artsmarttalk.com
Share ArtSmart
  • Home
  • ArtSmartTravel
    • ParisArts&Pleasures >
      • Details: Costs and Activities
    • ParisCathedralsTour >
      • Details: Costs and Activities
    • BurgundyWinesTreasures
    • SpainAndalusiaTour
    • What to expect from an AST tour
    • Travel Art Talks >
      • Paris: Art and History
      • Art and Spirit: The Cathedrals of Europe
      • The Loire: Wine and Chateaux
      • Burgundy: Wine, History, Elegance
      • Bordeaux: Wine, City, Villages
  • MacGregorArt
  • Blog/Contact/About
    • About Marilyn MacGregor
    • Contact Me

3 Visions of Heaven - Southern California Design

8/13/2012

7 Comments

 
Picture
Barton Myers Toro Canyon House - Kitchen area
Climate and architecture have a great deal to do with each other. If you have snow and long cold winters you pitch your roof at a steep angle and make insulation and heating systems a primary concern. But in Southern California’s idyllic climate you can cross those factors off your list, so what do you do? I’ve seen three answers in the past week, each very different from the others, but all indicating a response to a climate that is the envy of most of the world. None of these three are Mid-Century Modern, the distinctive, forward-looking 20th c. style so associated with Palm Springs, but all are rooted in the history and tradition of Southern California, including the history and tradition of innovation.

Picture
Getty Villa Malibu
In the case of the Getty Villa in Malibu (where I spent a very pleasant afternoon yesterday) innovation takes the form of imitation, one man’s dream of paradise reclaimed from the past.  Spurred by his love of Classical antiquity, with a collection and idea facilitated by great wealth, J. Paul Getty built his ‘folly’ on a cliff overlooking the Pacific around the same time Richard Neutra and others were forging ahead with Mid-Century Modern in Palm Springs.

Picture
Getty Villa Malibu
The Villa first opened to the public in 1974, then reopened in 2006 after a major renovation. It’s an important center for study and education - it’s also a great example of how climate shapes architecture. The climate that shaped the Getty Villa was, of course, that of Ancient Rome, particularly the port cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum, but the combination of sea and season - or lack of seasons - was virtually identical to Southern California. A stroll through the garden is an exercise in the familiar–- the flowering plants that fill California gardens and overflow median strips on the freeways, the eternal bright blue sky reflected in the center pool, the seamless flow between inside and outside that only happens where gloomy skies are a rare and short-lived.

Picture
Barton Myers Toro Canyon Steel House
As different as can be from the Getty Villa, the most striking marriage of climate and design that I experienced this week (or ever) is in Santa Barbara, about 100 miles up the coast from the Getty. My husband and I were lucky to have the opportunity to spend a night with visionary architect Barton Myers and his wife Vicki in their revolutionary, climate-dictated house in Toro Canyon, high above the Pacific. To reach it we climbed up a dusty winding road past groves of eucalyptus, manzanita and citrus, gratefully leaving behind a Friday traffic-choked Rt. 101, to emerge into another world, accented by a shimmering silver construction wide open to soft breezes and broad vistas of sea, sky and mountain.

Picture
Barton Myers Toro Canyon House - Patio to Water Roof
Barton is a leading proponent of steel construction; his book 3 Steel Houses is a convincing testament to the beauty and functionality of the construction. I particularly liked his statement soon after we arrived: “This house is made of old Buicks and Chevrolets” – end of worries about using up finite resources.  Living there for a day and a half was a taste of heaven - we gorged on blood oranges from their trees, drank wine from their grapes - and most amazing of all, swam in their roof. That’s right – swam in the roof! The roofs on Barton Myer’s Toro Canyon Residence are water roofs, which insulate and provide all-important fire protection - most of the roof is a shallow layer but - why not? - one end is a lap pool with a 50-mile view!

Picture
Barton Myers Toro Canyon - Living Room
Picture
Barton Myers Toro Canyon House
Picture
Barton Myers Toro Canyon House (with Jack the Cat)
What Southern California lacks in climate challenges it makes up for in fire danger, especially in the ubiquitous narrow canyons where the Santa Ana winds sweep over the mountains fanning dry hot air into a dry brush-filled landscape. Barton’s steel house is a paragon of fire readiness; not only the water roofs on the residence, his studio above the house, and a smaller guest house below, but features such as extra steel doors that pull down over the glass garage door facades, and a ring of water-laden cacti that extends fire protection into the surrounding land. As in the Roman villa design, with Barton’s steel house outside and inside flow back and forth easily and naturally, one barely distinct from the other - until it matters.

Picture
Santa Barbara Courthouse 1927
Finally, also in Santa Barbara, the great Courthouse makes yet another statement about climate and design. After a terrible earthquake in 1925, Santa Barbara decreed that building needed to be rebuilt in the old Spanish style - the courthouse dates from 1927 but has the timeless look and feel of old California Missions which were sited on the flats without access to mountain air. Thick whitewashed walls, loggias, a tower high enough to collect the breezes - with a 360 degree view - it’s a beautiful, gracious place that stays cool even on the hottest days.

