31 December 2006

McDermott Residence -- southwest view


McDermott Residence
.
Crag Knob Road, Kirkwood, Missouri.

Another home by Armstrong located nearby is the Andrews Residence. The overall concept and form of the two houses are quite similar, however the McDermott Residence is a more economical, compact design using standard building materials and techniques, while the Andrews Residence is larger and more unusual.

This project was selected as "Design of the Month" by the National Association of Home Builders and published in their journal, NAHB Correlator, in October 1954. They provided the following "Livability Analysis":


Architectural character of this home was influenced to some extent by the character of the site, which has a steep downhill slope and an excellent view. House, therefore, was oriented to face the view, with service areas and baths on the street side.

The outside deck with its built-in seats is large enough for outdoor dining and entertaining, and thus takes the place of the conventional patio. The large master bedroom has its own outdoor sitting area accessible by a door. The other two bedrooms command the full view with their glass walls.

The kitchen is well-planned for preparation and serving of food, and the breakfast bar forms a pass-thru for serving in the living-dining area, or on the porch.

Landscaping, serpentine brick wall, and small plantings had not been completed when photographs were taken, but these have been so designed as to fit the house more closely into the site, and to make full use of the downslope of the lot to supplement the view.

The is an unusually well designed, modern home, which makes use of rather conventional materials and framing methods.



The contractor for the house was Kuni-Jacobsmeyer of Clayton, Missouri.


Photograph courtesy of the Harris Armstrong Archives, Special Collections, Washington University in Saint Louis.

McDermott Residence -- northwest view & plan

McDermott Residence.
Crag Knob Road, Kirkwood, Missouri.


The plan of this compact house is based upon Armstrong's concept for the Missouri Solar House, developed in the late 1940s. Along the north side of the house, the smaller more utilitarian spaces are arranged. These spaces have a limited amount of glazing to hellp protect the house from cold winter winds. Only the entry is highlighted with additional glazing and a small shed dormer opposing the main single slope of the roof.

The house opens toward the south with full glazing and taller walls. The roof cantilevers over the main living-dining room to protect it from the intense summer sun. The overhang is designed to keep out direct sunlight in the summer, but to admit sunlight in the winter (when the sun is lower in the sky) to provide passive solar warming of the interior. An additional benefit is brightening the interior of the house when it might be rather cold and forbidding outside.

The glazing also wraps the southeast corner of the room helping to further relate the interior space to the exterior views and sunlight. The portion of glass facing toward the east would admit light into the house in the morning when the residents would be having breakfast or otherwise inhabiting the western more public portion of the house. The exterior deck is partly protected by the roof overhang (see dashed line in floor plan above). The ground slopes down offering a view into the wooded terrain providing an additional rationale for the extensive use of glazing here.


Image courtesy of the Harris Armstrong Archives, Special Collections, Washington University in Saint Louis.

14 September 2006

Hampton Residence -- ENDANGERED

project: Hampton Residence
location: 1751 Laclede Station Road, Richmond Heights, Missouri
architect: Harris Armstrong
client: Dr. Henry E. Hampton
date: 1941
condition: in imminent danger of demolition

This home is included in a large parcel of land the city has slated for demolition to be cleared for commercial development. Although arguments were made by Architectural Historian Esley Hamilton and others regarding the significance of the house (architecturally as well as historically), the city has decided to proceed with condemnation.

Following is excerpted from the article by Esley Hamilton entitled "Harris Armstrong and Dr. Henry Hampton: An Historic Architect-Client Relationship," St. Louis Chapter Society of Architectural Historians NewsLetter, Summer 2006:

"Once again, an important landmark of Modern architecture faces demolition, this time at the hands of the City of Richmond Heights, which has included [it] in a TIF-financed redevelopment project. The house [which] is [located] at 1751 Laclede Station Road (at the northwest corner of Bruno) was designed for Dr. Henry E. Hampton by Harris Armstrong in 1941. Armstrong was the first architect in St. Louis to work in a consistently modern style, and he is recognized as one of the greats of St. Louis architecture. Several of his buildings are already listed in the National Register of Historic Places, including the Shanley Building at Maryland and Bemiston in Clayton.

