Spring Martini Modern - Bob Gould Residence - Now on March 21, 2010

Our Winter Martini Modern has officially become a Spring Martini Modern. As most of you know, we had to postpone our tour of Architect, Bob Gould's home due to the wintry weather back in February. Well, the rescheduled event is quickly approaching and it has become a party to celebrate the first full day of Spring. So join us on March 21, 2010, 4:00-6:00 PM.

Celebrate the end of Winter, the beginning of Spring and the Equinox with Modern Friends and tour this amazing Mission Hills home designed and owned by prominent, local architect Bob Gould. The clean lines, spectacular arched and vaulted ceilings will delight you. This 1950's home has been transformed!

If you registered for the cancelled Winter Martini Modern, you do not have to register again. We have reserved your registration for this event.

A portion of the proceeds from this event will be donated to the Historic Kansas City Foundation.

Register Now!

Elpidio Rocha- Environmental Designer/ Urban Planner

Elpidio Rocha, an architectural theorist designer, educator and a pioneer in the development of of interdisciplinary art/design process. That's a mouthful, that's what they say on ADOBE L.A. regarding his teaching and design background. I can say this, Elpidio is passionate about the influence of Chicano art, design and architecture. I spoke with him last year and he had fond memories of his work here in Kansas City. In the late 1960's and early 1970's, he worked for various departments in Kansas City and Jackson County government, designing parks and recreational facilities, he would say "social" facilities.
The above and below photo are from the AIA Guidebook for Kansas City Architecture. They show a boathouse shelter at Lake Jacomo...with a stone foundation elevating a viewing platform, and a cool shade canopy...the support struts are reminiscient of Bruce Goff and Albert Yanda. I've been wanting to, but haven't been to photograph this and see if it is still there.

The current photos below show Rocha's design for a park sheltor that was asthetically pleasing, functional and could be built for a consistant/uniform cost. I think this is a great design for a sheltor...clean "view" line, thin roof line, stone structural support with cooking area integrated and large (at least 20X20). Designed and built at a time when "thin-shell" construction was in the vogue. (see Manuel Morris) It was apparantly successful as a sheltor design, you can see these structures in many KC and Jackson County parks...these photos were taken at the Water Tower Park located at 75th and Holmes in KCMO.

For a look at Elpidio Rocha's and Dale Eldred's award winning 1962 "Imaginery"park design for 27th and Madison, KCMO go to http://www.westsidecan.org/

Elpidio Rocha-Environmental Designer/Urban Planner- The Center City Urban Renewal Project in Kansas City, Kansas

This was the 1960s' urban renewal project that altered the way urban planners/designers and cities looked at change in their urban core. This wintertime birds-eye view of reflective columns set in a water feature shows the concept in downtown Kansas City, Ks on Minnesota Ave. The columns were the work of Dale Eldred, noted artist and educator, who enjoyed working with light and monumental objects...the layout is all Elpidio Rocha. This was a controversial project...the store owners were extremely concerned with losing parking in front of the shops and stores. The concept was almost like trying to change and beautify a main street in a western town where it's always been done like that...tie your horses up on the rail outside the store.
Can you imagine selling this idea to the decision makers... It was an extensive project that bottlenecked and slowed automobile traffic and welcomed pedestrians with water courses, seating areas and places of repose in a main street environment.

In 2003, our friend Dr. Jacob A. Wagner, Professor in the UMKC-Architecture and Urban Planning Department (who worked with Rocha and who provided these photos) wrote, "The Politics of Urban Design: In contrast to other urban renewal projects that erased the presence of minority and workingclass residents, the design of the Center City Plaza in downtown Kansas City, Kansas was an attempt to provide a democratic space for a diverse citizenry. Initiated by local officials, the project was intended to alter the "image" of the downtown. Environmental planner Elpidio Rocha was hired to design a pedestrian mall that included abstract sculptural forms. In the context of deindustrialization and suburbanization, however, urban renewal did not halt downtown decline and local political interests dismantled the pedestrian mall, setting the stage for a new round of redevelopment."

