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>> Andrew Blauvelt: It's always great, two great
friends of the Walker Christopher Monkhouse who many of you will know from the MIA is
now the Eloise Martin Curator and Chairman of the Department of European Decorative
Arts of the Art Institute of Chicago; which is actually a shorter
title than your previous title. You're making progress.
And he was actually a contributor to the Exhibition Catalogue,
and he'll discuss the design of the Miller House in Columbus, Indiana,
Saarinen's residential masterwork. And following him will be Tom Fischer [assumed
spelling], Dean of the College of Design at the University of Minnesota and a great
friend and partner on this project as well as many others who will discuss Saarinen's
legacy for contemporary architecture. Tom, besides being Dean, is also the author
of numerous books including his most recent Architectural Design and Ethics tools
for survival which I see is now listed on Amazon so it must be out-- out and about.
So without further adieu, please help me welcome Christopher Monkhouse.
[ Audience Clapping ]
>> Christopher: Well one of the advantages of coming late in the day is that the subject
of my talk needs no introduction starting with last night's wonderful discussion
with Belvisar [assumed spelling] Korab [assumed spelling] and his family,
we kept hearing about the Miller House again and again
and we've heard a little bit this morning talking about his religious architecture,
about Miller himself as a patron, but we haven't really seen this great patron,
Irwin [assumed spelling] Miller and his wife Zania [assumed spelling]
who I have on the screen. This is your first introduction to them.
The Millers' are a very interesting family and
it's actually Leon Sakowski [assumed spelling] who reminded me that in a profile in
we think Fortune Magazine in the 60's, it was even suggested that he would
make very good presidential timber to the United States of America.
And in given his many accomplishments which I am going
to briefly recede one can well see why that was suggested.
Well, I'm talking about a private residence in the public realm--
the J. Irwin Miller House in Columbus, Indiana. Despite Irwin Miller's public roles in
business and banking, religion, education, politics and the arts, he actively
guarded his and his family's privacy. Eero Saarinen and Interior Designer Alexander
Girard [assumed spelling] had proved sensitive to these concerns when collaborating
on the
family's Canadian retreat. In a sense that 1950 commission served for
both designers and clients as a dress rehearsal for the Columbus Project that
immediately followed in 1953-57. Since winning the 1948 Jefferson National
Expansion Memorial competition in St. Louis, Saarinen's projects tended to be media events.
For the Miller House however, client and architect went
out of their way to avoid attention. Miller selected a site of roughly
15 acres on the edge of Columbus, a far less conspicuous location that the
large prominently situated brick house of his childhood, which I might
add if you knew what to look for when Jennifer showed the tabernacle
church this morning, the photograph of it, you could just see on the left, an
axial view of that in-townhouse. The landscape served as a fortress-like barrier,
and here you see the house placed on top of the berm here with one side of
the house overlooking a flood plain of the Flat Rock River, and this photograph
was taken from the edge of the Flat Rock River; and the other three enclosed by
staggered edges of tall arborvitae. Here's one of them and then another.
And of course this might remind some of you of
a certain residence in Wysetta where Dan Kiley, who is responsible for these arborvitae
hedges also left his handy work. Landscape architect, Dan Kiley,
created a series of outdoor rooms in tree lined allays to echo
the houses grid pattern. Saarinen repaid the compliment by introducing
large expanses of glass on three sides of the Miller house to Kiley's landscape
so Kiley's landscape could be fully appreciated from within.
Miller intended to maintain the low profile of his single story flat-roofed house
by severely restricting the house's appearance in publications, and forbidding any mention
of his name, the house's specific location or its cost.
What did appear in print, however, extended the Miller house's impact
on domestic architecture throughout North America and abroad.
The professional architecture community was treated to its first peak
in the September 1958 issue of architectural forum.
Arresting plans and details from Saarinen's office were greatly enhanced by stunning images
from world renowned architectural photographer Ezra Stoller; the only photograph Saarinen
and the Millers' allowed to be published. Starting with title, a contemporary
Palladian villa, the author went to great effort do
draw parallels between the Miller house and Palladia's [assumed spelling] Villa Rotunda
in Vicenza, Italy built four centuries earlier. Thumbnail sketches-- here are those
thumbnail sketches, there's the Villa Rotunda; this is the Miller House with the four private
areas which we've already been introduced too;
this is the Master bedroom, children's area, this is where the guestroom,
servants as well as car and then down here is the kitchen.