Several of Armstrong's early clients were prominent physicians, including Neville Grant, Evarts Graham, and Leo Shanley himself. Dr. Hampton was a highly respected physician and surgeon, but he was also and African-American who played an outstanding role in the civic life of the St. Louis region. He was the first medical director at the Homer G. Phillips Hospital from 1937 to 1941. In 1949, he became a member of the board of freeholders which wrote the present county charter, and in 1952, he played a similar role in the creation of the Metropolitan Sewer District. As a patron of modern architecture, he was also a pioneer, commissioning two medical office buildings from Harris Armstrong in addition to this house. The first one, at 2328 Market was built in 1941 but demolished as part of the Mill Creek Urban Renewal Project. The second, at the northeast corner of Jefferson and Pine, replaced it in 1962. That building [was recently sold as of August 2006 and is slated for renovation.]

Dr. Hampton's son Henry Junior grew up in Richmond Heights to become a visionary filmmaker who documented the history of the civil rights movement in the series Eyes on the Prize, which won more than twenty major awards. Following [Dr. Hampton's] his early death in 1998, Washington University established the Henry Hampton Collection as part of its film and media archive."


To see more recent photographs of this home, click here.


Photograph courtesy of the Harris Armstrong Archives, Special Collections, Washington University in Saint Louis.

12 September 2006

Stuebner Residence -- overview

project: Stuebner Residence
client: Dr. Roland W. Stuebner
location: 5 Indian Hill Road, Ladue, Missouri
date: 1939
architect: Harris Armstrong
condition: no longer extant


This house was located on five acres adjacent to the Log Cabin Country Club's golf course in Ladue, Missouri. Unfortunately, this house was purchased as a tear-down, demolished, and replaced by a faux-Tudor McMansion.

This photograph was taken shortly after completion of the house (around 1940). The Stuebner's and subsequent owners continually improved the property with landscaping, adding trees, patios, large fountain, and other amenities. By the time the house was demolished in the late 1990s, the house sat within a well-maintained, well-planned natural environment.


Photograph courtesy of the Harris Armstrong Archives, Special Collections, Washington University in Saint Louis.

11 September 2006

Stuebner Residence -- living room



The view after entering the house and stepping toward the living room is surprisingly expansive. A corner window with an 'L'-shaped built-in brick planter catches your eye immediately. The fenestration clearly suggests sliding Shoji-type windows. The asymmetrical arrangement of mullions emphasizes this horizontal orientation. In reality, the corner is formed from two fixed plate glass windows with a double hung window at either side.

The mass of brick over the main hearth continues this suggestion of sliding forms, only here it appears as a solid, heavy form surprisingly floating over the fire. Along the base of the planters are perforations in the masonry allowing for heated and cooled air to be circulated within the house. The planter appears to have been slid out from below the brick mass to create the void of the firebox. In doing so, it formally, but subtly, relates the actual source of ventilation with a home's traditional heat source.

All of this horizontality isn't terribly surprising given the form of the exterior. However, the multiple planes comprising the ceiling here come as somewhat of a shock, particularly the double set of clerestories admiting light from above. This method of admitting light into the space creates a sublime mixture from the horizontal spread of the Prairie Style with some unexpected, hidden openings to the sky reflecting off the ceiling's angular planes.

- - - -

Armstrong's design of 1939 for the home of Dr. Roland Stuebner. The faceted ceiling allows sunlight to pour into the interior through clerestory windows. While the overall house presents a Prairie Style from the exterior, the interior layout and design is more eclectic in its sources than suggested by the overview of the house.

