Category Archives: california

barbara shawcroft and “legs”

Posted on July 5, 2014 by Greg

A long and contentious relationship between Bay Area fiber artist Barbara Shawcroft and the management of the Bay Area Rapid Transit system has apparently come to a conclusion with the recent removal of her massive work titled “Legs” from the Embarcadero … Continue reading →

Posted in 70's, barbara shawcroft, bay area, california, california design, fiber art | Leave a comment

donald olsen’s “kip house” for sale

Posted on June 30, 2013 by Greg

Famed Bay Area modernist Donald Olsen designed a number of classic modernist homes here in the Bay Area, and one of his more significant homes is on the market. It’s the Kip House, which was designed and built in 1952 … Continue reading →

Posted in 50's, architecture, bay area, california, donald olsen | 1 Comment

mel bogart fire tools for stewart-winthrop

Posted on June 28, 2013 by Greg

Here are a couple of ads from arts & architecture magazine in 1955 for fire tools designed by Mel Bogart for Stewart-Winthrop of Van Nuys, California. You may recall Mel as the designer of the cool iron ashtray stand I … Continue reading →

Posted in 50's, california, fireplace, iron, mel bogart, stewart-winthrop | Leave a comment

desert modern architecture – palm springs 2012

Posted on January 20, 2013 by Greg

Last October I had the pleasure of attending the “Desert Modern Architecture” tour in Palm Springs hosted by the Western Museums Association, which allowed me to visit some beautiful and stylistically different examples of 20th century modern architecture. Our tour … Continue reading →

Posted in 30's, 40's, 50's, 60's, albert frey, architecture, california, donald wexler, neutra, palm springs, raymond loewy, steel | Leave a comment

fletcher benton “synchronetic” kinetic art sculpture

Posted on June 25, 2012 by Greg

This is a short video of a Synchronetic L-110, which was a limited edition kinetic art optical sculpture produced by Fletcher Benton Studios for Galeria Bonino in New York in 1969. Fletcher Benton is a sculptor who currently lives in … Continue reading →

Posted in 60's, california, fletcher benton, kinetic art | Leave a comment

design workshops of san francisco

Posted on May 24, 2012 by Greg

While leafing through old copies of Interiors magazine today I came across a cool little article in the September 1947 issue called “Made in California” that showcased a few different furniture designs from the Golden State. The pictures above caught … Continue reading →

Posted in 40's, california, interiors magazine, san francisco, table, walter harada, wood | Leave a comment

j. b. blunk – “the planet”

Posted on May 11, 2012 by Greg

It has been gratifying to see the return of J. B. Blunk’s epic “The Planet” at the recently remodeled Oakland Museum of California, and I had been meaning to pay it a nice long visit for awhile. It is a … Continue reading →

Posted in california, craft, j. b. blunk, OMCA, wood | 2 Comments

“creating modern furniture”

Posted on April 30, 2012 by Greg

These pictures are from the 1975 book “creating modern furniture” by Dona Meilach. It is a how-to book for craftspeople with lots of great basic information about building your own furniture, mainly out of wood. However, it interests me (the … Continue reading →

Posted in 70's, california, craft, dan wenger, edward g. livingston, federico armijo, hal e. davis, jack rogers hopkins, jocko johnson, mabel hutchinson, svetozar radakovitch, tom tramel, william a. keyser | 4 Comments

the pacifica mystery

Posted on March 29, 2012 by Greg

Through the years, while obsessively leafing through auction catalogs of 20th century design, I have often come across wrought-iron furniture pieces that I liked that were described as being from “Pacifica Designs”, or “Pacific Ironworks”, or “Pacific Iron”, or some … Continue reading →

Posted in california, iron, LA, luther conover, milo baughman, pacific iron, pacifica | 11 Comments

I like it, whatever it is (#3)

Posted on March 15, 2012 by Greg

My very good friend in the southland came across this piece a couple of years ago at a garage sale while he was driving around. He characterized the garage sale as having your garden-variety kids clothes and toys and general … Continue reading →

Posted in california, iron, LA, whatever | Leave a comment