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RICHARD ALAN MEIER, FAIA (1934-)

Born in Newark, Richard Meier studied architecture at Cornell University. He tried to join the office of Le Corbusier, but the Swiss-French architect wasn’t hiring Americans, jealous of so many winning international design awards.   Meier worked briefly for Skidmore Owings & Merrill then for Marcel Breuer. He set up his own office in 1963 and has been an icon of architecture ever since.

He was one of the New York Five (with Charles Gwathmey, Peter Eisenman, Michael Graves, and John Hejduk) who dominated avant-garde American architecture in the 1960s and ’70s. They were the subject of a meeting of CASE (Conference of Architects for the Study of the Environment) held at the Museum of Modern Art in 1969 and a book published in 1972.

Meier’s awards are many; these are but a few. In 1984 he became the youngest recipient of the Pritzker Prize for Architecture. In 1989, he received the Royal Gold Medal from the Royal Institute of British Architects. In 1993 he received the Deutscher Architektur Preis, and in 1992 the French Government awarded him the honor of Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. In 1995 he was elected as a Fellow to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1997 he received the AIA Gold Medal as well as the Praemium Imperiale from the Japanese Government.

RUDOLF MICHAEL SCHINDLER (1887-1953)

Schindler was born to a middle class family in Vienna, Austria.  He attended the Imperial and Royal High School from 1899 to 1906 then enrolled in the Wagnersschule of Vienna Polytechnic University, graduating in 1911 with a degree in architecture.  Schindler worked for Hans and Theodore Mayer from 1911 to 1914.

Encouraged by fellow Austrian architect Adolph Loos, Schindler moved to Chicago in 1914 to work for Ottenheimer Stern and Reichert.  In 1916, he delivered 12 elaborate lectures at the Church School of Design in Chicago which became known as the Schindler “Program,” his central design philosophy.

Schindler always wanted to work for Frank Lloyd Wright and in late 1918 Wright hired him.  After obtaining the commission for the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, a major project that involved being in Japan for several years, Schindler was promoted to run Wright’s American operations out of the Oak Park IL studio.

In 1919, Schindler met and married Pauline Gibling (1893-1977) and in 1920 Wright sent Schindler to Los Angeles to work on the Aline Barnsdall House.

Beyond his job for Wright, Schindler started his own independent practice in Los Angeles in 1922.  Because of this issue and the two men’s massive egos, Schindler and Wright argued frequently and the two eventually separated as architects.

Richard Neutra worked for Wright in 1924 at Taliesin East but left after a few months to work in California with Schindler.  Neutra shared space in Schindler’s house with their wives.  Their firm was called Schindler and Neutra, then later AGIC (the Architectural Group for Industry and Commerce).

Neutra split from Schindler when Neutra got a larger commission from one of Schindler’s best clients, Philip Lovell.  They rarely interacted after that, and the Neutras moved out.  When Neutra had a heart attack in 1953, he found himself in the same hospital room as Schindler who was dying of cancer.   According to Neutra’s sons, Neutra and Schindler made their peace before Schindler died.

Philip Johnson famously rejected Schindler’s inclusion in the 1932 exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art because he felt Schindler was outside the International Style.  Schindler responded by rejecting the categorizing of his designs into any style.

The Schindlers divorced in the 1930’s, however Pauline Schindler returned to the Kings Road house after a few years and stayed there until her death in 1977.  They had one son, Mark.

EDWARD DURELL STONE, FAIA (1902-1978)

Stone was born in Fayetteville AR and attended the University of Arkansas studying Architecture. His older brother, James Hicks Stone, an architect in Boston, invited him to Boston where he attended the Boston Architectural Club (now Boston Architectural College), Harvard University, and MIT, but never received a degree. Eventually, he would receive five honorary degrees.

Between semesters at Harvard and MIT, Stone worked in the offices of Coolidge Shepley Bulfinch and Abbott, H. H. Richardson’s successor firm. Henry R. Shepley, one of the firm’s senior partners, mentored Stone and assisted him throughout his career.