Here Armstrong makes the focal point of the living room the large corner windows. Characteristically, he places an indoor planter along the window, perforating the lower portion to allow for air ventilation. The relatively simple composition of brickwork relates the void of the fireplace to the base of the planter and the projecting rectangular mass above to the openings at the windows. This brick volume appears to be sliding to open the view outward. A low brick bench completes the composition as a disposition of rectilinear masses in space, akin to the formal inventions of the Dutch de Stijl movement.

The angular planes of the ceiling float above the horizontal soffit that ties the various elements of the room together. The light from above and contrasting geometry gives the house an unexpected air of floating and dematerialization. In that regard the vaulted ceilings and clerestory windows provide a clear feeling of a stylized sky. The brickwork, plants, fireplace, and view outward are clearly grounded and of the earth. The step in the soffit which divides the lower walls from the upper ceiling makes the reconciliation of such disparate geometries possible.

This house was located on five acres adjacent to the Log Cabin Country Club's golf course in Ladue, Missouri. Unfortunately, this house (along with its extensive landscaping, mature stand of trees, paved patios, and built-in fountain) was purchased as a tear-down, demolished, and replaced by a faux-Tudor McMansion.


Photograph courtesy of the Harris Armstrong Archives, Special Collections, Washington University in Saint Louis.

Stuebner Residence -- hallway



This hallway links the main public portion of the house to the series of bedrooms that extend out into the landscape in a horizontal gesture. When I walked through this space, I nearly stopped breathing. The design of the strip of glass blocks with the canted wall and steel column repeats Armstrong's design of the hallway in the Shanley Building of 1935.


Photograph by Andrew Raimist, 1992.

17 May 2006

Newman Residence, 1963


Newman Residence
616 Hickory Hollow Lane
Kirkwood, Missouri 63122

This home, located on the end of a cul-de-sac, was originally designed for Ernest Newman in 1963.

To see the real estate listing (from Spring 2006) visit: here and enter MLS Number 623047.


Photograph by Andrew Raimist, 2006.

09 May 2006

1 Sappington Spur -- rear

View of the rear of the house as of spring 2006.

For the real estate listing, click here.


Photograph courtesy of Laura McCarthy Real Estate.

Kohler Residence, 1948 -- front

Kohler Residence
1 Sappington Spur
Oakland, Missouri

The original client for this house was Theodore N. Kohler. It was built in 1948.

Here is a view of the front of the house as of spring 2006.

For the real estate listing, click here.


Photograph courtesy of Laura McCarthy Real Estate.

1 Sappington Spur -- kitchen

View of the kitchen as of spring 2006.

For the real estate listing, click here.


Photograph courtesy of Laura McCarthy Real Estate.

1 Sappington Spur -- breakfast room

View of the breakfast room as of spring 2006.

For the real estate listing, click here.


Photograph courtesy of Laura McCarthy Real Estate.

1 Sappington Spur -- family room

View of the family room as of spring 2006.

For the real estate listing, click here.


Photograph courtesy of Laura McCarthy Real Estate.

1 Sappington Spur -- living room

View of the living room as of spring 2006.

For the real estate listing, click here.


Photograph courtesy of Laura McCarthy Real Estate.

23 March 2006

O'Bear Residence, 1932


project: O'Bear Residence
location: Valley Road
Webster Groves, Missouri
date: 1932
condition: good, some modifications
original client: William F. O'Bear
architect: Harris Armstrong

One of Armstrong's earliest complete homes (after his own home of 1926). The house features white-painted brick with wood framing and siding above. The lintels over openings in the brick wall are heavy timber beams exposed.

The house is organized around a courtyard located at the front of the house. Two undulating white-painted retaining walls open a slot in the ground for cars to enter the garage at the lowest level and a curving brick stair leading up to the courtyard which overlooks the street.

The high peaked roof, gentle easing of the eaves, and lack of overhangs is typical of this period of his work. where the roof meets the brick masonry supporting wall below, bricks are set in a corbelled manner giving the appearance of dentils. The gable end walls are brick masonry up most of their height. Where they terminate, a set of wood purlins are exposed and horizontal wood siding, stained dark, fill the remainder of the gable end walls. This form corresponds to many of Armstrong's works of this period such as the Monday Club and the first Armstrong Residence, both of which are not far from this home.