Harzfeld's- A Brief History by Joe and Michele Boekholt

Our KC Modern friends Joe and Michele, have written a book detailing the story of Harzfeld's Department Stores. Today, February 25 at 6:00 will be a Reception and at 6:30 a presentation on the history of the beloved Harzfeld stores...In 1891, Siegmund Harzfeld and the Parisian Cloak Company introduced fashion to Kansas City residents by opening Harzfeld's specialty store. Joe and Michelle detail this story through photographs and memorabilia, personal narratives and interviews, and historical knowledge in their book "Harzfeld's: A Brief History. The Boeckholts are graphic designers in Kansas City. They can be found enjoying local history, popular culture and visual arts or exploring antique shops, flea markets and other collectible outlets.
The event is at the National Archives at Kansas City, 400 Pershing Road, Kansas City, MO.
RSVP at kansascity.educate@nara.gov or 816-268-8010.

Winter Martini Modern- POSTPONED

Due to the inclement weather and the difficulties it will create for parking and access to the wonderful Willow Lake home, we have postponed the event until Sunday, March 21. We are looking forward to sharing this great gem of a house and hope you can schedule to attend...

Winter Martini Modern - Bob Gould Residence

Well we are little late getting this posted up on the blog. Our blogging staff has been overloaded with distractions like real work lately. Please join us if you can. This home is a sleeper. It has a traditional Mission Hills front with a surprise Modern interior and back facade.

JOIN your KCMODERN Friends and tour this amazing Mission Hills home designed and owned by prominent, local architect Bob Gould. The clean lines, spectacular arched and vaulted ceilings, a curved wall separating the dining and kitchen area, and the "Cube" in the family room set the tone of amazement throughout this 1950's home.

RSVP HERE

Manuel Morris- Architect - King Louie West

The other day I drove by the old King Louie West, now called the AMF West Lanes, and saw that it was for sale...it reminded me of when I met the architect, Manny Morris. He was considering selling his home in Prairie Village, Ks. and a later meeting when we sat down to discuss his work...interesting man that did some cool work in Kansas City, but in his later years very cold to your interest in it. He lent me these architectural aerial renderings to copy.
King Louie was built in two phases; the original building was designed by Manuel Morris and Associates in 1948. There was a lot of green space in the area at the time! Overland Park didn't become a city until 1961. The 32 lane bowling alley was a rectangular white masonry building with a hovering red "thin-shell" canopy facing east. The block structure is still visible at the rear of the building. The original sign remains in this place today.



Thin shell canopies were a hallmark of the architect's early work. My friend(fellow blogger) and architect, Robert from MCLAUGHLINDESIGN said, "The tilted arch canopy formed an entry scoop towards the parking lot facing Metcalf Avenue and was the only thing that articulated this low windowless box. This was a unique biomorphic touch, which gave a nod to parabolic structures that were popular at that time." A modern sculpture and entry fountain further marked the entry area, but these features were obscured by the later ice skating rink addition.

In the mid-sixties, the owners, the Lerner brothers, contacted the original architect, Morris and his associate, Robert E. Sixta, to design an addition, with a billiards room, locker room and an ice skating rink.

Morris said regarding the addition, "we tried to stay away from the commercial building look, and tried to find warmth and a casual feel for a fun-time place." As you can see from the rendering below the entry has been moved to the south of the building and ample parking has been added, it appears that the current parking lot is larger than the footprint of the building, a testament to the days before home video games...we all went to King Louie!
The distinctive folded plate roof was designed to "hide the mass of what was under it," Morris added. You can see this same approach in the architect's work on the Jewish Community Center, at 94th and Wornall, KCMO. By sinking the large ice skating rink below grade, the architect was further able to disguise the mass of the addition relative to the low original building...you might recall, when it was built, the roof on the ice rink was covered with volcanic stone aggregate. The interior of the newer ice rink is highlighted by a dramatic free spanning wood strucure that frames the buildings folded roof. This structure prompted the rinks nickname "The Ice Chalet"...the skating rink floor, etc. was removed a few years ago.
This buiding is a rare remaining example of Googie architecture in Johnson County, Kansas. When asked about the style of the building the architect added, "there was definately a Frank Lloyd Wright influence in shapes, materials and the metal and stone spire at the entrance." The informed observer can see the influences of Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West and the spire of Wright's Marin County Civic Center. The building in it's present form was completed in 1965. Let's hope it has a great future and survives the proposed "remaking" of the Metcalf corridor!

More Casa Ricardo by Architect, Louis S. Curtiss

Some people may say I am obsessed, but I cannot get enough of the Casa Ricardo Hotel in Kingsville Texas by Kansas City Architect, Louis S. Curtiss. I dug a little deeper online and found some very old photos of the building.
View from the top of a train looking back at the Casa Ricardo entry gates and the courtyard of the hotel.