While at MIT, Stone won the prestigious Rotch Travelling Fellowship which took him throughout Europe and North Africa for two years. In Europe he fell in love with Modernism. He was offered a job while in Stockholm at Schultze and Weaver and returned to New York City in October 1929, just before the Great Depression. He married Sarah Orlean Vandiver in 1931. They had two sons Edward Jr. and Robert.

Upon joining the firm; Stone designed the main lobby and grand ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. He then moved on to work in the offices of Reinhardt, Hoffmeister, Hood & Fouilhoux, who were among the architects associated on the Rockefeller Center project.

Stone was the principal designer on the Radio City Music Hall and the Roxy Theater (later called the Center Theater), and he worked in conjunction with interior designers Donald Deskey and Eugene Schoen.

His relationship with Deskey ultimately led to his first independent commission, a startling, volumetric 1933 Modernist house for Richard Mandel. The acclaim for the Mandel House led to other prominent residential commissions. Similarly, his work on the Rockefeller Center project also brought him the attention of Wallace Harrison and Nelson Rockefeller.

When the time came to choose an architect for the new Museum of Modern Art, Stone’s name was put forth by Harrison and Rockefeller over the objections of Alfred Barr, Jr., the Museum’s director. Stone was selected in association with Philip Goodwin, the only architect on the Museum board. It was at this point that Stone formally started his own architectural practice, opening an office in Rockefeller Center.

Stone was in the Army during WWII from 1942 to 1945, stationed in Washington DC where he was the Chief of the Planning and Design Section. His principal responsibility was planning Army Air Force bases.

Stone reopened his office in late 1945 in New York City and got mostly residential commissions. His success as a practitioner of Modernist architecture and his prominence as an academic connected him with Walter Gropius, Pietro Belluschi, George Howe, and William Wurster. 

Stone designed the US Pavilion at the Brussels World’s Fair. While it was under construction in 1958, Stone was featured on the cover of the March 31 Time Magazine. Through his relationship to Senator William Fulbright, he got the commission for the Kennedy Center in DC.

For the next twenty years, Stone designed buildings intended to reflect what he considered more universal values rather than what he called the “transient enthusiasms” of Modernism.

Stone attributed this shift to his second wife, Maria Elena Torchio, whom he met in 1953 and married in 1954. They had two children, Hicks and Maria, and in 1966 they had a very public divorce.

Carl Strandland, left, asked President Truman’s Reconstruction Finance Committee (RFC) in the summer of 1946 for $15 million worth of emergency loans to build small houses for GIs returning from the war effort. Strandland was not an architect, but his idea that metal neighborhoods could be prefabricated and swiftly built persuaded the President’s Commission into signing the loan 15 minutes before its emergency powers expired, and the “Lustron” was born.

To manufacture the ten tons of steel that went into each two-bedroom Lustron, Strandland bought a 25-acre factory lot in Columbus OH which had been used during WWII to build fighter planes. Strandland went back to the government for two more loans totaling another $25 million. A few years and only about 3,000 Lustrons later, the company was repossessed by the RFC in February of 1950 and declared bankruptcy a number of months later.

There was a three-bedroom model along with the two-bedroom Westchester. Lustron also made a smaller Newport model in both two- and three-bedroom versions.

BRIAN SHAWCROFT, AIA, ARIBA (1929-)

Brian Shawcroft grew up in Nottingham, England.  He graduated from the West Essex Technical College and School of Art in 1953 with an ARIBA degree. He interned for Tomei and Maxwell in London in 1954, Slater Uren and Pike from 1954-1956, Page and Steele in Toronto from 1956-1959, and Eduardo Catalano in Cambridge in 1960.

He finished his Masters in Architecture at both MIT and Harvard University in 1960. From then until 1968 he was an associate professor of architecture at the NCSU School of Design. For a number of years he worked with Holloway and Reeves, then started a private practice as Shawcroft, Burns, and Kahn.  In 1968, he joined with Dan MacMillan to form MacMillan, MacMillan, Shawcroft and Thames which broke up in 1970.