Valley Road is a short, one block long street that splits a block located between South Maple and Plant Avenue. The street is quite narrow and appears to have been originally developed without being constructed according to the City standards (sidewalks, curbs, pavement, etc.).


Photograph courtesy of the Harris Armstrong Archives, Special Collections, Washington University in Saint Louis.

21 March 2006

Moore Residence, 1932


project: Moore Residence
location: 745 Oakland Avenue
Oakland, Missouri
date: 1932
condition: some modifications; well-maintained
status: City of Oakland Historic Landmark


Although Armstrong referred to this house as being a "Small House in Glendale", it is actually located in the municipality of Oakland, next to Glendale. I'm not sure why he referred to it in this manner and why he didn't note the name of the owner. The house was built for a school teacher named Katherine Moore.

With its very shallow hipped roof and horizontally grouped casement windows, it is a close relative of his Cori House exhibiting some similar characteristics, such as the second floor balcony with adjacent chimney, brick masonry construction, corner windows, and the cantilevered overhang over the main entry.


Photograph courtesy of the Harris Armstrong Archives, Special Collections, Washington University in Saint Louis.

15 March 2006

Six Room, Six Thousand Dollar Suburban House

A design by Armstrong for a six room home. The design incorporates many features that he'd already used and others that he would come to use even more extensively.

The flat gable end with the symmetrical windows divided by a heavily carved element is quite similar to the window details on his Monday Club.

The brick masonry wall extending out into the garden to begin to architectural define the spaces surrounding the house. Such walls were regular features of Armstrong's project for many years to come. They are almost always drawing as planters and often were built that way. Unfortunately, some of them have been filled in and capped to prevent excess water infiltration. The wall is particularly suggestive of a similar wall he designed for the Cori House (1935).

The entry door has a diamond shaped ornamental texture which appears to be quite similar to the one ultimately used on the Cori House.

The twin octogonal brick masonry chimneys are a strong visual element that Armstrong proposed in many projects of this era (the early 1930s). Its unclear whether a version of this design was ever constructed.

project: Proposed Six Room, Six Thousand Dollar Suburban House (unbuilt), c. 1932.
architect: Harris Armstrong.

For more on Saint Louis modern architect Harris Armstrong, check my blog architectural ruminations.


Drawing courtesy of the Harris Armstrong Archives, Special Collections, Washington University in Saint Louis.

04 March 2006

Dwell article, p. 1 (April 2006)

This is the first of a three page article regarding Harris Armstrong's stamp on Saint Louis architecture.

To see an enlargement of this page, click here.

03 March 2006

Dwell article, p. 2 (April 2006)

The second page of a three page article featuring information regarding the renovation a Harris Armstrong designed home.

For an enlarged image of this page, click here.

Dwell article, p. 3 (April 2006)

This page describes "Ten Things You Should Know About Harris Armstrong."

To see an enlarged version of this page, click here.

12 January 2006

Armstrong Residence II


project: Armstrong Residence II, 1938.
location: Oakland, Missouri.
condition: somewhat modified.
architect: Harris Armstrong.

The project started with an older farm structure which Armstrong renovated as the two story home topped by the hipped roof (which has a faintly Japanese air to it). The one story addition faced with stone appears massive, archaic, and modern all at the same time. the three large square windows of the architectural studio are repeated in the house. In each case, no structural support is expressed, such as a lintel, header, or beams. The banding of brick at the left side of the studio windows connects the deep set doorway with the window openings suggesting continuity. The darkness of the bricks seems to fullfill a similar function to the black spandrel elements wrapping the corners of the house beyond.

The stone wall is ultimately revealed to be a free-standing plane where a corner window without structural support turns the corner toward the white stucco garage. The massive stone planter stops the strong linear orientation of the sidewalk which offers access to both the architectural studio (first) and to the home (around the far end of the wall).

