One of the truly visionary architects of the twentieth century, John Lautner designed dramatically innovative buildings with a rare sensitivity to site, space, and structure. Accompanying a full-scale exhibition of his work at Los Angeles’s Hammer Museum, Between Earth and Heaven: The Architecture of John Lautner comprehensively explores Lautner’s full body of work, including his apprenticeship with Frank Lloyd Wright and the cultural and geographical context of Los Angeles.

One of the truly visionary architects of the twentieth century, John Lautner designed dramatically innovative buildings with a rare sensitivity to site, space, and structure. Accompanying a full-scale exhibition of his work at Los Angeles’s Hammer Museum, Between Earth and Heaven: The Architecture of John Lautner comprehensively explores Lautner’s full body of work, including his apprenticeship with Frank Lloyd Wright and the cultural and geographical context of Los Angeles.

Although Lautner’s innovative houses are well known, this is the first time his work has been seriously examined. Architectural historian Jean-Louis Cohen discusses Lautner’s place in the changing architectural landscape and in relation to the emergence of new tendencies in design--sculptural, plastic, site sensitive, and sensory. Historian Nicholas Olsberg provides a critical and analytical narrative of Lautner’s early formation and the evolution of his ideas, providing social and cultural context. Architect Frank Escher covers the structural concepts and the relationship between his experiments in structure and poetics of space.

This richly illustrated monograph includes previously unpublished plans, drawings, construction images, and Lautner’s own photographs to unveil the evolution, originality, and logic of his designs, focusing on the atmospheres and vistas they establish and the connections to landscape and fluidity that mark their innovative spatial arguments.

FOREWORD

Ann Philbin

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Nicholas OIsberg & Frank Esther

PERSPECTIVE

JOHN LAUTNER’S LUXURIANT TECTONICS

Jean-Louis Cohen

GROUNDIN G

IDEA OF THE REAL

Nicholas Olsberg

BUILDING

SHAPING AWARENESS

Nicholas Olsberg

CONTINUITY

STRUCTURING SPACE

Frank Esther

SELECTED BIOGRAPHY

SELECTED PROJECTS

ILLUSTRATION CREDITS

INDEX

NOTES ON THE AUTHORS