Julius Ralph Davidson

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Julius Ralph Davidson (born February 7, 1889 in Berlin ; † May 2, 1977 in Ojai ) was an architect from Germany who worked in the USA from 1923. Among other things, he built Thomas Mann's house in Pacific Palisades .

Life

Davidson, son of an English father, grew up with an uncle. Due to family difficulties, he was unable to study, instead began an apprenticeship in 1908 at the Moritz Hirschler architectural office in Berlin and in 1910 moved to Frank Stuart Murray's office in London , where he stayed until 1912. From 1912 to 1914 he worked in Paris , among others for Paul and Alfred Dumas.

Julius Ralph Davidson married the fashion designer Greta Wollstein before the outbreak of the First World War. He fought in World War I and returned to Berlin in 1919, where he opened his own architecture office.

In 1923 he moved to Los Angeles , where he worked for the Robert D. Farquhar architecture firm until 1924. In 1925 he became a film architect for Cecil B. DeMille . From 1926 he had his own architecture and design office in Los Angeles, which was only relocated to Chicago from 1932 to 1935 . In 1937 he applied for naturalization. In 1972 he retired from working life.

Influenced by his work in furnishing large luxury ships, which he was involved in in London, and by industrial design, Davidson focused on interior design in the early years of his career. Already in Berlin, and again and again later, he worked with indirect lighting ; the color palette of the Fauves and the Beaux Arts architecture of Farquhar appear regularly in his works. In the 1930s he was mainly concerned with the design of built-in furniture for duo-functional rooms. From 1937 onwards, he often designed residential buildings in the International Style .

From 1945 he worked on the Case Study Houses project and designed houses No. 1, which is now registered in the National Register of Historic Places , 11 and 15. He attached great importance to comfortable, space-saving and labor-saving furnishings.

Davidson's estate is in the collection of the Art, Design and Architecture Museum, UC Santa Barbara.

Buildings (incomplete list)

Davidson's buildings in Berlin were the Pfeifferling house in Berlin-Grunewald from 1919 and three shops for Stiller shoes that were built in 1922.

In Beverly Hills he built the Osherenko house on North Alpine Drive in 1949.

He planned the Knickerbocker Hotel and the Shoreland Hotel in Chicago and was responsible for the renovations of the Pearson Hotel there from 1932 to 1935.

In Hollywood he redesigned the Cocoanut Grove Restaurant in 1926.

Case Study House No. 15 based on Davidson's designs was built on Lasheart Drive in La Canada , California, in 1948.

In Los Angeles, a restaurant and a number of shops were built on Wilshire Boulevard from 1927 according to Davidson's plans, in 1940 the Gretna Green apartment building on Dunoon Lane and in 1945 his own house on South Barrington Avenue. Like the Cron House in Los Angeles, it has not been preserved. The Crosby-Furniss house was built on Denslow Avenue in 1945, the Schapiro house was built on Waverly and Maxwell Streets in 1949, the Dann house on Londonderry Place in 1952, the house of Dr. in 1957 on Oporto Drive. Egbert and on Tigertail Road the house of Dr. Fenichel. In 1958 the house of Dr. Jokl. The Westgate apartment building in Los Angeles was built in 1966.

Thomas Mann House, Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles (2020)

In North Hollywood , Davidson built the McFadden house on Toluca Lake Avenue in 1948, and the Vigeveno house in Ojai in 1941.

In Pacific Palisades, the Mann family home at 1550 San Remo Drive was built in 1941/42 according to plans by Davidson. Davidson did not count the house built in the "international style" among his best buildings, and the architectural photographer Julius Shulman did not include it in his list of Davidson's most important designs. The Kingsley family's home on Amalfi Drive, built in 1945, was also designed by Julius Ralph Davidson.

Awards

In 1939 Davidson received first prize from the Glass Institute, Pittsburgh; In 1946 the Progressive Architecture magazine award and in 1977 the AIA, California Council special award .

literature

  • Lillian Pfaff, “A more comfortable version of the International Style”. Julius Ralph Davidson , in: archithese 5, 2011, p. 34 ff.
  • Francis Nenik / Sebastian Stumpf : Seven Palms. The Thomas Mann House in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles. Spector Books, Leipzig 2018, ISBN 978-3-959-05180-4

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Francis Nenik / Sebastian Stumpf: Seven Palms. The Thomas Mann House in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles. Spector Books, Leipzig 2018, ISBN 978-3-95905-180-4 , pp. 98 ff .
  2. ↑ a b Lillian Pfaff, "A more comfortable version of the International Style". Julius Ralph Davidson , in: archithese 5, 2011, p. 34 ff.
  3. ↑ Life data according to the Pacific Coast Architecture Database
  4. ↑ Naturalisierungsantrag on www.fold3.com
  5. ↑ a b c d Julius Ralph Davidson. In: arch INFORM .
  6. ↑ Case Study House # 1 at www.laconservancy.org
  7. ↑ Case Study House No. 1 at www.nps.gov
  8. ^ Online Archive of California
  9. ^ Francis Nenik / Sebastian Stumpf: Seven Palms. The Thomas Mann House in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles . Spector Books, Leipzig 2018, ISBN 978-3-95905-180-4 , pp. 178 f .
personal data
SURNAME Davidson, Julius Ralph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-American architect
DATE OF BIRTH February 7, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH May 2, 1977
Place of death Ojai