1988 he held a professorship of design at Arizona State University in Tempe, He worked for the firm of A.B. Gallion before entering into a partnership with Conrad Buff and Donald Hensman (1956-61), and was a member of Schoneburger, Straub, Florence & Associates (1972-75). Straub also ran his own practice in Arizona. Apart from his work as an architect and lecturer, he also published Design Process and Communications (1978) and The Man-Made Environment: An Introduction to World Architecture and Design (1983). He retired in 1988 and died in 1998.

The Buff, Smith & Hensman office is on West Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena. The reception area is lined from floor to ceiling with awards bestowed upon the firm. As many awards as there are, however, it does not express the size of the body of work produced by the firm. There are Buff, Smith & Hensman office buildings, medical buildings, and condominiums to be sure, however, the single-family residence is now, and probably always will be, their stock in trade. The count of custom residences numbers well into the hundreds, translating to thousands of privileged residents, over five decades of caring and excellence.
The openness, expression of structure and materials, and the broad expanses of glass distinguish a trademark Buff, Smith & Hensman residence. Also notable is their ordered design. The view of the observer and procession of the visitor are always studied and directed. Sometimes formal and symmetrical, sometimes not so visibly structured, there is always the sense of a place for everything and everything in its place.
They have designed numerous projects in such places as Malibu Beach and Palm Springs and boast a client list with such names as Garner, McQueen, Anka and Sinatra. More recently, the firm is enjoying the emergence of a new generation of clients anxious to acquire and restore their earlier works.


The Partnership
The Buff, Straub, and Hensman firm's first masterwork was Case Study House #20, the Saul Bass House (Altadena, 1958), which was considered innovative for its advanced technology. It was built of factory-produced stressed skin panels and plywood vaults so novel that they confounded city building officials. Despite thorough engineering calculations, the architects were not awarded a building permit until a sample plywood vault had been temporarily erected and loaded with weights. The Bass House integrates indoor/outdoor space to achieve a level of sophistication not seen in other Case Study Houses. Its open plan introduced the concept of zoning: the owner's zone with studio office, garden, master bedroom & bath; a formal zone with living and dining rooms and entry atrium; a family zone with kitchen, family room, dining terrace, two additional bedrooms and swimming pool.

Significant projects
1958 Saul Bass Residence (Case Study House #20), Altadena
1959 Frank Residence, Pasadena
1961 John Thomson Residence
1962 Sidney Fine Residence
1963 Harry Roth Residence, Beverly Hills
Penn/Walter Van der Kamp Residence, Los Angeles
1965 Case Study House #28
1967 McGill Residence, Pasadena


Awards
-Award of Merit - 1959 - Jared Residence, A.I.A., Sunset Competition
-Honor Award - 1959 - Mirman Residence, A.I.A., Pasadena Chapter
-Honor Award - 1960 - Edwards Residence, A.I.A., Life-Time Competition
-First Honor Award - 1960 - Bass Residence, A.I.A., Life-Time Competition
-Award of Merit - 1960 - Mirman Pavilion, A.I.A., Los Angeles Chapter
-Award of Merit - 1960 - Van De Kamp Residence, A.I.A., Los Angeles Chapter
-Award of Excellence - 1961 - Jared Residence, Architectural Record, Record House of 1961
-Honor Award - 1961-62 - Thompson Residence, A.I.A., Sunset Competition
-Honor Award - 1962 - Thompson Residence, A.I.A., Pasadena Chapter
-Award of Merit - 1962 - Fine Residence, A.I.A., Pasadena Chapter
-First Honor Award - 1963 - Simon Residence, A.I.A., Central Arizona Chapter
-Award of Merit - 1964 - "Homes for better living", A.I.A., Life-Time 1964 Competition
-Award of Merit - 1965 - Saltman Residence, A.I.A., Pasadena Chapter
-Award of Merit - 1965 - Simon Residence, A.I.A., Pasadena Chapter
-Award of Merit - 1965-66 - Dubnoff Residence, Western Home Awards
-Award - 1966 - Lawry Foods Office Building, Los Angeles Beautiful Commitee
-Award of Merit - 1968 - Gill Residence, A.I.A., Pasadena Chapter
-Award of Merit - 1971 - "Single Family Residence", A.I.A., Pasadena Chapter
-Citation - 1973-74 - Mirman Residence, A.I.A., Pasadena Chapter
-Award of Honor - 1977 - Mirman Residence, A.I.A., Pasadena Chapter
-Merit Award - 1977 - Lieberferb Residence, A.I.A., Pasadena Chapter
-Merit Award - 1978 - Narver residence, Pasadena Beautiful Foundation
-Award - 1979 - Marmac Residence, Beverly Hills, City beautification Award
-Merit Award - 1980 - Buff Residence, A.I.A., Pasadena Chapter
-Merit Award - 1980 - Hensman Residence, A.I.A., Pasadena Chapter
-Award - 1982 - Vista Grande Condominium, Pasadena Beautiful Award
-Award of Merit - 1983 - Harry Dorsey Residence, A.I.A., Pasadena Chapter
-Award - 1984 - City of Los Angeles Olympic Architectural Award to Donald Hensman by Mayor Tom Bradley
-Master Craftsman - 1987 - Given by the Gamble House and the U.S.C. School of Architecture to "honor excellence in the art and craft of design
-Award - 1989 - Department of Cultural Affairs Certificate of Appreciation to Donald Hensman by President Merry Norris, Cultural Affairs Commision
-Award of Merit - 1990 - Glover Residence, A.I.A., Pasadena Chapter
-Award - 1990 - Arroyo Terrace Condominium, Pasadena Beautiful 1990 Award
-Award of Honor - 1992 - Moseley Residence, A.I.A., Pasadena Chapter
-Award of Merit - 1997 - Shulman Residence, A.I.A., Pasadena Chapter
-Merit Award - 2002 - Lohrer-Deluca/Massar-Birkle Residence, A.I.A., Pasadena Chapter
-Merit Award - 2002 - Moseley Residence #2, A.I.A., Pasadena Chapter
-Award - 2008 - King Residence - City of Pasadena Historic Preservation Award

Sources: Buff, Smith and Hensman architects, Wikipedia

Special thanks to Mr. Dennis Smith, AIA.