Esoteric Survey

The Mitchell Residence, Buff, Straub & Hensman (1959) I was up in Palos Verdes area a few weeks ago and stopped by to see Nate from  Modern California House  at his listing. This is the second time the house has been for sale. He sold it the first time for the family of the original owners. After ten years, he's selling it again. Fortunately, it's still in almost perfect original condition. That's a big feat in high cost per square feet neighborhoods like Rolling Hills Estates.   A lot of the furniture is original to the house and was purchased at Frank Bros . That includes this Morredi set, the Frank Bros-owned line named after “Maurice” and “Ed” Frank.  The original orange plastic laminate is used throughout the house.  The Micthells and a young Donald Hensman. According to the invoice below, these light fixtures were $8 each. They're in the interior as well.  In addition to that, there are blueprints, landscape plan by Richard P. Gawne and ...

  Kipp Stewart, Arthur Umanoff, Kurt Versen, David Stewart, George Nelson and La Gardo Tackett These came from a designer who was doing prototype packaging for Frank Bros. The two smaller boxes have design games that were sold at Frank Bros.  The large box is still sealed! Scandi Stuff. Henning Koppel cookware, Stig Lindberg, Hans-Agne Jakobsson Jack Rogers Hopkins  Signed Isamu Noguchi poster from the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center Plaza I was in Mexico City the weekend before last and visited Casa Pedregal  again. The friend I was with had a discussion with person giving the tour about these Don Shoemaker chairs.   My first shopping stop back in the US, I found one.

I bought another empty box. It's a big one.  The shear size and the markings show that it once housed an Eames lounge chair and ottoman.  It was sent to a Dr Clifford E Easley in Rolling Hills Estates, which is on  the north side of the Palos Verdes Peninsula, facing Torrance. Rolling Hills Estates was Incorporated in 1957. Since it was less than a half hour drive from his house, chances are that it was ordered from Frank Bros . This 1962 ad lists the price at $529. That's a little over $5,000 adjusted for inflation and quite a bit cheaper than what they sell for now. Today Herman Miller sells the Palisander lounge chair for $8,000. Also, apparently in 1962 only men could buy Eames lounge chairs at Frank Bros. Not cool bros. Source: Long Beach Press Telegram, 1962 This is where the chair was delivered. I hope Dr. Easley used it right there.  The house was built in 1962 which is probably when he bought the chair. The lack of a zip code on the box also points to pre-19...

Iron: Fire dogs and a catch all Frank Bros box and George Nelson trays Inrepace ashtray In 1962, Gladding, McBean & Company merged with Lock Joint Pipe Company, forming International Pipe and Ceramics Corporation, or Interpace. Millard Sheets was hired as a consultant to Interpace in 1963. Big names in ceramics, like Harrison McIntosh, Rupert Deese, Jerry Rothman, and Dora De Larious were hired as designers for the company. Henry Takemoto was hired as a full-time dinnerware designer in 1969. Ken Price served as a consultant in the research & development group.  Sadly the building was demolished and it's now a Costco.  Before Interpace, the building was Gladding, McBean & Co's Los Angeles dinnerware and tile plant. Before that  it was Tropico Pottery Works. Tortured pot, Wayne Chapman plates, Bauer bisque planter. 

The Mutual Housing Association Site Office (1947)  by A. Quincy Jones, Whitney Smith and Edgardo Contini. The Mutual Housing Association concept began with four musicians who, in 1946, wanted to share an acre of land and a swimming pool. At one point, the association had 500 members. Mutual Housing Association was formed as a nonprofit entity. All of the members of the co-operative owned shares and would be entitled to a housing site. After looking at various properties around Los Angeles, they settled on the rolling hills of Brentwood. They purchased 835 acres for $400,000 and the sites for homes were estimated to cost between $11,000 to $25,000. A. Quincy Jones, Whitney Smith and structural engineer Edgardo Contini were selected to design the community.  Source: Arts & Architecture Here's a map for reference. The site office was the first building constructed and was essentially a full-scale mockup. Although not an actual house, the basic str...