UPDATE… Jan 2012… I’ve discovered that Rudolph Schindler built an A frame house in 1936… So this post is somewhat misleading. Sorry about that. Needless to say… Schindler is probably my favorite architect in the world anyway… here is the post from a year ago below. Click the link just above to see Schindler’s aframe.
In 1949/1950 a fellow by the name of Gerald Rupp built this A-frame home in Morro Bay, CA. It was the first Modernist A Frame house I think. (A fellow by the name of Andrew Geller often gets credit for being the first to re-introduce the A-Frame style though … as his house built on Long Island in NY in 1955 was published in the New York Times in 1957.)
Gerald (Gerry) also built these homes in Morro Bay… a few lots away in the early 1950’s
and this home… next door to the a frame…
here again below (out of focus)…. notice the early fifties addition to the a-frame house in the background
and this house below… across the st…. mid 1950’s…
another shot… this house below was torn down just last month… sad
a view of the a-frame from high on the hill… before some of the other houses… and before the addition to the front… below:
The other side of the A-frame… below… all in all there were 8 neighboring modern houses… and a few a couple more lots away… 10 all together. Gerald sold them to artists, writers, musicians… all early modernists. It was a hotbed of intellectualism and Beat Culture in the 1950’s. Known then by the local fishermen as “Beatnik Hill”. One of the first experiments in building intentional community between like minded individuals. Many Famous beat generation icons stopped through on their way to Big Sur.
neighborhood context 1949 or so I think
The man… Gerry Rupp 1922-2010… with my older brother… circa mid 1950’s:
Rest in Peace Dad
unlicensed architect, ex-skateboarder, planning commissioner, shoe designer, all around dork
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