JOHN LAUTNER: - Triangle Modernist Houses

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Introduction
The 2008 Hammer exhibition “Between Earth and Heaven: The Architecture of John Lautner” and Getty-Hammer
Symposium “Against Reason: John Lautner and Postwar Architecture” created a flood of publicity and generated
much renewed interest in Lautner‟s life and work. It also motivated me to look deeper into the literature for
information on this unique and creative genius. A logical starting point for me was to perform a “Lautner” search
in my 8,000 item “Julius Shulman Annotated Bibliography” prepared while researching a book on Shulman cover
photos. The search resulted in 275 articles with Shulman photos of Lautner projects. Shulman has logged close to
75 assignments on Lautner projects over the years for various clients ranging from Lautner himself to book and
article authors, magazine editors, newspaper reporters, exhibition curators, homeowners and realtors. He also used
his considerable marketing skills and contacts with publishers and editors to help spread the gospel of modernism
according to Lautner to a global audience.
This bibliography compiles my Shulman-Lautner findings with the excellent bibliographic foundation laid by
Ludolf von Alvensleben in the 1991 Viennese exhibition catalog “John Lautner: Architect: Los Angeles”, “John
Lautner, Architect” with text by Lautner and edited by Frank Escher and the John Lautner Foundation web site.
Listings were also gleaned from the endnotes in “The Architecture of John Lautner” by Alan Hess and “Between
Earth and Heaven: The Architecture of John Lautner” edited by Nicholas Olsberg, et al. Building upon these
sources, exhaustive searches were also done on ProQuest, Los Angeles Times Historical, RIBA, Avery,
WorldCat, WilsonWeb, Art Index, Google and many other databases and sources resulting in well over 1200
items discovered to date. Feedback on ways to improve this compilation and submittals of new items and sources
for inclusion is always welcome as I intend to update this bibliography periodically.
Structure of the Bibliography
Entries in the bibliography are chronological with divisions by year. Each year begins with a brief chronology of
important events in Lautner‟s life followed by a list of the year‟s projects and finally, annotated bibliographical
items published during the year. I have compiled the chronology and project lists from the ones provided in the
aforementioned Ludwig von Alvensleben exhibition catalog and Lautner-Escher monograph, the 1999 Barbara-
Ann Campbell-Lange “John Lautner” monograph edited by Peter Gossel, the 2008 “Between Earth and Heaven:
The Architecture of John Lautner” edited by Olsberg, the 1998 “The Architecture of John Lautner” by Alan Hess
and the project database prepared by Tycho Saariste available on the Lautner Foundation web site. I also have not
taken the time to edit items from the Shulman bibliography that contain work by others in addition to Lautner.
Readers may find it interesting, however, to see what company Lautner was keeping in these group articles.
Illustrations are from my personal collection or from various internet sources and credited in the adjacent
bibliography listing.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Judith Lautner for her her guidance and review comments and contribution of numerous
items included herein.