Little-known (to SDR) Albert Frey restored

[SDR]

https://www.houzz.com/magazine/soaring- ... ~119358890

Vintage and contemporary photos, and new drawings, can be enlarged.

S

[DRN]

Frey does the desert so well....a more gentle footprint than Wright in some respects. Interior is crisply detailed.

Frey's own house:
https://www.houzz.com/magazine/diamond- ... s~82578502

[Roderick Grant]

Architectural minimalism at its best.

[SREcklund]

Both of those houses are just spectacular in their simplicity and respect of site. I was fortunate enough to tour and shoot Frey II last year, and Cree last weekend.

[SDR]

Do you have intangible impressions to share ? Textures, temperatures, odors, sounds, etc . . .?

S

[Craig]

Funny how they keep calling this house "little known." It's up on a hill completely visible from the road below and is in both the books on Frey. Other than that, nobody knew there was a house up there!

[SDR]

It was unknown to me, and I expect to many others who might not have found the architect's books or happened to find themselves on the right street in the right town in the right state . . .

S

[Craig]

SDR,

You have a great deal of architectural knowledge. But using your criteria if I personally am not aware of something, can I call it "little-known?" Palm Springs is a town which celebrates all things modern. This house is on a hill on the main drag and quite visible to anyone driving by. The name seems a bit disingenuous to me.

If I have never been to Paris, nor read a book about the place, and when visiting stumble upon a tall tower made of steel that I have never heard of, can I call it the "Forgotten" Eiffel" as is being done with this Frey house?

[SDR]

Heh-heh. You got me. What I should have written is "little published"---beyond Frey monographs, which most lay consumers of modern American architecture would not have seen. (Frey himself is much less well-covered than his contemporaries, it seems to me.) Would I be correct on that count ?

S

[DRN]

I consider myself pretty well read about modern architecture in general and organic architecture in particular...and I was not aware of this house either. Albert Frey is typically identified in most surveys of the topic with three projects: his Aluminaire house with Lawrence Kocher in NY, his House 1 in Palm Springs, and his own house in the rocky hills of Palms Springs. There are many more works in his canon, but those three are the ones most often cited in the books I have read and the architectural history courses I took.
Sadly, I have not yet visited Palm Springs, (my grandparents lived there before my time from 1945-1950) nor have I collected a book of Frey's work with which I would become much more familiar.

[Roderick Grant]

Apparently another fact is little known: The Eiffel Tower is made of cast iron, not steel.

[Craig]

Wow, we are learning more about newly discovered modern buildings everyday!

[SDR]

(Thread title altered to suit)

[DRN]

"Little known" is relative depending on the subject and the perspective of those involved in the conversation.
I suspect more than a few major works by "well known" architects I have studied extensively, would be "little known" to others.

[Roderick Grant]

"Over known" could apply to one building I have never seen, but heard about regularly during the 10 years I gave tours through Hollyhock: House on the Rock! Many people who had visited the Taliesin neighbor were convinced it was a FLW design, even though it was never misrepresented by the owner.

Stan, do you get that reaction from visitors?