Variations on a theme, a system of design,

or 

playing with blocks

As I looked at the front of the Oliver House, I noticed that there are 3 different styles of architecture. They are tied together by the ribbon window and they have solid masses at each end. From left to right, from thickest to flattest, they are (Figure 1)

Continue reading RM Schindler, Ollie Blocks & the 5 other Oliver Houses, part 5 of 5 →

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.

Continue reading RM Schindler’s Oliver and Buck Houses, Variations on a Corner, part 4 of 5 →

Unraveling the corner

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.

Continue reading RM Schindler’s Oliver House and the Corner, part 3 of 5 →