Picture
Santa Barbara Courthouse
Decorations explode inside the building - colorful tiles of endless variety climbing the stairs and gracing the hallways, elaborate painted ceilings topping the stairwells, wrought iron banisters and railings that warm the hands but stay cool in the ever-present shade.  The tiles were produced in Glendale at a time when Southern California was noted for arts and crafts ceramic production - one tile sequence tells the story of Saint Barbara who was, fittingly, imprisoned in a tower. If she’d been in this one she probably wouldn’t have minded.

Picture
Santa Barbara Courthouse
Picture
Santa Barbara Courthouse
Picture
Santa Barbara Courthouse - Assembly Room
One of the glories of the Santa Barbara Courthouse is the Assembly Room, seemingly untouched since Spanish rule, with leather benches and dark wood paneling. A treasure of a mural marches around the walls, painted in 1928 by Dan Sayre Groesbeck, who worked on historical films for Cecil B. DeMille. The mural tells the story of the discovery, exploration and settlement of Southern California - it’s said that you can find Douglas Fairbanks and other old movie stars sharing space with Father Juniper Serra, Spanish soldiers, and California Chumash Indians.

Most photos by Marilyn MacGregor
Some Toro Canyon photos courtesy Barton Myers
Websites for more information


http://www.bartonmyers.com/toro_01.htm

http://www.getty.edu/visit/

http://www.santabarbaracourthouse.org/sbch/

Is one of these your Vision of A California Dream? Leave a comment!

7 Comments

    Share ArtSmartTalk

    Follow @MarilynArtsmart

      ArtSmartTalk by email

    Submit
    Picture


    MacGregor-Art.com
    Cards and art gifts with a Fine Sense of Fun
    Also at http://www.etsy.com/shop/MacGregorArt

    ArtSmart Consulting
    BETTER CONTENT for your art site
    http://www.artsmarttalk.com/artcontent.html _

    TRY A FREE SAMPLE!
    Postcard Art History
    Easy, fun way to learn about ART - a great gift! http://www.postcardarthistory.com/

    NetworkedBlogs
    Blog:
    ArtSmartTalk
    Topics:
    Art History, Design, Art
     
    Follow my blog

    Accredited Online Colleges

    Categories

    All
    19th C Art4a3f8ec7db
    20th C59300e1f29
    African Art
    Almutanabbi Streetbb1c3786e2
    American Art
    Ann Hamilton
    Apple
    Apple Computers
    Arabic Poetry
    Architecture
    Art
    Art And Nature
    Art And Technology
    Art As Collective Memory
    Art Auctions
    Art Books
    Art Forgery
    Art Galleries
    Art History
    Art In Gardens
    Art Installation
    Art Installations
    Art Licensing
    Art Of Spain
    Art Prints
    Art Technology
    Baghdad Books
    Barnes Collection
    Biennial
    Book Project
    Books
    Brooklyn Museum
    California Design
    Chelsea Galleries
    Chess
    Color
    Constable
    Contemporary Architecture
    Contemporary Art
    Contemporary Design
    Design
    Detroit Institute Of Arts
    Drawing
    E H Shepard
    El Anatsui
    Etching
    European Art
    Expressionism
    Fabric Design
    Flags
    Folk Art
    French Art
    French History
    French Portraits
    Galleries
    George Bellows
    Goya
    Goya Black Paintings
    Goya Portrait
    Hand-made Books
    Historical Art
    Hokusai
    Ho Tanner
    Illustration
    Installation Art
    Iraq
    Jean Clouet
    Lacma
    Lewis Chessmen
    London
    Los Angeles
    Mac Computers
    Mary Cassatt
    Matisse
    Met Museum
    Metropolitan Museum
    Metropolitan Museum Of Art
    Modern Art
    Modern British Painting
    Moma
    Moma Ps1
    Moons
    Museums
    Napoleon
    National Gallery
    Nature
    New Architecture
    New Art
    New Design
    New Goya Painting
    New York
    New York Art
    Norse Art
    Novels About Art
    Old City Philadelphia
    Online Art Sites
    Outdoor Art
    Outsider Art
    Painting
    Paris
    Pat Steir
    Performance Art
    Philadelphia
    Philadelphia Art
    Philadelphia Museum
    Photography
    Plein Air
    Portraits
    Product Design
    Red
    Religious Art
    Rembrandt
    Rome
    Rothko
    Royal Portraits
    Sarah Sze
    Scottish Art
    Self-portraits
    Significance Of Art
    Sketching
    Southern California
    Soutine
    Spanish Art
    Spanish History
    Steve Jobs
    Technology
    Thanksgiving
    The Importance Of Art
    Turner
    Van Gogh
    Velasquez
    Venice Biennale
    Whitney Museum
    Words And Art
    Young Artists

    Archives

    August 2013
    May 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011

    Full Archives at
    http://artsmarttalk.blogspot.com

    RSS Feed

    BLOG ROLL
    http://www.donartnews.com/
    http://joanmikkelsenphotography.blogspot.com/
    http://newcityart.blogspot.com/
    http://experimentstation.wordpress.com/
    http://www.dailyartfixx.com/
    http://venetianred.net/
    http://blog.art21.org/
    http://ahuskofmeaning.com/
    http://eye-likey.blogspot.com/
    http://underthegables.blogspot.com/
    http://www.imaginarymuseum.net/
    _http://www.midcenturyfolio.com/