Orange County

Modern
A brief look at modern architecture and development in Orange County, California from the 1920s through the 1970s. Eli Pousson, January 2012

Sources Orange County Modern draws on a wide range of sources and images compiled by dedicated fans of modern architecture in Southern California. Ive highlighted a few of the most useful sources below. The Living New Deal - livingnewdeal.berkeley.edu Modern San Diego - modernsandiego.com O.C. History Roundup - ochistorical.blogspot.com About Orange County Modern While on vacation in late December, I researched the history of modern architecture in Orange County with the goal of compiling an inventory of local modern landmarks. I produced this pamphlet in early January 2012 for a project known as Fun-A-Day Baltmore. I laid out two pages each day then made no further changes to those pages other than to re-order them within the collection. Cover & Santa Ana, January 1 Anaheim, January 2 Newport Beach, January 3 Irvine, January 4 Orange, Fullerton, & Back Cover, January 5 Eli Pousson @elipousson historicsprawl.wordpress.com/ocmodern

Santa Ana
Central Justice Center - 1969 700 West Civic Center Drive Richard Neutra, Ramberg & Lowrey

Founded in 1869, Santa Ana is the county seat with modern civic and commerical buildings from the 1935 Art Deco Old Santa Ana City Hall through the Central Justice Center designed by Richard Neutra together with local architects Ramberg & Lowrey.

Richard

Neutra

OC Archives

Wikipedia

Born 1892 in Vienna, Austria, Richard Neutra came to Los Angeles in 1925 to work with architect Rudolf Schindler at the Kings Road House (1922) in Hollywood. His work in southern California from the 1920s through his death in 1970 helped define a geometric West Coast take on mid-century modern design including his Orange County projects - the Garden Grove Community Church (1961), the Mariners Medical Arts Building (1963) in Newport Beach, and the Huntington Beach Central Library (1975).
Old Santa Ana City Hall - 1935 217 North Main Street (at 3rd) W. Horace Austin, Architect

OC Archives

Living New Deal

Orange County Public Law Library - 1971 515 North Flower Street Allen & Miller Architects

More Santa Ana Modern Masonic Temple (1931, W. Horace Austin) - 501-505 North Sycamore Street Former Home Savings & Loan - Santa Ana Bank Branch - 3600 South Bristol Street North Broadway Law Building (Ramberg & Lowrey) - 2009 North Broadway

In the 1950s and 1960s, Anaheim builders and entrepeneurs made Beach Boulevard and Katella Avenue into a showpiece of eclectic Googie or Coffeeshop Modern architecture with scores of hotels and restaurants within a few minutes of Disneyland (1955). As Anaheim has grown to become the largest city in Orange County, many modern landmarks have been lost or altered.

Anaheim
Monsanto House of the Future Disneyland, 1957-1967 Built by MIT
Stovalls Space Age Lodge (1965) at 1110 W. Katella Avenue, now known as the Best Western Stovalls Inn, is the one survivor of a chain of modern hotels built by Al Stovall, including the Inn of Tomorrow, the Galaxy, and the Cosmic Inn all three now demolished.

More Anaheim Googie!

Anaheim Convention Center - 800 W. Katella Avenue Covered Wagon BBQ & Saloon (Formerly Van de Kamps) - 2191 S. Harbor Blvd. La Palma Chicken Pie Shop - 928 N. Euclid Street Lyndys Motel - 926 S. Beach Blvd. Miss Donuts Bakery - 616 W. La Palma Avenue Parkside Inn (Formerly Eden Roc Motel) - 1830 S. West Street Satellite Mobile Home Park (Entrance)- 1844 Haster Street
synthetrix.com

Aerial view of Disneyland, 1956

Image courtesy the USC Regional Historical Photo Collection

Newport Beach

Lovell Beach House (1926) 1242 West Ocean Front

Schindler

Rudolph

LOC: HABS/HAER

Wikipedia

Completed in 1926, the Lovell Beach House on Balboa Island in Newport Beach is one of the most significant works by pioneering Southern California modernist architect Rudolf Schindler. His use of concrete, used previously on his own Kings Road House (1922) which is often considered the first modernist house in the US, predicted the later Brutalist style of unsurfaced concrete. Born in Vienna in 1887, Schindlers career paralleled Richard Neutra, as they both worked with Frank Lloyd Wirght and even lived together for years, but Schindlers early work went largely unnoticed by most architects and critics.

