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When Henry Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson compiled their books International Style: Architecture since 1922, who are frustrated that there are so few examples in the United States. One of these is the 1931 Aluminaire House, an exhibition building designed by A Lawrence Kocher and Swiss immigrant Albert Frey. Now, the Palm Springs Art Museum is opening an exhibition titled “Albert Frey: Creative Modernist” that aims to solidify his status as the preeminent modernist of the California desert.
Frey was born in Zurich in 1903 and read the works of Le Corbusier towards architecture When he was only 20 years old, he was attracted by its passionate message. Like Corbusier, Frei realized that he had to leave conservative Switzerland in order to become a modernist architect. Born into a wealthy family, Frey took flying lessons, wore a Cartier Tank watch and liked to drive fast cars.
After receiving his diploma in Winterthur near Zurich, he went to Brussels in 1925 to work with Eggericx and Verwilghen. He then moved to Paris, seeking employment in the offices of Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret. They had no money to pay him; when Frey offered his services for free, he was welcomed. Frey worked there for 10 months, working on the Villa Savoye and other projects, and was eventually paid to do so. After taking the important step of emigrating to the New World by immigrating to the United States in 1930, he maintained contact with Corbusier.
Frey’s actions illustrate the paradoxical Atlantic divide of the time.Europe regards the United States as nec plus super modernity, but America looked to Europe to provide practical examples of modernist design. In 1925, when the United States was invited to participate in the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts and Modern Industry, the United States declined because they had nothing modern to show.
In 1930, Frey arrived in New York via Ellis Island and visited architects looking for work in the city. However, the economic shock of the Wall Street Crash the previous year began to affect construction plans. He found his niche with Kocher, an American architect of Swiss descent.Koch was a qualified architect but did not practice but instead operated architectural records, the spokesperson of modernism. In Frey, Koch saw a direct emissary of Le Corbusier himself.
Their commission for the Lighting House arose from an industrial sponsor seeking a display venue for their products. Chief among them is Alcoa. Frey’s design was clearly derived from the Pavillon de l’Esprit Nouveau built by Corbusier for the 1925 Exposition, but with aluminum frames and panels.
Koch had a brother who was the first regular physician in the desert community of Palm Springs, California, in the early 1930s. Dr. Koch wanted a modern building to house his medical clinic. In 1934, Frey traveled to Palm Springs to design the Koch-Samson Building and was immediately captivated by the allure of the desert setting.
One or two missteps cost him the rest of his life in Palm Springs. As the exhibition demonstrates, whether working alone or in collaboration with other architects, Frey built everything in Palm Springs, from the tourist attraction Aerial Tramway in the San Jacinto Mountains to the City Hall extension, as well as numerous homes . Frey’s own house was an experiment, starting in 1940 with a minimalist one-room structure that eventually evolved into a sci-fi fantasy that featured an aluminum conning tower with eight sunshaded portholes that framed the master bedroom scenery. He later built Frei Building II and bequeathed it to the Museum of Art, which contained a large stone.
The key to the exhibit is the reconstructed aluminum house, which was rescued from the wrecking ball in 1987. It was rebuilt in the museum’s south parking lot, reassembled from fragments found on Long Island and refurbished with new exterior siding from Alcoa.
The Lamp House was originally intended to be viewed indoors only as part of an Architectural League of New York exhibition on potential American domestic architecture. When it was first exhibited, a record number of visitors reached 130,000; so many that Frey had to build an extra exit on the upper floor. Since then, it has only been known from photographs of FRS Yorke. modern houseas well as Hitchcock and Johnson’s international style. It’s remarkable that it survived for 90 years in New York State’s rather harsh climate. Now, under the bright sunshine of Palm Springs, it has been refreshed and appears once again to be a shining, modern symbol of an optimistic future world.
Blending original archival materials, models, Julius Schulman’s stunning photographs, and some salvaged fragments of buildings and furniture, the exhibition is sparse and minimalistic, perfectly suited to Frey’s design sensibility. Photographs and drawings are hung from lightweight steel beams or mounted on plywood, echoing the materials Frey used in his buildings. According to Frey, a baseless round table in the exhibition, suspended from wires, was designed to make it easier to vacuum underneath!
David Brady is a freelance writer covering art, architecture, design and graphics
Albert Frey: Creative Modernist is on view at the Palm Springs Art Museum through June 3
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