ALAN HESS ARCHITECT

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NEW BLOG Alan Hess on Architecture  
     
Frank Lloyd Wright: Natural Design, Organic Architecture:
Lessons for Building Green from an American Original
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Rizzoli International
Text by Alan Hess. Photographs by Alan Weintraub. Designed by Zand Gee

Frank Lloyd Wright may not only be the greatest architect of the 19th century (as Philip Johnson faintly praised him), but of the 21st century, too. Wright always spoke of building with nature, climate, and topography, and his knowledge of time-tested methods shaped his Modern solutions. Our century's concern for sustainable cities and buildings can learn from Wright's blend of ancient knowledge and progressive improvement -- and from his insistence that functional designs be beautiful architecture as well.To purchase the book, click here.

 
FILMS - featuring Alan Hess    


"William Krisel, Architect"
Every great Modern architect sought the Holy Grail of well-designed mass-produced housing. But where Wright, Gropius, and Bucky Fuller failed, William Krisel was one of the few to succeed. Jake Gorst’s new film produced by DesignOnScreen draws well-deserved attention to this intriguing Southern California architect of the mid-twentieth century. His designs for the contemporary tract Alexander Houses in Palm Springs are among his best known. Check out this trailer, and ask your local indie theaters to book this film.


"Desert Utopia: Mid-Century Architecture in Palm Springs"
Palm Springs shelters one of the most astonishing concentrations of Modern architecturs in the mid-twentieth century. Until recent years, this treasure trove of Modern design was little known. Jake Gorst's film brings these riches of the Coachella Valley to general attention, including the work of William Cody, Donald Wexler, E. Stewart Williams, Albert Frey, Richard Neutra and john Lautner.

"Journeyman Architect:  The Life and Work of Donald Wexler"
Donald Wexler’s straightforward, modest, but creative architecture is an example of the hidden history of California Modernism in the mid-twentieth century.  In the 1962 Steel Houses for the Alexander Company in Palm Springs (seen at left), he came as close as any architect ever did in creating a practical modular steel house for mass production. Directed by Jake Gorst and produced by DesignOnScreen.


 

WEB INTERVIEWS WITH
ALAN HESS

On Las Vegas
February 2010
   
RECENT ARCHITECTURE REVIEWS
BY ALAN HESS

Cliff May Exhibit at University of California, Santa Barbara, Art Museum
The Architects Newspaper
March 28, 2012