63 Things about me: #59

Note: I changed to counting down to counting up.

From original post: I will be turning 63 late next month. Sixty three! It is not an auspicious number. No big round number, no massive event. Just a birthday - hopefully the first in 3 years that isn't Covid screwed.

But, here's the thing, I am feeling pretty good right now (mentally). And I am looking forward to the next phase of my life. Having said that, it is time to look back fondly on what gifts I have been given. And, by gifts, I usually mean the pleasure of experiences with friends and loved ones.

Today I actually can give a great experience to Greg, my first and most annoying long term boyfriend.

But first if I may wax nostalgic about Greg. It was a very early and very rough relationship. He was wracked with Catholic Guilt (about every kind of catholic guilt you can have!). We stayed together 8 years, because I was determined not to be my father - and 7 1/2 years was his record for being married. Once I passed htat, I realized I was with greg for all the wrong reasons.

BUT I did take away a love of Architecture from him. Which is great because I put him through Architecture School and he decided not to be an architect on his first day at a fantastic farm where he could design from day 1. Scooter was not happy.

Anywho:

#59 Love of Architecture: 

Considering that I am from LA, the first thing I fell in love with was old LA Moderne. And one very modern LA architect.

The first one here is the famous Case Study House - the Stahl Residence. The Case Study homes were a project that originally dealt with the building of modern houses, with modern materials that would translate to wide scale and low costs residences. 

Spoiler, they ended being very not low cost :-).

Above is the most famous of the case study homes. It sits high up off Sunset on Bluebird Lane. Ed and I looked at one that was beautiful and obviously out of our price range up there. But it was stunning.

Below is a Richard Neutra house. He study in Austria (his native country), Switzerland, with Frank Lloyd Wright for a bit, and then came out to LA to work with Rudolf Schindler. He built houses all over the southland.  They are nearly all in that low sweeping style. This is a great example.

Funny side note: Ed and I almost purchased a Neutra. In fact, it was the one below. Ed backed out of any hope of a deal when he asked how the home did in the earthquakes. Rose told him that it had made it through all 3 bigs ones in the Valley since the 1940s. "But," said said - and this is was freaked out Ed, "all the windows in the house did break during the Sylmar Quake."

His fear of heights, and that comment ended that purchase.

Finally, Frank Gehry. Now in 1981, Frank Gehry was still a struggling architect that used his own home to test out ideas that blew out space and norms. You can see his beginning with shapes and forms in a more traditional forms in his personal home below. He used his home because no one would support his early styles.

Overtime his forms became the styles we are familiar with, but you have to remember how crazy it first seemed with the museum in Bilbao, Spain.

There are more architects I love. And more beauty in the smart contrast or blending in with their surroundings. The Getty Museum in the Mulholland Pass is one of the best.