For a time, he worked with Harwell Hamilton Harris at his office on Cox Avenue.  With Clay Taylor, he established the firm Shawcroft-Taylor in 1971 which lasted until 1990 when he became McKimmon Edwards Shawcroft with Jimmy Edwards and Arthur McKimmon.

From the 1970’s through the late 1990’s, despite the fact that house design is rarely profitable, Shawcroft carried the torch for local Modernist architecture, designing much of the built inventory.  In 1991, Shawcroft was awarded the Henry Kamphoefner Prize.  He continues designing houses from his own Modernist home/office in Raleigh.

Shawcroft underwrites a yearly freehand drawing prize of $1,000 at the NCSU College of Design.  All photos by Shawcroft unless noted.

1962 – The Hans and Christian Gerhard House, 2707 Sevier Street, Durham.  Designed while Shawcroft worked for Charles Kahn.  Built by C. S. Witt.  Sold in 1966 to Philip and Helen Pratt.  Sold in 1994 to Adam and Sheryl Fowler who still owned it as of 2012.  4613 square feet.  Bottom four photos by Sheryl Fowler.

1962 – The Nathan and Rita Kaufman House, 2532 Sevier Street, Durham.  Sold in 1967 Frederick and Arlene Thurstone.  Sold in 1990 to George and Amalia Somjen who still owned it as of 2012.  May be sold.

1962 – The Louis and Helen DeAlessi House, 2624 McDowell Road, Durham. Built by C. S. Witt.   Published in Southern Living.  Sold in 1968 to Philip and Mary Lou Stevenson.  Sold in 1987 to Gregory Ruff.  Sold in 1993 to Erol and Deniz Gelenbe.  Sold in 1998 to Daniel Barboriak who still owned it as of 2014.  Renovations built by Leon Meyers Builders.

1963 – The Bruce and Nancy Wardropper House, 3443 Rugby Road, Durham.  2280 square feet.  Doug Janes designed the carport and has plans on hand for a bathroom renovation.  Sold in 2006 to Deborah Kargl.  Part of the TMH May 2008 tour.

1964 – The Leroy B. and Charlotte M. Martin House, built to the west of Crabtree Valley, Raleigh.  Had its own private bridge over Crabtree Creek off of Highway 70.  Built by C. S. Witt.  Sold to a developer and the house destroyed around 2001.

1965 – The Donald A. Seanor House, 6 Davie Lane, Chapel Hill. Commissioned 1963. Sold in 1967 to Lucy Conant. Sold in 1975 to June Burbage. Sold in 1981 to John and Daphne Garner.  Sold in 1974 to Mark Shuman.  Sold in 2004 to Amy and Jeff Demagistris.  Top two photos by Taylor Lewis.  Bottom photo by Lucy Pittman.

1966 – The Julia Watkins House, 1708 Curtis Road, Chapel Hill.
Sold in 1993 to Margaret Sachs who still owned it as of 2012.

1966 – The Robert W. and Ann Work Residence III, 1800 Rangecrest Road, Raleigh. Built by Cameron Construction.  This was Shawcroft’s second house for the Work family and the family’s third Modernist house.  Sold to Elmer and Michelle Wellons in 1984.  Sold in 1986 to Robert and Carole Spitz who still owned it as of 2012. Sold in 2014 to Kathy and Daniel Cody.  B/W photos by Taylor Lewis.  Color photos by Leilani Carter.

1968 – The Kenneth and Aspasia Knoerr Residence, 1608 Woodburn Road, Durham.
As of 2012 still owned by the Knoerrs.

1971 – The Stack Residence, Fayetteville NC.  Destroyed by fire, unsure of the year.

1974 – The Charles and Joann Jones Residence, 3705 Shadybrook Road, Raleigh. Joann Jones died young and her husband later remarried.  Sold to Jerry C. Liebhart in 1986.  Sold to Triple B Investment (Baxter Benson) in 1988.  Sold to John Kilgore in 1991.  Sold to James and Molly Kuehn in 1995.  Sold in 2001 to  Mack and Julie Paul who still owned it as of 2014. They began renovations in 2007 designed and built by Vinny Petrarca.  The original under-the-house carport was converted to an interior family room/guest suite and a separate garage added.  Additional renovations in 2014 designed and built by Raleigh Architecture and Construction.