J. Herbert Brownell Office (1954) 1950 West Coast Highway

Modern San Diego

As an elegant destination for tourists and a home for celebrities from the 1920s through the present, Newport Beach has attracted a tremendous range of modern landmarks with the J. Herbert Brownell Office in 1954, the former Stuft Shirt Restaurant by Thornton Ladd and John Kelsey in 1961 at 2241 West Coast Highway, and Neutras 1963 Mariners Medical Arts Center. Fashion Island and Newport Center Drive offer a view of Orange Countys later modern design with the Irvine Company headquarters (1972 ) and the Pacific Life Building (1972) by William L. Pereira & Associates, the the Newport Medical Plaza (1969-1971) by Welton Becket and Associates, and a 18-story high rise (1972) by Skidmore, Owings and Merril.

Mariners Medical Arts Center (1963) 1901 Westcliff Drive

Flickr/ Trader Cris

Orange

From 1950 to 1974, Joseph Eichler built a national reputation as the developer of some of the nations most unique midcentury modern tract housing, brining modernist design to the public.

CIty of Orange

A. Quincy Jones and Frederick Emmons

Joe Eichler

Eichler Network

Eichler Network

Eichler built three tracts in the City of Orange, in addition to Granada Hills in Los Angeles and Thousand Oaks in Ventura County. For the three tracts in Orange-- Fairhaven, Fairhills, and Fairmeadows--EIchler worked with Los Angeles-based architects A. Quncy Jones & Frederick Emmons. Jones and Eichler first began their partnership in 1950 after both were featured in Architectural Forum, awarding a Palo Alto development by Eichler Subdivision of the Year and a home designed by Jones Builders House of the Year. Eichler tracts in Orange and a proximate intersection. Fairhaven (1960) Briardale and Cambridge Fairmeadows (1962) Oakwood and Woodland Fairhills (1963) Linda Vista and Elsinor

Fullerton
In 1954, Joseph Eichler, along with Jones & Emmons, appeared on the House that Home Built segment of the NBC Home television show and offered to provide house plans (previously designed for Eichler) to any developer that could come up with $200. Local builder Pardee-Phillips sought out the plans and built over 250 homes across three tracts from 1953 and 1956--known now as Fullerton Grove. Fullerton Grove (1953-1956) A. Quincy Jones and Frederick Emmons architects Pardee-Phillips builder

More Fullerton Modern

Photo by Julius Shulman, courtesy Fullerton Heritage

Arcadia Metal Products Headquarters (1955), 801 S. Acacia Avenue Frederick E. Emmons & A. Quincy Jones Fullerton City Hall (1963), 237 W. Commonwealth Ave Smith, Powell & Morgridge Fullerton - Hunt Branch Library (1960), , 201 S. Basque Avenue William Periera CSU Fullerton - Pollak Library South (1966), 800 N State College Boulevard Howard van Heuklyn

Irvine

Therefore it is not a question of whether we are to build or not build, for build we must, it is our character.
William L. Pereira
William L. Pereiras prolific design legacy has shaped the modern landscape of Orange County more than any other single architect. In the 1960s and 1970s, Pereiras firm completed over 250 projects including the master plan for the development of the 93,000 acre City of Irvine an effort that laneded Pereira on the cover of Time Magazine in 1963. The modernist aesthetic of his design for the UC Irvine Campus appeared in the 1972 Conquest of the Planet of the Apes with the campus standing in for Ape City. Pereira often used pyrimidal forms in his buildings including his most famous the Transamerica Pyramid (1972) in San Francisco and the Chet Holfield Federal Building (1971) in Laguna Hills. More from William L. Pereira and Associates
Howard Johnson Plaza Hotel at Disneyland (1965) Hunt Branch Library (1962), Fullerton Laguna Playhouse (1964), Laguna Beach Union Bank of California (1965), Orange

Orange County was one of the fastest growing counties in the nation during the mid 20th-century with a population that tripled from 216,000 to 703,000 in the 1950s, doubling again to 1.4 million during the 1960s. Planning for the City of Irvine and the University began in 1959, when the Irvine Company donated 1,000 acres to the University of California who then commissioned architect William Pereira was to design the campus and create a master plan for the city of Irvine. In 1960, the Irvine Company hired Bay Area architect Ray Watson as the citys first planner charged together with Pereira with guiding the development of the Master Plan for a community later promoted as the place where urban sprawl ends organized, convenient, clean and modern.

Village of Woodbridge, 1972 Photo courtesy The Irvine Company

Chet Holifield Federal Building (1971) 24000 Avila Road, Laguna Niguel

LOC: HABS/HAER

This pamphlet is best used as an inspiration to go take a closer look at Southern Californias unique modern architecture from Art Deco to Brutalism and everything in between. Look inside for Richard Neutra in Santa Ana Googie in Anaheim Rudolf Schindler in Newport Beach Joseph Eichler in Orange & Fullerton William L. Periera in Irvine

Cover image courtesy the Orange County Archives.