Thumbnail sketches illustrated the author's contention
that both structures utilized four loosely connected houses, performing separate functions,
arranged around the central dominant space which in turn reached
out into the surrounding landscape in all four sides.
The article got it all wrong according to Kevin
Roche, associate architect for the project. Roche had been expecting critics to describe
the Miller House in mesian [assumed spelling]
terms and in the process zero in on
their real source of inspiration, Mies van der Rohe Barcelona Pavilion of 1929
and I think we could also add the Farnsworth House.
House and Garden's February 1929 issue propelled the Miller House
into the consciousness of the general public. The Miller House served as its Hallmark
House for 1959, the third in a series of houses selected for having met the following
criteria and I quote, "Our measure is the value
of the house in human terms; a measure that comprises exhilarating space to move
about in visual richness to delight the eye, a total environment
to nurture the spirits of the people who live in it."
Through the eye of Ezra Stoller's lens the house appeared on the front covered,
followed by more than 20 pages within including six in full color;
and here I just want to make an aside. I'm very grateful to Judy
Dayton for many reasons, and in particular for this lecture
lending me her much treasured copy of that House and Garden.
And as you see it's still very much a precious relic from the family archive
which I have been sure I must return upon the
end of this lecture, but it also is so important for this audience because this
shows again the popular reception of the house through these two journals.
This is the one that Ken and Judy saw that inspired them
to ultimately build their Rimaldi [assumed spelling] Jurgular [assumed spelling] House
in the 60's and of course their Vince James House now.
So this is just one example of how the Miller House literally comes home
for us in this community. This is the power of House and Garden
which perhaps today we don't put it in such an influential plane
but it was then as this article, this pivotal article makes so readily apparent.
The article mentioned neither Platonism [assumed spelling] Norton Mies [assumed spelling];
instead invoking a surprising reference to vernacular sources and I quote,
"The great center area is a big hands-infested meeting room for activities
and entertainment inspired by old Midwest farm
houses where all rooms opened on a common room,
it has the same magnetic effect, expresses the common unity of the family."
What did Kevin Roche think of that? Although not quite what the
architect had in mind, the farmhouse comparison was easily overlooked
when seen in the larger context of the article. House and Garden proudly presented the house
room by room as Zania Miller might have done for her guests, and I'm now going to
give you a sort of room by room tour. Aspects that sparked the imagination and lead
to imitation began with the entrance hall, opening onto the great central living room.
A floor to ceiling panel functioned as a theater curtain.
This is the area last night that Baldo Cycora [assumed spelling] mentioned to us
that he specifically worked on and you're going to now see a series from the Yale Archive
of little photographs of Marquette as he endlessly came up with combinations ultimately
for Saarinen to either select or reject. But first of all I want to show you the
screen that acted as a place for art. Now the Millers' never considered
themselves art collectors. The art came after the house and was clearly
meant to just enhance the daily experience. One of the first works they acquired was the
one that you're now going to
see; I'm sorry, they we are. This is a Picasso from 1911, a still life
of a Karaft [assumed spelling] and a glass. This was bought in 1962 so it's
very early and they're collecting and not surprisingly they put it on the
entrance screen and it was still there when I had the privilege
to visit the house in 1994. I'm going to come back to the role
of the art in the house later. But they never, never considered
themselves as collectors per se. Now there's the other side of the screen.
It hid the stage set on the other side and helped anchor the freestanding
fireplace in the round to its left. Now this is the area where Baldo Cycora
spent a great deal of time thinking about and making models to consider
all the possibilities. Ultimately, it's a very simple one
that they came up with but initially, and this is one of the archival
photographs, the fireplace in the round, the cylindrical fireplace, was going to have
two walls flanking it and then another alternative,
there are about 12 different alternatives, was this more bold version
of two walls flanking the fireplace as to serve as anchors.