The gravel driveway is divided by the massive planter at the corner into the portion at left, accessing the rear facing garage doors, and the small parking area, presumably for clients of the architect.

The design makes effective use of tones and textures from the white of the stucco to the grey of the limestone, darker tones and shadows at the bricks, and darkest in the repeated composition of three square windows. While the stone face of addition partially concealled by vines and planting appears to be old, the white stucco of the garage extending beyond the end together with the flat roof of the addition, is a clear indication of its modernity.

Armstrong has developed his architectural expression by the careful juxtaposition of materials, forms, geometry, and textures. All of this is set off by the dark landscape planting: vines, shrubs, perennials, and trees. The plants simultaneously break down the architectural forms softening their edges and clearly defined spatial boundaries. At the same time, the landscaping provides continuity among the various forms and materials employed in the exterior expression of the house.


Photograph courtesy of the Harris Armstrong Archives, Special Collections, Washington University in Saint Louis.

Armstrong Residence II -- entry with shadow aligned


A relatively early photograph depicting the entry to the home. The image was taken at the particular time of the day when the angle of the sun aligns with the angle of the slot between the roof overhang and the planter below. This slot is demarcated by decorative tiles set into the stucco wall.

The copper fascia and gutter at the overhang collects water which is removed via a copper gargoyle. Armstrong fashioned a kind of serpent's head out of the end of some copper pipe.

Shrubs and vines are just beginning to establish themselves in the built-in planters. It appears that the photograph was taken within a year or two following the initial construction in 1938.


Photograph courtesy of the Harris Armstrong Archives, Special Collections, Washington University in Saint Louis.

Armstrong Residence II -- home entry


This version of the entry was taken several years later, perhaps as many as eight to ten years following the initial construction in 1938. The vines and plantings have grown in a great deal.

This view reveals more of the southeast corner of the house where the corner windows and interior planter are located. A black spandrel panel wrapping the corner links the windows on each face of the house to provide the appearance of continuity around the corner, despite the economic and structural need for structural support at these locations.


Photograph by Bennett & Tucker courtesy of the Harris Armstrong Archives, Special Collections, Washington University in Saint Louis.

Armstrong Residence II -- floor plans


The floor plans indicate the rectangular outline of the original structure that was renovated and the office, entry, and garage that was added to it toward the southeast.

At the second floor, four bedrooms fit into each of the four corners of the rectangle with bathroom back to back at the head of the stairs. At the time the house was constructed, there were five family members in residence. Harris and Louise shared one bedroom. Their two daughters, Joan and Jeffrey, each had their own bedrooms, and their youngest child, John, had his own bedroom. Armstrong felt it was important that each child have their own private room and that each bedroom have windows on two adjacent walls.

The architect's office was set up in the front of the house with south-facing windows and a small fireplace. To the west of the office was the garage. To the east of the office, a coat room, powder room, and entry to the residence. Upon entry, the passage into the Living Room is rather gracious with three angled steps leading into the large room which included a central fireplace with mirror, built-in planter at the corner windows, and large north facing windows toward the rear. The rear wall of the Living Room aligns with the Dining Room offering the opportunity for a sense of openness, space, and light not typically found in a residence of this size. While the Kitchen is the central hub of the various surrounding rooms, it remains isolated and cut-off from these spaces.

At the Basement Level, rooms for two maids are provided, along with a Play Room for the children, storage, mechanical equipment, and Laundry Room.


Drawings courtesy of the Harris Armstrong Archives, Special Collections, Washington University in Saint Louis.

Armstrong Residence II -- corner planter


This photograph of the plant corner in the Living Room appears to have been taken in the later 1940s. It features the glass table Armstrong created from a part of a fallen tree found near his country house in De Soto, Missouri called the Rockpile.

Armstrong took the tree branch and cut it to create a stable base with three rising supports for an irregularly shaped glass table top.