View from the Casa Ricardo Hotel balcony back towards the in-hotel, Harvey House Restaurant. You have to love the quintessential Louis Curtiss detailing of the ironwork in this photo.


View from the Casa Ricardo back to the hotel entry gate and the waiting train with the Kings Inn Theatre in the distance. The hipped roof train station, built in 1904 by the Saint Louis, Brownsville & Mexico Railroad is visible to the right just beyond the train. This is the present location of the Louis S. Curtiss Mystery Urns.

Casa Ricardo Hotel with soldiers circa World War I.

Casa Ricardo Hotel in the 1910's or 1920's judging from the Model T Ford.

Casa Ricardo Hotel by Architect, Louis S. Curtiss in Kingsville, Texas

I was able to find a few additional postcard images of various vintages of the Casa Ricardo Hotel by Louis S. Curtiss on the internet. I also found this online mention by KCMODERN friend, Cydney E. Millstein of the Hotel in this application to the United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service, applying for the National Register of Historic Places.

In 1911-1912, Curtiss undertook a number of projects for the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railroad in the new town of Kingsville, Texas. One of these was for a tourist hotel called the Casa Ricardo, to be operated under Fred Harvey management. An L-shaped structure with broad eaves and continuous balconies along the interior of the L, the design was one of Curtiss' finest and set the pattern for the Bernard Corrigan residence on Ward Parkway in Kansas City, built the following year.

Cydney E. Millstein. "The Norman Tromanhauser House," National Register of Historic Places Nomination. August 18, 2000.

I think Cydney is right on target with the parallels between the 1912, Casa Ricardo and the 1913, Corrigan Mansion. I also see some resemblance of the Casa Ricardo end elevations to the work of the Greene brothers of Pasadena and their 1909, Gamble Residence.


This image appears to be from the early 1930's judging from the Model A Fords in the parking lot.


Judging from the cars this one is from the 1940's.

Louis S. Curtiss Mystery Planters at Casa Ricardo Hotel - Kingsville, Texas

Armed with some new search words I began Googling for some images of Casa Ricardo in Kingsville, Texas by Architect, Louis Curtiss. After filtering my results to remove Ricardo Montalban and Ricki Ricardo, I was able to find another Kingsville postcard. This postcard depicted Casa Ricardo fully landscaped in subtropical slendor and embellished with some beautiful planters near the entrance gate. I had finally found the source of the Louis Curtiss Mystery Urns. I bet that they were even more beautiful in person and in there original setting!

More on Louis S. Curtiss in Kingsville, Texas

So... Upon returning from our stay on South Padre Island, Texas, I wanted to look in my book, Stalking Louis Curtiss by Wilda Sandy and Larry K Hanks. I had to see if the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railroad General Offices in Kingsville, Texas were included in the locally published monograph. Turns out that the St.L.B.&M General Offices project was a Louis Curtiss design and it was not some long lost or forgotten project. There it was on page 59 and it was a black and white image cropped from the exact same photograph that was used in the post card, minus the color tinting. By the way, the building was built in 1911 and if you blow the photo up large enough you can make out FRISCO on the front of the building. Frisco was the railroad that purchased the St.L.B.&M. line.

But the biggest surprise was on page 58, which depicted another Curtiss project in Kingsville, a rendering of a hotel for Fred Harvey of Harvey House fame, called Casa Gertrudis and a construction photograph of the same project renamed, Casa Ricardo.
I was disappointed to read that both the Hotel and the railroad offices were demolished sometime around 1970.

Still, there were no Louis Curtiss mystery urns visible in either image.

More to come....

Cliff May-Architect...She Said...Part One

Mrs. C, an elderly friend living near 66th Terrace and Nall, Prairie Village KS kept saying her and her husband, Bob, had built a "Cliff May" house. It has redwood siding, heavy cedar shake roof and nice bones with lots of southside windows and a beautiful backyard. Though I am quite familiar with May's work, she convinced me enough to think they had a "Sunset" magazine house design. She showed me pictures in vintage magazines with Cabot's Ranch House Stains featuring May houses. I became very curious annd delved in deeper. As it turned out and after many attempts to see her house plans, I discovered the house was designed in 1954 by Linscott and Haylett, built by Wm. V. Powell Construction, who Mrs. C quoted as saying, "you don't want to live in a barn", and with that talked them out of vaulted ceilings. The house plans couldn't be found but a preliminary plan was found showing the house reversed with a front entry instead of a side entry garage. This is a great mid-century ranch, with private and public areas seperated nicely, both giving onto the wonderful rear terrace designed by Hare and Hare in 1959. The Hare and Hare landscape design firm did an extensive design for the terrace, pergola room and landscaping. I'll feature that in a future post...

