On Sunday, October 10 the MAK Center for Art and Architecture conducted it’s 2010 MAK Architecture Tour in Los Angeles. This year’s tour visited modern residences once captured in the iconic images of architectural photographer Julius Shulman (1910-2009). The tour began with an optional stop at the MAK Center itself — the Schindler House (R.M. Schindler, 1921-22) on King’s Road in West Hollywood. It was extra optional for us, because we had the dates wrong and showed up a day early. As grumpy as I was about having gotten up early on a Saturday for a tour that began on Sunday, we did have the Schindler house all to ourselves, which allowed for a quiet exploration of the space. That was certainly not the case on Sunday, where we found the tour well-attended. Buses were offered or you could drive yourself from site to site (we went with the latter). Many of the houses were nestled in the narrow, twisting streets of the Hollywood Hills which tested our parking prowess. It was well worth it though, as both the homes and the epic vistas overlooking Los Angeles were awe-inspiring. The views from the Gantert House were particularly jaw-dropping and like few others I’ve experienced in any city.

The condition and statuses of the various homes gave some perspective on the growing and well-deserved reverence for these buildings. The Schindler House offered a museum-like experience, with little to no furniture; we were free to explore an uninterrupted and unoccupied space. Kun House (Richard Neutra, 1936) was also unfurnished and very much in a state of restoration. In stark contrast, Gantert House (Pierre Koenig, 1981) and Hillside House (Carl Louis Maston, 1962) in particular bore furnishings and decor similar to the spare, mid-century modern design aesthetic captured in Shulman’s photos. Shulman’s own house (Raphael Soriano, 1947-50), where he lived until his passing in 2009, was also featured on the tour and visitors were allowed to eat lunch in the dense gardens he once tended… or they could escape just north, to the valley to go to Taco Bell (sure, it’s shameful — but I’m just sayin’ — the tour was crowded!). Our shame hidden in our bellies, we rejoined the tour. I found something particularly comforting and familiar in the Gold House (R.M. Schindler, 1945) which felt very much like a home, with children’s drawings and other signs of family peppered throughout. The final stop on the tour was the Lovell ‘Health’ House (Richard Neutra, 1928-29) built into a lush hillside in Los Feliz. It is a sprawling residence which, (as described in the MAK tour literature) brought Neutra “who believed that human environment must address the senses and defined his theory as biorealism” to create a “machine for health and a lifestyle showroom for [Dr. Phillip] Lovell’s theories.”

The life and work of Julius Shulman was the subject of Eric Bricker’s great 2008 documentary Visual Acoustics (trailer below, it’s on Netlix Instant Watch now. Watch it. Instantly. It’s great!). Shulman got his start in 1936 when a friend, who was a draftsman for Neutra, invited him to visit the site of the Kun House. Shulman recounted that this was the first example of modern architecture he’d ever encountered and he photographed it with a pocket camera he’d brought along. When Neutra saw the images he recognized the nascent talent, introducing Shulman’s work to the other modernist architects in Southern California. Shulman went on to become arguably the most important architectural photographer of the 20th century, capturing the vision and ideals of countless modernist structures.

It is easy to lose sight of the great architecture that surrounds us, especially when it is often obscured by the generic, block structures of forgettable apartment complexes and Taco Bells. It is good to know that organizations such as the MAK Center (and certainly the generous residents who’ve opened their homes to strangers) promote the awareness and appreciation of these buildings and the masterful architects who designed them. The MAK Center offers additional open houses on the first Friday of each month for three R.M. Schindler designed residences, the aforementioned Schindler House, Mackey Apartments and the Fitzpatrick-Leland House. For admission and further details, visit www.MAKcenter.org. MAK is also looking forward as it promotes “meaningful exchanges between cultural thinkers from diverse nations in order to cultivate visionary conceptions of the urban future” via its Urban Future Initiative. Visit www.makcenterufi.org to learn more.