I think we can see why we're happy that got rejected.
This is another cylindrical view freestanding and this time with a canopy around it.
And of course that might made you think of Canada which I'll be showing in a minute.
Freestanding fireplaces became very popular in the 1960's;
and the Miller example no doubt contributed to that trend.
The simple cylindrical shape fitted well into its marble-lined environment.
Its strategic location offered unobstructed views from the den
with the fires glow complimented that and emanating from the television screen
and from the dining room and living room where the crackling flames enhanced the
discussion taking place at the table or in the conversation pit; reminiscent of
the campfire, it also served as the centerpiece
of the Millers' less formal living room in Canada from 1950 which Saarinen
and Girard also worked on, and it's interesting in one of those alternative designs
for the fireplace in the Miller House in Columbus,
they came up with a solution very similar to this indeed.
The principal backdrop for the fireplace along the East wall
of the living room was a 50 foot long shelving unit, a detail which appeared
on the magazine's cover designed by Alexander Girard and inspired
by one George Nelson developed for Herman Miller in 1946,
it reads like a three dimensional mural. Girard alternated panels of Rosewood doors
hiding a television screen, bar, record player, and storage for camera equipment
with open shelving for books and multicolored niches for precious objects.
Since its brilliant interpretation in the Miller House, the constant wonder camera look
for living rooms has never gone out of fashion. Guest rooms-- a guest could enjoy drinks
and conversation before dinner by the fire where sitting furniture was always close at
hand, though I might add absent in the photos by Stoller who removed it, the furniture,
to emphasize the uninterrupted flow of space which again is another point, photographs
aren't always honest in what they show us in terms
of how the family actually lived. The dining room beckoned from behind the
curtains that could be opened dramatically to reveal a special table setting.
The massive circular table allowed Saarinen to
revisit a similar 1929 table his father designed for Saarinen House at Cranbrook; but unlike
Elial's [assumed spelling] wooden table, Eero's pedestal and 96 foot diameter
surface were made entirely of marble. Most significantly the flare coned
support encased a brass pump mechanism that supplied water to a recessed bowl
which could function as a fountain, a fully planted garden or a
pool for lilies and orchids. And there you see one of the place settings
of table, and also it's wonderful in the exhibit
that the builders have lent some of the very china you see in this iconic photograph.
Although the Stoller photographs taken shortly after the House's completion shows Charles
Aimes chairs with steel Eiffel Tower legs, they were immediately replaced as soon
as Saarinen's iconic tulip chair went into production.
The tulip chairs reinforced the design of the
table and dramatically reduced the clutter of furniture Saarinen called a slum of legs.
And it is interesting in terms of the family's perception of their own house when I was talking
to their daughter Betsy, is an old friend, and
I was making reference to the Stoller photograph which for most people is the only view they
know of the house; there were Aimes chairs and she said, "No, no, no, there were never
Aimes chairs in my parents' dining room. We always used the Saarinen tulip chair
so here's another instance of photographs being deceptive.
For after dinner coffee and socializing, guests could retire to the center of the living room
where they descended into a recessed space with
built-in seating variously described by forum and House and Garden as a conversation
center, conversation pool or a lounge pit. As Stoller's photograph makes clear, the
recessed pit allowed the Western view of Dan Kiley's landscaped grounds to
be enjoyed without any distraction. This novel concept in social engineering
could well be the Miller House's most influential innovation.
It inspired a flood of imitations throughout the 1960's and early 1970's.
The House and Garden article's reception could not have been more positive starting
with a letter to Eero and Aideen [assumed spelling] Saarinen and Kevin Roche,
from Edgar Kaufman junior; then the Museum of Modern Arts Curator of Architecture
and Design whose father hired Frank Lloyd Wright to design falling water.
Kaufman observed "House and Garden major work looks splendid and filled me with respect,
a major job of architecture in the rounded sense," Edgar Kaufman.
As the article described the 10 foot wide terrazzo surrounding House as a "a sort
of Arabian Nights platform, and the conversation pit in the living room as in oasis,"
perhaps it is not surprising that it inspired a Middle Eastern construction company
out of Bahrain and I'll show you a letter from the archive, to inquire about purchasing.