Design Week is Here

The Kansas City Design Alliance has planned design related events every day this week so check the schedule here:

http://www.kcdesignweek.org/

Carl Stenstrom-Architect His Opus-Part Two

The following studies depicts Carl's efforts to reconcile size and shape along with exterior walls, balconies and windows. Interesting to see "Wrightian" design elements such as planters, water features and spires. In the early 1950's, Carl applied for the apprentice program at Taliesin. Upon hearing that Carl had two young chidren, Frank Lloyd Wright told him they didn't have accommodations at the time...disappointed, Carl soon was in Bartlesville, OK working on the Price Tower. I believe that is where he developed his love affair with concrete...though the geometry of this building is different from the Price Tower, there are similar characteristics.

The image below is a revision for an enclosed top floor. I don't know why but this sketch reminds me of drawings by Mendolsohn... These two sketches (above and below)are interesting...a shorter building design and below, it featured open balconies...are those spotlights shining into the sky? It appears there are semi-circular fence elements on the surrounding stone wall... perhaps to tie in with the balcony railing and the top of the roof deck enclosure that looks a lot like the skylight in Wright's Guggenheim?

The sketch above is an early perspective with "clunky" elevator towers that look awkward compared to the more refined later perspectives...Carl would often sketch at the top of the paper and have a lot of white space before you see the name of the project at the bottom, almost in the same way as Wright used the Japanese woodblock techniques in many of his earlier perspectives. Note the "inverted-L house" is omitted from the drawing.Once the final design concept was in place Carl built this model to help the client visualize the building...With an enormous number of drawings and effort expended, the client started to lose money on other investments, the early 1980's were an economic mess. Concurrently, he started losing interest in the building, which would have been complicated and expensive to build...he stopped paying Carl and during litigation the client committed suicide...


Below- This "Typical" floor plan is easier to read than the previous ones...

The reason I call this Carl's "Opus" is for the next fifteen years he met with developers in many cities and the Lake of the Ozarks as well as Branson, in an effort to get it built...Unfortunately, it never was. Below- The "Solar Deck"...

Below- Great photo of the model taken while at the lake.

Below- This angle shows the entrance on the north of the building and the car court with drive to underground parking.

Stay tuned...I'll post some other interesting work by Carl Stenstrom

Carl Stenstrom-Architect- His Opus - Part One

It's been almost two years since my friend and architect, Carl passed away. I have had the pleasant/painful task of organizing his many drawings from a career that spanned over 40 years. Carl had to pay the bills, with hundreds of drawings for projects like U-Haul Stores nationwide to his "Wrightian" leanings such as the distinctive roof lines of his Gates BBQ designs. In his work you can see where his heart was...the more challenging the site, the more adventuresome the client, the opportunity for a more "organic" design...amplified his efforts. I call this his "Opus"...originally conceived in the late 1970's and after meeting an enthusiastic investor, John Lucas, Carl threw himself into creating a unique, eye-catching architecture for a dominant site west of the downtown skyline at 17th and Jefferson in KCMO. If you look closely at the renderings above, you will see in the background the concrete "inverted-L" house that was recently demolished...note the large stone wall that still remains at the site where a large modern house was constructed a few years ago...can't miss it when on Hwy I-35.
Carl worked and reworked his design, revising and manipulating space in the confines of a circular structure...the roof and balconies were challenging for him to resolve to his satisfaction, all the while dealing with and encouraging a temperamental client to "stay the course".

The single unit plan below would have offered a lavish lifestyle with great city views.

Below- A revision of the double-unit plan(2 dwelling spaces on one floor)

Below...By February, 1982 the project was now called "Monticello West"...the owner of the tower would have the top floor, capped by a "Solar Deck" on the roof.

Part Two will feature more drawings of the exterior, a detailed model and the reason this building didn't get built...Stay Tuned.