1975 – The Charles L. Fulton Residence, 3624 Williamsborough Court, Raleigh.  Was on the market for two years with no serious offers, according to neighbor Gregory Poole, Jr.  With the house in deteriorating condition, Poole purchased the land and destroyed the house.

1976 – The Brian Shawcroft House I, 1509 Pineview Street, Raleigh.
Sold in 1997 by Rodney and Nancy Rich who still owned it as of 2012.

1976 – The Frank H. and Lillian Moore House, 13300 Durant Road, Raleigh.  Sold in 1994 to Paul and Alice Chou.  Shawcroft designed a renovation in 2013, unbuilt.

1976 – The William and Shahrivar Wakeham House, 6809 West Lake Anne Drive, Raleigh.  Shawcroft and partners Clay Taylor and Jerry Cook designed this home for a client who ultimately did not pay their design bill.  Undeterred, they built the house anyway and sold it to architect William Wakeham and his wife Shahrivar.  William Wakeham designed a house next door at 6801 West Lake Anne Drive for his wife’s mother (here).

Sold in 1997 to Michael and Linda Carter who still owned it as of 2012.  They put on an rear addition (bottom photo), which was designed by a builder (who went bankrupt and moved) but was finished up by Chris Nipper of Custom Renovations.

1976 – The Albert D. (Al) and Beverly Wolfheimer Theatre Addition, 5421 Thayer Drive, Raleigh NC.  Sold in 2014 to Brian and Shannon Vetter.

1983 – The Mac and Julie McVay House, 3104 Churchill Road, Raleigh.  This was one of Raleigh’s first accessible Modernist houses, built to accommodate Mac McVay who suffered from polio.  Features wheelchair access allowed many views from his chair to the outside, plus curved walls. As of 2012 owned by the Julie McVay Trust.

PAUL MARVIN RUDOLPH, FAIA (1918-1997)

Rudolph grew up in Elkton KY. His father was an itinerant minister whose travels exposed his son to architecture in the American South. In 1940 Rudolph earned his Bachelors degree in Architecture at Auburn University (then known as Alabama Polytechnic Institute). After working briefly with E. B. Van Koeren in Birmingham and Ralph Twitchell in Sarasota, he entered the Harvard Graduate School of Design in 1941 to study under Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius.

In 1942, Rudolph began Naval officer training at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Princeton University. Afterwards, he served in the Navy for three years before returning to Harvard to earn his Masters degree in 1947.

In 1948, Rudolph won Harvard Graduate School of Design’s annual traveling fellowship. He traveled throughout Europe until the summer of 1949 when Ralph Twitchell offered him full partnership. Rudolph moved to Sarasota FL for that job until 1951 when he founded his own firm. In Florida, Rudolph became a leader of the Sarasota Style of architecture associated with architects Ralph Twitchell, Ralph Zimmerman, William Zimmerman, Philip Hiss, Jack West, Gene Leedy, Mark Hampton, Phil Hall, Roland Sellew, Tim Seibert, Victor Lundy, Bill Rupp, John and Ken Warriner, Tolyn Twitchell, Bert Brosmith, Frank Folsom Smith, Boyd Blackner, Louis Schneider, James Holiday, Joseph Farrell, and Carl Abbott. The Sarasota Style emphasized architecture in harmony with its surroundings. To that end, its signature elements were clean, open floor plans; terrazzo floors; an abundance of natural light from extensive glazing; and flat roofs with wide overhangs to shade the glazing. Ralph Twitchell’s nephew, Jack Twitchell, built many of Rudolph’s houses.

Rudolph moved to the Yale School of Architecture as Dean in 1958, shortly after designing the Yale Art and Architecture Building, a structure considered his masterpiece, below. He stayed at Yale for six years until moving to New York in 1966. He inspired a generation of architects. The public, however, did not warm to his large brutalist designs, finding the intense use of concrete and steel to be ugly and oppressive.