The Miller House's plan for an unnamed "prominent personality belonging
to the ruling family of Bahrain." Needless to say, Saarinen
declined the opportunity. The House also captured the imagination
of House and Garden's general leadership, including a reader with the
suggestive initials TLC of Cleveland, Ohio whose leader to the Editor enthusiastically
praised "the wonderful story to all in the living room which
is really a work of art." She did express some reservations, however,
and I quote "Maybe I'm old-fashioned, but the conversation pool reminds
me of a jazzed up Roman bath, but I do realize this is a new idea in living
room seating and like all such concepts, takes a little getting used
to by its older folks. It looks mighty comfortable but is inflexible.
I'm afraid it would frustrate me for I'm one of those housewives
who really enjoy rearranging the living room now and then for a change of scene."
Had TLC visited the House in person, she may have discovered the climbing in
and out of the pit crew challenging for older folk,
eventually challenging the Millers' to install a handrail.
Saarinen and Girard have been moving toward the fully developed conversation pit
in their respective work for some time. As early as 1941, Saarinen with his father
introduced a partially sunken living room in the A.C. Warmouth [assumed
spelling] House in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He further examined the idea in his highly
visible 1945 case study House number 9 for John Entinza [assumed spelling].
Saarinen expanded the reach of the conversation piece by using one
as the lounge's central feature in his 1958 Emma
Hartman noise house dormitory at Vassar College in Pekipsee [assumed spelling], New York.
First published an architectural record in September 1959, it looked as modern
as a recently landed flying saucer. It must have inspired more than
a few progressive Vassar alums to consider one for their own home.
Paul Rudolph did as much as any architect to promote the conversation pit,
starting with one in his New Haven office where he met with potential clients.
They frequently appear in his well-regarded Florida homes from the 1960's
and in turn inspired a series of lively cartoons by Allen [assumed spelling] Dunn
for the architectural record of which I show you just one.
This is the first four that Allen Dunn did. That one is for small talk.
And I think when features of this nature get turned into cartoons particularly in places
like the New Yorker; you know you're on to something.
This is something new; it's creating a lot of talk as it were.
And it is interesting-- Paul Rudolph probably took the conversation pit to the highest level
of execution, and it is probably perhaps one of
his greatest domestic work which I just happened to have the privilege of seeing last
weekend; and when I was in Fort Worth, Texas and this is the Sid and Ann Bass
House of 1970 which doesn't have one but two conversation pits in a
perfect state of preservation. Of all the ripples emanating from the Miller's
conversation pit, perhaps none was more poetic than that from landscape architect, Dan Kiley.
Having worked with Saarinen on the grounds for
the St. Louis Gateway Arch and the Miller House,
Kiley was uniquely qualified to carry the conversation pit into the garden.
In the early 1960's Minnesota couples, Stanley and Bill Gregory,
provided Kiley with the opportunity at their fortress-like house near Lake Minnetonka;
coincidentally House and Garden's Hallmark House for 1968.
Working with Chicago architect, Ike Coburn [assumed spelling] Kiley created
a dining terrace that tied in perfectly with his ongoing exploration of the
interplay between inside and outside space. He introduced a square recess with
built-in seating and a center table-- as if to emphasize the connection with
Saarinen and Millers' a fountain bubbled up from the table's base as you see here.
The Miller House remains Saarinen's most fully realized example of domestic architecture.
Through its appearance in architectural forum in House and Garden in such thoughtful
and creative responses as Kiley's El Fresco conversation pit,
the House exerts an influence well beyond its role
as a very private residence in a small mid-Western town.
I now want to consider two other aspects-- one is that ripple effect and like all things
a conversation pit having been out of fashion for a long time, sort of written
off as an architectural cliche, but like all things they have
a way of coming around again. This just happens to be an
instance that appeared in the New York Times back last November;
this is in London and it's for Richard Rodgers'
son; and this is one in Thailand that appeared
last winter in the New York Times; just two further indications that the
launching pad for the conversation pit, i.e. the Miller House, is still alive and
well and is influential today as
it was when it was built. But there's another part
to the Miller House story, and also turning to the popular press again,
many of you may have seen in 2007 in June, there was a reference to a painting sold
by the Miller family that brought a record, a Monet, about 80.4 million dollars.
