Esoteric Survey

The Glen Lukens house by Raphael Soriano (1940) is up for sale. Listed at nearly $2 million, it has been fully restored by Barry Milofsky of M2A Architects. It's on a huge beautifully-landscaped lot in the historic West Adams neighborhood of Los Angeles.
It's an important house beyond the architecture. There is no way to overstate the importance of Glen Lukens (1887-1967) in the world of California ceramics. It was commissioned when Lukens was teaching ceramics and metalwork at USC. Soriano had graduated from USC in 1934 and later returned as a lecturer in the architecture program, where Lukens was teaching metalwork. 

Lukens lived in the house from 1940 to 1959. In addition to his innovative glaze work, while at USC he led the ceramics department where Laura Andreson, Susan Peterson, Carlton Ball, Harrison McIntosh, Beatrice Wood, Doyle Lane and Vivika and Otto Heino were all a part of. 
Frank Gehry also took a Lukens ceramics class at USC. It was 1940 and young Gehry was in…

Jack Boyd, Herny Mittwer and Magdalena Suarez Frimkess + Michael Frimkess
I've never see one with this label.
Pots by Hal Fromhold and Bernard Kester

Fresno has some architectural gems. I've posted on some of the 1960s architecture in the past, but this time I stopped off at  the terminal and former control tower at The Chandler Field/Fresno Municipal Airport. It was built in 1936-1937 as part of the W.P.A. (Works Progress Administration), Project #2236.
The complex is in great condition and still operates as an airfield.



On the day I was there, a 1928 Ford 5-AT-B Trimotor was on the runway. It is the first mass-produced airline and its first flight was on December 1, 1928. On this day, the EAA was giving rides. 
Source: Pacific Wrecks





I went aboard but my girlfriend was afraid to get airborne. 



There is a really cute diner in the building, The Flight Line Cafe.

Luther Conover and Milo Baughman for Murray

Stan Bitters Birdhouse
Creation by Gordon Onslow Ford
All good!