The table design seems indebted to Isamu Noguchi's biomorphic glass coffee table with three supports recently introduced by Herman Miller. At left, the wooden Eames chair, also a Herman Miller product, seems to reinforce this connection.

This photograph appears to have been taken following World War II. It seems likely that it documents the arrangement in the period following Armstrong's collaboration with Noguchi and Eames on the Magic Chef Building for the American Stove Company (1946).


Photograph courtesy of the Harris Armstrong Archives, Special Collections, Washington University in Saint Louis.

Armstrong Residence II -- living room


This view of the plant corner windows in the Living Room was taken earlier in the life of the house. Here the color and manner of the valance and curtains matches those used on the north side of the room.


Photograph by Bennett & Tucker courtesy of the Harris Armstrong Archives, Special Collections, Washington University in Saint Louis.

Armstrong Residence II -- curtains closed


When the continuous curtains are closed, it unifies the entire north wall of the house, allowing filtered light to enter. The light colored fabric helps to create a sense of spaciousness, continuity, and openness connecting the Dining and Living Rooms.

Armstrong's dark Shanley Chair made from wood with fabric tape is silhouetted against the simple white drapery. The dark painted valance overhead acts as a foil to the bright curtains.


Photograph by Bennett & Tucker courtesy of the Harris Armstrong Archives, Special Collections, Washington University in Saint Louis.

Armstrong Residence II -- windows open


Two sets of double hung square windows are located on the north side of the house. By repeating the window pattern and creating one continuous curtain and valance, this architectural feature helps to open up the space dramatically, connecting the Dining Room (near) and the Living Room (beyond).

The double hung windows are particularly useful for ventilation. As shown here, the upper sash can be pulled down to allow hotter air to escape. When the lower sash is raised it creates a natural convection and help to bring fresh air into the house without any need for mechanical equipment, fans, ductwork, etc.


Photograph by Bennett & Tucker courtesy of the Harris Armstrong Archives, Special Collections, Washington University in Saint Louis.

07 January 2006

Fry Residence -- axonometric view


project: Fry Residence, 1936

location: Ladue, Missouri

condition: no longer extant


This house design is a unique amalgamation of architectural forms and concepts. The initial impression is of a Wrightian prairie house with its cruciform organization extending from a central masonry chimney. The hipped roofs and continuous, wide overhangs contribute a great deal to this impression, particularly because of the way in which it shapes the house's silhouette.

This image of a prairie house, however, is elevated to the second level above a rectilinear structure which presents itself as having flat roofs and horizontal strip windows more akin to the International Style than the Arts and Crafts source of Wright's early residential works.

This axonometric drawing in black and white with darkened glazing graphically gives the house more of a Corbusian appearance than the actual house projects. The axonometric method of presentation used in depicting three-dimensional forms is an abstract, analytical approach. Frank Lloyd Wright would not typically use this approach, rather he preferred to present his work using perspective, where parallel lines recede to vanishing points, giving an image more akin to actual visual perception.

The axonometric approach maintains all parallel lines as parallell and measurable. Nothing recedes into the distance and the building is presented more as a free-standing, man-made object as opposed to the more naturalistic, perceptual image presented by a perspective drawing.

In particular, the drawing suggests plain white exterior surfaces, while the actual building materials were primarily brick and copper. The built-in planters and climbing vines suggest Wright's work as a source, but these were features that Armstrong included in many of his works of various materials and forms.

The site plan and siting of the house dictates the approach to the house. Initially, the visitor is faced with a blank brick wall relieved only by a planter at the far corner. The hedges surrounding the driveway are organized for privacy in additional to their function in directing vehicular circulation. The blank, simplicity of the garage volume acts as a foil for the house which presents a complex series of planes and openings, all oriented for horizontall emphasis, except the large vertical glazing at the main entry at the inside corner of the "L".

Drawing courtesy of the Harris Armstrong Archives, Special Collections, Washington University in Saint Louis.