The Millers' have or their children have indeed sold the art from the house
which presents a very interesting situation. But the first thought is, "Oh the art's gone.
Does that mean the house is next?" And the good news is and I
think I'm at liberty to mention, the fact that the family do appreciate that
the Miller House is a very special legacy of their parents, not to mention Eero Saarinen
and his office and that it should be preserved; and therefore they're making every
effort to work out an arrangement with the Indianapolis Art Museum,
highly appropriate in view of the fact that Zania Miller in the 1970's
got the Indianapolis Art Museum to have a satellite art gallery in
Columbus, Indiana for changing exhibitions; there's already a nice relationship there.
And one likes to think that the sale of the art might also endow this endeavor.
So there are a lot of positive things that can come of this.
And this is a photograph I wanted to share with you because it shows the Monet,
the most valuable work in the house; it shows Irwin Miller playing not only
a violin but a Stradivarius violin. He is truly the modern Medache
[assumed spelling] and that is his daughter-in-law
accompanying him at the Grand piano. But it's important to realize the art, as
I said early-on, they never wanted to be thought
of as collectors; it was there merely to enhance the bones of the architecture
which they were privileged to live in, and this painting in fact came very late
into their possession; it actually had belonged to his sister and she left it to her brother
in 1993, so it came very late on in the history of the house.
And also it's interesting to note that here in the--
the little red button doesn't want to work-- but here in the niches of the Alexander
Girard storage units, some of the folk art that was originally housed in there have
been replaced with small works of art that appealed to them over the years.
On the left and I'll show you the detail in a moment, it is a Matisse [assumed spelling]
from 1904 and on the far right is a Buddha. Here we are, this is the Matisse
and this is the Eugene Buddha. Their case, primarily French art 19th and
20th century, he particularly liked Picasso, still likes with guitars in them, probably
a reference to the fact that he played a violin.
Well the art as I said is gone. This also pertains to two
sculptures outside the house. This is this allay of honeysuckles
planted by Dan Kiley. Dan Kiley always meant this allay not to
be read with an allay with an axial feature at either end, but more like a loggia of columns
that you look through out to the floor plane. So this sculpture in the
foreground by Henry Moore from 1957 wasn't acquired
by the family until 1971. The allay in other words had
been in place for over 50 years. At the far end is the Lipchitz, still life
actually incorporating a guitar again, and that was acquired in 1977; and even
Dan Kiley said himself I've never thought that these were integral to my project.
Well the fact is they're not now; they have been sold as well.
But I leave with this image to point out this is
one instance where the hole is greater than some
of the parts; and even though the art may have left the house it was never central
to the house, never central to its design. The house itself has such good bones, such
a beautiful use of material, the best materials,
the detailing is exquisite, not to mention the bucolic [assumed spelling] setting
in which it finds itself. This is all in place indeed.
This may be the example of when less is truly more.
So when this house is opened to the public, the people will see it
as with Stoller has turned it into a visual icon for us.
It will revert back to its early life in House and Garden and architectural record,
and then we'll also join a great tradition of
historic house museums from the 20th century which preserve such masterpieces
as Frank Lloyd Rice-- falling water; not to mention
his totality essence; Carboze's [assumed spelling] Villa Sevault
[assumed spelling] Mies' Farnsworth House, Johnson's Glass House, and even Gropius'
[assumed spelling] House in Lincoln, Massachusetts and now we hope sooner
than later, because you're going to be in for a great treat this little architectural
Mecca in the Midwest called Columbus, Indiana will now have a missing element
for people who have gone to visit it for its many architectural
wonders over the years. They're now going to be able to see a
masterpiece of domestic architecture by Eero Saarinen for one of his greatest and
most informed clients, Irwin and Zamia Miller, and I can't think of a better conclusion to
this Symposium in terms of preservation as well
as the preservation of the legacy for Saarinen, not to mention the Millers'.
Thank you very much. [Audience clapping]