As I have been looking at the Oliver House front corner (Figure 1) and the way the different planes interconnect, I was reminded of another Schindler house with an interesting corner-the Buck House. Both the Oliver and Buck Houses are examples of Schindler’s Plaster Skin buildings and they were built about the same time-the Oliver House in 1933-34 and the Buck house in 1934.Both are clearly Schindler buildings, but they are very different. The Buck House and Apartment spread out along a wide flat corner lot at street level (Figure 2), the Oliver House sits on a steep lot, angled above the street . The Buck House is more energetic, with more right angles and planes, the Oliver House is calmer. Continue reading RM Schindler’s Oliver and Buck Houses, Variations on a Corner, part 4 of 5→
Like the McAlmon Apartment, and most of Schindler’s houses, the Oliver House has lots of movement. In the Mc Almon Apartment the horizontals move out in different directions. In the Oliver House, all the movement points to the front corner where, for me, it meets and moves out into space (Figure 1).
One thing that adds to the movement is the cantilever of the front corner. This two-sided cantilever seems, in typical Schindler fashion, to be floating. The cantilever separates the front corner from the ground, and reinforces its horizontal proportions and movement. Figure 2 shows what the house would look like without the cantilever-not so dynamic.
Architect language alert: Architects call the location or lot where a house is placed the “site”. A house is “sited” and we talk about where and how the house is placed on the site as its “siting”.
Like the fronts of so many of Schindler’s houses, the Oliver House is very dramatic (Figure 1). Much of that drama is created from the way the house is placed on its sloping lot.
There’s something familiar about that corner….
As I have been looking at the Oliver House front corner (Figure 1) and the way the different planes interconnect, I was reminded of another Schindler house with an interesting corner-the Buck House. Both the Oliver and Buck Houses are examples of Schindler’s Plaster Skin buildings and they were built about the same time-the Oliver House in 1933-34 and the Buck house in 1934. Both are clearly Schindler buildings, but they are very different. The Buck House and Apartment spread out along a wide flat corner lot at street level (Figure 
2), the Oliver House sits on a steep lot, angled above the street . The Buck House is more energetic, with more right angles and planes, the Oliver House is calmer.
