Hiram Hudson Benedict

Hiram Hudson Benedict (born April 12, 1901 in Riverside , California , † November 17, 1984 in Nordland , Washington ) was an American architect. He is a student of Frank Lloyd Wright and was mainly through his styled Villa Boulder Reign in Carefree (Arizona) known in the film Zabriskie Point by Michelangelo Antonioni plays an important role.

Life

Hiram Hudson "Benny" Benedict grew up in Riverside, California and did not have a college degree. Around 1920 he worked as an architectural draftsman in Los Angeles . In 1922 he worked briefly for the architect George Washington Smith in Santa Barbara , in 1935 he moved to Palm Springs , where he worked for Gene Verge as a draftsman. Shortly afterwards he founded the partnerships “Brewster & Benedict” and “Finlayson & Benedict” and planned outstanding buildings such as the town hall, the Pacific Building , the Colonial Lounge and several residences for the project developer Karl de Laittre. In 1939/40 he spent a year in Phoenix , but returned to Palm Springs at the request of Karl de Laittre and in 1940 opened an office in the McManus building there at 315 North Palm Canyon Drive. During World War II , he worked as an army architect. In 1946 he moved again to Palm Springs and opened a branch of Bain, Overturf, Turner and Associates from Seattle , but moved his office again to Phoenix after a few years.

Several Hollywood stars, including Charlie Chaplin's son Sydney , John Ireland and Joanne Dru , acquired a larger site on Camelback Mountain in the early 1950s and employed Benedict as the architect for a club complex and a model house that John Ireland moved into. The area with five tennis courts named Paradise Valley Racquet Club and is now a protected area Camelback Mountain known ( Sanctuary on Camelback Mountain ). It was extensively renovated in 2007. Benedict was a member of the American Institute of Architects since 1956 . In the early 1960s Benedict settled in Carefree, Arizona, where he was friends with the local project developers and planned numerous properties, including that of Loyal Davis, father of Nancy Reagan , Henry Sturgis, Eugene Casserole, Clare Boothe Luce and Howard Ahara. In the mid 1970s he moved to Las Vegas , where he worked for the Dunes Casino. He spent the rest of his life in Nordland (Washington), where he died in November 1984.

Benedict was a technical advisor on the filming of Michelangelo Antonionis Zabriskie Point . His villa, Boulder Reign , near Carefree, built for Carl Hovgaard, was rented for the interior shoots, rebuilt as a dummy on the grounds of Southwestern Studios in Scottsdale and effectively blown up at the end of the film to the music of Pink Floyd . The original building was later bought by the richest supermarket owner in Phoenix, Rusty Lyon.

Benedict was married eight times. He divorced his first wife Margaret in 1936. He was married to his third wife Lucile from 1951 to 1954, she died in 1954. In the same year he married his fourth wife Capi, who died a year later. That same year, 1955, he married Evelyn and divorced her within a month. Also in 1955, Lois Grace became his wife, an artist from La Jolla . She would later work with Benedict as a landscape architect and also designed the outdoor facilities of the famous Boulder Reign villa. Lois Grace died in September 1988.

Quote about Hiram Hudson Benedict

“Considering that he had no college education and basically learned by the seat of his pants, he was a great talent and his projects were well received. He was a great salesman. He would sketch upside down in front of clients and that alone knocked their socks off. "

“For not having graduated from college and learning everything through experience, he was a great talent with remarkable success. He was a gifted salesman. He was able to draw right away in front of his clients' eyes and that alone made them fall out of their pines. "

- Don Woods (architect and friend) : Modern San Diego

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Modern San Diego ( Memento of the original from August 5, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed August 5, 2018 
2. ↑ Desert Sun No. 34, March 22, 1940: HH Benedict Returns and Opens Office Here , accessed August 5, 2018
3. ^ Douglas B. Sydnor: Paradise Valley Architecture , Charleston (South Carolina), p. 51
4. ↑ Camelback Mountain , accessed August 5, 2018
5. ^ The New York Times, April 15, 2007: A Hot Hotel Town in the Arizona Desert , accessed August 5, 2018
6. ↑ Hiram Hudson Benedict. In: arch INFORM ; accessed on August 5, 2018.
7. ↑ Hiram Hudson Benedict (1901-1984). (No longer available online.) In: modernsandiego.com. Archived from the original on August 5, 2018 ; accessed on August 5, 2018 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.