In 1997, Rudolph passed away in New York City. According to his obituary in The New York Times, “With the exception of Louis I. Kahn, no American architect of his generation enjoyed higher esteem in the 1960’s. But after 1970, his reputation plummeted. Many of his buildings are being torn down, or are in danger of being torn down. Mr. Rudolph leaves behind a perplexing legacy that will take many years to untangle.”

At the time of his death he was working on plans for a new town of 250,000 people in Indonesia and several projects in Singapore. In North Carolina, he designed the 1972 Burroughs Wellcome Headquarters shown below along with additions in 1976, 1978, and 1982. The entire site was sold to United Therapeutics in 2012.

United Therapeutics announced they would save the original building above as part of a new lab campus, the main building of which is shown below.

This page is the official Rudolph residential index for the Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation, founded in 2015 by Ernst Wagner. That is different from the Paul Rudolph Foundation, also founded by Ernst Wagner (in 2002) but as of 2015 led by former Paul Rudolph Foundation board member, architect George Balle. There was a split, and the two Rudolph foundations appear not to interact with or mention each other.

NCMH does not endorse one Foundation over the other; we are concerned only with the documentation of Rudolph’s brilliant houses.

The United Arab Emirates is a country in the Middle East. In the United Arab Emirates lies a city called Dubai. Dubai is a city that is constantly buzzing with activity. From entertainment to fine dining experiences, the city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates has everything you could ask for.

The apartments of Dubai can also have tons of features that not only enhance your living experience, but can also be amenities that you find on the bottom of a residential tower you live in, or in an exclusive community in Dubai in which you live.

Here is our list of features of a studio apartment for rent in Dubai.

24/7 Security

Perhaps the most important feature of studio apartments for rent in Dubai, as well as many others that are in residential areas, is that your apartment building will be under 24/7 security. This is extremely important as you do not want random, unidentified individuals walking around your residential tower or in your community.

This feature is good for privacy and safety hawks alike. It keeps your privacy because it ensures that random individuals will not be walking the floors of residential towers or the grounds of private communities. It is good for safety hawks because not only are these random individuals not there, but the lack of their presence will make you safer.

24/7 Concierge Service

For those living in countries other than the United Arab Emirates, or living in apartments that are not residential towers, this is the number one feature that they are missing. Concierge service is usually available 24/7 and will especially be useful if you get locked out of your apartment. They will be ready with a key to unlock your apartment.

For those of us living in the United States in apartments without such a luxury, the standard procedure is to call the landlord and then wait for what seems like hours for him or her to arrive and unlock your apartment. In more egregious cases, the landlord will not have a key and you will have to pay to change the locks. Having the ability to have your apartment unlocked almost instantly is a luxury in some of these areas!

24/7 Maintenance

This is another feature that those not living in Dubai or not in residential towers will miss. 24/7 maintenance is usually done on site if there is a problem. If a pipe bursts, there is a maintenance crew ready for you to repair your place. They will also repair your oven and refrigerator, as well as any other included appliances if needed.

For those of us living in the United States and elsewhere in apartments without such a luxury, the standard procedure is to badger your landlord until he or she finally comes over to fix the appliance. The landlord will rush over if there is a serious emergency such as a leak or an oil burner backfire but will take his or her own time to get ovens and refrigerators replaced. It took me a year to get the heating coil of my oven replaced.

Central Air Conditioning and Central Heating

Central aid conditioning and central heating are wonderful luxuries. This means you will save money on buying a wind air-conditioner unit and save on having to use heating oil to heat your apartment.

In other apartments around the world, you will have to provide your own air conditioning unit and pay for heating oil. The only downside to this is that with an oil burner to yourself, you would be able to control how much you pay for heating oil. Besides that, this feature of a studio for rent in Dubai is a must-have.

Conclusion

With 24-hour security, maintenance, and concierge service available at a typical studio for rent in Dubai, you will feel safe, not have to worry about being locked out of your apartment, and have your apartment fixed instantly. With Central air conditioning and central heating, you will never have to worry about being too cold or hot in Dubai. These features make getting a studio for rent in Dubai worth the money.

Visit the website and rent your desired apartment for rent and sale https://www.dubairent.com/studio-apartments-for-rent-in-dubai/

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