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Happy Birthday Rudolph Schindler, a Father of Cali Modernism

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128 years ago today, an icon was born. Known for his innovative Modernist houses rendered in smooth concrete (and, later, in even smoother plaster over a wood frame), Austrian-born American architect Rudolph Schindler earned a reputation for his sublimely simple rectilinear dwellings, which sprouted up largely in California between 1920 and 1950. The architect even developed his own wood framing technique, aptly named the "Schindler Frame," in 1945, which helped him construct some of the hallmark houses of his brief career, cut short in 1953 by a bout with cancer. One such house, the Schindler House, had a low-slung form reminiscent of a traditional Japanese home, all sliding doors and clean-lined, open interiors. Another, the 1926 Lovell Beach House in Newport Beach, California, has a much-imitated form. If you think you've seen it before, you've probably seen any number of copycats. So, here now, a few Instagram snaps of Schindler's work.

Light study - architecture by Rudolph Schindler circa 1939. #WHPmonochromatic

A photo posted by minh t (@thismintymoment) on


#puebloribera #rudolphschindler #lajolla

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A photo posted by Aric Lasher (@arlash61) on

All Rudolph Schindler posts [Curbed LA]